Chateau St Thomas Les Gourmets Blanc

Chateau St Thomas Les Gourmets Blanc

March 15, 2023ByAndrea Lemieux 0Rest of the World, White Wine, Wine Reviews

It’s been absolute ages since I’ve been to Lebanon. Luckily for me, even though Lebanese wine is not available in Turkey, I still get to enjoy the wine. My boss is both Lebanese and a wine lover. She will often share with me or even bring me a bottle after a visit to Beirut. The only small downside: she loves red wine so I get red wine. Being the grape geek that I am though, I’ve been dying to try the native Lebanese grape, Obeidy, that everyone’s been talking about!

Low and behold! From someone passing through Beirut, some friends arranged a bottle of white wine for me as a birthday gift! A white blend that included, you guessed it! Obeidy.

Getting to know Obeidy

Obeidy (also spelled Obeideh, Obeidi) has been grown for years in Lebanon, particularly in the Bekaa Valley, but we’re only recently getting to know it a little. People previously did not consider it suitable for winemaking. Instead, it went into arak production or was eaten as a table grape. Obeidy berries have incredibly thin skins – so much so that you can see the seeds through it! They’re prone to sun burn, making canopy management essential. Historically, they grapes have been trained on pergolas but wineries are now also head training them into goblets (or bush as you like).

In 2010, Chateau St Thomas started to experiment with the variety. Already they used it in arak production but decided to vinify it and see what it could do as a wine. That same year, the winery began working with Wine Mosaic in France to carry out DNA profiling on the grape. After examinations of grape and vine cuttings were analyzed, they learned that Obeidy is genetically distinct from any other variety, making it truly a Lebanese grape.

Chateau St. Thomas Les Gourmets Blanc, 2019

Established in 1990 by Saïd Touma, Chateau St Thomas is a family winery that combines Saïd’s 50+ years experience with his son Joe’s passion for winemaking. Here, Saïd’s experience and expertise with arak meet Joe’s French winemaking education come together to create a portfolio of wines and distillates that reflect the family and the Bekaa Valley.

The winery sits on a hill 1000 meters above sea level overlooking the Bekaa Valley. Here their vineyards encompass some 65 hectares on the eastern slope of Mount Lebanon, into which they have dug their winery and cellars. While Obeidy has significant space in their vineyards now, traditionally, they have cultivated grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Viognier, and Sauvignon Blanc in the limestone and pebbly clay vineyards.

The ‘Les Gourments Blanc’ wine combines all the white grapes from the Chateau, blending Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, and Obeidy. Such an interesting mix of aromatic and non aromatic grape varieties. You wouldn’t think these would all work together but they do!

Bright lemon-lime in color, aromas of Meyer lemon, stone fruit (apricot), flowers, and pine nuts burst from the glass. The palate delivered all that and more. Almost like it said to the nose “I see what you’re doing there and I raise you”. Lucious loquat and early peach wrapped around a citrussy lemon and grapefruit core with lemongrass highlights, all riding a on a wave of bright acidity.

It went very well with a pasta I made with lemon, garlic scapes, charred zucchini, and burrata.

My next mission, find a 100% wine from Obeidy!