Chateau Musar Hochar Pere et Fils Red 2019

Description

Chateau Musar Hochar Pere et Fils Red is a Lebanese, single vineyard red wine produced from grapes grown in the Bekaa Valley. It is sometimes described as the “Second Wine” of Chateau Musar. It does share some similarities to the main wine, but it is a different blend, from a different vineyard and is aged differently!

Chateau Musar was founded in 1930 by, the then 20 year old, Gaston Hochar who had been inspired to plant vineyards in the Bekaa Valley after a recent visit to Bordeaux. Gaston became friends with Major Ronald Barton (of Château Langoa-Barton and Leoville-Barton) who was based in Lebanon during World War II. He was responsible for forging Musar’s connections with Bordeaux and the house style. Gaston’s son Serge became the winemaker in 1959, whilst his second son, Ronald took over the business side of things in 1962. Under the two brothers, Musar would go on to become one of the most famous wines in the world, a reputation cemented when Decanter magazine nominated Serge as their first ‘Man of the Year’ in 1984 as recognition that the winery had been able to produce superb quality wines throughout the Lebanese Civil War. The next generation, Serge’s sons, Gaston and Marc, look after the day-to-day running winery and its commercial aspects respectively. 

The shallow, fertile basin of the Bekaa Valley has become Lebanon’s main wine region. Grapes have been grown here for 6000 years. Musar have two red wine vineyards here, Aana, which this wine comes from, consisting of plantings of  Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Grenache at 980 metres above sea level, and Kefraya at 1040 metres. Two higher altitude vineyards to the north of these are dedicated to the white grapes Obaideh and Merwah.

The winery was built one hour to the north of the vineyards as Gaston Hochar wanted to ensure that the winery would be within the newly demarcated country which then, in 1930, had not been firmly set. The winery is situated in the family’s 18th century castle overlooking the Mediterranean at a place called M’Zar in Arabic, giving it the anglicised name Musar.

Chateau Musar Hochar Pere et Fils Red is a blend of Cinsault, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon grape varieties sourced from a single vineyard near the Bekaa Valley village of Aana, characterised by deep soils over limestone. At an average age of 30 years old, yields are low from these mature bush vines at 20-30 hl per hectare. The three varietal components are fermented in cement vats, with 6 to 9 months ageing in French oak barrels (from the forest of Nevers) before blending and bottling (unfined and unfiltered). It is then aged for another 4 years in bottle prior to release.

The 2019 Hochar Pere et Fils Red  is a blend of Cinsault 50%, Grenache 40% and Cabernet Sauvignon 10%.

As this wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered, it is suitable for vegans and vegetarians.