Lebanon
The country we now call Lebanon was home to the Phoenicians, and therefore one of the oldest wine producing countries in the world, from around 1600 BC. Canaan is located today in southern Lebanon, and Qana is believed to be the biblical Cana, where Jesus is reputed to have turned water into wine. Incidentally, the Phoenicians are largely credited with discovering how to make glass from sand. The Eastern Mediterranean was “The France” in wines terms of the Middle Ages, and some of the most expensive wines in the world came from Tyre, Sidon and the Bekaa Valley, which are all in modern Lebanon today. The most important wine region in the Lebanon is the Bekaa Valley, and the Romans built one of their largest temples in the Bekaa valley, and dedicated it to – Bacchus, their God of wine!
