11 January 2012

BEIRUT: On top of a hill overlooking Batroun lies a 17th century house, once owned by the Bitar family, who ruled the area during the Ottoman Empire. Though beautiful in itself, what lies beneath is truly stunning. Due to open to the public in May, the Ixsir winery, one of the country’s newest and most innovative, is completely hidden from view. And for its intelligent architecture and winemaking processes, the winery was named by CNN in December as one of the 12 greenest buildings worldwide.

While the house – which will soon include a boutique, selling Ixsir wine and goods made by local producers, as well as a restaurant with a large open grill – is prominent, the winery is completely planted over.

To the back of the building, one wall is visible, but this too will soon be covered in falling vines, growing from the roof terrace where a botanical garden will feature every grape variety available in Lebanon.

Hady Kahale, the general manager of Ixsir, and one of the founders, along with Etienne Debbane, CEO of Exotica, the landscaping company and Gabriel Rivero, a Spanish winemaker, spoke to The Daily Star about the company and its founding principles.

“We are really committed to investment in the region, and we really wanted to leave the land as is,” Kahale said.

“We decided to let the house be a symbol of the winery. So that when people come to visit, they can’t see the winery at first. It is hidden, and only gradually discovered,” he said. “Because we are going underground, we have not harmed the natural landscape.”

The subterranean nature of the winery has the added benefit of stabilizing the temperature of the building, crucial for the winemaking process, and thus reducing energy use.

“In countries like Lebanon you need to use energy to store the wine at low temperatures, for an average of seven or eight months a year. But here we will only have to use refrigeration techniques for around two months a year,” Kahale explained.

Stepping down from the house toward the fermentation room where huge tanks are processing what will contribute to the nearly 300,000 bottles of wine Ixsir currently produces each year, visitors will walk through a futuristic tunnel, with concrete walls and sharp lines.

This space will be used to exhibit paintings and works by local artists, and to depict Ixsir’s various wineries around the country, in Jezzine, Ainata, Dar al-Amar, Niha, Kab Elias, and Batroun, a “mosaic of Lebanon,” as Kahale describes them.

The $10 million project, one of the shareholders of which is Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, was designed by Raed Abillama Architects to balance the old and the new, according to Kahale.

“For me they marry traditional Lebanese architecture with modern techniques. And we just clicked. He [Abillama] loved the concept of extending the old house,” said Kahale.

Raed Abillama spoke to The Daily Star about the project: “For me green architecture is good sense architecture.

“We don’t see this approach as a commercial venture. We just do it as it makes sense. And we do feel a responsibility to promote any ideas that will minimize our dependence on energy.”

The construction of the winery has used very few imported materials, and has been built with the local environment in mind.

“The traditional Lebanese house is actually very green, without using modern technology,” Abillama said. “Characteristics of the winery have been inspired by our situation in Lebanon: the wind, sun and seasons. We have applied ancestral know-how to modern architecture.”

While its underground nature could make the winery dark, huge sky panels flood in rays of sunlight, allowing production staff to rely on natural rather than electrical light.

Green practices extend to every aspect of winemaking. Vegetable waste from the wines, including stems and skins, is turned into compost, later used in the vineyards. All wastewater is recycled and used for irrigation, as is rainwater which is collected on the winery’s roof.

In terms of the winemaking process itself, Ixsir, alone in Lebanon in this respect, relies on natural forces rather than pumping mechanisms.

Other wineries in Lebanon pump the wine from the fermentation tanks to the barrels, and then to the bottles, but Ixsir relies on the simple rules of gravity, Kahale explains. The grapes are initially deposited into the fermentation tanks, and, when ready, then fall down into the barrels a story below. This process also reduces the “overcrushing” of the grapes.

“There’s no one particular way to make a great wine but if you can use gravity it’s much better,” Kahale adds.

Established in 2008 by friends with a shared belief in wine and in Lebanon, 2011 was Ixsir’s first year of production. Already exporting to France, the U.S. and Japan, Ixsir is sold in over 200 restaurants in Lebanon, and in all major supermarkets. The Altitudes entry-level range – “Simple but not simplistic,” as Kahale said – comprises a red, white and rose, and the Grand Reserve range a red and a white.

The recent CNN recognition, following a Green Good Design 2011 award from the European Center for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in the summer, bodes well for the winery.

Named for the Arabic word “Al-ixsir,” which inspired the English term “elixir,” the green focus of Ixsir’s winemaking may help it live up to its name after all.

Copyright The Daily Star 2012.