April 1, 2024 • 52 mins
Charles Massoud grew up in a family of fine wine importers in Lebanon and dreamed of making his own wine. When his career brought him to the U.S.A. in the 1970s, he saw the potential of Long Island to make wine. In 1983 Charles and wife, Ursula, founded Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue on the North Fork to produce fine wines from estate-grown vinifera grapes. The family-run winery has won The New York Governor's Cup and NY State Winery of the Year and is a top Long Island wine destination.
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The Connected Table Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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FOURCY Radio. Hello, and welcometo the Connected Table Live. We're your
hosts, Melanie Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
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bring you the dynamic people who workfront and center and behind the scenes around
the world in food, wine,spirits, and hospitality. We lead a
delicious life as we kind of travelaround right now here in the United States,
and we love sharing it with allof you, particularly stories of families
who have a rich heritage who haveshaped the landscape of how we eat and
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drink today. And I am soexcited to bring you one of my favorite
families that I've known for many years, as has David David will not be
joining us today, so I'm flyingsolo. Hello everybody, Greetings from Appalachicola,
Florida, where the Connected Table roadtrip is this week. It is
beautiful and we just missed a tornadoin Tallahassee, and I'm so glad because
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we're gonna have a great connection.Yes, so I'm going to introduce our
first guest. First of all,we are spotlighting a family today, the
entire show. It's We're dedicating itto the Massoud family, a wonderful family
who has touched our lives both inwhat we drink and how we eat.
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Our first guests are Ursula and CharlesMassoud. The mass Are Their heritage is
from Lebanon's We're gonna talk a littlebit about Lebanon I habit of love,
Lebanese wines and food. By theway, Ursula and Charles own Palmanoc Vineyards,
one of the premier wineries on theNorth Fork of Long Island. They
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bought this old potato farm because ifyou know anything about the North Fork of
Long Island, it's known for itspotato farms. Charles and Ursula bought the
farm as a kind of a newlife after he retired from IBM after a
very long successful career, and theyplanted some vanifera grapes and now it's a
much larger estate, a very populardestination. I have bought three bottles in
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front of me, the palmanoq shenIn Blanc twenty twenty, the Palmanach Dori
Rose, and the Palmanaq Merlow twentysixteen. Wonderful wines, all the state
grown. We're gonna share their storywith you, and in the second segment
we're going to talk to Philippe Massoud. I believe he's the nephew of Charles
and Ursula. Philippe owns Illilee restaurantNew York City, which features leventeine cookie
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the foods of the Eastern Mediterranean.So this is going to be a delicious
show embracing a wonderful family. Firstoff, Versila and Charles Massoud, welcome
to the Connected Table. Thank youAllanie. It's great to be with you.
Yes, Melanie, it's so greatto talk to you. And you're
not that far from us. Iknow you're in you're in there. You're
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wintering, as they say, winterring in Naples, Florida, and David
and I are road tripping trying tofigure out where we're going to settle one
day. And right now I'm lookingover the bay and over to Saint George's
Island. So it's beautiful, itreally is, and it's good to be
here. But it's really good tobe with you. Speaking of islands,
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Palmanok is on Long Island, andI learned doing the research that Palmanoc actually
is an old term for Long Island, right, that's the Native American name
for Long Island. Actually, itmeans in the Algonquian language, it means
the and of tribute, And youknow, it goes back to when the
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tribes from Manhattan wanted to invade NassauCounty, and each time they wanted to
do that, the tribe from NasauCounty would pay them tribute, and the
transaction in that language was called pomanok. We picked it up. Urshila picked
it up because she took American poetrywhen she was in collage. And Walt
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Whitman wrote a great deal of poetryabout Long Island, but he never used
the English name. He always calledit my beloved Pomanoc. And so when
we were looking for a name,we wanted something to give it the name
of a sense of place and tradition, and this hit the jackpot, you
know, like because it gave usboth the sense of place and the sense
of tradition by using that name.It's a tongue twister. It's not easy
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the pronounce. But that that's thehistory of the name. By the way,
you said Lebanon, by the way, I'm sorry, shoulda it's from
Germany, by the way, becauseyou said, we are, well,
we're going to talk about that.So first of all, your family is
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you grew up in Germany and yourgrandfather made wine, right, yeah,
you know, Melanie, my maternalfor my mom's side, all the family
for a few centuries were and stillare in the grape growing and wine making
family. In the files what isthe files? We are bordering on Alsha
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terrrain in southwest Germany. So honestly, for me, the memories of my
childhood are so involved in grape culture, you know, being out in the
vineyards making wine. But little didI know when I came to America that
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one day I would be with Charles. First of all, to meet Charles
and to grow grates on the northfolkof Long Island. You know, there
was definitely not, but that's suchhis life, full with surprises and no
regrets. How did you two meet? We were both students in nineteen sixty
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eight. Charles was in graduate school. We were at different schools. He
was at jepenn Warden. I wasa Chestnut Hill College as an undergraduate.
But we were both very involved inthe International House. And that's how we
met in sixty eight and also theyear, by the way, I discovered
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Walt Richmond and I in love withthe name Palmanap and again sometimes this is
destiny. Our minery was named afterWald Whitman and really his interpretation of Long
Island meaning Palmanach, and that wasin sixty eight. We came back to
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this country in nineteen seventy eight,bought the farm in nineteen sixty three eighties,
and thank god, we are watchingeach other, Melanie. I know
David and I do that as well. First of all, I read that,
yes, Palmanok is part of whatWomen's epic Leaves of Grass. I
read the poem. It's quite beautiful. I learned that he is a native
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of Long Island all sorts, andthere's a historic Palmanach trail that you can
hike and bike through the eastern ofthe Long Island. Please, we have
done parts of it. Our goalis one day to hike the whole trail.
But you know it's also on thelabel of the wine bottle, and
many of most of our labels featuresa poem on the side. Right there
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is Yeah. One of his poemsis called Palmer and list of we have
that som on. Oh yeah,I have your Shennon Blanc in front of
me and the poem is sea Beauty, and I have the rose and I
don't see a poem on there,but then I'm looking and is there one
of them? A low Yes,it's called as well, Sea Beauty.
I love poetry, Arsenala. SoI had relatives who are poems poets,
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so I happen to love poetry andkey books of poetry by my bed.
So, Charles, your family isfrom Lebanon, and your father, I
learned, was a wine importer.Tell me about that. So my dad
and two of his brothers, therewere three of them. They in the
twenties and the early thirties. Theyhad a catering business already before the word
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catering came into being, and theywere very successful and part of it.
They started importing stuff from mostly fromFrance, food and wine, and you
know, we grew up therefore drinkingsome fabulous wines that I couldn't afford today.
But in those days, wines wereit was just wine, you know,
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and it wasn't It was not asexpensive as it is today. And
we used to drink some amazing burgundy. So we grew up in an albiance
where when we sat down to eat, even though we were kids, we
were allowed to taste. And sowine for me, as a result,
became a food experience. You know. It isn't something that it isn't a
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beverage. It's a food. Andtherefore, when I want to drink wine,
I want to have some food withit. I can't drink without eating,
which is a problem because I'm gettinggreat. So you started making wine.
I think this is interesting. Soyou started making wine when you worked
for IBM, as did David's father. By the way David's father handled the
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international market, you may have crossedpaths with Jack Ransom, John Ransom,
I don't know, and like you, yeah, John Ransom, and like
you left IBM and started Ribbon Don'tWinery in the Hudson Valley. So you
started making wine as a hobby becauseyou were stationed in Kuwait. And why
did you do that? Well,it Kuwait was a dry country in the
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sense well it was dry as adesert. You know. The joke was
wherever they drilled to find water,they found oil instead. But also because
of the religious restrictions, alcohol isprohibited. And after a couple of weeks
I started asking my colleagues, Iam, what do you guys do here?
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I'm kind of feel the need todrink some It said, you know
what, we all make wine andbeer at home. Would you like we
know how to do it, Andso we started making wine. I tried
beer. It didn't work for me. The beer was terrible, but the
wine surprisingly was quite good. Andyou know, we would get together with
neighbors and friends and have competitive tastingto see who's making a better wine.
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So the point is we got goodat it as a hobby out of necessity.
And whenever we went to visit Ursula'sfamily in the falls, we would
mingle with them and whatever they weredoing, would participate. If they were
pruning, would have them prune,If they were pressing, we would have
them press, and of course whenthey were drinking, we would help them
drink. And therefore, you know, one day we said, you know,
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this is a nice lifestyle, lookingat how they were living in Germany,
and they all started telling us,no, you don't want to do
this. It's very hard work andall that which all the people. But
then you look around they were alldriving Mercedes and BMW. They have nice
homes. We said, that canbe so bad. So we started thinking
that maybe if and when I wouldretire from IBM, I we'll go back
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to Germany and then we come overto When we finished our assignment with IBM
in Kuwait, we came over stayedwith IBM in New York. We lived
in Stamford in Connecticut, and oneday in nineteen seventy nine, in October,
it was a very cold day,raining outside, and I had the
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fireplace on, and I was readingthe Sunday New York Times with a glass
of Glenn Allen Cavanetagno in my hands, and I stumbled on this article where
they were talking about people growing grapesand making wine on Long Island. So
I called theirs and I said,come take a look. We may not
have to wait, their growing grapesin our backyard here. Yeah. What
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was also amazing they were vinifera quaps. Yeah, that's our attention. Wow,
we niffera quaps, you know,just east of New York City on
an island. So that's that's what'sthe beginning. So the following January we
drove over. We met Alec andLouisa Hargrave, who were really pioneer,
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and came back that evening like inebriatedwith the thought that you we can do
this, you know, well,well I need was. Charles was very
I thought it, it's crazy.The next morning I woke up, I
thought I was crazy too. Isaid, am I going to leave?
