2020 Chateau Musar Rouge Jeune

2020 Chateau Musar Rouge Jeune

2020 Chateau Musar Rouge Jeune Deep plum with a violet rim. Nose : Blueberries, dark red cherries with Mediterranean herbs, tobacco and spice. Palate : This is a warm and fruity wine with medium tannins and gentle acidity. There are dense dark fruits – blackcurrant’s, blueberries as well as strawberries and pomegranate with a touch of Eastern spice.

Many people ask why Chateau Musar’s winery is more than a two and a half hour drive from the vineyards in the Bekaa Valley. When Gaston Hochar began making wine in 1930, the boundaries of Lebanon had not been set, and he wanted to ensure that his premises would be inside the newly demarcated country.

In the 1930s and 1940s when Lebanon was under French control, the winery was an important customer for local French Army troops stationed in Lebanon. A French officer named Ronald Barton(whom Gaston named his second son after), and was stationed in Lebanon, was highly influential to the early development of Chateau Musar’s wines, as Barton was affiliated with the Bordeaux wineries Château Langoa-Barton and Château Léoville Barton

In 1959, Serge Hochar becomes Chateau Musar winemaker, while completing his winemaking studies at the University of Oenology in Bordeaux, under the tutorage of Jean Riberau and Emile Peynaud

Before the Lebanese Civil war (1975-1990), the Chateau Musar wines were mostly sold to domestic markets, however the war changed that. Gaston Hochar’s son Ronald Hochar helped market the wine abroad and from the late 1970s and early 1980s the wine became more popular abroad

The international discovery of Musar took place at the Bristol Wine Fair of 1979 when auctioneer and taster Michael Broadbent and journalist Roger Voss selected Musar 1967 as the “discovery of the Fair”.

Despite war in Lebanon and frequent tension, with the exception of the 1976 vintage, wine has been produced at the Château every year, with employees sometimes working under high-risk conditions.[1][10][11][7] (1984 was made, despite difficulties in transporting the grapes to the winery. It has not yet been released commercially.) The 1992 red Chateau Musar production was declassified due to a weak vintage.