On April 23, 2025, the BT2 and BT3 students in Hospitality Management, accompanied by their teachers, made an interesting tour of two famous Lebanese wineries in the Beqaa Valley.

They first went to Château Ksara, near Zahle, which was founded by Jesuit Priests in 1857 and where they watched a documentary about the transformation of a once convent into a winery, then they visited the wine caves dating back to the Roman era and where the wine is stored and aged. Our students also had the occasion of tasting the exquisite Ksara wines of Lebanon's oldest, largest and most visited winery.

The second destination of the tour was Kassatly Chtaura, a renowned and innovative establishment built on family legacy, where the first bottled Jallab for home-preparation was created. It was primarily specialized in a whole range of concentrated syrups and flower extracts, then it expanded its product range to include a wide variety of Liqueurs in the 1980s, as well as Fruit Jams and finally Fruit Juices and Smoothies in the 1990s. Then Kassatly Chtaura released a refreshing, ready-to-drink vodka beverage, Buzz, followed by Freez, a non-alcoholic carbonated fruit beverage. In 2005, the Chateau Ka winery bottled its first wines and in 2014, the Beirut Beer project came to life. Our students had the opportunity to watch the whole production process in a detailed manner till the bottling, labelling and packaging of the different merchandises. They were also offered a gift box containing the above –mentioned products.

The long journey ended with a visit to Our Lady of Zahle, a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary made by an Italian sculptor in 1958 on a 54-meter high tower where they prayed for peace in Lebanon.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Château Ksara and Kassatly Chtaura for their kind hospitality and the precious information they provided us with during the guided tours of their respectable establishments and we wish them continuous success.