Château Musar Red, 2017

In their youth, Chateau Musar Reds are dense and richly-textured, with intense ‘baked fruit’ characters: plums, damsons, cranberries, cherries, figs and dates. Bordeaux grape Cabernet Sauvignon lends black fruit flavours; Rhône grapes Cinsault and Carignan contribute fragrance (violets; pepper) and supple spiciness. Either set of qualities might dominate a particular vintage, but the style is always emphatically Lebanese: enticingly aromatic, with persistent fruit flavours.

"Marvellously warm Mediterranean fruits on the nose, would be autumnal but for their vigorous presence, as rich and robust as expected on the palate, almost the essence of Lebanon in the glass with rich spice and cooling breezes, the dry herby fruit flows with energy over the palate before giving way to a finish that confirms the structure, fruit and tannins blending in exuberantly with intriguing hints of much more to come in the next decade."
Steven Spurrier, January 2020

"[...]one of the best young Musars we have tasted. Already drinkable for its richness and sweet fruit, but don't underestimate its ability age: this has 3 decades of development ahead of it."
Richard Ballantyne MW, April 2020