Importing company, Broadbent Selections, organized a series of vertical tastings for Ch. Musar at Insieme and Hearth restaurants earlier this week. The cult-like following for these long-lived wines from Lebanon was confirmed in the serious industry turnout. It was no surprise. I’m a bit of a Musar naïf. I had tasted them a few times and always liked what was in the bottle but I never had any exceptionally old vintages and I had never met the infamous Serge Hochar, owner and winemaker of the estate. And he was quite a character. After Bartholomew Broadbent (Michael Broadbent’s gentlemanly son) introduced Serge and turned the tasting over to him, Serge said he had nothing to say and that Broadbent could do the talking. “You talk so well. Much better than I do,” was his reasoning. Needless to say his silence didn’t last long and he was baited into slightly off-the-wall philosophies on winemaking and tasting. He reminded me of my dear friend May’s mother, Margo, whom I adore. She’s from Lebanon too, the birthplace of Ch. Musar’s wines.

The vintages ranged from a relatively recent (by Musar standards) 2000 to a 1954 white. I must declare now that I have found my favorite wines next to those of Lopez de Heredia – in fact these wines were like Heredia only more mysterious, changeable and weird. I fell in love on Monday afternoon and it was with a bottle of wine.

Here are my tasting notes:

Ch. Musar 2000 (Red)
Pale reddish-brown with pink-orange hints in the rim. Smells like orange blossom water and hints of tangerine. The palate is spicy, faint citrus notes follow. A light-medium bodied red that show stunning complexity and beauty.

Ch. Musar 1999 (Red)
Strangely enough this wine seems less evolved that the 2000, it even seems a little closed. More primary fruit character and less secondary fruit notes. Not nearly as weird as the 2000 vintage. [Serge later told us that the ’99 vintage would be a better one to age extensively and that it was a year that had more emphasis on cinsault unlike the ’00, which was more about the cabernet].

Ch. Musar 1995 (Red)
The same pale reddish-brown color. Smells like leather and sweat. Maderized, hints of old coffee beans. Beautiful.

Ch. Musar 1990 (Red)
Wow. Even more prominent salty-leather character. A little nutty too. Oxidized, obvious VA, hints of herbaceous menthol and a very long and savory finish. According to Bartholomew this was a special vintage because in 1990 he got word from one of his employees that the war was going to escalate and so he picked the grapes two weeks earlier than usual. He says this wine is like a late bloomer it had lacked a lot earlier on in its life and was very light but he thinks it shows beautifully now.

Ch. Musar 1981 (Red)
Funky nose, lots of brett, hints of balsamic vinegar on the nose too. The wine seems a little hot on the palate.

Ch. Musar 1975 (Red)
Very funky barnyard nose, textural, hint of truffles, wild berries – still has vibrant acidity. Stunning.

Ch. Musar 1966 (Red)
Very tea-like, lots of weird herbal aromas [According to Serge ’66 has such high VA that they had to stop selling it for a while because it was out of balance but now it’s showing well].

Serge was almost bored while we tasted the reds, which we were instructed to taste first.
After the reds, he proclaimed, “All you’ve done up until now is a waste of my time and yours.” Um, ok. He continued, “But we did this because I know this is what you’re used to doing. But now we’re getting to the part that’s exciting and unique. We are going to taste the white wines.”

Bartholomew backed him up by saying “The whites have an identity crises. They are white wines that want to be reds.”

Serge also told us that his white grape varietals, Obaiden and Merwah (indigenous to Lebanon) are not grafted and are on their original rootstocks. Here are my notes.

Ch. Musar 2000 (White)
Clear rim, straw colored core. A curious wine with hints of mineral and citrus. A bit hot on the palate.

Ch. Musar 1991 (White)
Almost looks like whisky in color – a pale gold. Raisins on the nose, very reminiscent of Madeira, good acidity.

Ch. Musar 1972 (White)
Smells corked. A couple of others at the table deem it corked as well but Serge urges us to still taste it. It has a funky-mould nose but also shows that same raisin character. It’s soapy too. It keeps changing in the glass.

Ch. Musar 1967 (White)
Mineral, like something out of the sea. Beautiful palate, out of this world, salty, sherry-like, long finish.

Ch. Musar 1954 (White)
Looks like the color of an Oloroso sherry! Has a cheese-yeastiness about it. Very textural and sherry-like. Delicious.
During this extraordinary tasting Serge shared his words of wisdom on VA and brett: 1995, he says, was his most “crazy” wine and after this vintage he decided not to allow so much VA in the wines. They have started to control it by adding a very small amount of SO2 to the wines after malo.

Before the ’96 vintage he didn’t add any sulphur. Still he says, “If my wines had no VA I would stop producing wines.” And then he made a gesture and noise that seemed so very Lebanese because it reminded of my friend’s mother again, it indicated the American term “period” or as the Brits say, “full stop.” In other words: that’s that! When asked, he admitted that the same goes for brettanomyces.

Ah yes, and in terms of the corked wine. He said it wasn’t corked but that it showed its history with cork. Basically this is a man that loves natural wine – flaws and all and in turn I love his wines too.