March 21, 2024 - Really lovely. Mix of red fruits with interesting earthy savory notes. Plenty of structure here to age further. Does very well with food.
December 31, 2023 - Like a Late Bottled Vintage Port on the nose. In the mouth dark fruits, medical herbs, slight vanilla and oakiness. Full bodied with a good mix of tannins and acidity. Not an every day wine but will brighten up every holiday and served with food.
December 19, 2023 - First Musar. Rather distinctive aromatic and flavor profile for what I assume are the usual Bordeaux varietals(?). Did well with 24 hours of air.
November 4, 2023 - Decanted for 1.5 hours. Lots of red cherry here, very fresh with good acidity and strong tannins. This is a racey wine, much going on, and feeling quite young at the moment.
August 25, 2023 - Prism II w/ Sashi (Prism, Berlin): @prism. Mid-inflection but has a powerful jolt of slightly raisinated black fruit. Lovely VA too. It’s quite musar-y but still young. Definitely a bold, almost port-like style on the nose right now. But still balanced and light on the palate.
From Jacqueline (wine director): “Due to insufficient rain in spring, the whole life cycle of the vine was almost 30 days delayed, which led to a harvest that only finished in mid October. With that comes very concentrated fruit and a bit more power than we’re used to.”
August 24, 2023 - Hugh Johnsson 👍
Lagras minst 15 år
June 18, 2023 - It was Father’s Day and I had decided on grilled rack of lamb for dinner so I selected this bottle of 2011 Chateau Musar rouge from our cellar. According to Musar’s records, the 2011 vintage was one of the most challenging since the early 1990's. It was ultimately a late-maturing vintage with harvest taking place on October 13th, the latest since the 1983 vintage!
I decanted this bottle about eight hours prior to dinner. It should be noted that immediately upon opening, the bouquet was strikingly gorgeous with powerful aromatics that were obvious from several feet away and this trait carried through until dinner time.
In the glass, the wine presents a deep garnet color. Slightly turbid with a near opaque core. On the nose, black plums, blackberries, cassis, tobacco, organic earth, exotic spices, leather, spiced meat, and pomegranate. I detect a touch of VA as well. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannins and medium+ acid. Confirming the nose with an added bit of red rope licorice. Lovely, long, savory…amazing. This was a brilliant compliment to the lamb (which was served with beets and goat cheese and fattoush) and everything I wanted in a Musar tonight. Drinking well now with a hefty decant and I expect well cellared examples to drink well past 2035.
April 23, 2023 - Opened two bottles of this with leg of lamb. Double decanted, but only so I could pour from the bottle. Spices, stewed fruit and other tertiary aromas and tastes stating to take hold. Good tannins and great with food. Continued drinking the next night. Tannins settled down some, and it was actually an excellent pairing with Chicken Marsala.
March 16, 2023 - Sweet spices and herbs in the quite expressive bouquet. On the palate a lot of sweet spices, friendly and juicy acidity and mild tannin which is slightly drying in the finish.
March 11, 2023 - A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsaut, one third of each. The vintage 2011 in Beqaa was very difficult with a cool yet dry beginning, followed by very rainiy April and May, delaying the grape maturation. The grapes were still underripe by the time they are normally harvested and ultimately the harvest was finished only by mid-October - the latest in the history of Musar, save for the vintage 1983. 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% alcohol, 2 g/l residual sugar and 5,7 g/l acidity. Aerated in a decanter for four hours before tasting the wine.
Deep, luminous and still quite youthful black cherry color. The nose feels savory, a bit restrained and somewhat not unlike a warm-vintage Bordeaux with attractive, layered aromas of ripe blackcurrants, some tobacco, a little bit of bretty leather, light sweet notes of black cherries, a hint of earth and a touch of balsamic lift. The wine feels ripe, silky and very balanced on the palate with a moderately full body and nuanced flavors of ripe forest fruits and juicy dark fruits, some savory notes of earthy spices, a little bit of sweeter strawberry, light nuances of pipe tobacco, a bretty hint of leathery funk and a touch of fresh blueberries. The overall sense is enjoyably firm and balanced, thanks to the high acidity and ripe yet quite ample medium-plus tannins that slowly pile up on the gums. The finish is ripe, juicy and moderately grippy with a lengthy, layered aftertaste of tobacco and sweet black cherry, some leathery notes of brett, a little bit of wizened fig, light Bordeaux-like nuances of blackcurrant-driven dark fruit, a hint of peppery spice and a touch of earth.
A fine and sophisticated vintage of Musar that has taken a turn towards more Bordelais style; I guess this was due to a combination of blackcurrant-driven Cab fruit gaining some emphasis along with a fine touch of vague, leathery brett funk - something that the wine didn't show when I tasted it the last time in late 2019. Back then the wine showed good sense of balance, but came across as very clean, polished and somewhat straightforward in nature. Now, with 3½ additional years under its belt, the wine has picked up some depth and complexity without really compromising any of its structure. Originally I didn't know what to think of this vintage - it seemed a bit anonymous with the very characterful 2010 vintage and the sweet, porty 2012 vintage. However, now it seems there is nothing to worry about: this wine is evolving steadily in the right direction and with enough aging it will turn into a fine mature Musar. Solid value at 39,90€.