Situated in the heart of Lebanon, in the Bekaa valley, Château Kefraya expands its 300 hectares domain to the foothills of the Mount Lebanon, 20 km to the south of the city of Chtaura. Both the vineyard, planted in a succession of terraces and hills having very often abrupt slopes, at an altitude of 950 to 1100 meters on clayey, limy and stony soils, together with an exceptional sun lighting – six to seven months a year without any precipitation – and the winery, located in the middle of the domain, fitted with a highly sophisticated equipment allowing the manually gathered grapes to be conveyed, picked off from the bunch, vinified and pressured very carefully, allowed the elaboration of a special and authentic wine, personal to Château Kefraya.

Chateau St Thomas is a family business founded in 1990 by Saïd Touma and his family. Mr Saïd Touma, a passionate man, with a 50-year-old experience in the distillation and fermentation of grape juice (both his father and grandfather were important producers of Arak, traditional Lebanese drink also fruit of those vines), has inherited his father’s passion for vineyards and wines. The estate is located on a hill overlooking the Bekaa Valley at an altitude of more than 1000m. It comprises a vineyard (65 hectares) well exposed on the eastern slope of Mount Lebanon, and a cellar dug 25m into the rocks including a wine warehouse for fermentation and ageing. The first vintage appeared in 1998.

Although a relative newcomer to the Lebanese wine scene, Domaine Wardy has quickly stimulated a great deal of international interest by focusing on creating bold expressions using well known varietals.

The estate’s origins are arak based. The firm began distilling in 1891 and today still produces one of the country’s best examples. The first of its vines for wine were planted in 1989 after a need to diversify was identified, and the first vintage was the 1996.

Experimentation and innovation are hallmarks of the Wardy family, and a wide range of grape varietals have been planted with a view to discovering where the best potential lies. The Private Selection comes from a range of low yielding vineyards on terraces as high as 1400 metres above Zahle.