It all started with a passion for wine, and love for our land

A marriage of traditional and innovative wine making techniques, our family owned estate has been growing vineyards and producing wines from the village of Aoura on its mountainous terraces built in 2003. We draw inspiration from the world’s vineyards blended with the respect and appraisal for our terroir to create outstanding wines that embrace the region of Batroun, North Lebanon.

We correct latitude with altitude, and this is why we chose Aoura, Batroun North Lebanon, at 900M from the Mediterranean Sea

Meet our Family

  • Founder & Winemaker

    Dr. Fady Geara

    Founder & Winemaker

    It all started with a passion for wine and a great vision for his hometown village, Rachkiddeh. A full time Oncologist dedicating his weekends for winemaking. Living in both France and the US, he draws inspiration from both worlds, combining new-world & old-world practices to create signature wines from his land.

  • Nathalie Geara

    Co Founder & Brand Ambassador

    With her love for life and attachment to her husband’s village, Nathalie joined Fady on this dream wine journey. Her contagious enthusiasm for the winery has created a circle of Aurora lovers and dreamers from all around the world.

  • Andrea Geara

    Managing Director

    Growing in a household of passionate wine enthusiasts and vineyard growers, Andrea was drawn into the world of wine and decided to be part of her family’s story. Since joining the team, she has been developing the company. Andrea’s entrepreneurship spirit has evolved this hobby into a sustainable establishment.

  • Naji Hanna

    Operations & Sales Manager

    Naji joined the winery in 2018 and simply hit the ground running. Ever since, he has been driven by his love for leading the vineyard team and offering the best customer service for our clients. He makes sure everybody is happy and his loyalty for Aurora makes him without a doubt a great team player.

  • David Ciry

    Technical Consultant & Winemaker

    Since 2009, David has been dedicated to producing consistent top quality wines. With his Agriculture Engineering and Oenology background, he brings superb technical experience and knowhow to the Aurora family, all the way from Languedoc, France.

Sustainability

  • Dry Farming

    Since the beginning of our journey, Aurora has always practiced dry farming. We are blessed with a terroir of moderate four seasons that offer adequate rainfall to our vines. To assist this process, our vineyards have been planted on terraces to retain this rainwater and avoid landslides of this mountainous vineyard.

  • Soils

    Using eco-friendly farming techniques, our soils are only treated using cattle organic fertilisers. The soils are typically claylike and limestone, ideal for water drainage and cooling ground temperatures. The only pest management we use is through netting the vines for protection against birds and bees.

  • Harvest & Fermentation

    At Aurora, we strive to respect the land and it’s capacity. The vineyards are carefully handpicked and grape clusters are controlled to carry limited yields per vine to provide optimal juice concentration. Following the harvest, our winery practices are also fully eco-conscious whereby yeasts and stabilisers used are certified organic

The Journey

  • The Star

    Boutros Geara, the father of the founder, was a stonemason who was known to produce stone reliefs, particularly in the oriental Maronite churches. At 17 years old, he produced this perfectly symmetric star that was inspired by byzantine mosaics that are still abundant in the region’s architecture. Aurora adapted the star as a symbol of the family’s celebrated stonemason and indication of the region’s history.

  • The 1st Vineyards

    2003

    After living abroad since the civil war, Fady was inspired to connect with his homeland and produce wine from local grape varieties that he started experimenting with. The idea was to produce wine, alongside his father who was distilling Arak. Slowly this evolved into planting the first vineyards in Aoura.

  • Building the winery

    2005

    Since day one, the winery was always driven to explore the best ways to attain the best possible wines from our terroir. It started with the search for premium equipment, whereby Fady and Gerard (his father in-law) were on a quest to find the most recent winery equipment in Italy.

  • Distilling then Winemaking

    Boutros Geara, Fady’s father always grew vines in his land and produced his own local Arak spirits. The stone room where he distilled his Arak is where the winery was first built and is still connected to the premises. Boutros also built an underground stone cellar in the winery.

  • Aoura and Aurora

    Our ancestors shared their stories about picking old vines from Aoura, a hilly village overlooking the walnut river. After studying the soil potential, the family decided to plant their vineyards in this land. Hence, the name Aurora was inspired by the village of Aoura. Aurora also means the first light in the sky before sunrise; the dawn.