Massaya - Twilight Arak Experience
A 1-hour tour daily (8 AM - 3:30 PM) covering entire winemaking process plus tasting of 5 wines. Famous for reviving traditional arak production using only ancestral methods. Dine at Le Relais restaurant under pergolas.
How to Complete
4 steps to experience this fully
- 🍷 Log Memory
'Massaya' is Lebanese Arabic for twilight — the instant the sun drops behind Mount Lebanon and the entire Bekaa Valley sky turns dark blue. That exact dark blue is the color of Massaya's arak bottle. Walk out from the Tanail estate buildings into the open vineyard facing west toward Mount Lebanon (no ticket required — the vineyard grounds are open to visitors). When you're standing here, you're inside the label. This valley has been sacred to wine for 6,000 years. The Phoenicians exported Lebanese wine to Egypt and Sicily from ports 38km west of here. Come in the late afternoon, face west, and wait for the sun to touch Mount Lebanon's ridge — when the sky turns the color of the Massaya bottle, you've witnessed what Sami and Ramzi Ghosn have been making wine toward for 30 years.
🔄 BACKUP: Even at midday the setting is extraordinary — two mountain ranges flanking a flat valley at 1,000m altitude. Any time reveals the geography that made this the cradle of Levantine wine.
- 🍷 Log Memory
'Arak' — الَعَرَق — literally means 'sweat' in Arabic, named for how the copper still sweats the spirit through distillation. Massaya's copper pot stills were hand-fabricated by the Tartoussi family in Tripoli — the same family-craft tradition for generations. Visit the arak distillery on the Tanail estate (included in the 1-hour winery tour, book via massaya.com/contact/reservations or visit Mon–Sat 8am–3:30pm, Sun 10am–3:30pm). The process is entirely ancestral: Obeidi grapes fermented to 13% wine, triple-distilled with green aniseed from Mount Hermon, heated by burning vine wood — not gas, not electricity — then aged 2 years in 70-liter clay amphorae made by potters in Beit Chebab. Ask your guide which distillation stage the still is at currently, and to show you the ancient-style clay aging jars.
🔄 BACKUP: If distillation is not running (seasonal, typically October–December), you will still see the stills and smell the anise. The aging room with clay jars is available year-round.
- 🍷 Log Memory
Lebanese arak is nicknamed 'Milk of Lions' because of what happens when you add water to the clear spirit — anise oils crash out of solution in millions of tiny droplets, turning the liquid instantaneously milky white. At Le Relais restaurant at Massaya Tanail (under vineyard pergolas, accessible via tour or standalone dining), order the Massaya Arak and perform the ritual: pour arak first (1 part), add cold water next (2 parts) — watch the louche happen in real time — then add ice cubes last. Never ice before water, or you chill the oil out wrong. The restaurant serves country-style buffet lunch made by housewives from neighboring Bekaa villages — the saj lady baking fresh mana'eesh at the open fire is the actual daily bread, not tourist display. Daniel Brunier of Vieux Télégraphe called this valley 'my oxygen' — sip your arak and consider why.
🔄 BACKUP: If arak isn't your style, the tasting of 5 wines is included in the tour price — ask for the Gold Reserve (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Mourvèdre, 10% Syrah) at a price in Lebanon you will not believe.
- 🍷 Log Memory
That dark indigo blue bottle color is the exact shade the Bekaa sky turns when the sun disappears behind Mount Lebanon's ridge. Pick up a bottle of Massaya Arak at the boutique shop on the Tanail estate (at the tour route end). This winery was built by a man who fled Lebanon at age 8 in 1975 when civil war started, lived in exile for 17 years while squatters occupied the family estate, then returned in 1992 to restart making arak from the same indigenous Obeidi grapes his family had always grown. During the 2006 war, as bombs fell in the Bekaa, Ramzi Ghosn refused to leave the winery — he drove harvest trucks with Massaya banners so military forces would know who they were. You are holding a bottle of that decision. Buy the arak (typically $20–25 USD) and ask staff about the bottle color — this is the founding story they love to tell.
🔄 BACKUP: The Gold Reserve rouge carries the Brunier vine-cutting heritage at an approachable price, also available for gifts that tell the story.