There’s Just Six…

Go into nearly any restaurant and you’ll likely find a ‘wine of the month’. Nine times in ten, it’s just a commercial promotion. A special price on a generic, nothing-special wine they’re trying to shift because their distributor got it at a discount.

At Ty’n Rhos Country House Hotel in Snowdonia, we do things a little differently. Sometimes we do have a wine of the month. Sometimes we don’t. How do we decide? It’s simple, really. If we have a wine that truly deserves to be celebrated, that actually impressed us when we tried it, that becomes the wine of the month.

If there isn’t anything really special on in a month, we don’t force it.

This month we really do have something outstanding on our hands. Let me tell you how we discovered this one.

A call came in. Sami Ghosn, the owner of Massaya Vineyard in Lebanon, was in North Wales and asked if he could he come along and visit us. Of course, he could! Massaya is one of our favourite vineyards, and we jumped at the chance to finally meet Sami in the flesh!

Sami arrived at Ty’n Rhos, and dazzled us as much with his fascinating character as with the story of how he developed his vineyard in the Beqaa Valley.

We’ve long had his ‘Massaya Le Columbia’ variety on our list – a wine bursting with red fruit and ripe tannins. But Sami brought along all of his wines. Honestly? They were all amazing. But there was one that blew us away.

‘Massaya Cap Est’ is 50% Grenache Noir and 50% Mourvedre from a single, high-altitude vineyard in the extreme northeast of the Beqaa Valley. It beautifully balances flavours of damson, red cherry and violets with a touch of earthy complexity. We immediately realised this would be a perfect pairing with the lamb, duck and game on the new spring menu we’re launching in April.

At £74.95, it is a little more than most of the wines on our menus – but boy, is it worth it!

We took six bottles.

You’re now one of the first to know. So, if you would like to try one of these incredible bottles for the next time you’re here, we urge you to reserve one now. Just email us and we’ll pop one aside just for you on your next visit.

Be quick, though. There are only six. …and that’s assuming we don’t get into them.