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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.1 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 41 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Fausto_Coppi on 11/17/2023 & rated 90 points: Well balanced, mature, pale red with fading fruit, light tannins and smooth acidity. (478 views) | | | Tasted by fourdan on 3/16/2023 & rated 94 points: Amazing, classic old Musar (660 views) | | | Tasted by oenanthe on 2/9/2023 & rated 93 points: Zombie Wines at Terra Rossa (Terra Rossa, Islington): A medium dirty red, lots of fine matter suspended. What a stunner this was, with characteristics of aged burgundy but somehow striking a different tone. So sweet and mellow, with red fruits and a spicy finish. Two bottles opened, both similar and both in great condition. How lucky were we? Totally capitivating and delicious. Second bottle probably did not benefit from decanting, pop and pour would seem to be the way to go. (985 views) | | | Tasted by NickA on 2/9/2023 & rated 91 points: Zombie wines of North London (Terra Rossa): A funny one, this - almost awful, but I liked it. Volatile and funky nose, with a smell like kidneys. Cloudy, slightly foxy, earthy, some raspberry. Cleaned up with air, with some deep violet notes developing. Also a sense of being candied and slightly foecal. Complex and compelling. (827 views) | | | Tasted by BillBell73 on 12/24/2020: Lots of sediment adhering to the bottle. The wine is gorgeous, bright, and lively in coloration. These 70s Musars sometimes seem more youthful than the late nineties and early 2000 vintages I’ve tried recently.
There’s a slight bit of oxidation on the nose but not what you’d expect from a wine of this age. The palate has subtle cherry fruit, fully resolved tannin, and a slight mushroomy quality, but the fruit isn’t overwhelmed by savory or funky flavors. An excellent bottle of Musar...especially considering the difficult circumstances in the country at the time it was made! (2223 views) | | | Tasted by BillBell73 on 9/7/2019: This was one of the tightest old corks I’ve ever seen, and the wine reflects it. Clear, pure, and still showing ample sweet fruit. There was just a little bit of an off-aroma at first but it quickly blew off. This is remarkably clean for a Musar but has a great savory undertone. A beautiful wine from an exceptional man. (2568 views) | | | Tasted by CMStrong on 5/3/2018 flawed bottle: Corked :( (3827 views) | | | Tasted by sharonandroland on 5/3/2018 flawed bottle: Both bottles corked (3966 views) | | | Tasted by AudunG on 11/19/2017 & rated 91 points: Delicate, developed aromas af barnyard, leather and some wood. Reminds of an old Rioja. Light and elegant. (3932 views) | | | Tasted by BillBell73 on 6/23/2017: Typical old Musar with oxidized fruit, prunes, dust, ample acidity and life to go. Certainly not a wine to drink on its own but if you have some dry-aged beef, wild mushrooms, or other funky and umami-rich food this will be a real treat to pair with it. (3604 views) | | | Tasted by kenv on 11/5/2015 & rated 78 points: WCC Blind Tasting of Chateau Musar and Chateau Montrose (Salty's Pub & Bistro, Clifton Park, NY): [Double decanted for one hour the previous evening.] Musty, too old or too much air time. (5562 views) | | | Tasted by Winevestor on 11/3/2013 & rated 95 points: I had the '78 along with the '93. It was a great pairing and hence a great evening. The '78 was in great shape 10 minutes out of the bottle. Leather, soy, tobacco and a raisiny fruit. It had a clarity that comes with Musar age. The '93 took longer to get going and had more plum with a lighter touch on the tertiary flavors. However by the time we were 3 hours into the evening the bottles were becoming more and more similar. The amazing thing was that the '78 was still going at the end of the evening and the '93 was showing what it would be like in another few years. And Musar does the longevity thing with a medium bodied wine. Amazing. Great evening! (5745 views) | | | Tasted by G_H on 8/14/2013 & rated 88 points: Malt, typical sweetness sweet corn, malaga like. So traditionally Musar, but then again the sweet corn was kind of odd. Less impressive than other bottles (6003 views) | | | Tasted by henrygjeffreys on 4/25/2013: smells like old madeira, spicy some cedar
very sherried, lots of vinegar
past it for me though others might enjoy it
