Wines have been produced in the eastern Mediterranean for millennia, so it is always a little odd to find people who are surprised that such countries make wine at all! That said, Greece, Lebanon and Israel have improved immensely in recent times and now deserve much more attention. At the forefront is Massaya in Lebanon. This is a joint venture between locals, Sami and Ramzi Ghosn, the Bruniers from Vieux-Télégraphe in the Rhône and Dominique Hébrard from Bordeaux. At 3000 feet altitude, the Bekaa Valley is a tremendous site for vine growing. Serge Hochar created headlines in the 1980s as he struggled to get the grapes for Château Musar to his winery in near Beirut. The Musar style is much more cedary and mature than the fresher Massaya wines. Over the border in northern Israel is a new winery, Clos de Gat in the foothills of the Judean Mountains. Eyal Rotem has planted 35 hectares of noble varieties, with the winery located on the site of a pre-Roman ‘Gat’ or wine press in Hebrew. Greece is the cradle of winemaking, and boasts fascinating varieties that make many styles. If you are not partial to pine resin-flavoured Retsina then we would steer you to a rather special white, the minerally Santorini from Hatzidakis. For an excellent Greek red, try the Nemea from Alexandros Megapanos in the Peloponnese.