I be amp to grow grapes?I mean, am I crazy? And
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you know it went like that backand forth for three years, where we
were, yes, we do it, no we can't. Eventually we said
if we don't do it, we'renever going to be able to do it
because land prices were beginning to goup, and so we took the plunge.
In nineteen eighty three, we purchaseda farm, and you know the
way we rationalized it was, ifit doesn't work, we still have this
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farm with a house not far fromthe beaches, and so that's how we
rationalized it. So we purchased itin eighty three, we started planting.
We planted fourteen acres in eighty threeand we never looked back. You know.
We started selling wine in nineteen ninetyand today we acquired Palmer Vineyards as
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well, so we went from fortyacres today we have about one hundred and
eighty acres, and all our familyis in the business. Our three sons
are kind of running the show thesedays and allowing us to retire easily in
Florida. And here we are,well, tell us about what each of
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your sons does, because it reallyis a family affair. I've been dealing
with Kareem, who sent me thesethree wines. So tell us tell our
listeners about each of your sons andtheir role, because really what's interesting is
many wineries and wine producers are familyrun. Yep, well, no different
here. Karem is essentially in chargeof marketing and wine making. Nabil,
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his youngest brother, manages the vineyards, and Selim, the middle one,
does mostly the administrative and logistical things. You know. He helps me with
keeping the books, doing the pairor running the business. So each one
has his own playgrounds, so tospeak, and so we're divided alongside their
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business responsibilities. And therefore they dothe same at Palmanock and at Palmer.
And we're lucky that we have thembecause they're very passionate. They're more passionate
than we were, and I thinkthey will take it further than we have.
We've taken it for I mean,you know, Palmanock and congratulations on
acquiring Palmer are huge destinations. Imean, people love to go out to
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Long Island day trippers and also spendweekends visiting the wineries, and you offer
a great tasting experience. I'm notsure how things are now with COVID,
but I remember going out, youknow, I used to go to I
was one of those day trippers andit's a wonderful experience. Tell us about
some of your your wines are allthe stake grown and use Vanifera grapes.
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Our listeners may be curious, whythen if it does well in Long Island
in terms of the Taiwan, andthen tell us about the Teihwan also some
of your signature wines. Okay,so I think when we started early on
in the eighties. We didn't knowmuch about anything. We were just very
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passionate about one thing, to getback into agriculture and doing things like that.
And the same was true with manyof our colleagues. And one day
we had a kind of a picnictogether and we said, you know,
why not we try to get somepeople from the industry to come and take
a look at what we're doing.And so we organized this thing we called
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the Cool Climate Symposion, whereby weinvited seven celebrities from the Bordeaux area,
one of which was a professor ofsoil science at the University of Bordeaux.
His name is us again if yougoogle him, he's a world authority.
Tea on the vineyard terroir. Andwhen he came over, we dug a
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trench in the field six feet deep. I had never seen that before myself.
You know, we dug it sixfeet deep. He came in and
he went into the trench, andyou know, when we looked at the
trench, we were unimpressed ourselves becausewe didn't know what to look for.
But you know, when we sawthere was nothing but sand, we said,
that's not very interesting. So hegoes into the trench and he ends
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up spending twenty minutes explaining to us. It turns out that the North Fork
is a moraine. Moraine is whathe's left after the glacier retreated back to
Canada. And he was showing ushow the glacier was putting one layer on
top of another, and the pebbleswere produced by the backwash of the glacier
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over the tens of thousands of years, pulverizing rocks. And he said,
this reminds me a lot of thesoil in Bordeaux. They call it Lee
Grave. The Grave is an appellationin the south of the city of Bordeaux
which produces amazing wines, you know. And when he said that, those
of us who were doubting the qualityof the soil before he started started looking
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at one another. He says,see, the soil that we have is
terrific here. So the point ishe was saying that what is similar to
the Grave is that your soil drainsvery well. And it's all about drainage,
because if you have a weather suchas on Long Island, where it
can not every year, but itcan rain abundantly, you don't want the
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roots of the wine to be sittingin water, and therefore drainage is very
important if you're planning a vineyard inan area where it can rain abundantly in
the summertime. And so he said, you have very good drainage here,
and you should be able to growvery high quality wines. The second thing
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after the soil is the weather.And you know, we are in a
marginal situation. If you go backto the nineteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds,
they have photos in the Historic Societyon Long Islands showing cars driving over
the frozen Long Island Sound to Connecticut. These were four model teas, so
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we're talking about nineteen thirty probably,and it used to be in those days
that temperatures would go down to minustwenty five. We don't that anymore,
you know. Today the coldest temperaturewe ever saw was on December twenty eighth,
nineteen eighty three. The temperature wentdown to minus five on Long Island
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and we've never seen it go backto the negative since then. So Vitis
vinifera, which is what we're growing, will die at minus ten. We
haven't seen anything like minus ten,and therefore it has been a very good
place to grow vitis vinifera Vitis viniferain Latin translated literally means the vine from
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which wine is made. Vitis isthe vine, the nifera is wine to
make wine, and therefore we growthe Vidis vinifera, which are the wines
important, the wines imported from Europe. And when we started we planted a
little bit of everything because we didn'tknow what would do well. And singly,
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they all did well, and sowe didn't pull out anything, and
so today we have a pretty largeportfolio. On the at Palmanach, we
grow. In the whites, wegrow chardonnet, and last summer we planted
Albarino and we planted milan is,the variety from which they make miscade.
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In the reds, we grow theBordeaux varieties uh Avenue of young Avenue from
Law and Petty Verdeaux, and wealso planted two years ago one acre of
pinon Wi, which we want touse for our bubbly production. And at
Power we have exactly the same,Plus we have sierra and we have ketamin
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air, and so you know,there are lots of varieties and as a
result we have lots of very differentwines, which is not a bad thing
because you know, visitors are manyof them like one thing or another,
and it's never the same thing,so we end up having something to please
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everybody. The weather along island ispretty good in that we get lots of
sun in the summertime. And youknow what is wine wine is? I
always say it's like sun jews.You know, the more sun you have,
the better your wine is going tobe. And therefore we are able
to produce wonderful wines. And becauseour region is not very hot, we
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don't produce very high alcohol wines.Ale is very reasonable. It's more like
old world wines, which makes ourwines more food friendly because you retain a
bit more acidity, which is whatis needed for the wine to wash food
well. And so that's really ourstory and you know, Melanie for us.
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Also, what is so wonderful beingoutgrowing grapes on the Northwalk? You
can say, because you're phone meYork to you know, in two hours,
if you're lucky and on the traffic, you will any of the Northwalk,
and both Palmer and Palmanag are reallygateway to the Northwalk in the beginning.
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And the wines we have, likeShannon Blow for example, so New
blocks. It marries so well alsowith the local seafood, the oysters we
have in the summer, we havelocal oyster pharmat Shocking Oysters. And so
the proximity of having grow our youknow, own wonderful grapes and making wine
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and married with the local foods isa winning formula. People love coming out
and of course we love seeing allof them, and we hope and pray,
you know, that we get throughthe COVID crisis because that creates a
whole other set of challenges. Butwe are not alone. Everybody is leaving
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that. Thank goodness for e commerce, right, thank goodness for e commerce.
Yeah. Absolutely, one to pointout. I do want to point
out that you can order online thewines online, and the Veino shippers you
can get direct shipments to most theUnited States. That's correct. Yeah,
thank you, Yeah, thanks forpointing that up. By the way,
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a new feature that we're working on. We have acquired a house next to
Palm Knock and there's a house atPalmer. We're in the process of renovating
both these houses and we will beoffering them for rental. Guest houses down
the road. Oh that's great becauseDavid and I are homeless, so you
know, we just we sold ourhouse. We're just living here and there
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at people's houses. So we maybe visiting you when the weather worms up,
all right, although we know how, we know how, you know,
everybody wants to be on Long Island, particularly the North and South Fork
when the weather worms up. Itreally is a wonderful place to visit and
a real treat. It really is, you know, hopefully your tasting room
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is it? Is it now?Well? I don't know about winter,
but is it normally open or hasit had to be restricted because of COVID.
It's open, but it is restrictedin the sense that because we have
to keep distance, we have tohave twenty five percent occupancy. So if
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it's not raining and the weather isnice, then the deck is open and
we can receive many more people.But on a rainy day we cannot see
too many people, and therefore it'sby reservations only to make sure that people
can get a seat when they come. But we are open. We're running
the business normally, you know,and if people reserve ahead of time,
they are welcome to come and visitus. I would like to add that
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normally in parenthesis it is definitely.It has changed very much since a year
ago, since COVID came in,but we are very grateful we have such
loyal customers who come no matter what. And if you come, Melanie,
what we did out on the grassin the back, we have a lot
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of other around deck chairs and tape. People actually love it, they said,
we feel so connected to the vinyardjust being outsittings outside. So I
hope and pray for sunshine this comingseason two again and that all of us
can enjoy just being outside and enjoyingour company and good food and the good
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wine. Well, your wines arevery food friendly. I've had the pleasure.
