Lebanon Chateau Musar Red 2005

The wine needs to be decanted, and even the label states this, so this is not a grab-and-drink wine. Let the bottle stand, decant at your leisure and then you are ready to enjoy it. It pours a deep red, fragrant and pure, with the rare combination of intensity and freshness which marks it out as a truly great and memorable wine. Very distinct nose of dried fruit, especially raisins, leads to a full mouthful of spices, great ripe fruit, soft tannins and an explosion of fruit flavours.

It is perfectly ready to drink now, or to be stored for at least the next 10 years.

You may also want to try a more youthfulMusar Jeune 2010 Bekaa Valley Lebanese Wine .

Château Musar was founded 1930 by Gaston Hochar in the cellars of the 17th century Mzar castle in Ghazir, overlooking the Mediterranean sea. Serge Hochar, Gaston’s son, joined the business in 1959 having studied oenology in Bordeaux, and is part of the growing community of winemakers who have studied their art in France. Serge was Decanter magazine’s first ever ‘Man of the Year’ in 1984, which shows the skill and art in this winary.

Musar is a big player by Lebanese standards producing around 700,000 bottles annually, but is by no means near the largest producers in the Lebanon. Since 2006 much of their vineyard has been certified organic, though Serge points out that the Bekaa is so remote and unspoilt that the vineyards were basically ‘organic’ by default before the term was coined.

Musar is not typical of the main wineries in the Lebanon in that often their choice of grape blends includes the older traditional vine such as Merweh and Obaideh in white and Cinsault and Carignan rather than the more common Muscat and Syrah. This is not a complaint, just a good reason to sample a range of Lebanese wines.