The Auswine Forum

The famous wine of the Lebanon. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault,Grenache and Mourvedre. Aged in French Oak for 12 months.

The winery is from in beautiful Bekaa Valley, which sits above Beirut and the Med' seperated by the anti-Lebanon range at a height of 3000ft. The history dates back to 1930 and the patriach originally Gaston Hochar. His two sons now oversee affairs.

The winery survived the clash between the Syrians and the Israelis in 1982. Syrian tanks were hidden amongst the vines! The winery witness to the decisive air battles between the Israelis and Syrians that year, aswell as the upfront brutality of the civil war.

Remarkably, the wine outstanding. For those who pass through Beirut Duty Free stock up. $20 Australian will see a choice of five vintages dating back to the late 80s.

1994 Chateau Musar-Light red brown with a nose that intially displays a tired and aged bouquet. This soon opens into sour cherry and spice, with background oak. The palate seems to be flowing from the secondary to tertiary fruit, in a very nice way. A medium to full bodied wine with sour cherry and a just discernible layer of oak and earth on the palate. Finishes in a seamless manner, fine tannin and a subtle alchohol warmth.

Highly recommended to the forum. The wine is very good and I must add an interest factor of the highest order.

Decanted for 5 hours on recommendation.

Jamie,

Did you find any VA in the wine? My one experience with it (not the 94 in particular) was that the style showed up quite volatile. Any thoughts ????


Cheers

Grant

I think it may have been yourself who forewarned me of possible VA so went looking for it. The wine seemed old and tired initially, but with a good amount of air opened up with good fruit and oak. There was a "lift" once the wine opened but didn't think VA.

Musar seems to vary considerably from vintage to vintage in terms of flavour profiles ect. I am looking forward to working my way through a few back vintages.

I hoped to spend some time at the winery as I fly into Beirut often. Hezabollah in charge of the Bekaa and although not too many recent problems, an Australain passport with our very visible foreign policy unnerving.

I was tipped to decant the wine. And decant I did. The result impressive.

Jamie
Glad to see you enjoyed it. It's a wine I keep going back to & always provides an interesting experience.
Have you tried the little bro (Hochar "Pere et Fils") yet? Quite a bit lighter, it's again a little idiosynchratic, but again I'm a fan. The 99 (current release) is highly regarded - indeed apparently so is the Musar of that vintage which will be out in a couple of years. We tasted the Hochar 99 in our monthly tasting group about 6 months ago & it showed well, albeit with some "barnyard" aromas which aren't to everyones tastes. Embarassingly though I tasted the same wine 2 months later as a "mystery wine" and failed to pick it - I thought it was french!

I hope you enjoy the back vintages & certainly with the prices you can get in Beirut, you'll be getting great value.

Ian (alias Ug from winepros site)

Hi Ian

Thanks for the previous tips and I must add that decanting the Musar a transformation.

Will chase a bottle of the Peres et Fils.

A nice change to buy wine that has a good deal of bottle age at a release price. The situation may occur in Australia with a glut of commercial blockbusters-Riddoch,Michael etc.