First of all, I want topoint out that Ursula and I have
been members of Le don D'scoffier formany years and Pomanac has always been so
generous for many of the events thatwe've done, and I've tasted so many
different pairings with Pomanac wines. I'min Oyster County right now because I'm near
Appalachicolon. I think Dave and I'vebeen having a daily dozen or called the
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Daily Sip and Slurp, and yourShannon Blanc is just going to be so
fabulous. With the next round ofoysters on the half show. Oh,
enjoyed, enjoyed. Yeah, itis a perfect wine for the oysters because
there's this beautiful lemon ee quality aboutit. But you know, Long Island
is really known for, I meanit's Merleau is considered on par with really
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some of the great brit I'm aMerlau. I love Merlau, and for
anyone who has not tried your ProminaeMarlow, it's it's really fabulous and Long
Island just makes great Marlow right.Indeed, indeed, I think, you
know, just about everything is turningout to be pretty good. Actually,
But I think the Merlau, thechardonnet, the Sauvignon blanc, they are
shining. But you know, CabinetSauvignon can do a very good job too
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well. I think what people don'trealize is that, you know, Long
Island does have an Atlantic climate similarto Bordeaux. It's almost similar in parallel,
I think, right exactly. Imean that's exactly what Shagan said when
he was here. I mean,when he compared to Le Graus, we
kind of felt like, oh wow, this is uh we do in paradise
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here. Yeah, I think peopledon't realize that it's really quite remarkable,
yes, Ursula. Yeah, andalso all the law variety. You know
that Blanc Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet France, they do extremely well. We're very
happy also with the Cabinet from rightin Souvenio Blanc. You know, we
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say the Loire varieties have found ahome on Long Island. They're really doing
very well, which is why weplanted Molando Burgoni on the assumption that it
will do just as well. Giventhat the other three Blanc so blanc having
it from have done so well,we think that Molando will do just as
well as too, and you mightthink so too. Yeah. And also
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Caberte franc. Just we've been tastinga lot of Cabernet Franc as we've traveled
up and down the Eastern Sea coastfrom the Finger Lakes to you know,
Long Island to Virginia and company francis the grape, the red grape of
the East Coast. It really is. Yep, we agree, yeah,
we like it. But also Iwanted to mention before when we talked about
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then Blanc common up we were thefirst ones to grow and produce and bland
in the state of New York.Now other people have tried on the East
Coast and it has it's been oneof Oh my god, it sells out
every year. People should love itand as I said, it marries so
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well with the local seafood especially.It is a fabulous fine. It really
is. I'm a big chinon Blandedrinker and you know, UH love seeing
it here. Well done on LongIsland because I of course love Shennon from
the La Valley, really beautiful wine, and definitely I read it was one
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of your top sellers. I alsowant to point out before we move on
to your relativism the next segment thatPalmanak was named Winery of the Year.
I think it's at the New YorkWinding Food Festival. I guess that's a
I don't know. It's the NewYork Winding Great Foundation two thousand and four,
in twenty fifteen, right, that'scorrect, Yes, this was New
York Foundation. They you're the WineEassic as they called it. It's a
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tasting of what a thousand wines thatthey do. And in two years,
those two years, we had nineof our wines winning gold medals. And
so that's why we earned that distinction. Well, it's a very big honor.
I know David's family, Rivendell wasone of the winners, and it's
a really big honor. So congratulations, it's really been great to connect with
you. We have to move onto the next segment. But Charles and
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Ursul Masud, I you know,I love it. I hope to see
you in person sometime. I hope, I mean visit as if you're in
the Naples area now. And thankyou for hosting us, Melanie, and
say hi to David. It ismy pleasure. And for our listeners.
The website is Palmanach p A UM A n o k dot com.
Go check out the wines they ship. You can order and have a little
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long Island and great wines sent toyour home. Thank you very much.
You and say hello to Philly.Okay, I will so we're gonna right
now. Thank you. So we'relistening to the conected table. You're gonna
meet with another member of the Massudfamily, the nephew of Charles and Ursula,
who has an amazing restaurant in NewYork City called Ali Lee. Will
be right back. You're listening tothe Connected Table and we're back. You're
(31:53):
listening to the Connected Table. Iam. We're gonna get solo today,
miss Melanie U, and we aredoing a little love letter to one of
my favorite family, our favorite familiesof wine and food in New York on
the Massuds. And our next guestis Philippe Masud, who is the nephew
(32:14):
to Charles and Ursula. Philippe isowner and executive chef of Il Eli,
a restaurant in New York that servesthe foods of the Eastern Mediterranean. I
learned it's called the Levantine. He'sfrom Beirut, Lebanon and grew up in
kind of in the businesses. Familyhad a hotel, but I'll let him
say more. Philippe Masud, Welcometo the Connected Table. Thanks Malanie,
(32:37):
thank you for having me. Iknow you were recently in Beirute. What
do you go back and forth forfamily for other projects? Yes, so
my mother is still lives there,and so does my sister, and of
course a lot of my childhood friendsare still there, and I'll go there
(32:58):
to, you know, see what'snew, but more importantly to see them,
and I usually spend about a weekto ten days. Obviously, these
holidays with COVID nineteen are very differentthan the norm like for all of us.
And sadly, you know, peoplemisunderstood what a negative PCR test really
(33:21):
means, because a negative test onlymeans it's negative if you haven't had contact
with anyone infected for a long periodof time, and a lot of people
ended up gathering in large groups,and right now the country is in horrible
shape and they're dealing. You know, they're close to the Italian model if
things continue the way they are whereyou know, hospital capacity is being overrun
(33:45):
and all of that. But youknow, we're all in this together.
You know, the entire planet Ithink is suffering from this pandemic and hopefully
the sun will rise in the nearfuture, and not that this future,
well, yeah, I think wereached I had one hundred million worldwide diagnosed.
(34:06):
I mean, it's frightening, andI know that it has touched everybody's
lives and we all need to bevigilant about how we care for each other
and for ourselves. Philip, yourfamily had a hotel in Beirut where you
went during the civil where you grewup at a time in Lebanon, was
(34:27):
a little bit more unstable, andI just want to say right now,
it is one of the most Ihave not been to Lebanon, but I
am such a big fan of thewines. I'm also a fan of Pomenox
wines. But I'm a big fanof the wines and the history and the
food, and I only want thebest for the people of Lebanon. Your
family had a hotel there, didthey still or is it gone? So
my family has been in the foodbusiness since the nineteen forties. It started
(34:53):
with my grandfather, Charles's father,my uncle with store with his brothers.
They kind of had the premiere restaurantand catering hall in downtown Bay Route,
and they were pioneers back in theday because they, you know, they
brought in Austrian chefs to teach theLebanese how to do pastries and and and
(35:20):
and and brought a lot of talentsfrom abroad to help kind of evolve the
technique a little bit. And fromthat restaurant, over time, the my
grandfather and his brothers all went theirseparate ways because you know, their families
were growing and what have you.And my grandfather, Alexander, also known
as Iskandar converted his home in themountains of Lebanon with my grandmother into a
(35:47):
hotel, and you know, mygrandmother, I'm told, sold every single
curtain and bed sheet. It wasa small hotel. And they eventually saw
that and bought a big plot ofland on the Mediterranean, on the sandy
beaches of the Mediterranean, and builtthis amazing hotel which was called the Coral
(36:10):
Beach, which opened in nineteen sixtyfour. And I was not born or
in the pipeline yet, so tospeak. The hotel was a beachfront,
one of the first beachfront resorts inLebanon. That a beautiful nightclub that was
called the Beach comberd that was inspiredby Trader Vicks in London. I believe
(36:36):
some of the same designers were broughtat the time. It used to have
an orchestra in the nightclub where peoplewould dance to live music, which was
the case back then. You know, sound systems were not at the level,
nor was vinyl, you know thething. And it had multiple restaurants,
one being a French restaurant which wascalled the Risto Andre Cup which had
(36:58):
the gerridon andable side service, youknow, with crebs usets Steco quars and
through noodaus and what have you,and it's kind of it's you know,
it's an odd story. You know. I was born in nineteen seventy nineteen
seventy four, the Civil War breaksout and my family and I were in
the mountains of Lebanon on the hotsummer hot one of the hot weekends,
(37:23):
and the war started and we thoughtit was just kind of you know,
riots and everything was going to befine. So we said, okay,
well, let's go to the hoteland wait it out so that we can
go home. And we were neverable to go home, and we ended
up losing everything, you know,both our apartment in Beirut and our summer
(37:44):
home because things degenerated into a sectarianconflict, and being Christians that had residences
on the Muslim side, you know, our homes were torched and burned and
what revu. And of course thesame thing happened on the Christian side to
Muslims because people just completely lost theirbearings and we ended up living So I
(38:06):
ended up living in the hotel aboutI was about eleven years old, and
I was very blessed because, youknow, living in a country full of
war and and and and despair.Here I was a young kid, you
know, four years old, runningaround the hotel, running around the kitchen,
being able to you know, shopliftpretty force from the petiserie and each
(38:30):
perissons on demand, or you know, dip my little fingers into the you
know, the tempered chocolate that wassitting on top of the baking oven.
And I really, you know,spent my time in the kitchen observing little
little did I know that I wouldend up in the career that I'm in
today, But you think of itas my kind of ten thousand hours of
(38:52):
observation, observation. Subsequently, youknow, the war became unbearable. I
came to the United States as afourteen year old kid to visit with Charles
and my aunt Denise, who's mymother's sister, who lived in Westchester,
and to visit an uncle who livedin Colorado who had left Lebanon in the
(39:15):
seventies. And I came to checkout the United States, to get to
know it, discover it. Andmy parents called me and told me,
oh, by the way, youcan't come back to Lebanon because the situation
is too dangerous. So I endedup staying here and going to high school
and living beginning my American life soto speak, as a young student refugee.
(39:37):
And now before that, though,from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty four,
we had moved to an apartment inBeirut and left the hotel, and
all of a sudden, not havingthe hotel's kitchen on demand, so to
speak, I was like missing thefood and missing everything. You know.
