As the Israeli onslaught in Lebanon intensifies, the country's wineries are worried they might be targeted, reports Decanter.com.

No winery has been bombed yet, nor suffered any direct damage, but the Israeli military is targeting production facilities - a milk factory was destroyed recently, as well as a bottle factory - on the belief they could be used to manufacture military equipment or explosives.

There is considerable worry among wineries that as production facilities, and with cellars and caves that could be considered hiding places for weapons, they may become targets. Lebanon's wine region is the Bekaa Valley, some 50km east of Beirut. The valley is an alleged supply route for Iran and Syria to ferry arms to Hezbollah.

Chateau Kefraya, Ksara, Clos St Thomas, Massaya and other premium wineries are in the Bekaa Valley. Chateau Musar, Lebanon's best-known winery, grows its grapes in Bekaa, but has its production facilities to the west, on the coast 25km north of Beirut. It is in no danger at present, although a bomb fell close to its Beirut office.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israeli wineries in the Golan Heights, only kilometres from the battlegrounds over the border, are also suffering. Dalton Winery's CEO Moshe Haviv said a Katyusha rocket fired by Hezbollah destroyed a hectare of vines near Sasa.

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