Community Tasting Notes 139

• SussexRH Likes this wine: 94 points

  March 16, 2024 - Bright, fresh on the nose; hint of volatility on first opening; intense, concentrated iodine, spice, cherry drops, redcurrant, violet, cola bottles; superb lift, acidity in highwire act but perfectly balanced with intensity of the palate; reminds me of v good old Rioja; perhaps lacks the spiced complexity of some vintages, but tannins fully resolved to leave sweet fruit core with just enough structure to hold everything together. Really concentrated, focussed intensity; no reason to think it will improve further but it’s flying right now.

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• adnorthup Likes this wine:

  March 9, 2024 - decanted off sediment an hour and a half before dinner. Such a pure Musar nose, would be impossible to confuse it for anything else. There’s some spice, red berry, wood. Decent acid, it’s so fresh and alive, for those who are fans it’s a good example showing a bit more sweetness and richness than a classic, but great. Load up on late 90’s and hold them a decade more.

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• forceberry wrote: 93 points

  April 1, 2023 - The vintage 1991 started with a cold winter, followed by a quite cool spring with some freezes before flowering, reducing the crop a bit. The summer was quite cool throughout and even surprisingly cold in August, only turning somewhat warmer in September. Harvested between the 16th of September and the 2nd of October. Very slow and steady fermentation with indigenous yeasts in concrete tanks. Aged for 12 months in predominantly old Nevers oak barrels, after which the final cuvée was blended. Bottled unfined and unfiltered in 1994. 14% alcohol. Decanted for six hours before tasting the wine.
  
  Moderately translucent and quite evolved brick-orange color with a tertiary maroon hue. The nose feels quite old and tertiary but also harmonious and pretty attractive with layered aromas of mahogany and autumnal leaves, some sweet notes of dried figs and blackcurrant jam, light ethery notes of VA, a little bit of juicy strawberry and red plum, bretty hints of saddle leather and phenolic spice, a touch of meat stew and a faint green-toned whiff of minty lift. The wine feels tertiary, resolved and moderately sweetly-fruited on the palate with a silky texture, a full body and layered flavors of dried dates and wizened red cherries, some raspberry juice tones, a little bit of meaty umami, light notes of pipe tobacco, evolved hints of old leather and beef jerky and a touch of mahogany. I wonder if there is a tiniest bit of residual sugar here - just a few grams more than is normal for Musar - giving the fruit flavors a tiny boost of richness? The wine is quite high in acidity, but the ample tannins come across as fully resolved and very supple, lending very little grip to the mouthfeel. The finish is long, subtly grippy and quite complex with a sweet'n'savory aftertaste of dried figs and wizened cherries, some leathery notes, a little bit of balsamic richness, light earthy tones, a hint of blackcurrant jam and a volatile touch of medicinal ether.
  
  A beautiful, harmonious and textural old Musar. It feels age has made some of the finer nuances disappear and the wine is starting to have a more anonymous old-wine feel to it, but there is nothing obviously oxidative here and the wine still feels like it is yet to go downhill. Most likely the wine has reached its plateau of maturity years ago and it is still sitting there, firmly, without any plans on falling apart. As the wine is pretty tertiary with fully resolved tannins and a very smooth, velvety texture, the wine doesn't really call for any additional aging, but most likely the wine can be kept for years more without problems. However, if you had any bottles remaining in your cellar, I'd start planning on drinking them sooner rather than later.

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• Goldstone Likes this wine: 93 points

  November 30, 2022 - 'Le Lievre a la Royale' Long Lunch (cafe EPURE, Shop 403, inside Epure, Level 4, Ocean Centre, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong): Decanted for 5 hours than re-bottled and kept in the fridge overnight.Very high shoulders fill. Cork was near-saturated and crumbly cheese in structure but came out in one piece with a Durand. Surprisingly almost no sediment on decanting but a ton stuck to the shoulder of the bottle. Immediate colour on opening is totally transparent, faded mahogany looking like a 1950s Rioja or Barolo. Immediate nose is high notes from a slightly out of tune piano that hasn’t been played for a long time. Very savoury and feral with tons of Unami and old luggage from a damp attic. Immediate palate is barely-awoken, deep-slumbering semi-confit red cherry liqueur, typical Middle East spice market etc. Almost from the first sensation in the mouth you are hit by an awesome wave of deep and endless resonance and reverberance echoing inside your cranium. Wow!
  
  Mellowed beautifully overnight but with all the same elements. Mind-expanding finale. Could have been better with the hare and foie gras than with the Brie & White Truffle it was served with at the end of the meal. Not my best experience of this vintage. 93 this time as was overshadowed in the drinking order by the preceding 2001 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle and the 1994 Guigal Cote Rotie La Turque.

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• diegopia Likes this wine: 90 points

  November 25, 2022 - Still incredibly pleasant. Subtle notes of chocolate and plum. Decanted three hours before. Perfect pairing with a Persian chicken dish.

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Pro Reviews 6

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1991
• Type Red
• Producer Chateau Musar
• Varietal Red Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country Lebanon
• Region Bekaa Valley
• SubRegion n/a
• Appellation n/a
• UPC Codes 5017469111302, 5017469119100

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 1 (0%)
• In Cellars 686 (65%)
• Consumed 372 (35%)

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