(40:00):
I'm like, okay, well,let me call the chef and see how
I can make this cake at home, and let me call the chef to
figure out how to whip cream,and let me call the chef to figure
out how to make chocolate sauce.So I started making doing pastries at home
and desserts. I had a verysweet tooth, so I was already dabbling
(40:22):
with cooking, if you want,at a very young age. I'm told
that I almost chopped off to myfingers trying to peel a naval orange at
the age of four. I havethe scar to show it, but I
don't have the memory for it.So fast forward to arriving in the United
States. Of course, I startmissing the food that I that you know
(40:45):
that I came from, and I'mtasting it left, right and center,
and I'm realizing that it's so farfrom where it's supposed to be that I,
you know, start cooking and playingaround. And then when I'm in
college, I discovered the recipe card, you know, which is one of
the first classes you take when you'rein the hotel and restaurant field. And
(41:07):
I'm like, wow, this isamazing. You know, I didn't think
about the recipe this way, andthe recipes, you know, becomes a
sort of mathematical equation in the contextof understanding how ingredients and flavors play with
each other. And I start writing, you know, all the recipes of
the food that I missed from memory. You know. Well, you know
I miss eating grape leaves. Okay, well let me try to make grape
(41:29):
leaves. And here I was teachingmyself how to do all of that.
Tragically, we ended up, youknow, by selling the hotel because of
the security reasons, and it wasdevastating to the entire family. I stayed
in touch with the chef of thehotel, who's really a mentor to me,
(41:51):
and I would discuss the food withhim, you know. As I
was I was practicing. When Igraduated from college, I decided to come
to New York City and try toopen a restaurant. But in the meantime
I had gone to Lebanon and donesome trainings to validate my knowledge. You
know, I spent some time insome of the best Messa restaurants in Lebanon
(42:13):
and in Paris. I also didsome training in Spain, in the in
Marbaia, in the in Andalusia,and I realized that, oh wow,
you know I was I was prettyclose. I wasn't far off at all
in how it is that I hadremembered the cuisine and and how I had
developed these recipes. I came toNew York and of course, you know,
(42:36):
a young twenty three year old man, full of of optimism and stamina,
and you know, of course Icalled multiple landlords like many of us
have done when we come to NewYork, and you know, people would
ask me, well, have youopened a restaurant in New York. I
would say no. They would hangup the phone on me, by the
way, and not even entertained entertaintalking with me. Realizing that I wasn't
(43:04):
going to be able to open arestaurant, right there, and then I
decided to work in the restaurant industrymore on the front of house of the
business, because I needed to understandwhat it is that makes restaurants successful,
and as a chef and as assomebody that knew how to cook. You
know, I wasn't I wasn't afraidabout the cuisine. I was more afraid
(43:25):
about fading in the business and reallyunderstanding how it functions. So I ended
up working in a multitude of restaurantsin New York City and subsequently went to
Washington, d C. And openedhow a company opened a Mediterranean restaurant which
was called Nayla, which is mysister's name. And then, you know,
in two thousand and five, oneof my current investors called me and
(43:52):
said, well, Philippe, youknow, we used to come to Washington,
DC on the weekends to eat thefood you were serving in this restaurant.
You know, why don't you justcome back to New York City and
open And I was like, ohmy god, are you crazy. I
haven't been in New York in fiveyears. I don't have anybody's numbers.
It's like, you know, that'sgiving me anxiety. That's beyond your imagination.
(44:14):
It's like, well, think aboutit and and let's try to make
it happen. And you know,I came, I looked at spaces.
Back then, prices were ridiculous,the meatpacking district was on fire. And
I came across this beautiful location onFifth Avenue in the Flat Iron Nomad district.
And the moment I walked into thespace, I was convinced that this
(44:36):
was it, this was the space, and and I conceived the Lily,
you know, for two reasons.You know, one, in a way,
it's the tale of an immigrant tellinghis story through food, and another
is truly a homage to Lebanese cuisineand Lebanese hospitality. And we opened our
(44:59):
doors in November of two thousand andseven, right before the big recession,
and then, you know, wesaw the financial meltdown in front of our
eyes. It was very stressful.Two thousand and eight two thousand and nine
were very difficulty years. But Itold my staff that, you know,
we have to stay the course,and even if we have to make the
(45:20):
restaurant a twenty seat restaurant, wewill continue to operate as a twenty seat
restaurant. And in twenty ten,the market turned around and we grew,
you know, really really well,and here we are fourteen years later,
you know, dealing with this withthis pandemic now. But as a you're
(45:40):
back to a twenty seat restaurant.I actually I'm back to no seat restaurant
because we're only doing delivery and takeout. But we took we took the decision
to start building outdoor and we're hopingto reopen outdoor or in about two weeks.
(46:02):
Well, let's talk about the food. We have just to give you
about four minutes left. I wantto dive into the food. First of
all, I want to let everybodyknow that you're right now offering a beautiful
chef meal delivery kits. And Iwant to talk about the concept of the
food in some of the experience,the flavor sensations anyone who orders the food
right now or when they can visitcan enjoy. And also the meaning of
(46:25):
elily, so itly means tell mein colloquial Lebanese, tell me your story,
tell me about your day or evening, tell me about your life,
tell me your story. Basically,the food, my approach to the cuisine,
having had dietary issues myself and digestiveissues. My approach to food is
(46:47):
very holistic in the sense that Iwant to do the least to the ingredient
and let the ingredients speak for itself. And more importantly, I want you
to be able to eat my foodmultiple times week so that you're not walking
out of here needing, you know, a truck to carry you out,
or feeling so heavy that when youget at home you know you're ready to
(47:08):
pass out. So my approach wasto kind of deconstruct and reconstruct, you
know, the grandma's recipe, thetraditional recipes, and put the right amount
of flavors, the right amount ofingredients in there, the least amount of
fat, the least amount of salt, so that it's really light, vibrant
and fresh. And that's what wedo here. You you can eat as
(47:34):
if you were eating in bay Root, with a slight variation, which is
the lightness and and and the freshnessin some in some instances, or you
can go to an inspired part ofthe menu where it is kind of our
explorative cuisine. You know, abit of a bit of South of Spain,
(47:54):
a bit of Italian, a bitof French, maybe some Japanese sashimi,
here and there. So the menuis sixty percent traditional and authentic the
way we believe it, and theforty percent is kind of a voyage of
inspiration throughout the Mediterranean. And that'swhat's really playful at it in the sense
(48:15):
that you can really come and eata bit of everything if you choose to,
and we're very excited about that.And a lot of the dishes are
shareable, so you know which isthe way. So give an example of
one of your chef kits at homethat you're offering right now. So two
of our most popular kids are theroast chicken or the limpshank, And basically,
(48:37):
in essence, you're getting enough foodfor six, even though they're marketed
for four. You get a wholeroast chicken that's about three and a half
pounds, You get an assortment ofmezsas a salad, all the different sauces
and pickles, a beautiful little bookletwith all the instructions on how to cook
it, and then the finale withsome homemade baklava that we in the restaurant
(49:01):
on the On the lamp side,the lampshak is like a super traditional recipe.
The lamp is braised slowly in thisbeautiful bouquet of flavors and wines.
The sauce is then reduced and spicedoff with a bit of cinnamon and allspice
and a hint of clove and asmall touch of nutmeg. It's also comes
(49:27):
with roasted vegetables as well. Uh, you know some some additional side plates
as well. Oh, you're makingme hungry. I wish I was in
New York just so because you coulddeliver, because I'm in Florida. I
love Italy. I remember when itopened. I love this type of cooking.
It is my one of my favoritesbecause it's so it's so healthy and
(49:50):
flavorful. If you have not triedily, I want to just make sure
we get in the website before wewrap. It's a lily I l I
l I n YC dot com.Ee Eli means tell me. And you
have been telling me a lot aboutyour interesting story, really inspirational and and
you're you're doing on drop off catering. I see you also have some Lebanese
(50:15):
wines. Yes, Lebanese wines oneof the oldest wine cultures in the in
the world right, absolutely absolutely,And you know Lebanon is very blessed by
having this amazing beca valley where mothernature is your partner and you really have
to do absolutely nothing because the climateis perfection. You know, you don't
(50:37):
have spray, you don't have humidityissues at night, you have a dry,
warm air that uh, you know, kills the humidity during the day.
You have a beautiful sun, fertilesoil. I think you think about
it this way. You have toreally do a bad job to do a
bad wine in Lebanon, considering howadvantageous the client and that there are are.
(51:00):
Well, that's why this area iscalled the Fertile Croscent. One day,
David and I hope to visit.But in the meantime, I know
we can get to New York fairlyeasily, and hopefully we'll be able to
visit you soon. Philipe Masud,it's been so nice to talk to you
and your aunt and uncle, Ursulaand Charles. Has been a great show.
