Domaine des Tourelles house note
The market on this bottle
Look up this bottle on Wine-Searcher for live market prices.
2020 Domaine des Tourelles Merweh & Obeidi Vieilles Vignes Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
Faouzi Issa's inaugural old-vine Lebanese white from Merweh and Obeidi, a 2020 you can open at ten dollars.
The 2020 is 50 percent Merweh and 50 percent Obeidi: apple skin, almond, dried fig, herbs, and a saline close at 11% alcohol after wild-yeast steel, now $10. Catalog retail is unset. Typical street for this Bekaa white is often $15 to $25. We graph $20.
Phoenician grapes, old vines, a ten-dollar Bekaa white
Faouzi Issa, who trained at Rostaing in Cote-Rotie and at Chateau Margaux, bottled this 2020 as the first Tourelles white from indigenous Merweh and Obeidi. Merweh comes from 100-year-plus unpruned vines at 1,400 metres in Bsharri among the cedars. Obeidi comes from 50-year vines near Zahle at 1,100 metres. Fifty-fifty, wild yeast in steel, three months in tank, 11% alcohol. Adam Lechmere 90: floral, spicy, pearskin, mineral weight. Catalog retail on this SKU is unset, so the typical-retail bar is a documented $15 to $25 street range, graphed at $20.
The house
Domaine des Tourelles dates to 1868 in Chtaura. Faouzi Issa and the Issa el-Khoury family run it as an artisan Bekaa cellar.
The wine
50% Merweh, 50% Obeidi. Wild yeast in stainless steel, 3 months tank, 11% ABV. 2020 inaugural vintage.
The price
Slash $10. Catalog retail is 0. Typical street is often $15 to $25. We use $20 on the graph.
The drinker
Apple skin and almond first. Serve 46 to 50 F. No decant. Roast chicken or salmon Cobb.
Apple skin, almond, then herbs and salt
The house finds ripened grape, apple skin, spices, and herbs, then dried figs and fresh almonds on a mineral, savoury palate. Merweh gives texture and almond. Obeidi gives floral and herbal lift. 11% alcohol keeps it a vin de soif instead of a heavy oak white.
A hard Lebanese year: heat over 40 C, and the Beirut explosion a week before harvest. Issa still called the fruit amazing. This is the first vintage of the old-vine white. Drink now.
Apple skin, ripened grape, almond, dried fig, herbs, spice.
Light, 11% ABV, wild yeast, stainless steel, dry.
Mineral, savoury, almond. Serve 46 to 50 F. No decant.
Two mountain whites, steel, nothing extra
Both varieties are cold-fermented separately on wild yeast in stainless steel, then blended and held a short time in tank so freshness stays in front. Organic farming, no irrigation, hand harvest. Merweh at 1,400 metres in Bsharri. Obeidi at 1,100 metres in the western Bekaa. 11% alcohol.
These are Lebanese grapes, not borrowed Chardonnay. Issa wanted a white counterpart to his old-vine Cinsault and Carignan.
Serve 46 to 50 F. Roast chicken, grilled fish, a Sunday lunch.
A Bekaa house that went looking for its own white grapes
Tourelles is one of Lebanon's historic domaines. This 2020 is the first time Issa bottled Merweh and Obeidi as a white pair.
The domaine sits in Chtaura. The Issa family bought it in 2000. Faouzi trained in Cote-Rotie and Bordeaux, then came home.
Merweh and Obeidi are the indigenous whites. The 2020 is old vines, steel, 11% alcohol.
Catalog retail is unset. Typical street for this Bekaa white is often $15 to $25. Ten dollars is the slash.
Herb chicken, then a salmon plate
A saline 11% white wants roast poultry and rich fish. Lemon thyme and a Cobb salad keep almond and herbs in the same key.
Two plates. One lemon-thyme roast chicken. One summer salmon Cobb. Both can take apple skin and salt.
Serve 46 to 50 F. No decant. A cold glass keeps almond and herbs in front.
Roast Chicken with Lemon and Thyme
Herb-roasted chicken gives the wine enough richness while lemon and thyme stay in the same key.
Why it works: Lemon and thyme echo citrus and herbs. High natural acidity refreshes after each bite.
View Recipe for Roast Chicken with Lemon and Thyme (opens in a new tab)
Summer Salmon Cobb Salad
Salmon, avocado, and a sharp dressing. The wine's salinity is the squeeze of lemon on the plate.
Why it works: Acidity cuts avocado and salmon fat. Herbs and almond meet the greens.
View Recipe for summer salmon Cobb salad (opens in a new tab)Put this Tourelles white in the cart
Faouzi Issa, old-vine Merweh and Obeidi, 11% alcohol. Ten dollars against a $20 typical street.
Put it in the cart. This is the Bekaa white for a table that wants indigenous grapes, not a borrowed Chardonnay slogan.
