2012 Chateau Musar
Community Tasting Note
forceberry wrote:
Saturday, March 11, 2023 - A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsaut, one third of each. The vintage 2012 in Beqaa began cool and snowy, followed by a rainy April, a promising May and a hot summer, starting with a hot June and a heatwave in July. Normally the grapes are harvested variety by variety, but this year the harvest was done vineyard by vineyard. Fermented spontaneously in concrete, aged in oak barrels for a year. Blended together in February 2015, left to marry for a few years and bottled in summer 2015. 14,5% alcohol, 4 g/l (or 6,8 g/l, depending on the source) residual sugar, 6,7 g/l acidity and pH 3,5. Aerated in a decanter for four hours before tasting the wine.
Deep, dark and almost fully opaque blackish-red color with a slightly evolved pomegranate hue. The nose feels noticeably big, sweet and even slightly porty with solar aromas of cherry marmalade and dried figs, some lifted notes of nail polish, a little bit of prunes and raisiny dark fruit, light perfumed floral nuances, a hint of balsamic VA and touch of alcohol heat, lending the nose a somewhat Amarone-like quality. The wine feels very rich, silky and relatively sweet-toned on the palate with a full body and dry-ish to borderline off-dry flavors of dried figs and raisin soup, some cherry marmalade tones, light volatile nuances of nail polish and balsamico, a little bit of pomegranate juice, a hint of overripe strawberry and a touch of blueberry juice. The acidity feels surprisingly high for such a sunny, sweet-toned wine dominated by dried-fruit flavors, whereas the medium tannins feel pretty supple, lending some firmness to the mouthfeel but relatively little to the structure. The finish is ripe, juicy and somewhat sweet-toned with a some tannic grip and a long, lush aftertaste of blueberry jam and cherry marmalade, some dried figs, a little bit of raisiny dark fruit, light lifted notes of nail polish, a hint of overripe strawberry and a touch of savory spice.
I feel this very atypical vintage of Musar seemed more balanced when I tasted it the last time, 3½ years ago. Back then the wine tasted similarly jammy and sweet-toned as now, but it wasn't leaning as heavily on the dried-fruit flavors and it also had a pleasant streak of sour cherry bitterness that nicely counterpointed the sweeter fruit flavors. This time the wine felt more porty in nature: heavier, subtly sweeter and slightly softer with quite a bit more emphasis on the dried-fruit flavors. Tasting this back in 2019, I felt the wine wasn't going to be as long-lived as your typical vintage of Musar, but at least it was pretty attractive for its quality back then. Re-tasting this wine now, I felt my initial assessment was confirmed: this is not going to be a long-lived vintage, as the wine feels like it is getting only heavier, clumsier and less attractive than upon release. It feels as though the wine was a Levantine Ripasso or Appassimento back then - and now it is a full-blown Lebanese Amarone. It might be that the wine could do a magic turnaround with even further aging, but I'm not getting my hopes up at this point. Feeling slightly pricey for the quality at 39€.
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