The Bekaa is a rift valley about 120 km long at an average altitude of 1000 m, between the Mount Lebanon range and the Anti-Lebanon on the Syrian border. It gets 600 mm of rain in winter and almost none in summer, with cool nights and 300 days of sun, which happens to be close to ideal for vines.
Wine
Wine has been made here for at least five thousand years; the Phoenicians exported it across the Mediterranean and Baalbek had a temple to Bacchus for a reason. The modern industry began in 1857 when Jesuit monks at Ksara planted vines from Algeria and rediscovered a Roman cellar system beneath the estate. Chateau Musar, founded in 1930 at Ghazir, became internationally known partly because it continued producing through the civil war, trucking grapes across front lines.
The wineries
Ksara is the largest producer and its 2 km of Roman and natural caves are open for tours ending in a tasting. Kefraya has a restaurant with a view over the vines to the mountains. Massaya, Chateau Marsyas and a growing number of small producers welcome visitors, generally with a phone call in advance rather than a booking system. Reds are typically cabernet, syrah and cinsault blends; the indigenous white grapes obeideh and merwah are being revived. Arak, the aniseed spirit, is distilled from the same vineyards and is the national drink.
Anjar
At the eastern edge of the valley stands the only significant Umayyad city in Lebanon, built around 714 by the caliph Walid I and abandoned within thirty years. It is a rectangular walled town on a Roman grid, with a palace, a mosque, baths and two colonnaded avenues crossing at a tetrapylon. Because it was occupied so briefly and never built over, the plan is completely legible. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and usually empty.
The valley today
The Bekaa produces most of Lebanon vegetables, cereals and dairy, and also hosts a large population of Syrian refugees in informal settlements. It is a working agricultural landscape rather than a manicured wine region, and the contrast between an estate tasting room and the road outside is part of what you are seeing.
Practicalities
Zahle, the valley capital, is 55 km from Beirut over the Dahr el-Baidar pass and is known for riverside restaurants. Travel advisories for parts of the Bekaa are often restrictive; the wine route around Zahle and Anjar is the standard visited area and is normally straightforward with a driver.