Producer profile: Chateau Musar

Timelessness is the status of iconic wines; they can stick in our minds and make us constantly want to revisit them. Time is often their ally, and they need a lot of it to achieve their full expression. The few wines that achieve this status are indifferent to the vagaries of fashionable taste; they will last much longer than any trend.

Rich history

The visionary Gaston Hochar founded Chateau Musar in 1930, creating the first vintage in 1933. Still family-run today, it is only in the third generation – a short time span compared to other legendary estates. That Musar achieved excellence in just 90 years is testament to Hochar’s individual genius and his strong will to succeed.

Chateau Musar is based in Lebanon, the cradle of mankind – a place that has seen some of the most powerful cultures throughout history. It is a melting pot of cultural development, yet has suffered terribly from conflict and war.

The Hochars are very aware of their Lebanese culture and express it in their wines. They are all too aware that peace is precarious and short lived – this helps them focus and strive to make wines that will last forever.

Grapes and vineyards

Most of the family’s vineyards are in the Bekaa Valley. Natural conditions here are optimal for grape growing: high altitude, little rain for non-irrigated bush vines, naturally organic vineyards, a diversity of soils and exposures and very low yields.

Gaston Hochar planted a unique combination of Atlantic and Mediterranean red grape varieties that have been refined through the years to the present mix. Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carignan for the red Grand Vin, and Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah for setting the character of the other red wines.

For white wines, he kept the native Lebanese grape varieties already in the vineyards: Obaideh and Merwah, planted at high altitudes up to 1,200m. Vermentino, Chardonnay and Viognier planted in newer vineyards are blended in the young wines.

The Bekaa Valley is home to religious and factional conflict that blights the region. Sunnis, Shias and Druze Muslims through to Christian Maronites and Greek Catholics have all clashed here. Because of ongoing threats, the Musar winery was built far from the vineyards, in a castle overlooking the Mediterranean.

Harvest

At harvest, the grapes undertake a trip over winding roads towards the sea. In peaceful times, the journey may take a few hours, but in times of war it can be up to five days, as was the case in 1984.

Gaston Hochar may have started Musar but it was the next generation, his sons Serge and Ronald, who introduced and created Musar’s timeless style. It was Serge’s decision to make wines that last forever: only releasing them after they had aged in the cellars for at least seven years and crafted to improve in bottle over decades.

The family had created a mythical style, but needed a discoverer – a champion to promote Musar to the world.

While much of the world’s critics, such as Robert Parker, sought out pristine fruit definition and technical perfection, it was the master of old wines, Michael Broadbent, who became Musar’s champion in 1979, seeing the complexity and uniqueness in these wines.

Not just great reds

Chateau Musar is not a singular style, but a philosophy of life and the essence of a place. Because of that, Musar is not only about red wines. The white wines convey, if not more acutely, something exceptional and inimitable. And the rare Musar rosé is the delicate, understated and complex hymn to peace and joy in the Mediterranean.

• Wines from the Musar Masterclass at the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter

The future

The third Hochar generation – Serge’s sons – is now at the helm: Gaston runs the winery and Marc is in charge of sales.

Their aim is to honour a noble 90-year heritage and preserve the winemaking attitude founded by Serge Hochar. But wineries must evolve, so they’ve also started exploring other avenues to convey their land through their wines. Recent bottlings include single-vineyard wines labelled under Hochar Père et Fils, the Levantine blends, and Musar Jeunes in three colours.

Tasting with a twist

As we’ve seen, Musar is all about timelessness. So for my tasting of 16 wines in the range, I really wanted to find a way to test ‘timelessness’.

I tasted all wines at least once a day over a whole week. I tasted from the same opened bottles, which were not stoppered with any protective devices: I wanted the wines to go through the ultimate hardship – exposure to the ravages of oxygen.

They passed that test. Some wines faded more or less slowly, yet never quickly. Others, the best ones, benefited from several days’ exposure.

The Musar red 1961 and white 1975 died like classic heroes, devoured by the monster (me) but not surrendering. The last drops, after 10 days, were still delicious.

• There’s more on the Serge-isms in Chateau Musar’s new book, The Story of a Wine Icon

Historical highlights and new releases from Chateau Musar

More facts about Musar

• Vineyard: about 180ha
• Production: about 600,000 bottles a year (200,000 of the estate red, 20,000 of the estate white and 80,000 of the Hochar Père & Fils)

Learn more about the heritage and culture of the producer from Chateau Musar, the Story of a Wine Icon.