Thank you so much. It's beenreally a privilege to share our story
(51:23):
with your listeners. And please everybodybe safe and come visit us in New
York when we're back on our feet. Everybody support your favorite wineries and local
wineries and restaurants. We encourage it. You can hear the show and all
our shows on your favorite podcast platformand again, as always, our message
is from the connected table, Stayinsatiably curious. Thank you, Y
The topics and opinions expressed in thefollowing show are solely those of the hosts
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We make no recommendations or endorsements forradio show programs, services, or
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(00:23):
FOURCY Radio. Hello, and welcometo the Connected Table Live. We're your
hosts, Melanie Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
(00:49):
bring you the dynamic people who workfront and center and behind the scenes around
the world in food, wine,spirits, and hospitality. We lead a
delicious life as we kind of travelaround right now here in the United States,
and we love sharing it with allof you, particularly stories of families
who have a rich heritage who haveshaped the landscape of how we eat and
(01:10):
drink today. And I am soexcited to bring you one of my favorite
families that I've known for many years, as has David David will not be
joining us today, so I'm flyingsolo. Hello everybody, Greetings from Appalachicola,
Florida, where the Connected Table roadtrip is this week. It is
beautiful and we just missed a tornadoin Tallahassee, and I'm so glad because
(01:33):
we're gonna have a great connection.Yes, so I'm going to introduce our
first guest. First of all,we are spotlighting a family today, the
entire show. It's We're dedicating itto the Massoud family, a wonderful family
who has touched our lives both inwhat we drink and how we eat.
(01:55):
Our first guests are Ursula and CharlesMassoud. The mass Are Their heritage is
from Lebanon's We're gonna talk a littlebit about Lebanon I habit of love,
Lebanese wines and food. By theway, Ursula and Charles own Palmanoc Vineyards,
one of the premier wineries on theNorth Fork of Long Island. They
(02:15):
bought this old potato farm because ifyou know anything about the North Fork of
Long Island, it's known for itspotato farms. Charles and Ursula bought the
farm as a kind of a newlife after he retired from IBM after a
very long successful career, and theyplanted some vanifera grapes and now it's a
much larger estate, a very populardestination. I have bought three bottles in
(02:38):
front of me, the palmanoq shenIn Blanc twenty twenty, the Palmanach Dori
Rose, and the Palmanaq Merlow twentysixteen. Wonderful wines, all the state
grown. We're gonna share their storywith you, and in the second segment
we're going to talk to Philippe Massoud. I believe he's the nephew of Charles
and Ursula. Philippe owns Illilee restaurantNew York City, which features leventeine cookie
(03:00):
the foods of the Eastern Mediterranean.So this is going to be a delicious
show embracing a wonderful family. Firstoff, Versila and Charles Massoud, welcome
to the Connected Table. Thank youAllanie. It's great to be with you.
Yes, Melanie, it's so greatto talk to you. And you're
not that far from us. Iknow you're in you're in there. You're
(03:22):
wintering, as they say, winterring in Naples, Florida, and David
and I are road tripping trying tofigure out where we're going to settle one
day. And right now I'm lookingover the bay and over to Saint George's
Island. So it's beautiful, itreally is, and it's good to be
here. But it's really good tobe with you. Speaking of islands,
(03:43):
Palmanok is on Long Island, andI learned doing the research that Palmanoc actually
is an old term for Long Island, right, that's the Native American name
for Long Island. Actually, itmeans in the Algonquian language, it means
the and of tribute, And youknow, it goes back to when the
(04:04):
tribes from Manhattan wanted to invade NassauCounty, and each time they wanted to
do that, the tribe from NasauCounty would pay them tribute, and the
transaction in that language was called pomanok. We picked it up. Urshila picked
it up because she took American poetrywhen she was in collage. And Walt
(04:28):
Whitman wrote a great deal of poetryabout Long Island, but he never used
the English name. He always calledit my beloved Pomanoc. And so when
we were looking for a name,we wanted something to give it the name
of a sense of place and tradition, and this hit the jackpot, you
know, like because it gave usboth the sense of place and the sense
of tradition by using that name.It's a tongue twister. It's not easy
(04:51):
the pronounce. But that that's thehistory of the name. By the way,
you said Lebanon, by the way, I'm sorry, shoulda it's from
Germany, by the way, becauseyou said, we are, well,
we're going to talk about that.So first of all, your family is
(05:15):
you grew up in Germany and yourgrandfather made wine, right, yeah,
you know, Melanie, my maternalfor my mom's side, all the family
for a few centuries were and stillare in the grape growing and wine making
family. In the files what isthe files? We are bordering on Alsha
(05:39):
terrrain in southwest Germany. So honestly, for me, the memories of my
childhood are so involved in grape culture, you know, being out in the
vineyards making wine. But little didI know when I came to America that
(06:00):
one day I would be with Charles. First of all, to meet Charles
and to grow grates on the northfolkof Long Island. You know, there
was definitely not, but that's suchhis life, full with surprises and no
regrets. How did you two meet? We were both students in nineteen sixty
(06:23):
eight. Charles was in graduate school. We were at different schools. He
was at jepenn Warden. I wasa Chestnut Hill College as an undergraduate.
But we were both very involved inthe International House. And that's how we
met in sixty eight and also theyear, by the way, I discovered
(06:46):
Walt Richmond and I in love withthe name Palmanap and again sometimes this is
destiny. Our minery was named afterWald Whitman and really his interpretation of Long
Island meaning Palmanach, and that wasin sixty eight. We came back to
(07:09):
this country in nineteen seventy eight,bought the farm in nineteen sixty three eighties,
and thank god, we are watchingeach other, Melanie. I know
David and I do that as well. First of all, I read that,
yes, Palmanok is part of whatWomen's epic Leaves of Grass. I
read the poem. It's quite beautiful. I learned that he is a native
(07:31):
of Long Island all sorts, andthere's a historic Palmanach trail that you can
hike and bike through the eastern ofthe Long Island. Please, we have
done parts of it. Our goalis one day to hike the whole trail.
But you know it's also on thelabel of the wine bottle, and
many of most of our labels featuresa poem on the side. Right there
(07:57):
is Yeah. One of his poemsis called Palmer and list of we have
that som on. Oh yeah,I have your Shennon Blanc in front of
me and the poem is sea Beauty, and I have the rose and I
don't see a poem on there,but then I'm looking and is there one
of them? A low Yes,it's called as well, Sea Beauty.
I love poetry, Arsenala. SoI had relatives who are poems poets,
(08:22):
so I happen to love poetry andkey books of poetry by my bed.
So, Charles, your family isfrom Lebanon, and your father, I
learned, was a wine importer.Tell me about that. So my dad
and two of his brothers, therewere three of them. They in the
twenties and the early thirties. Theyhad a catering business already before the word
(08:46):
catering came into being, and theywere very successful and part of it.
They started importing stuff from mostly fromFrance, food and wine, and you
know, we grew up therefore drinkingsome fabulous wines that I couldn't afford today.
But in those days, wines wereit was just wine, you know,
(09:07):
and it wasn't It was not asexpensive as it is today. And
we used to drink some amazing burgundy. So we grew up in an albiance
where when we sat down to eat, even though we were kids, we
were allowed to taste. And sowine for me, as a result,
became a food experience. You know. It isn't something that it isn't a
(09:31):
beverage. It's a food. Andtherefore, when I want to drink wine,
I want to have some food withit. I can't drink without eating,
which is a problem because I'm gettinggreat. So you started making wine.
I think this is interesting. Soyou started making wine when you worked
for IBM, as did David's father. By the way David's father handled the
(09:52):
international market, you may have crossedpaths with Jack Ransom, John Ransom,
I don't know, and like you, yeah, John Ransom, and like
you left IBM and started Ribbon Don'tWinery in the Hudson Valley. So you
started making wine as a hobby becauseyou were stationed in Kuwait. And why
did you do that? Well,it Kuwait was a dry country in the
(10:15):
sense well it was dry as adesert. You know. The joke was
wherever they drilled to find water,they found oil instead. But also because
of the religious restrictions, alcohol isprohibited. And after a couple of weeks
I started asking my colleagues, Iam, what do you guys do here?
(10:35):
I'm kind of feel the need todrink some It said, you know
what, we all make wine andbeer at home. Would you like we
know how to do it, Andso we started making wine. I tried
beer. It didn't work for me. The beer was terrible, but the
wine surprisingly was quite good. Andyou know, we would get together with
neighbors and friends and have competitive tastingto see who's making a better wine.
(10:56):
So the point is we got goodat it as a hobby out of necessity.
And whenever we went to visit Ursula'sfamily in the falls, we would
mingle with them and whatever they weredoing, would participate. If they were
pruning, would have them prune,If they were pressing, we would have
them press, and of course whenthey were drinking, we would help them
drink. And therefore, you know, one day we said, you know,
(11:20):
this is a nice lifestyle, lookingat how they were living in Germany,
and they all started telling us,no, you don't want to do
this. It's very hard work andall that which all the people. But
then you look around they were alldriving Mercedes and BMW. They have nice
homes. We said, that canbe so bad. So we started thinking
that maybe if and when I wouldretire from IBM, I we'll go back
(11:43):
to Germany and then we come overto When we finished our assignment with IBM
in Kuwait, we came over stayedwith IBM in New York. We lived
in Stamford in Connecticut, and oneday in nineteen seventy nine, in October,
it was a very cold day,raining outside, and I had the
(12:05):
fireplace on, and I was readingthe Sunday New York Times with a glass
of Glenn Allen Cavanetagno in my hands, and I stumbled on this article where
they were talking about people growing grapesand making wine on Long Island. So
I called theirs and I said,come take a look. We may not
have to wait, their growing grapesin our backyard here. Yeah. What
(12:26):
was also amazing they were vinifera quaps. Yeah, that's our attention. Wow,
we niffera quaps, you know,just east of New York City on
an island. So that's that's what'sthe beginning. So the following January we
drove over. We met Alec andLouisa Hargrave, who were really pioneer,
(12:50):
and came back that evening like inebriatedwith the thought that you we can do
this, you know, well,well I need was. Charles was very
I thought it, it's crazy.The next morning I woke up, I
thought I was crazy too. Isaid, am I going to leave?
