Community Tasting Note

Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - Half bottle. There was no seepage up the cork but, as usual with many Musar corks, it broke up using a conventional corkscrew and needed a two-pronged 'Butler's friend' and a good deal of care. Good colour, and fruit on the nose over time (as my last note) but it only really began to show a couple of hours after decanting (very little deposit, by the way). It would be a disappointment to someone who doesn’t know Musar if they tasted it and judged it as soon as it was de-corked.
After 4 hours, the wine began to show the rich complexity, spice, balance, acidity, length, and all the features in my last note (31 July 2020). Once again, I only had a small taste with dinner and savoured the wine on its own after the meal. It was still going strong and changing character after many hours. A small sample was pretty good after 20 hours retaining a good nose, sweet dark fruits on the palate and, as before, good acidity. This is a half bottle, too.
I feel I need to say again that this wine has lots of development ahead (especially in a full bottle). It should not be judged until at least a few hours after opening.

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Comment posted by PSPatrick:

12/31/2020 12:28:00 AM - Thank you for your detailed and informative note. I fully agree. I attended an extensive Musar tasting a few years back and even the vintages I like best did not show well in that setting. The Chateau Musars are just not designed for a pop-and-pour experience or restaurant drinking (as opposed to so many modern wines), but for thoughtful drinking on a Sunday evening after a couple of hours of aeration... Cheers!
Comment posted by johnrm:

12/31/2020 12:50:00 AM - Thanks for your comment. It is good to find that you agree about the slow 'opening'. I get rather impatient with people (especially those in the wine trade) who don't accept that high quality wine doesn't show its qualities as soon as it is opened. There was a ridiculous article in The Times of London in May 2020 under the heading 'Let the wine breathe? It's just a waste of drinking time' including comments from wine writers who should have known better. At least they published my rebuttal but the idea persists. The real value of so much wine is wasted because of 'popping and pouring'.
Sorry - this is one of my pet topics....
Comment posted by PSPatrick:

12/31/2020 1:39:00 AM - Thank you for pitting yourself against the Times on that topic. It is a topic I have had many discussions about with people claiming that wines would turn into vinegar in a decanter. It must either be inexperience or ignorance.

I have made very good experience with decanting even very mature wines. I use wider decanters for young red wines, medium-sized decanters for wines from the late 1990s and early 2000s, and small decanters for wines from the 80s and earlier. Setting the controversial topic of overripe Châteauneuf-du-Pape aside (which all too often turn raisiny as they breath), with the exception of one single bottle in twenty years my wines have generally benefited from thoughtful aeration. Even mature Bordeaux and Riojas from the 70s and 80s or before, presumed dead upon opening, have risen from the dead and turned into beauties after twenty or thirty minutes in a small decanter.

The benefit admittedly seems a little more dependable for white wines, but in my experience more structured whites wines (young and old), orange wines and young wines bottled under screw cap tend to benefit, other young whites just don't show any effect, but certainly they don't fall apart.

Every wine drinker should of course be allowed to decide for himself how he likes his wines best and it is no crime to drink young wines without decanting if one is into that tannic/acid kick and willing to spend his money for it. But it is unfair to the wine and the producer to judge and score premium wine publicly without taking adequate time with them and allowing them to show best.
Comment posted by johnrm:

12/31/2020 1:56:00 AM - Thanks, again. I was surprised that The Times actually published my rebuttal but they did edit it in order to deflect my gentle criticism away from their wine critic.
They retained my key comment (taken from the excellent book ‘Chateau Musar. The Story of a Wine Icon’).
The late, great Serge Hochar of Chateau Musar (Decanter's first 'Man of the Year') had a 'Philosophy of Slowness' and described how to take time to let the wine unravel after opening: 'taste it now, then again a few hours later'. He memorably tasted a bottle of his 1959 Musar Blanc and found it undrinkable at first (to his palate) but the next day, it was 'amazing'. Over a week, time and oxygen 'played their tunes' and it evolved and expanded over 7 days, gained flavours, and became more delicious than ever.
Not to be applied to your average supermarket wine but with a quality wine (and Serge, like many fine wine makers, never filtered his wines) he hits the nail on the head.
Who could disagree with the great man?
Comment posted by PSPatrick:

12/31/2020 2:56:00 AM - I saw the article and scanned through it briefly at the time. I do not recall if it was reposted on jancisrobinson.com or on wine-searcher.com. In any case, I did not take the time to read it thoroughly and memorize it since I thought it was ignorant.

And Serge Hochar... One would rarely disagree with a Decanter Man of the Year about his wines, and in particular not with legendary Serge Hochar about Chateau Musar...

I have not had the opportunity to read "The Story of a Wine Icon" yet, and have put it on my list. Thank you for the recommendation!