Community Tasting Notes 45

• Joshvoulters Likes this wine: 90 points

  January 12, 2024 - BYO at Ariana II (Ariana II, Kilburn): Honestly a conundrum on how to score this one and maybe this is a cop-out: it's a highly distinctive style and a very compelling one at that. But it just doesn't align my subjective preferences. I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to try it.
  
  No doubt, the nose is pretty magnificent. A deep amber in the glass, it has powerful notes of orange, dried apricot, honey and creme brûlée. Deep, nutty and oxidative in a beautifully coherent and intentional way. So far, so mind-blowing - but it really doesn't work on the palate for me. I found it flat and snub-nosed, too bruised and oxidative without the structural lift and angularity you'd get from fresh acidity- just slightly compressed and directionless.

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• caspernick Likes this wine: 98 points

  August 7, 2023 - I picked up this bottle at the winery late last year and was looking for the right time to open it. My buddy invited us for dinner and I offered him a choice: Riesling, Chardonnay or White Musar.
  
  It showed a gorgeous medium amber in the glass with medium viscosity (12.5% ABV). Intense aromas of honey, lanolin, sliced apricot, warm nuts, vanilla thread, bruised yellow apple and baking spices. On the palate it had medium acidity and a medium body- silky smooth with a long finish. The flavors were layered and complex, coating my mouth with waves of stunningly delicious wine. It was a come-to-Jesus moment for me to taste such a unique wine that has slumbered for 25 years, waiting to unleash itself onto my palate. We paired it with a tomato salad followed by miso glazed mushrooms. Stunning. It’s rare to find one, but at $100 per bottle- grab at least a bottle of this 98 point wine that gets 5 stars from me. Its cellaring capacity is virtually unlimited, so drink it over the next 30 years. Indigenous Lebanese grapes- Obeidah dominated with Merwah supporting.
  
  https://wp.me/p125DB-3eY

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• forceberry wrote: 97 points

  September 17, 2022 - Made with Obaideh (2/3) and Merwah (1/3) sourced from ungrafted, low-yielding vineyards over 50 years of age, located at the altitude of 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) above sea level. The wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts and left to age in oak barrels for 9 months before bottling in 1999. 12,5% alcohol. Total production 30,000 bottles. Tasted in a Musar Blanc 2014-1998 vertical.
  
  Deep, luminous golden yellow color with a slightly bronze-hued core. The nose feels rich, evolved and wonderfully complex with intense aromas of bruised apple and roasted nuts, some honeyed tones, a little bit of orange marmalade, light stony mineral nuances, a hint of toasty spice and a touch of dried yellow fruits. A classic aged Musar nose. The wine is evolved but also surprisingly brisk on the palate with a medium body and intense, quite acid-driven flavors of lemony citrus fruits and bruised apple, some stony mineral notes, a little bit of toasted spices or even toasted bread, light evolved waxy tones, hints of wizened nectarine and dried exotic fruits and a touch of honeyed richness. The quite high acidity lends remarkable sense of freshness, structure and precision to the wine. The finish is long, complex and quite acid-driven with bright yet quite developed flavors of bruised apple, some lemony notes of citrus fruits, a little bit of wizened yellow stone fruits, light nuances of beeswax, an oxidative hint of roasted nuts and a touch of dried pineapple.
  
  A beautifully evolved, complex and quite structured vintage of Musar Blanc. This was my third time having 1998 Blanc (second time within a period of one year!) and I'm quite sure this was the best bottle so far - the last time I had this the wine was nothing short of excellent, but this time the wine showed even more freshness and focus than before. Although the wine is showing some aged complexity, I feel there is still some room for further evolution - especially with bottles that are still as full of life as this one! In our vertical this wine was on my tied 1st spot with the slightly softer but even more complex and sumptuous 2001 vintage. I believe if somebody says this is not their kind of wine, but to me, this is basically everything I want my aged Musar to be. So highly recommended.

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• Gunakadeit Likes this wine: 95 points

  July 4, 2022 - Bruised apple, marzipan, honey, white tea, stone fruit. Singular and delicious. Probably my favorite white.

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• forceberry wrote: 96 points

  February 25, 2022 - Made with Obaideh (2/3) and Merwah (1/3) sourced from ungrafted, low-yielding vineyards over 50 years of age, located at the altitude of 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) above sea level. The wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts and left to age in oak barrels for 9 months before bottling in 1999. 12,5% alcohol. Total production 30,000 bottles. Tasted in a Musar Blanc 2012-1994 vertical.
  
  Luminous pale bronze color. Evolved, sweetish and slightly toasty nose with aromas of roasted nuts, some wizened citrus fruits, a little bit of exotic spices, light smoky tones, a developed hint of bruised apple and a touch of honeycomb. The wine is rich, moderately evolved yet still surprisingly fresh on the palate with a medium-to-moderately full body and rather concentrated flavors of toasty nuttiness, some bruised apple, light marzipan tones, a little bit of stony minerality, a hint of toasted bread and a sweet touch of dried tropical fruits. The rather high acidity lends great sense of brightness and structure to the wine. The finish is rich, long and complex with layered, subtly oxidative flavors of wizened citrus fruits, some stony mineral notes, a little bit of bruised apple, light evolved nuances of honey and hints of dried pineapple and other exotic fruits.
  
  A wonderfully harmonious, balanced and pleasantly evolved vintage of white Musar that certainly shows some age - as is to be expected from a +20 yo wine - but at the same time coming across as somewhat more youthful than many younger vintages. The bottle I tasted in May 2016 was similarly youthful - or even more so - but coming across as subtly funky and perhaps a bit less complex than this one. In this bottle there was no funk whatsoever and the wine had lived up to my expectations when I predicted six years ago that this wine had "many years - possibly even decades - ahead". This has continued to improve wonderfully well and most likely this was an even better bottle than the previous one - after all, Musar is quite notorious for its bottle variation. This time this wine was drinking ridiculously well, but I'd say there is still much room for further development, so there is definitely no need to hurry with any of the remaining bottles!

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Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1998
• Type White
• Producer Chateau Musar
• Varietal White Blend
• Designation Blanc
• Vineyard n/a
• Country Lebanon
• Region Bekaa Valley
• SubRegion n/a
• Appellation n/a
• UPC Codes 5017469170804, 611482030036

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 83 (56%)
• Consumed 64 (44%)

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