Drink Eat Love

Drink Eat Love Drink and eat with Love

My friend Clovis - Maison Clovis - told me he wanted to introduce me to someone making w**e in Meshmesh, at 1,250m in th...
05/09/2026

My friend Clovis - Maison Clovis - told me he wanted to introduce me to someone making w**e in Meshmesh, at 1,250m in the Lebanese mountains. That someone was Henri Sawma… and the story was too good not to share.

Henri planted just 2 hectares in 2011, half Chardonnay, half Pinot Noir, from vines brought over from Burgundy.

Except that when the plants arrived in Beirut, customs managed to mix them up. 😅 The result? Chardonnay and Pinot Noir growing side by side in places where they were never supposed to.

I joked with Henri that this might actually be the most Lebanese vineyard possible: a beautiful chaos that somehow works. 🇱🇧

And Burgundy is never very far away here. Henri’s brother is Mounir Saouma, the man behind Lucien Le Moine, who accompanied him in developing the domaine. Which also explains why you suddenly come across some rather serious bottles of Lucien Le Moine hiding in this tiny stone cellar…

But what I really liked about Domaine Henri is that nothing feels like it is trying too hard. A small vineyard, a simple cellar, a few tanks and barrels, and Henri quietly making his w**e.

We tasted the 2023 Chardonnay. Fresh, precise, with lovely tension and enough texture to remind you that Lebanese Chardonnay, when you give it altitude, can be a very different animal.

And then came my favourite part: sitting outside among the vines, opening bottles, talking, eating and enjoying the afternoon exactly as w**e should be enjoyed.

No ceremony. Just good w**e, good people and another side of Lebanon I was very happy to discover.

Thank you Henri for welcoming us into your little corner of Meshmesh — and Clovis for another very good discovery. ❤️🍷

Henri’s Winery Mechmech

Some evenings start with “let’s open a few bottles” and then get slightly out of control… 🍷A table full of friends and a...
01/09/2026

Some evenings start with “let’s open a few bottles” and then get slightly out of control… 🍷

A table full of friends and a little journey through Jura, Burgundy, Rioja and Tuscany.

We started with Les Gryphées Vieilles Vignes 2015. Old-vine Chardonnay with ten years behind it, still full of energy but now with beautiful depth and complexity. Jura showing once again how seriously its Chardonnays can age.

Staying in Jura, Domaine de Saint Pierre Trousseau 2023 — light in colour, definitely not in personality. Fresh, spicy, slightly wild… everything I love about Trousseau.

Then Burgundy with Emmanuel Rouget ( ) Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaumonts 2022. Very young, of course, but already wonderfully perfumed, precise and silky. That unmistakable Vosne elegance.

And then someone casually opened a Viña Albina Reserva 1942… 84 years old and still alive. At that point you’re not really tasting a bottle anymore, you’re drinking a little piece of history. - Viña Albina -

We finished in Tuscany with Soldera Case Basse 2013. Pure Sangiovese, incredibly alive, elegant and precise. One of those w**es that doesn’t need to shout to completely take over the conversation.

Great w**es are wonderful. Opening them with the right friends is even better. ❤️

Some places are about much more than what’s on the plate.At Krikor Bakery - Official page , hidden in the Lebanese mount...
29/08/2026

Some places are about much more than what’s on the plate.

At Krikor Bakery - Official page , hidden in the Lebanese mountains, we came for manakish and found a little piece of Lebanon that seems untouched by time.

Krikor works in his tiny bakery surrounded by old photographs, jars, an old weighing scale and objects that look like they have been there forever. Dough under his hands, cheese waiting in a basin, zaatar, tomatoes and onions… everything is wonderfully simple.

Nothing designed. Nothing staged. Nothing trying to look “authentic”. It simply is.

And this is precisely the Lebanon I love discovering. The one you find by taking a small mountain road, stopping somewhere almost by accident, and meeting people who quietly keep traditions alive through gestures repeated thousands of times.

We came for manakish. We left remembering Krikor. ❤️🇱🇧

Byblos is the kind of place where 8,000 years of history somehow end with an arak at the bar. And strangely, it all make...
25/08/2026

Byblos is the kind of place where 8,000 years of history somehow end with an arak at the bar. And strangely, it all makes sense. 🇱🇧

Walk around Jbeil and history doesn’t come in chapters. It’s literally piled on top of itself.

