Château Musar is a wine that leaves no one unmoved. With its fantastic history and its somewhat stubborn character, it is a natural conversation topic among wine enthusiasts.
The wine became internationally known in 1984 when Serge Hochar was named “Decanter Man of the Year” in the midst of a raging civil war. Despite life-threatening conditions, the harvest was successfully brought in from the Bekaa Valley and transported to the production facility in northern Beirut every year except two. The fame grew and Musar became something of a cult wine here in Sweden as well.
It was also under Serge’s leadership that the castle became world-famous and the wines are now exported to the entire world. Serge Hochar’s death came as a shock to everyone, he was a man with a great heart and tireless energy. He worked not only for Musar, he worked for Lebanon. After Serge’s recent passing, Château Musar’s philosophy and legacy are carried forward by the third generation, with his son Gaston at the helm, who promises to continue developing Château Musar in line with Serge’s philosophy but also to make his own mark.
The Hochar family’s philosophy is that every vintage is special and nature should be allowed to take its course. The house practices low harvest yields, always hand-harvests, uses natural yeast, no filtration, and an absolute minimum of sulfur dioxide. The wines are highly Bordeaux-inspired in style and very age-worthy, some vintages can age for over 50 years in the cellar. Today they can call themselves natural wines, a concept that didn’t exist when Serge established the recipe in the 70s.
The Bekaa Valley is a plateau located between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges, where grapes are grown at an altitude of 1,000 meters. This provides ideal conditions, with significant temperature variations between day and night and just the right amount of rainfall. Very little spraying is required, making the Bekaa Valley perfect for organic viticulture.
Ten years ago, 95% of the vines were pruned using the gobelet method, forming small bush-like vines. Today, however, nearly half of them are trained in rows using the Guyot method. The Hochar family manages 160 hectares of vineyards, of which they own 70 hectares. The remaining land is owned by two other families under long-term contracts. The low yields result in a production of no more than approximately 600,000 bottles per year. The grapes are harvested by Bedouin families, loaded onto trucks, and transported for two hours to Ghazir, 25 km north of Beirut, where vinification takes place. Although the journey covers 70 km and takes around two hours, it is believed that the grapes withstand the transport well and resist oxidation.
Minimal intervention has been the guiding principle, perhaps with a little help from winemaker Tariq Sakr who has been at Musar since 1991. Both cement tanks and oak barrels are used. The oak barrels from Nevers are kept in dark rooms embedded in the rock, the wine cellar served as a shelter during the civil war. Only a small number of barrels are renewed each year.
Château Musar has been organically certified since 2006, but in practice has been so for many years. They just didn’t think it was important to talk about it.
