In 1990, the countryside house of the family in the Beqaa at Tanaïl had been abandoned to civil war and was inhabited by several families of squatters.
Vegetation was scarce as the wells were damaged and the fence non-existent. It took the Ghosns’ best negotiating skills to reclaim the land.
Once done, none of the family members had a clear vision of the next steps, so they started to produce all kinds of local produce, such a dairy, dry rasins, arak, and molasses.
All these items were sold in a corner of the family pharmacy. Within a few years, the family began producing arak, the name Massaya was given which means twilight in Lebanese, given that at the specific moment the sun sets behind Mount Lebanon the sky of the Beqaa turns dark blue with a hue similar to the blue bottle of arak.
Massaya’s arak siin became a striking success and gradually the two brothers Sami and Ramzi left their other professional occupations to focus on Massaya.
Both ambitious, they wanted to expand into wine but had no knowledge or experience; therefore, they decided to partner with some French domains to benefit from their expertise.
