Chateau Musar Blanc Bekaa Valley Lebanon, 2012, 750
Chateau Musar Blanc Bekaa Valley Lebanon, 2012, 750
Grapes and vines
Seven years in the making, Chateau Musar White is a blend of ancient grape varieties Obaideh and Merwah, indigenous to the mountains of Lebanon and said to be related to Chasselas Chardonnay and Semillon. The Obaideh vineyards are in the foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountains on stony, chalky soils, while the Merwah vines are on the seaward side of Mount Lebanon, on calcareous gravels. Yields are very low for these untrained bushvines: 10 – 20 hl per hectare. At high altitude (around 1400m) they are still on their own roots, among very few vineyards in the world of this calibre.
Tasting Notes
Fine lemon-yellow, bright and still fresh-looking but also showing some reassuring maturity; dry honey on the nose, dry spices
with a controlled richness of fruit on the palate that reminds me of Ygrec: complex and dry with sweetness in its DNA before
natural acidity lifts the slightly exotic aftertaste on the finish; lanolin smooth in texture but not an easy wine to assess and not
meant to be at this stage, gains familiarity after a while, but the mystery of young white Musar remains for another day. 2020-35
- Steven Spurrier, January 2020
I’ll be the first to admit that the 2012 Chateau Musar White is something of an acquired taste, being as it is a blend of Obaideh
and Merwah, which sound more like Old Testament prophets than they do ancient indigenous grape varieties. Fermented and
aged in oak, the wine is peachy, lemony and creamy and if it’s like anything at all, it’s like a fine white Rhône - Jonathan
Ray,The Spectator Magazine February 2020
This wine has gone through some oak ageing in a style reminiscent of Bordeaux Blancs from the 1960s, although slightly warmer.
On the palate it is joyfully fresh and expressive: there's no fruit banality, instead a complex array of spices, honey and stoney
aromas, followed by a long finish. It seems to be developing faster than the older white grands vins; it stayed in a good shape for
five days after opening but did not improve – Pedro Ballesteros MW, Decanter Magazine, June 2020
