Gaston Hochar realized his dream when he returned from Bordeaux in 1930 and established his own wine production project in Ghariz, a town 25 km from Beirut, Lebanon. In their time, both the Phoenicians and the Romans had identified this area as an ideal place to produce wines of great complexity and intensity. This became widely known when Musar was considered the best wine at the Bristol Wine Fair in 1979. Château Musar is now run by the founder's grandchildren.
Château Musar Blanc is derived from two ancient indigenous varieties grown in the Bekaa Valley. The Obaideh variety grows at the foot of the hill on rocky, calcareous soils, while the Merwah variety is planted on the hillside on calcareous, gravelly soils at an altitude of 1,400 meters. There, the grapes receive plenty of sunshine and cool nights, which impart freshness and body to the wine. They are grown traditionally, and the harvest is small but of high quality.
At the winery, Château Musar Blanc grapes ferment in barrels made of oak from the Nevers forest and rest for nine months. Once the wine is ready, it is bottled and cellared. It is ready for sale seven years after the harvest. The style is described as a Sauternes or a mature Grave, which certainly has its merits, but the very long bottle aging in the Musar cellars further develops this Château Musar White. After bottle aging, the wine can even be kept for a good ten years—a truly unique achievement!
Château Musar Blanc is a Lebanese-style wine and one of the finest in the world. This white Château Musar has aromas of citrus with hints of honey. Beautifully ripe and developed on the palate, it's wonderfully honeyed and rich with notes of mango and nuts, a delightfully exotic, intense finish, and a bitter aftertaste. This white Musar from Lebanon is a powerful, dry white wine.
