• • Kwev
  • 14 March 2012
  5 out of 5

  How do they do that?

  Believe the hype. This wine really does capture the spice and complexity of middle-eastern food and culture. Incredibly distinctive, once tasted you'll be hooked. It is unique. Do decant it as it throws a fairly whopping sediment and benefits hugely from some air. I try and keep a bottle in stock as a "treat wine". It pairs beautifully with roast lamb or steak, and naturally can handle spicy, slow cooking.

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• • James Leith
  • 13 February 2013
  4 out of 5

  Great Wine - too young

  Chateau Musar is brilliant. But if at all possible try not to drink this latest release yet. I've only given this four stars because at a tasting just before Christmas it was clearly not ready and my palate is not 'good' enough to tell how it will be in years to come. I have had all the released years going back to 2000, the 2003 several times, which I like very much. The variation between years is considerable but there is a distinct feeling of necessary growing maturity with age. The 2000, again tasted just before Christmas was just something else - one of those rare moments when you are reminded what a superb wine is all about. It was as though it had just 'got there' - everything had just come together after 13 years, while all the later ones, great though they were, had not reached that wonderful peak which will doubtless last for several more years. If it were possible I'd give the 2000 six stars. The 2005 may reach that level in a few years - I don't know. At the moment all I can taste is merely a very good wine.

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• • Heartfield
  • 23 August 2012
  5 out of 5

  Fabulous

  As always a superb wine.

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• • Susanne
  • 1 August 2012
  5 out of 5

  Full-bodied spicy wine

  a wine withreal character

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• • Squisito
  • 8 June 2012
  5 out of 5

  Schizophrenic wine that is unique

  I've been drinking Gaston Hochar's unusual Lebanese wine from the Bekaa Valley since University days in the '80s when it was considerably cheaper than now. It still deserves the price tag when other new world wines have improved whilst the old have remained the same apart from the price tag. Famed as the only wine that stands up to smoking cannabis Ch. Musar is as individual as it's Albanian maker and locality. Musar is in my list on 100 places to visit before I die. Having had a few Israeli tanks through the vineyard in past decades Hochar deserves a medal for his winemaking skill as much as his fortitude in the face of adversity and climate to produce a truly stunning red that stands little comparison with anything else. It ages well and goes a rusty brown with age (tells you how long I have been drinking it!) and likes nbeing decanted and 'aired'. And being stored for a month or two Not a wine to share with anyone else but very closest friends and, unless you have a particularly good butcher and 24oz T-bone, not one that requires food since Musar is an experience in itself. The nearest comparison if one can be made is a red from the Salento or Maduria in Puglia. But it has a contradictory character since it changes with warmth and is best drunk at a warm ambient temperature like the climate from which it hails. On my favourite wines. Disliked by French officianados familiar with fine burgundy but not those who like IGT and reds like Ch. Valladiere (nothing like it but it's hard to find a comparison). 1999 and 2000 have aged faster. But a couple of more recent years. Do yourself a favour and buy two and lay one down.

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• • Stephen Wild
  • 20 January 2012
  4 out of 5

  big flavours

  A long time favourite, and the very best pairing with garlicky grilled or roast lamb. Too early in the year to dream of barbecues, and kebabs in the garden?

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Staff Reviews

• • Hansi Baumann
  • Marylebone

  And now for something completely different

  "Lebanon is not the first place I would ever think of for wine-making...and, after some thought on the area, this wine fits the profile of winemaking on the edge. Baked aromas of both earth and dark fruits and raisins, lots of lifted spicy aromas and oak. Very concentrated baked fruit flavours, but a surprising amount of red fruits, which are slightly stewed, and ripe and intense tannins leads to a long, spicy and earty finsih."

Press Reviews

• • Sunday Express

  Wonderfully tasty (2004 Vintage)

  "I love Musar – a characterful, huge-flavoured red from Lebanon. It’s really distinctive with complex warm, spicy and light berry fruits. Wonderfully tasty, it’s the perfect match for Arabic flavours. (Jamie Gamie Goode, Sunday Express, 12th February 2012)"