WTNs: 04 Musar white and 97 Musar red

Having never tasted any Musar of any color, I brought back a bottle of each from my latest trip to New York. The white, I subsequently discovered, is the second cuvée. Last night a Lebanese friend came to dinner, an excuse too perfect to pass up, overwhelming the redundancy of ordering in (very good) Lebanese food.

2004 Musar Cuvée Blanc Bekaa Valley 11.5%
Slightly orange yellow with light citrus aroma. Good body and viscosity with an exotic mix of citrus and orange blossom flavors with honey sweetness and, uncannily, a flavor I have never tasted in a wine before but often find in middle-eastern sweets: rose water (this was confirmed by everyone present, so I wasn't hallucinating). So much for both food and wine reflecting a common terroir . An interesting wine, which I kept going back to, even after opening the red.

1997 Chateau Musar Bekaa Valley 13.5%
On pulling the cork, I smelled the famous Musar funk, which I found quite agreeable, but after leaving the wine for five hours in a decanter, I smelled an oxidative note which left me worried. In the glass, the aroma remained heady and powerful, in counterpoint to the attractive, Bordeaux-like paleness of the color. Notes of smoke, leather, prunes and spice. Excellent balance, alcohol perfectly integrated. But the oxidative note (the words slightly maderized kept coming to mind) lingered, interfering with the wine's interesting and uncompromising character. Since one never knows how a recently purchased bottle has been stored, I wonder if, in this particular case, I should have decanted for less time. I will just have to keep trying Musars.

Both the red and white are made in a slightly oxidative style, but slightly maderized seems too strong - it might be that it wasn't perfectly stored? Or that you don't care for oxidative notes in wine? Sorry to have given decanting advice that didn't work out.

-O

Oswaldo.. I have thought the '97 to be one of the better Musars I have tried.... but+ I don't remember the oxidization that Otto mentions either...but your description does not fit my recent notes in Cellar Tracker

I have the '91 and '95 arriving tomorrow... and I know these are supposed to be very good...

Both the red and white are made in a slightly oxidative style, but slightly maderized seems too strong - it might be that it wasn't perfectly stored? Or that you don't care for oxidative notes in wine? Sorry to have given decanting advice that didn't work out.

I'm sure your decanting advice was perfect! The bottle may very well have been imperfectly stored, and while the cork was in pretty good shape, there were some stains on the side that may indicate a small amount of seepage. On the other hand, if Musars are made in a slightly oxidative style to begin with, that is a taste I have yet to acquire in dry whites or reds (seems OK to me in Madeiras). I'll just have to try more Musars and see for myself.

James, I am intrigued by your not coming across the oxidative notes that Otto mentions as intentional. The first page of Cellar Tracker reviews also has no mention of oxidative notes (except in the appearance). Again, I guess I'll just have to keep on trying Musars, which I feel motivated to do.

Some of the whites I find to be excessivley oxidative and that is the way Hochar intends them to be.
But for some reason it isn't a uniform pattern, and I very much enjoy some while not others.

Oswaldo... both my wife and I have become quite enamored of Musar... she does not like oxidative wines at all, so if there was any of that in these, she would have picked up on it.... the '97 has been her favorite... I found it to be more bordeaux like, if I had to say what it reminded me of, though still not quite that either...

Enjoy, and thanx for your notes. I always appreciate your thoughtfulness.

I didn't realize the 2004 Musar blanc was already released - we're still working on the 1999 here.

I don't mind a little oxidation, so I love the Musar blanc (and rouge). But the variability on these wines is quite something. I've had three of the 1999 blancs in the last month or so, and each one has been different, although definitely related.

I didn't realize the 2004 Musar blanc was already released - we're still working on the 1999 here.

This was the second cuvée, Otto says the first has still a few years to go before release...

Ahhh, that makes more sense...

What I meant by the oxidative character is like what one gets in old style Rioja from the extended barrel aging. Do you really not find that in the reds? Or have I misunderstood what I am smelling?

-O

hmmm.. if you get that in older Bdx too, then maybe we are on the same page..

Hmmm, hard to pierce the semantics barrier here... I have little experience with old Rioja, but old Bordeaux (that James mentions) has a musty, mouldy character that is probably not what you, Otto, mean by oxidation.

As we all know, intentional oxidation (e.g., vin jaune, madeira), takes place in the barrel and is a trait that some like and some don't, but oxidation in the bottle is, I think, unintentional and, I imagine, nearly always undesirable. I used the term "slightly maderized" because it was that kind of oxidation, though slight.

Of course, the older a wine, the greater the chance of oxidation having occurred, but I wouldn't call it a consequence, per se, of ageing. If screwcap use becomes widespread, unintentional oxidation should become a thing of the past, so I hope it's not a desirable feature of old riojas.

Hmmm, hard to pierce the semantics barrier here... I have little experience with old Rioja, but old Bordeaux (that James mentions) has a musty, mouldy character that is probably not what you, Otto, mean by oxidation.

As we all know, intentional oxidation (e.g., vin jaune, madeira), takes place in the barrel and is a trait that some like and some don't, but oxidation in the bottle is, I think, unintentional and, I imagine, nearly always undesirable. I used the term "slightly maderized" because it was that kind of oxidation, though slight.

I don't mean a mustiness, I don't mean anything as strong as with Madeira or Vin Jaune. So perhaps we were talking of the same thing if you say it was like Madeira but slighter.

Of course, the older a wine, the greater the chance of oxidation having occurred, but I wouldn't call it a consequence, per se, of ageing. If screwcap use becomes widespread, unintentional oxidation should become a thing of the past, so I hope it's not a desirable feature of old riojas.

IIRC it was Jamie Goode who wrote that the oxygen transfer through a top quality cork and cap are roughly the same. And if we take the conventional wisdom to be true that it is this oxygen that causes wines to age, screw cap won't have this effect. And I thought the oxidative character of both Musar and old style Riojas was due to the barrel not the closure? But I am sadly very much on shaky ground when I go into technical matters so I hope someone clears this matter up.

-O

I think that oxygen transmission by a good cork and ox trans by a tin-lined screwcap aren't all that different, although the tin-lined screwcap will probably be slightly lower. What corks do that screwcaps don't, however, is release a small amount of oxygen to the wine over a three to six month period after bottling - this is the oxygen contained within the cork body. This sort of release could be significant.

Either way, wine development will occur in the absence of extrinsic oxygen - at least, this is the impression I get from the studies that have been done. However, no closures provide a totally hermetic seal. Depending on the precise level of oxygen transmission, the wine will evolve differently though.

`97 White Musar just arrived at the door!!

I didn't realize the 2004 Musar blanc was already released - we're still working on the 1999 here.

I bought some 2001 in July this year. So I presume it is normally about a year ahead of the red.

Not the `97 but managed to get some `89 Musar at the DeVines winestores annual Xmas staff party. Great food and some wonderful wines which I will be writing up asap. Faded color, drinks well now, "smells like a Rhone but mostly Cab", not at all funky, nice fruit, plums, fragrant. WOTN for many!

`89 Musar... not at all funky

What a shame . I've found the '89 to show some funk, but I've also noted plenty of bottle variation with Musar red.