disappointing (6008 views) | | | Tasted by coremill on 12/18/2012 flawed bottle: Horribly corked. (4769 views) | | | Tasted by cooberp on 12/18/2012 flawed bottle: Brutally corked. I guess you can't blame them too much, given that there was a war going on when they made it. (6214 views) | | | Tasted by BradE on 9/1/2012: Drank the 72 and 78 Musar side by side tonight. Both in perfect shape. Both orange in color, the 72 "looked" older. There were five of us, and it was two to two with one abstention as to the favorite. The 72 showed more classic Musar, and it showed just beautiful aged fruit tones. I loved it, and liked it materially better than the 78. The 78 showed thicker, with more grit and less age (and thus appealed more to the non old wine drinkers I suspect). All in all a great pair, and a lot of fun. Thanks (six years later) to Bartholomew Broadbent for the perfect provenance bottles. (3138 views) | | | Tasted by Goldstone on 6/1/2012 & rated 93 points: Five Decades of Chateau Musar....with Serge Hochar (Shanghai Room, Langham Place Hotel, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong): Tasted blind as one of 12 vintages over 5 decades. Small serving. Amazing bright-jeweled transparent ruby colour....it must be a 1990s. Nose is reticent......you really have to chase it down corridors to get a whiff of the classic musar elements. Palate is absolutely classic Musar.......complex fruits, tons of exotic dry spices in an Eastern market, broodingly thunderous power rumbling in the background, gorgeous dusky powdered tannins like the dust from old bricks. Lovely! The 1978 is always a consistent pleasure....too bad it was only a small tasting....this one of the wines that would have shown better as a bottle drank on its own over a long evening. My #3, group's #3. (4562 views) | | | Tasted by Dubie on 3/6/2012 & rated 93 points: This wine is getting better and better with age, I am happy to report. My third bottle in three years, and the best yet! The nose was spice and rose petals, the palate was a balanced combination of fruit and acidity, at the same time the tannins were well melted. While we did not decant the bottle, it lasted in the glass for over an hour... unfortunately we finished it before it declined! (2771 views) | | | Tasted by don_quichotte on 2/24/2011 & rated 93 points: Brought at a BYO dinner, facing pretty stiff competition (Haut Brion 1983 included). In the end most people agreed this was the wine of the night! Beautiful, mature nose but the palate is even better. Plenty of fruit left, long and complex. Could not get enough. What a wine. When people were told this was a lebanese wine they were all very surprised. Special. (from a bottle in near-perfect condition: apparently there is a lot of bottle variation with this wine). (3474 views) | | | Tasted by belhysys on 12/18/2010 & rated 80 points: nice and complexe but full of deposit (2333 views) | | | Tasted by Dubie on 3/31/2010 & rated 90 points: A very enjoyable wine. It took a good 30 minutes for the "stuffiness" of an old bottle to clear, even in a large Syrah glass. Then, an earthy and slightly spicy nose developed. In the mouth, the tannins had all but softened, the fruit was present, and without have madeirized, a sweetness characteristic of the terroir was enjoyable. (3817 views) | | | Tasted by SimonG on 2/18/2010 flawed bottle: Musar & Pinot (L'Abat Jour, London): Horribly corked. (4232 views) | | | Tasted by Fielding on 12/18/2009 & rated 95 points: Decanted three hours. Pale and brown in the glass, but holding up nicely. Expressive nose of strawberries, with a bit of barnyard funk. Strawberries and raspberries on the palate, with tart cranberries, straw, burnt sugar and a little bit of mint. Beautiful, feminine, majestic, ethereal -- the Grace Kelly of wines. Like velvet in the glass. My friends thought it was a Chambertin. WOTN (3946 views) | | | Tasted by SAND on 11/5/2008: Chateau Musar-smaking i regi av Aperitif (Gamle Logen, Oslo): Farge: Middels tett rød med innslag av rødbrunt, klart lysere mot kanten.
Duft: Lær, sigarkasse, plomme, rik, parfymert nese.
Smak: Elegant, på den lettere siden mht. fylde, men flott balanse. Moden stil, flott syre og sursøt karakter. lang ettersmak. Bløte, men tydelige tanniner i ettersmaken.
Perfekt moden nå,selv om den sikkert holder seg i mange år til.
Laget på Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache og Mourvedre. (4719 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Chateau Musar Producer website
Source: VinConnect (VinConnect.com)
Housed in an 18th century castle in Ghazir, about 25 km north of Beirut, Chateau Musar was founded in 1930 by Gaston Hochar, inspired by Lebanon’s 6,000-year winemaking tradition and his friendship with Ronald Barton of Chateau Leoville-Barton in Saint Julien. The estate’s name in Arabic is ‘M’zar,’ meaning “place of extraordinary beauty/shrine to be visited,” an ideal name for this fascinating estate.
The vines for the estate’s unique wines are located in the famed Bekaa Valley, an area celebrated for its viticulture since Biblical times. At the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanon’s favorable geographical and climatic conditions have always held abundant promise for the cultivation of grapes. The Bekaa Valley is positioned particularly well, nestled between the ‘Lebanon’ and ‘Anti-Lebanon’ mountain ranges at 34° N of the equator.
The vineyards of Musar are planted at altitudes ranging from 1,000 – 1,500 meters (3,280 – 4,921 ft) above sea level. The vines benefit from cool nights and seasonal temperatures (snow in winter and hot summers), resulting in long ripening periods. The vineyard soils are predominantly calcareous/limestone with gravel and stone, resulting in wines of distinctive character and blends of appealing complexity.
