December 8, 2022 - Es gibt sie! Die großen Weine aus 1972. Wenn auch ganz ganz selten! 😢 Chateau Musar: Ein Geburtstagsgeschenk von meinem besten Freund! Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Merlot, Carignan - 14 % Alk./Vol. Eine Flasche aus der Chateau-Reserve. Irgendwann während der letzten 10 Jahre (geschätzt nach Ansicht des Korkens) auf dem Weingut aufgefüllt, neu verkorkt und etikettiert! Bezogen über einen der wenigen deutschen Direktimporteure. Ein Glücksfall !!! - Unfassbar frisch, gleichzeitig warm und rund, rote bis lila ganz leicht eingekochte Früchte, Unterholz, Tabak, würzig, mit schöner feiner Süße. Ein seidiger Rest Gerbstoff. Etwas ganz eigenes, mir fällt nichts vergleichbares ein. Diese Rebsortenkombination wird es ja auch, wenn überhaupt, nicht so häufig geben. Trotzdem immer wieder Assoziationen an die südliche Rhone. Durchaus vollmundig, dabei überhaupt nicht schwer! Mit beachtlicher Länge. Wunderschön!! Aus solchen Flaschen locker noch 10 Jahre! Für mich bisher der Gipfel des Olymp´s aus 1972. Danke Frank! 😘
October 13, 2022 - Dinner at Cafe at Chez Panisse, Berkeley, CA. From 750ml purchased from importer. Popped, decanted and poured.
A wine to remember. Made hitting the 50 year mark seem not so old, given the life in this bottle. Mature but still clearly within the plateau of enjoyable drinking. Shame it was my last bottle.
June 30, 2022 - Amazing that it held up so well. Classic Musat notes of petroleum and nail polish remover.
January 30, 2021 - Clean and pure claret type of wine, fresh and very good fruit, no volatility often found is red Musars, this was a well kept excellent bottle, just perfect.
September 17, 2019 - Ch. Musar Dinner with Marc Hochar (The Bunker, Crown Wine Cellars, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Pre-decanted for around 6 hours by Marc Hochar. Surprisingly, my first experience of this vintage. Slightly dusky velvet red in colour. Nose is WOW!....very tertiary but still so fresh....so sniffable...ethereal....this is angels dancing in your cerbral cortex. Palate is deep, plummy and rich with hints of cognac....almost Christmas pudding because it also has that nuttiness. It just resonates and resonates lightly in your head forever. Gosh, beautiful.
April 22, 2016 - Musar Maniacs part II (Pera SF): Bottle condition: Sunken cork ~0.5cm. Upper-mid-shoulder fill. Cork was soaked through and came out in pieces.
Out of the bottle: Smells bit cork-like (not necessarily TCA, but actually like cork). Dried-out hard-cheese rind, and significant acetaldehyde. Not sure if this is corked. I don't think so. Definitely not as good as the other bottle out of the gate - the other was completely open and ready to go.
At the tasting: Clearly corked. Many tears.
March 14, 2016 - Chateau Musar Dinner (Pera, San Francisco): Aromatic nose with some brett, but that blows off, still has pretty good fruit on the nose, some clove spice; palate is medium-full bodied, still some fruit, fades quickly but also seems pretty young in terms of its structure; medium finish. Nice, enjoyable, but I preferred the younger bottlings. 90
March 13, 2016 - Musar Vertical with B. Broadbent (Pera SF): Double-decanted an hour in advance.
This wine seems to prove my theory that Musar doesn’t merely hang on to its fruit longer than other wines, it actually changes out its primary fruit for a completely different fruit, which I’ll refer to somewhat oxymoronically as “tertiary fruit.”
Moderate ruby-garnet to an orange rim. It was phenomenal straight out of the bottle, with tertiary dark blackberry essence leaping from the glass. It doesn’t show much oxidation at all. Savory integrated brett, complex tamari and blackcurrant notes. Rounded softened tannins, but still present. I can’t believe how good this is!
Overall the character was similar to the ’95 but with an added tone of brilliant blackness. Slightly toasty, blackened and charred blackberry essence. Also at various moments, dried apricot, orange peel, amaro herbal notes, anise, flemish sour notes, like a rich BFM brew.
Age with power. Complexity with playfulness. Wisdom with unpredictability.
Is this where the ’95 is headed? Will it be different when it reaches this stage? What was the ’72 like in its youth? How many transformations has it gone through? What did it taste like in 1976, when Serge sipped a bottle amidst bombs in his home in Beirut? Where does this magical “tertiary fruit” come from? What will become of it?
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent and taste the wine.
November 5, 2015 - WCC Blind Tasting of Chateau Musar and Chateau Montrose (Salty's Pub & Bistro, Clifton Park, NY): [Double decanted for one hour the previous evening.] No nose. Silky. Tart mulch, pleasant.
January 1, 2015 - This was a beautiful wine, and a fitting tribute to Serge. Well stored bottles of the 72 are an amazing drink. In a word, lovely.