I be amp to grow grapes?I mean, am I crazy? And
(13:11):
you know it went like that backand forth for three years, where we
were, yes, we do it, no we can't. Eventually we said
if we don't do it, we'renever going to be able to do it
because land prices were beginning to goup, and so we took the plunge.
In nineteen eighty three, we purchaseda farm, and you know the
way we rationalized it was, ifit doesn't work, we still have this
(13:33):
farm with a house not far fromthe beaches, and so that's how we
rationalized it. So we purchased itin eighty three, we started planting.
We planted fourteen acres in eighty threeand we never looked back. You know.
We started selling wine in nineteen ninetyand today we acquired Palmer Vineyards as
(13:56):
well, so we went from fortyacres today we have about one hundred and
eighty acres, and all our familyis in the business. Our three sons
are kind of running the show thesedays and allowing us to retire easily in
Florida. And here we are,well, tell us about what each of
(14:18):
your sons does, because it reallyis a family affair. I've been dealing
with Kareem, who sent me thesethree wines. So tell us tell our
listeners about each of your sons andtheir role, because really what's interesting is
many wineries and wine producers are familyrun. Yep, well, no different
here. Karem is essentially in chargeof marketing and wine making. Nabil,
(14:45):
his youngest brother, manages the vineyards, and Selim, the middle one,
does mostly the administrative and logistical things. You know. He helps me with
keeping the books, doing the pairor running the business. So each one
has his own playgrounds, so tospeak, and so we're divided alongside their
(15:09):
business responsibilities. And therefore they dothe same at Palmanock and at Palmer.
And we're lucky that we have thembecause they're very passionate. They're more passionate
than we were, and I thinkthey will take it further than we have.
We've taken it for I mean,you know, Palmanock and congratulations on
acquiring Palmer are huge destinations. Imean, people love to go out to
(15:33):
Long Island day trippers and also spendweekends visiting the wineries, and you offer
a great tasting experience. I'm notsure how things are now with COVID,
but I remember going out, youknow, I used to go to I
was one of those day trippers andit's a wonderful experience. Tell us about
some of your your wines are allthe stake grown and use Vanifera grapes.
(15:58):
Our listeners may be curious, whythen if it does well in Long Island
in terms of the Taiwan, andthen tell us about the Teihwan also some
of your signature wines. Okay,so I think when we started early on
in the eighties. We didn't knowmuch about anything. We were just very
(16:19):
passionate about one thing, to getback into agriculture and doing things like that.
And the same was true with manyof our colleagues. And one day
we had a kind of a picnictogether and we said, you know,
why not we try to get somepeople from the industry to come and take
a look at what we're doing.And so we organized this thing we called
(16:41):
the Cool Climate Symposion, whereby weinvited seven celebrities from the Bordeaux area,
one of which was a professor ofsoil science at the University of Bordeaux.
His name is us again if yougoogle him, he's a world authority.
Tea on the vineyard terroir. Andwhen he came over, we dug a
(17:06):
trench in the field six feet deep. I had never seen that before myself.
You know, we dug it sixfeet deep. He came in and
he went into the trench, andyou know, when we looked at the
trench, we were unimpressed ourselves becausewe didn't know what to look for.
But you know, when we sawthere was nothing but sand, we said,
that's not very interesting. So hegoes into the trench and he ends
(17:26):
up spending twenty minutes explaining to us. It turns out that the North Fork
is a moraine. Moraine is whathe's left after the glacier retreated back to
Canada. And he was showing ushow the glacier was putting one layer on
top of another, and the pebbleswere produced by the backwash of the glacier
(17:48):
over the tens of thousands of years, pulverizing rocks. And he said,
this reminds me a lot of thesoil in Bordeaux. They call it Lee
Grave. The Grave is an appellationin the south of the city of Bordeaux
which produces amazing wines, you know. And when he said that, those
of us who were doubting the qualityof the soil before he started started looking
(18:11):
at one another. He says,see, the soil that we have is
terrific here. So the point ishe was saying that what is similar to
the Grave is that your soil drainsvery well. And it's all about drainage,
because if you have a weather suchas on Long Island, where it
can not every year, but itcan rain abundantly, you don't want the
(18:36):
roots of the wine to be sittingin water, and therefore drainage is very
important if you're planning a vineyard inan area where it can rain abundantly in
the summertime. And so he said, you have very good drainage here,
and you should be able to growvery high quality wines. The second thing
(18:56):
after the soil is the weather.And you know, we are in a
marginal situation. If you go backto the nineteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds,
they have photos in the Historic Societyon Long Islands showing cars driving over
the frozen Long Island Sound to Connecticut. These were four model teas, so
(19:17):
we're talking about nineteen thirty probably,and it used to be in those days
that temperatures would go down to minustwenty five. We don't that anymore,
you know. Today the coldest temperaturewe ever saw was on December twenty eighth,
nineteen eighty three. The temperature wentdown to minus five on Long Island
(19:37):
and we've never seen it go backto the negative since then. So Vitis
vinifera, which is what we're growing, will die at minus ten. We
haven't seen anything like minus ten,and therefore it has been a very good
place to grow vitis vinifera Vitis viniferain Latin translated literally means the vine from
(20:00):
which wine is made. Vitis isthe vine, the nifera is wine to
make wine, and therefore we growthe Vidis vinifera, which are the wines
important, the wines imported from Europe. And when we started we planted a
little bit of everything because we didn'tknow what would do well. And singly,
(20:23):
they all did well, and sowe didn't pull out anything, and
so today we have a pretty largeportfolio. On the at Palmanach, we
grow. In the whites, wegrow chardonnet, and last summer we planted
Albarino and we planted milan is,the variety from which they make miscade.
(20:51):
In the reds, we grow theBordeaux varieties uh Avenue of young Avenue from
Law and Petty Verdeaux, and wealso planted two years ago one acre of
pinon Wi, which we want touse for our bubbly production. And at
Power we have exactly the same,Plus we have sierra and we have ketamin
(21:15):
air, and so you know,there are lots of varieties and as a
result we have lots of very differentwines, which is not a bad thing
because you know, visitors are manyof them like one thing or another,
and it's never the same thing,so we end up having something to please
(21:36):
everybody. The weather along island ispretty good in that we get lots of
sun in the summertime. And youknow what is wine wine is? I
always say it's like sun jews.You know, the more sun you have,
the better your wine is going tobe. And therefore we are able
to produce wonderful wines. And becauseour region is not very hot, we
(22:02):
don't produce very high alcohol wines.Ale is very reasonable. It's more like
old world wines, which makes ourwines more food friendly because you retain a
bit more acidity, which is whatis needed for the wine to wash food
well. And so that's really ourstory and you know, Melanie for us.
(22:23):
Also, what is so wonderful beingoutgrowing grapes on the Northwalk? You
can say, because you're phone meYork to you know, in two hours,
if you're lucky and on the traffic, you will any of the Northwalk,
and both Palmer and Palmanag are reallygateway to the Northwalk in the beginning.
(22:45):
And the wines we have, likeShannon Blow for example, so New
blocks. It marries so well alsowith the local seafood, the oysters we
have in the summer, we havelocal oyster pharmat Shocking Oysters. And so
the proximity of having grow our youknow, own wonderful grapes and making wine
(23:12):
and married with the local foods isa winning formula. People love coming out
and of course we love seeing allof them, and we hope and pray,
you know, that we get throughthe COVID crisis because that creates a
whole other set of challenges. Butwe are not alone. Everybody is leaving
(23:33):
that. Thank goodness for e commerce, right, thank goodness for e commerce.
Yeah. Absolutely, one to pointout. I do want to point
out that you can order online thewines online, and the Veino shippers you
can get direct shipments to most theUnited States. That's correct. Yeah,
thank you, Yeah, thanks forpointing that up. By the way,
(23:56):
a new feature that we're working on. We have acquired a house next to
Palm Knock and there's a house atPalmer. We're in the process of renovating
both these houses and we will beoffering them for rental. Guest houses down
the road. Oh that's great becauseDavid and I are homeless, so you
know, we just we sold ourhouse. We're just living here and there
(24:18):
at people's houses. So we maybe visiting you when the weather worms up,
all right, although we know how, we know how, you know,
everybody wants to be on Long Island, particularly the North and South Fork
when the weather worms up. Itreally is a wonderful place to visit and
a real treat. It really is, you know, hopefully your tasting room
(24:42):
is it? Is it now?Well? I don't know about winter,
but is it normally open or hasit had to be restricted because of COVID.
It's open, but it is restrictedin the sense that because we have
to keep distance, we have tohave twenty five percent occupancy. So if
(25:03):
it's not raining and the weather isnice, then the deck is open and
we can receive many more people.But on a rainy day we cannot see
too many people, and therefore it'sby reservations only to make sure that people
can get a seat when they come. But we are open. We're running
the business normally, you know,and if people reserve ahead of time,
they are welcome to come and visitus. I would like to add that
(25:30):
normally in parenthesis it is definitely.It has changed very much since a year
ago, since COVID came in,but we are very grateful we have such
loyal customers who come no matter what. And if you come, Melanie,
what we did out on the grassin the back, we have a lot
(25:52):
of other around deck chairs and tape. People actually love it, they said,
we feel so connected to the vinyardjust being outsittings outside. So I
hope and pray for sunshine this comingseason two again and that all of us
can enjoy just being outside and enjoyingour company and good food and the good
(26:17):
wine. Well, your wines arevery food friendly. I've had the pleasure.