The vineyards’ remote location coupled with the Hochar family’s respect for the environment has resulted in ‘organic’ vineyards by default since the 1950s, even long before the term was coined. The estate obtained organic certification for its vineyards in 2005, the first producer in Lebanon to do so. All the grapes are hand-harvested by local Bedouins in the cool of the morning in order to preserve freshness, the harvest usually taking place between August and October.
The Chateau Musar winery is located in Ghazir about two and a half hour’s drive from the Bekaa Valley. The cellars are dug into the mountainside providing perfect condition for long term wine storage. The wines of Chateau Musar are produced with a ‘non-interventionist’ wine making philosophy; fermentation starts naturally with ambient yeasts, the bare minimum of sulfur is used and the Chateau Musar wines are neither fined nor filtered. Individual varieties from different vineyards are kept separately up to two years, and constantly tasted to understand their unique personalities and characteristics. The final blending process is an intrinsic part of the winemaking art at Chateau Musar — winemaking by instinct.
The estate produces three lines: the flagship range includes Chateau Musar Red, Chateau Musar White and Chateau Musar Rosé; Hochar Père et Fils Red – a more accessible red, produced from a single vineyard site in the Bekaa Valley and ready to drink upon release at year five (as opposed to Chateau Musar Red which the family recommends to drink starting from year 15); and Musar Jeune — unoaked vibrant wines intended for immediate drinking. The Chateau Musar Red and White wines undergo lengthy bottle ageing in the estate cellars and are released only after seven years.
Chateau Musar first achieved international recognition during the Bristol Wine Fair in England in 1979, where the wine press and prominent critics including Michael Broadbent declared it “the discovery of the fair”. In 1984, Decanter wine magazine named Serge Hochar their first ever “Man of the Year” for his extraordinary achievements, determination and dedication to producing outstanding wines during the difficult years of the Lebanese civil war.
Today, Chateau Musar wines are known worldwide for their finesse, elegance and extraordinary ability to age, and the estate still offers mesmerizing wines dating back to the 1950’s.
Speaking about the wines of Chateau Musar, Serge Hochar said “the harmony of nature is better than anything we could ever create. I believe it should be a priority to seek to drink what is ‘true’ rather than what is ‘good’ “. When speaking about quality in wine he added “I once produced a wine that was technically perfect but it lacked the charms of imperfection”.
With its captivating history and the incredible passion and dedication of the Hochar family, Chateau Musar has achieved a sort of cult-like status and is one of the most written-about and discussed wines in the world today.Chateau MusarA guide to the style
In youth, Chateau Musar Reds are dense and richly-textured, with intense ‘baked fruit’ characters: plums, damsons, cranberries, cherries, figs and dates. Bordeaux grape Cabernet Sauvignon lends black fruit flavours; Rhône grapes Cinsault and Carignan contribute fragrance (violets; pepper) and supple spiciness. Either set of qualities might dominate a particular vintage, but the style is always emphatically Lebanese: enticingly aromatic, with persistent fruit flavours. Over decades the wines acquire tawny hues and mellow notes. We still offer wines from the 1950s: mesmerising artefacts of vintage.
Grapes and vines
Seven years in the making, Chateau Musar Red is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsault from vineyards near the Bekaa Valley villages of Ammiq, Aana and Kefraya on gravelly soils over limestone. Planted from the 1930s onwards, yields are low from these mature bushvines (average age: 40 years): 35hl per hectare.
Winemaking
The varietal components in Chateau Musar Red undergo lengthy fermentations in cement-lined vats at temperatures below 30°C. Racked from their yeast ‘lees’ 6 months after the harvest they are transferred into French barrels (oak from the forest of Nevers, one-third new each vintage) for one year.
Blending
The varietal components are brought together two years after the harvest; the resulting blend is then placed back in cement-lined tanks before being bottled 12 months later. Each wine is blended to reflect the strengths of the vintage: in hotter years, Cabernet Sauvignon might dominate (the thick-skinned grapes fare better in the heat); cooler conditions can favour the Cinsault grape. After 4 years’ bottle maturation in the deep stone cellars of Chateau Musar, the finished wines are released a full seven years after the harvest.
Decanting and serving
Bottled unfined and unfiltered, Chateau Musar Reds are suitable for vegans (fining agents often contain animal proteins); they’re also richly-textured and likely to ‘throw a crust’. This is a common feature of most fine wines and is especially true of Musar Red vintages over a decade old. Ideally, bottles should be stood up the night before opening to settle any sediment. After careful decanting (and discarding of sediment, usually in the last centimetre of the bottle) the wine should be allowed to breathe for several hours and served at 18°C with roasts, grills (especially lamb), casseroles, game, and mature cheeses.
Storage
To keep the wines showing at their best, bottles must be cellared in darkness, lying on their sides and not subjected to unnecessary movement or fluctuations in temperature.Red Blend. |
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