Long before Lebanon existed, this was Gebal, one of the great cities of the Phoenician world. Fishermen had already settled here thousands of years earlier, then came temples, trade, ships and the extraordinary civilization that connected this little piece of the Lebanese coast to the Mediterranean.

And there is one detail I particularly love: Byblos is intimately connected to the story of the alphabet. The sarcophagus of King Ahiram, discovered here, carries one of the oldest substantial Phoenician inscriptions — part of the writing tradition from which our modern alphabet ultimately developed. So yes, somewhere between these stones is a piece of the reason I’m able to write this post today. 😏

Then everyone seems to have wanted a piece of Byblos.

Persians fortified it. Romans built through it. Christianity arrived early. The Byzantines left churches, and centuries later the Crusaders added their castle and, in 1115, the beautiful Romanesque church that became Saint Jean-Marc.

But what I love about Byblos isn’t simply its history.

It’s that none of it feels completely dead.

You leave an archaeological site, pass a church where someone is still praying, walk through an old stone alley covered in bougainvillea, stop for a drink… and a few minutes later you’re standing beside fishermen in the same Mediterranean port around which this city has lived for millennia.

Phoenician, Roman, Christian, Arab, Crusader, Ottoman, Lebanese… Byblos never really erased anything. It just kept adding layers.

And perhaps that’s why it feels so much like Lebanon. ❤️🇱🇧

Lunch with friends at Sô Beirut , and two bottles that made an already very good afternoon even better. 🍷We started wit...
21/08/2026

Lunch with friends at Sô Beirut , and two bottles that made an already very good afternoon even better. 🍷

We started with Vincent Dauvissat - - Chablis 2020. I love these w**es because they remind you that a “simple” Chablis in the hands of a great w**emaker can be anything but simple. Pure, alive, incredibly precise… the kind of bottle that disappears dangerously fast. 😍

Then came Pierre Gonon Saint-Joseph 2016 - Domaine Gonon - with the beef. Gonon is one of those producers I never get tired of drinking. There’s something so soulful about his Syrah — nothing forced, nothing trying too hard, just a w**e that keeps pulling you back to the glass.

Great sushi, a serious piece of beef, two beautiful bottles and friends around the table.

Sometimes lunch really doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. ❤️

Back to Mayrig Lebanon , and honestly, this is the kind of Armenian table that makes it very difficult to stop ordering ...
15/08/2026

Back to Mayrig Lebanon , and honestly, this is the kind of Armenian table that makes it very difficult to stop ordering 😋

What Aline Kamakian has managed to do with Mayrig is quite special. Behind the generosity of the food, there is a real work of memory: recipes and flavours inherited from Armenian families, preserved but never treated like museum pieces.

The itch, stuffed vine leaves, kebbeh, raw meat preparations… and that hummus with bone marrow which clearly wasn’t designed for people trying to behave themselves 😂 Everything feels familiar, generous and deeply Armenian, but with Aline’s own touch.

And then the w**es… because behaving ourselves was clearly no longer part of the evening.

🇪🇸 ( Comando G ) Comando G Rozas 2023, from the Sierra de Gredos. One of the producers that completely changed the way I look at Garnacha. Old vines, granite soils, altitude and a completely different expression of the grape: pale, perfumed, fresh and incredibly delicate. Almost the opposite of the powerful Garnacha many of us grew up expecting.

🇮🇹 Then Chiara🍷🍷 , from Predappio in Emilia-Romagna. Pure Sangiovese, made with very little intervention and a beautiful combination of fruit, acidity and that slightly earthy character I love in the grape. Another producer worth following.

Spain, Italy and Armenian food in Beirut… not necessarily the most obvious combination on paper.

Around this table, it made perfect sense.

Bravo Aline ❤️

Seven friends, seven bottles, all tasted blind. 🍷Each of us arrived at brût with one bottle and one simple rule: no labe...
10/08/2026

Seven friends, seven bottles, all tasted blind. 🍷

Each of us arrived at brût with one bottle and one simple rule: no labels until the end.

Because when Cros Parantoux, Méo-Camuzet, Coche-Dury, Jamet or a rare Savagnin from Les Miroirs are on the table, pretending the label doesn’t influence you would be slightly dishonest. 😏

So we tasted, argued, tasted again… and voted.

