Chateau St Thomas Wines
- Kab Elias, Bekaa Valley
- 450K bottles/year
- 65 Ha
Established in 1990 by Saïd Touma and his family on a hill overlooking the Bekaa valley, Château St Thomas estate is a vineyard spreading over sixty five hectares and a wine storehouse for fermentation and ageing. On this very land of the Bekaa valley, the Romans had once created the Temple of Bacchus, a tribute to the Roman god of wine. Throughout history, this land still shows unlimited potential to produce great wines. Château St Thomas is the masterpiece of Saïd Touma & his son Joe-Assaad. Saïd Touma, a man of passion with more than 55 years’ experience in distillation & fermentation of grape juice who inherited the legacy of producing Arak (Lebanese national drink), & passed it to his son Joe-Assaad, an agronomist & winemaker who followed in the family tradition with equal passion for great winemaking & graduated from France (Montpelier & Bordeaux).
[read more]The philosophy of the winemaker, Joe-Assaad, is to improve his vineyards to obtain maximum quality wines reflecting generosity of an exceptional Bekaa Valley Terroir, & to respect the nature with a modern winemaking approach to create rich balanced wines with fresh aromas. Saïd Touma, along with his family (Nadia, Nathalie, Claudine, Micheline and Joe-Assaad) -as well as a group of devoted technicians- all wine lovers- work hard to ensure that the wines of Château St Thomas have a promising future ahead of them. While Lebanon’s four seasons provide an ideal climate for grapes, Château St Thomas’ vineyards soil offer excellent grape growing conditions.
Located on a hill overlooking the Bekaa Valley- the center of the Lebanese wine industry- at an altitude of more than 1000m, Château St Thomas estate is a vineyard spreading over 65 hectares and exposed on the eastern slope of Mount Lebanon, and a cellar dug 25m to 30m into the rocks including a wine warehouse for fermentation and ageing. The noble grapes varieties cultivated (Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc) as well as the local indigenous grape variety like Obeidy are accustomed to the climate conditions and geological characteristics of the Bekaa valley: a Mediterranean and a semi-continental climate characterized by cold and rainy winters and hot and dry summers. The soil is superficial, well-drained and is constituted of a mixture of limestone and pebbly clay. The yield is particularly low. Water is never a problem because the Eastern and Western mountain ranges are recipients of frequent rain and snow from November to April.
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