First of all, I want topoint out that Ursula and I have
been members of Le don D'scoffier formany years and Pomanac has always been so
generous for many of the events thatwe've done, and I've tasted so many
different pairings with Pomanac wines. I'min Oyster County right now because I'm near
Appalachicolon. I think Dave and I'vebeen having a daily dozen or called the
(26:41):
Daily Sip and Slurp, and yourShannon Blanc is just going to be so
fabulous. With the next round ofoysters on the half show. Oh,
enjoyed, enjoyed. Yeah, itis a perfect wine for the oysters because
there's this beautiful lemon ee quality aboutit. But you know, Long Island
is really known for, I meanit's Merleau is considered on par with really
(27:03):
some of the great brit I'm aMerlau. I love Merlau, and for
anyone who has not tried your ProminaeMarlow, it's it's really fabulous and Long
Island just makes great Marlow right.Indeed, indeed, I think, you
know, just about everything is turningout to be pretty good. Actually,
But I think the Merlau, thechardonnet, the Sauvignon blanc, they are
shining. But you know, CabinetSauvignon can do a very good job too
(27:26):
well. I think what people don'trealize is that, you know, Long
Island does have an Atlantic climate similarto Bordeaux. It's almost similar in parallel,
I think, right exactly. Imean that's exactly what Shagan said when
he was here. I mean,when he compared to Le Graus, we
kind of felt like, oh wow, this is uh we do in paradise
(27:47):
here. Yeah, I think peopledon't realize that it's really quite remarkable,
yes, Ursula. Yeah, andalso all the law variety. You know
that Blanc Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet France, they do extremely well. We're very
happy also with the Cabinet from rightin Souvenio Blanc. You know, we
(28:08):
say the Loire varieties have found ahome on Long Island. They're really doing
very well, which is why weplanted Molando Burgoni on the assumption that it
will do just as well. Giventhat the other three Blanc so blanc having
it from have done so well,we think that Molando will do just as
well as too, and you mightthink so too. Yeah. And also
(28:30):
Caberte franc. Just we've been tastinga lot of Cabernet Franc as we've traveled
up and down the Eastern Sea coastfrom the Finger Lakes to you know,
Long Island to Virginia and company francis the grape, the red grape of
the East Coast. It really is. Yep, we agree, yeah,
we like it. But also Iwanted to mention before when we talked about
(28:53):
then Blanc common up we were thefirst ones to grow and produce and bland
in the state of New York.Now other people have tried on the East
Coast and it has it's been oneof Oh my god, it sells out
every year. People should love itand as I said, it marries so
(29:17):
well with the local seafood especially.It is a fabulous fine. It really
is. I'm a big chinon Blandedrinker and you know, UH love seeing
it here. Well done on LongIsland because I of course love Shennon from
the La Valley, really beautiful wine, and definitely I read it was one
(29:37):
of your top sellers. I alsowant to point out before we move on
to your relativism the next segment thatPalmanak was named Winery of the Year.
I think it's at the New YorkWinding Food Festival. I guess that's a
I don't know. It's the NewYork Winding Great Foundation two thousand and four,
in twenty fifteen, right, that'scorrect, Yes, this was New
York Foundation. They you're the WineEassic as they called it. It's a
(30:03):
tasting of what a thousand wines thatthey do. And in two years,
those two years, we had nineof our wines winning gold medals. And
so that's why we earned that distinction. Well, it's a very big honor.
I know David's family, Rivendell wasone of the winners, and it's
a really big honor. So congratulations, it's really been great to connect with
you. We have to move onto the next segment. But Charles and
(30:26):
Ursul Masud, I you know,I love it. I hope to see
you in person sometime. I hope, I mean visit as if you're in
the Naples area now. And thankyou for hosting us, Melanie, and
say hi to David. It ismy pleasure. And for our listeners.
The website is Palmanach p A UM A n o k dot com.
Go check out the wines they ship. You can order and have a little
(30:48):
long Island and great wines sent toyour home. Thank you very much.
You and say hello to Philly.Okay, I will so we're gonna right
now. Thank you. So we'relistening to the conected table. You're gonna
meet with another member of the Massudfamily, the nephew of Charles and Ursula,
who has an amazing restaurant in NewYork City called Ali Lee. Will
be right back. You're listening tothe Connected Table and we're back. You're
(31:53):
listening to the Connected Table. Iam. We're gonna get solo today,
miss Melanie U, and we aredoing a little love letter to one of
my favorite family, our favorite familiesof wine and food in New York on
the Massuds. And our next guestis Philippe Masud, who is the nephew
(32:14):
to Charles and Ursula. Philippe isowner and executive chef of Il Eli,
a restaurant in New York that servesthe foods of the Eastern Mediterranean. I
learned it's called the Levantine. He'sfrom Beirut, Lebanon and grew up in
kind of in the businesses. Familyhad a hotel, but I'll let him
say more. Philippe Masud, Welcometo the Connected Table. Thanks Malanie,
(32:37):
thank you for having me. Iknow you were recently in Beirute. What
do you go back and forth forfamily for other projects? Yes, so
my mother is still lives there,and so does my sister, and of
course a lot of my childhood friendsare still there, and I'll go there
(32:58):
to, you know, see what'snew, but more importantly to see them,
and I usually spend about a weekto ten days. Obviously, these
holidays with COVID nineteen are very differentthan the norm like for all of us.
And sadly, you know, peoplemisunderstood what a negative PCR test really
(33:21):
means, because a negative test onlymeans it's negative if you haven't had contact
with anyone infected for a long periodof time, and a lot of people
ended up gathering in large groups,and right now the country is in horrible
shape and they're dealing. You know, they're close to the Italian model if
things continue the way they are whereyou know, hospital capacity is being overrun
(33:45):
and all of that. But youknow, we're all in this together.
You know, the entire planet Ithink is suffering from this pandemic and hopefully
the sun will rise in the nearfuture, and not that this future,
well, yeah, I think wereached I had one hundred million worldwide diagnosed.
(34:06):
I mean, it's frightening, andI know that it has touched everybody's
lives and we all need to bevigilant about how we care for each other
and for ourselves. Philip, yourfamily had a hotel in Beirut where you
went during the civil where you grewup at a time in Lebanon, was
(34:27):
a little bit more unstable, andI just want to say right now,
it is one of the most Ihave not been to Lebanon, but I
am such a big fan of thewines. I'm also a fan of Pomenox
wines. But I'm a big fanof the wines and the history and the
food, and I only want thebest for the people of Lebanon. Your
family had a hotel there, didthey still or is it gone? So
my family has been in the foodbusiness since the nineteen forties. It started
(34:53):
with my grandfather, Charles's father,my uncle with store with his brothers.
They kind of had the premiere restaurantand catering hall in downtown Bay Route,
and they were pioneers back in theday because they, you know, they
brought in Austrian chefs to teach theLebanese how to do pastries and and and
(35:20):
and and brought a lot of talentsfrom abroad to help kind of evolve the
technique a little bit. And fromthat restaurant, over time, the my
grandfather and his brothers all went theirseparate ways because you know, their families
were growing and what have you.And my grandfather, Alexander, also known
as Iskandar converted his home in themountains of Lebanon with my grandmother into a
(35:47):
hotel, and you know, mygrandmother, I'm told, sold every single
curtain and bed sheet. It wasa small hotel. And they eventually saw
that and bought a big plot ofland on the Mediterranean, on the sandy
beaches of the Mediterranean, and builtthis amazing hotel which was called the Coral
(36:10):
Beach, which opened in nineteen sixtyfour. And I was not born or
in the pipeline yet, so tospeak. The hotel was a beachfront,
one of the first beachfront resorts inLebanon. That a beautiful nightclub that was
called the Beach comberd that was inspiredby Trader Vicks in London. I believe
(36:36):
some of the same designers were broughtat the time. It used to have
an orchestra in the nightclub where peoplewould dance to live music, which was
the case back then. You know, sound systems were not at the level,
nor was vinyl, you know thething. And it had multiple restaurants,
one being a French restaurant which wascalled the Risto Andre Cup which had
(36:58):
the gerridon andable side service, youknow, with crebs usets Steco quars and
through noodaus and what have you,and it's kind of it's you know,
it's an odd story. You know. I was born in nineteen seventy nineteen
seventy four, the Civil War breaksout and my family and I were in
the mountains of Lebanon on the hotsummer hot one of the hot weekends,
(37:23):
and the war started and we thoughtit was just kind of you know,
riots and everything was going to befine. So we said, okay,
well, let's go to the hoteland wait it out so that we can
go home. And we were neverable to go home, and we ended
up losing everything, you know,both our apartment in Beirut and our summer
(37:44):
home because things degenerated into a sectarianconflict, and being Christians that had residences
on the Muslim side, you know, our homes were torched and burned and
what revu. And of course thesame thing happened on the Christian side to
Muslims because people just completely lost theirbearings and we ended up living So I
(38:06):
ended up living in the hotel aboutI was about eleven years old, and
I was very blessed because, youknow, living in a country full of
war and and and and despair.Here I was a young kid, you
know, four years old, runningaround the hotel, running around the kitchen,
being able to you know, shopliftpretty force from the petiserie and each
(38:30):
perissons on demand, or you know, dip my little fingers into the you
know, the tempered chocolate that wassitting on top of the baking oven.
And I really, you know,spent my time in the kitchen observing little
little did I know that I wouldend up in the career that I'm in
today, But you think of itas my kind of ten thousand hours of
(38:52):
observation, observation. Subsequently, youknow, the war became unbearable. I
came to the United States as afourteen year old kid to visit with Charles
and my aunt Denise, who's mymother's sister, who lived in Westchester,
and to visit an uncle who livedin Colorado who had left Lebanon in the
(39:15):
seventies. And I came to checkout the United States, to get to
know it, discover it. Andmy parents called me and told me,
oh, by the way, youcan't come back to Lebanon because the situation
is too dangerous. So I endedup staying here and going to high school
and living beginning my American life soto speak, as a young student refugee.
