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2012 Chateau Musar Blanc
- Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
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- Avg Price (ex-tax)
- $ 87 / 750ml
- White - Buttery and Complex
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- from 1 Critic Review
- Ungrafted Vines
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Producer tasting notes: "Fine lemon-yellow, bright and still fresh-looking but also showing some reassuring maturity; dry honey on the nose, dry spices with a controlled richness of fruit on the palate that reminds me of Ygrec: complex and dry with sweetness in its DNA before natural acidity lifts the slightly exotic aftertaste on the finish; lanolin smooth in texture but not an easy wine to assess and not meant to be at this stage, gains familiarity after a while, but the mystery of young white Musar remains for another day. 2020-35 - Steven Spurrier, January 2020 I’ll be the first to admit that the 2012 Chateau Musar White is something of an acquired taste, being as it is a blend of Obaideh and Merwah, which sound more like Old Testament prophets than they do ancient indigenous grape varieties. Fermented and aged in oak, the wine is peachy, lemony and creamy and if it’s like anything at all, it’s like a fine white Rhône - Jonathan Ray,The Spectator Magazine February 2020" - Chateau Musar
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Highlights
- From Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
- Avg. Price (ex-tax) $ 87 / 750ml
- White Wine – Buttery and Complex
- White Blend
- Pairs well with Manchego and Parmesan
- Ungrafted Vines
Winery
Chateau Musar is a renowned wine producer based in Ghazir, Lebanon, just north of the capital Beirut, producing a range of wines from vineyards in the Bekaa Valley, and best-known for its eponymous grand vin: Chateau Musar. Gas...
Details
- Region or Appellation
- Producer Notes
- A GUIDE TO THE STYLE in their youth: yellow-gold, subtly oaky, and creamy-textured, rich yet dry and intensely citrusy, with honeyed nuances. Wholly unique, the style has been described as resembling ‘dry Sauternes’ or mature white Graves. Chateau Musar Whites develop tawny hues and mellow spicy characters as they age. The cellars at Ghazir holds bottles of this wine dating as far back as 1954.
- Alcohol ABV
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12%
- Sweetness
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Dry
- Blend
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60% Obaideh & 40% Merwah
- Maturation
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Oaked
- Oak Type
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French
- Ownership
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Gaston Hochar
- Closure Type
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Cork
- Vineyard Notes
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GRAPES AND VINES Seven years in the making, Chateau Musar White is a blend of ancient grape varieties Obaideh and Merwah, indigenous to the mountains of Lebanon and said to be related to Chasselas Chardonnay and Semillon. The Obaideh vineyards are in the foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountains on stony, chalky soils, while the Merwah vines are on the seaward side of Mount Lebanon, on calcareous gravels. Yields are very low for these untrained bushvines: 10 – 20 hl per hectare. At high altitude (around 1400m) they are still on their own roots, among very few vineyards in the world of this calibre.
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- Vintage Notes
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Chateau Musar whites are truly unique, produced from some of the oldest vineyard sites in the world dating back to 5,000 BC, although it was the Phoenicians, the great maritime race of the Mediterranean, who first ‘introduced’ Lebanese wine to a wider audience. Indigenous ancient grape varieties Obaideh and Merwah, reputedly the ancestors of Chardonnay/Chasselas and Semillon are still cultivated from un-grafted vines on original rootstock. The vineyards on the seaward facing slopes of Mount Lebanon and the foothills of Anti-Lebanon were planted between 50 and 90 years ago and are at 1,200 metres above sea level – few vineyards of this calibre and history remain in the world today
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- Winemaking
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The 2012 vintage was fermented and aged partly in new oak barrels for 9 months and partly in stainless steel vats with temperatures ranging between 18 and 22 degrees Celsius. Vintage release in 2020 – cellared well it will keep for decades.
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- Producer Tasting Notes
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Fine lemon-yellow, bright and still fresh-looking but also showing some reassuring maturity; dry honey on the nose, dry spices with a controlled richness of fruit on the palate that reminds me of Ygrec: complex and dry with sweetness in its DNA before natural acidity lifts the slightly exotic aftertaste on the finish; lanolin smooth in texture but not an easy wine to assess and not meant to be at this stage, gains familiarity after a while, but the mystery of young white Musar remains for another day. 2020-35 - Steven Spurrier, January 2020 I’ll be the first to admit that the 2012 Chateau Musar White is something of an acquired taste, being as it is a blend of Obaideh and Merwah, which sound more like Old Testament prophets than they do ancient indigenous grape varieties. Fermented and aged in oak, the wine is peachy, lemony and creamy and if it’s like anything at all, it’s like a fine white Rhône - Jonathan Ray,The Spectator Magazine February 2020
Read more
Awards
(1)About the Wine
Related News
(1)Serge Hochar, the Brave Knight of Lebanon
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The 2012 vintage was hit-and-miss globally, with few regions delivering truly great wines but many good wines were still produced.
For France, most regions enjoyed a good year with Bordeaux, Burgundy and Beaujolais all producing solid offerings – although for Sauternes the year was catastrophically bad. However, Champagne d...
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