🥇 Méo-Camuzet, Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Murgers 2022
🥈 Emmanuel Rouget, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux 2021

The table had spoken.

I disagreed. 😂
Cros Parantoux was my w**e of the day. But when those are your first two, nobody is really losing.

And what a place to drink them.

We were high in the Lebanese mountains, in Hrajel, at Brût by Youssef Akiki .

Youssef grew up here before leaving Lebanon to learn his craft in some very serious kitchens, including those of Alain Ducasse and Joël Robuchon. Years later, after becoming Executive Chef at Burgundy in Beirut, he returned to the land his family has owned for three generations and created Brût.

The little building once used by his grandfather to store farming tools became part of the restaurant. The surrounding land became part of the kitchen. And Youssef cooks around what grows, what is in season and what Lebanon gives him.

Crab, langoustines, mushrooms, vegetables from the garden, beautiful meat… sophisticated cooking without losing the generosity or soul of the ingredients.

By then, nobody was really keeping track of time.

Great food. Seven empty bottles. A few disagreements over the ranking. And friends around a table somewhere in the Lebanese mountains.

Exactly how lunch should be. 🇱🇧🍷

A few minutes after meeting him, I was already standing behind his counter, learning how to make one of the oldest stapl...
07/08/2026

A few minutes after meeting him, I was already standing behind his counter, learning how to make one of the oldest staples of Lebanese cuisine.

No hesitation. No secrets. Just a warm smile, incredible generosity, and a genuine desire to share a tradition that has been part of Lebanon for centuries.

The saj dates back hundreds of years and remains one of the country’s most iconic foods. Traditionally baked on a domed metal griddle over an open fire, it was the daily bread of families across Lebanon. The recipe has always been remarkably simple, yet mastering it takes years. Every movement is precise, every gesture has a purpose, and nothing is rushed.

What stayed with me wasn’t only the craftsmanship.

It was the kindness.

In Lebanon, I’ve often found that the people behind the food are just as remarkable as the food itself. Before I could even ask, I was invited behind the counter, handed the tools, and treated not as a customer, but as someone genuinely welcome.

This is what I love most about travelling through Lebanon.

Not simply discovering its cuisine, but meeting the people who preserve it every single day with pride, humility and extraordinary generosity.

To the gentleman who welcomed me into his bakery: thank you for sharing far more than a recipe.

🇱🇧

The Lebanese mountains are home to some of the country’s greatest culinary treasures. Farmhouse by Fête à tête is one of...
01/08/2026

The Lebanese mountains are home to some of the country’s greatest culinary treasures. Farmhouse by Fête à tête is one of them.

Nadine Haddad welcomes you the same way she cooks: with warmth, generosity and sincerity. Every dish reflects her personality, from the freshest vegetables to her beautiful hummus, hand-prepared kibbeh nayeh and perfectly fried tiny fish.

Mountain cuisine in Lebanon has always been shaped by the seasons. It is a cuisine built around what the land offers, where vegetables, herbs, olive oil and local produce take center stage, and where every meal is meant to be shared around the table.

There is no need for sophisticated techniques or unnecessary theatrics when the ingredients are this good and the person behind them cooks with such passion. Watching Nadine prepare her kibbeh nayeh and proudly share it with us was a beautiful reminder that the greatest recipes are, above all, an expression of love.

The best meals are often remembered for the people who prepared them. Nadine is undoubtedly one of those people.

There are places that don’t need a long introduction.A table by the sea, the sound of the waves, fish caught a few hours...
29/07/2026

There are places that don’t need a long introduction.

A table by the sea, the sound of the waves, fish caught a few hours earlier, grilled prawns, tender calamari, fresh catch served as sashimi, crisp vegetables, silky hummus, perfectly seasoned cabbage rolls… everything tastes exactly as it should.

This is the kind of lunch that reminds you why Lebanese cuisine is so special: generous, honest and deeply connected to the sea.

Jammal, Batroun. One more reason to keep coming back.

Adresse

Paris

Site Web

Notifications

Soyez le premier à savoir et laissez-nous vous envoyer un courriel lorsque Drink Eat Love publie des nouvelles et des promotions. Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas utilisée à d'autres fins, et vous pouvez vous désabonner à tout moment.

Raccourcis

Mis en avant

Partager