(39:37):
And now before that, though,from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty four,
we had moved to an apartment inBeirut and left the hotel, and
all of a sudden, not havingthe hotel's kitchen on demand, so to
speak, I was like missing thefood and missing everything. You know.
(40:00):
I'm like, okay, well,let me call the chef and see how
I can make this cake at home, and let me call the chef to
figure out how to whip cream,and let me call the chef to figure
out how to make chocolate sauce.So I started making doing pastries at home
and desserts. I had a verysweet tooth, so I was already dabbling
(40:22):
with cooking, if you want,at a very young age. I'm told
that I almost chopped off to myfingers trying to peel a naval orange at
the age of four. I havethe scar to show it, but I
don't have the memory for it.So fast forward to arriving in the United
States. Of course, I startmissing the food that I that you know
(40:45):
that I came from, and I'mtasting it left, right and center,
and I'm realizing that it's so farfrom where it's supposed to be that I,
you know, start cooking and playingaround. And then when I'm in
college, I discovered the recipe card, you know, which is one of
the first classes you take when you'rein the hotel and restaurant field. And
(41:07):
I'm like, wow, this isamazing. You know, I didn't think
about the recipe this way, andthe recipes, you know, becomes a
sort of mathematical equation in the contextof understanding how ingredients and flavors play with
each other. And I start writing, you know, all the recipes of
the food that I missed from memory. You know. Well, you know
I miss eating grape leaves. Okay, well let me try to make grape
(41:29):
leaves. And here I was teachingmyself how to do all of that.
Tragically, we ended up, youknow, by selling the hotel because of
the security reasons, and it wasdevastating to the entire family. I stayed
in touch with the chef of thehotel, who's really a mentor to me,
(41:51):
and I would discuss the food withhim, you know. As I
was I was practicing. When Igraduated from college, I decided to come
to New York City and try toopen a restaurant. But in the meantime
I had gone to Lebanon and donesome trainings to validate my knowledge. You
know, I spent some time insome of the best Messa restaurants in Lebanon
(42:13):
and in Paris. I also didsome training in Spain, in the in
Marbaia, in the in Andalusia,and I realized that, oh wow,
you know I was I was prettyclose. I wasn't far off at all
in how it is that I hadremembered the cuisine and and how I had
developed these recipes. I came toNew York and of course, you know,
(42:36):
a young twenty three year old man, full of of optimism and stamina,
and you know, of course Icalled multiple landlords like many of us
have done when we come to NewYork, and you know, people would
ask me, well, have youopened a restaurant in New York. I
would say no. They would hangup the phone on me, by the
way, and not even entertained entertaintalking with me. Realizing that I wasn't
(43:04):
going to be able to open arestaurant, right there, and then I
decided to work in the restaurant industrymore on the front of house of the
business, because I needed to understandwhat it is that makes restaurants successful,
and as a chef and as assomebody that knew how to cook. You
know, I wasn't I wasn't afraidabout the cuisine. I was more afraid
(43:25):
about fading in the business and reallyunderstanding how it functions. So I ended
up working in a multitude of restaurantsin New York City and subsequently went to
Washington, d C. And openedhow a company opened a Mediterranean restaurant which
was called Nayla, which is mysister's name. And then, you know,
in two thousand and five, oneof my current investors called me and
(43:52):
said, well, Philippe, youknow, we used to come to Washington,
DC on the weekends to eat thefood you were serving in this restaurant.
You know, why don't you justcome back to New York City and
open And I was like, ohmy god, are you crazy. I
haven't been in New York in fiveyears. I don't have anybody's numbers.
It's like, you know, that'sgiving me anxiety. That's beyond your imagination.
(44:14):
It's like, well, think aboutit and and let's try to make
it happen. And you know,I came, I looked at spaces.
Back then, prices were ridiculous,the meatpacking district was on fire. And
I came across this beautiful location onFifth Avenue in the Flat Iron Nomad district.
And the moment I walked into thespace, I was convinced that this
(44:36):
was it, this was the space, and and I conceived the Lily,
you know, for two reasons.You know, one, in a way,
it's the tale of an immigrant tellinghis story through food, and another
is truly a homage to Lebanese cuisineand Lebanese hospitality. And we opened our
(44:59):
doors in November of two thousand andseven, right before the big recession,
and then, you know, wesaw the financial meltdown in front of our
eyes. It was very stressful.Two thousand and eight two thousand and nine
were very difficulty years. But Itold my staff that, you know,
we have to stay the course,and even if we have to make the
(45:20):
restaurant a twenty seat restaurant, wewill continue to operate as a twenty seat
restaurant. And in twenty ten,the market turned around and we grew,
you know, really really well,and here we are fourteen years later,
you know, dealing with this withthis pandemic now. But as a you're
(45:40):
back to a twenty seat restaurant.I actually I'm back to no seat restaurant
because we're only doing delivery and takeout. But we took we took the decision
to start building outdoor and we're hopingto reopen outdoor or in about two weeks.
(46:02):
Well, let's talk about the food. We have just to give you
about four minutes left. I wantto dive into the food. First of
all, I want to let everybodyknow that you're right now offering a beautiful
chef meal delivery kits. And Iwant to talk about the concept of the
food in some of the experience,the flavor sensations anyone who orders the food
right now or when they can visitcan enjoy. And also the meaning of
(46:25):
elily, so itly means tell mein colloquial Lebanese, tell me your story,
tell me about your day or evening, tell me about your life,
tell me your story. Basically,the food, my approach to the cuisine,
having had dietary issues myself and digestiveissues. My approach to food is
(46:47):
very holistic in the sense that Iwant to do the least to the ingredient
and let the ingredients speak for itself. And more importantly, I want you
to be able to eat my foodmultiple times week so that you're not walking
out of here needing, you know, a truck to carry you out,
or feeling so heavy that when youget at home you know you're ready to
(47:08):
pass out. So my approach wasto kind of deconstruct and reconstruct, you
know, the grandma's recipe, thetraditional recipes, and put the right amount
of flavors, the right amount ofingredients in there, the least amount of
fat, the least amount of salt, so that it's really light, vibrant
and fresh. And that's what wedo here. You you can eat as
(47:34):
if you were eating in bay Root, with a slight variation, which is
the lightness and and and the freshnessin some in some instances, or you
can go to an inspired part ofthe menu where it is kind of our
explorative cuisine. You know, abit of a bit of South of Spain,
(47:54):
a bit of Italian, a bitof French, maybe some Japanese sashimi,
here and there. So the menuis sixty percent traditional and authentic the
way we believe it, and theforty percent is kind of a voyage of
inspiration throughout the Mediterranean. And that'swhat's really playful at it in the sense
(48:15):
that you can really come and eata bit of everything if you choose to,
and we're very excited about that.And a lot of the dishes are
shareable, so you know which isthe way. So give an example of
one of your chef kits at homethat you're offering right now. So two
of our most popular kids are theroast chicken or the limpshank, And basically,
(48:37):
in essence, you're getting enough foodfor six, even though they're marketed
for four. You get a wholeroast chicken that's about three and a half
pounds, You get an assortment ofmezsas a salad, all the different sauces
and pickles, a beautiful little bookletwith all the instructions on how to cook
it, and then the finale withsome homemade baklava that we in the restaurant
(49:01):
on the On the lamp side,the lampshak is like a super traditional recipe.
The lamp is braised slowly in thisbeautiful bouquet of flavors and wines.
The sauce is then reduced and spicedoff with a bit of cinnamon and allspice
and a hint of clove and asmall touch of nutmeg. It's also comes
(49:27):
with roasted vegetables as well. Uh, you know some some additional side plates
as well. Oh, you're makingme hungry. I wish I was in
New York just so because you coulddeliver, because I'm in Florida. I
love Italy. I remember when itopened. I love this type of cooking.
It is my one of my favoritesbecause it's so it's so healthy and
(49:50):
flavorful. If you have not triedily, I want to just make sure
we get in the website before wewrap. It's a lily I l I
l I n YC dot com.Ee Eli means tell me. And you
have been telling me a lot aboutyour interesting story, really inspirational and and
you're you're doing on drop off catering. I see you also have some Lebanese
(50:15):
wines. Yes, Lebanese wines oneof the oldest wine cultures in the in
the world right, absolutely absolutely,And you know Lebanon is very blessed by
having this amazing beca valley where mothernature is your partner and you really have
to do absolutely nothing because the climateis perfection. You know, you don't
(50:37):
have spray, you don't have humidityissues at night, you have a dry,
warm air that uh, you know, kills the humidity during the day.
You have a beautiful sun, fertilesoil. I think you think about
it this way. You have toreally do a bad job to do a
bad wine in Lebanon, considering howadvantageous the client and that there are are.
(51:00):
Well, that's why this area iscalled the Fertile Croscent. One day,
David and I hope to visit.But in the meantime, I know
we can get to New York fairlyeasily, and hopefully we'll be able to
visit you soon. Philipe Masud,it's been so nice to talk to you
and your aunt and uncle, Ursulaand Charles. Has been a great show.
Thank you so much. It's beenreally a privilege to share our story
(51:23):
with your listeners. And please everybodybe safe and come visit us in New
York when we're back on our feet. Everybody support your favorite wineries and local
wineries and restaurants. We encourage it. You can hear the show and all
our shows on your favorite podcast platformand again, as always, our message
is from the connected table, Stayinsatiably curious. Thank you, Y
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