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Wine Description
The Story
The red is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsault. Serge Hochar, who has been involved with the property since 1959, states that the Cabernet Sauvignon provides "the bones and the skeleton to the wine, the Carignan the flesh and muscle and the Cinsault the silky smooth finesse".
Musar wines are unique in that Hochar blends the varietals only after they have spent three years in barrels and then waits a further four years before releasing the end result. This gives time for each variety to unfold its own character. The wines are extremely long-lived, with the best examples lasting for 20-30 years.
Wine Information
1999 was an exceptional year, starting with a dry winter, leading to a fresh spring and good flowering (although yields were reduced by lack of water). Summer was mild; July and August were cloudy; September was hot and sunny, enabling grapes to achieve high levels of alcohol, acidity and extract.
“Chateau Musar uses native grape varieties, each vinified separately, spending one year in tank, two in oak, the final blend made, like mixing paints on a palette, by Serge Hochar, a true artist of wine. At any rate, I admire the results, which are, for the foregoing reasons, noticeably different each year. I am currently enjoying the 1999. Not claret, nor Burgundy, not Rhône but Lebanon.” – MICHAEL BROADBENT, DECANTER, APRIL 2009.
The Chateau Musar Red 1999 is listed in ‘1001 WINES YOU MUST TASTE BEFORE YOU DIE’ by Neil Beckett and Hugh Johnson October 2009.