Chateau Musar Rouge 2005 - Biq'a-valley, Lebanon; 14% abv
A relatively cool vintage for Musar with harvest 10 days later than normal. And the wine is lovely: more volatility than Musar has had in recent years and lovely bright but red fruit, spicy and leathery and slightly funky - so it is exactly what I hope to see in a Musar. It is sweet and ripe despite the relatively cool summer, but it is also wonderfully fresh and very lively with delightfully high acidity and a fair bit of bite from the tannins as well (I usually find even young Musars more acid than tannin driven in the structure department). I like this a lot! And unlike some notes I've seen on this wine, I did not find it atypical at all - very much the opposite: it did exactly what it says on the tin.