Musar (Broadbent vs. other importers)

I’m mentioning this because I’d like to create a discussion with some of you that know Musar well…and hopefully some who have more experience than I with tasting the wines from multiple importers. I know there’s a growing grey market for all wines in demand in an effort to reduce the price. However, this is one place where I don’t budge. If Broadbent didn’t import the Musar…I’m not buying.


All the “Meh” bottles of Musar that I’ve had were imported from someone other than Broadbent…and I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed this that likes Musar too. I don’t know if it’s how the wines are imported or something else like refrigerated containers, refrigerated trucks, barrel selection, or something else all together. What I do know is that the “other” bottles of Musar I’ve opened from different importers don’t have the “soul” that Musar does…often tasting like a shadow of what I know the wines can be. I’ve experienced this with multiple vintages (1982, 1989, 1991, & 2001). Of those vintages the 1982 is the only one that I didn’t have experience with a bottle that was imported by Broadbent to compare against. So I thought I’d start a conversation…in the hopes that someone here will share their experiences to see if we can figure out what’s going on…

I’ve always thought of Musar as quite a ‘robust’ wine, so would be surprised to think of it as overly delicate to storage/transport… however if Brett is a problem for you, then seeking confirmed refrigerated handling at all stages of the process may appeal.

Despite the belief of it being robust, there does seem to be variablity, but that includes wines from the same source / cellaring conditions.

Musar is seen a fair bit on the secondary market here, though much remains ‘in-bond’ so the differences between temperature controlled professional storage and Musar’s own cellars should be negligible. Musar themselves also widely release back vintages, and one senses this is a useful ‘price-setting’ tool for them, to help drive up the perception (and thus make it a reality) that the wines become rapidly more expensive with age.

What would irk me if I was living in the US, is that we get Musar sourced wines through various merchants and supermarkets in the UK at much cheaper prices than you have to pay through what sounds like a single ‘official’ route. I thought the US was the land of the free market (yes I do know about the appalling protectionist nature of the dsitribution chain there).

regards
Ian

Since Musar often has a lot of VA, I think that would also make it vulnerable to high temperatures, as well.

Yes, prices in the U.K. Are a lot lower than the US. The same can be said for Cantillon…but I think there might be a bit more greed in the US chain than in other places. I was hoping some folks had also noticed this…but then, I’ve always been sensitive to some perceived flaws in wines.

Broadbent is awesome and I always prefer them, but if there are affordable bottles on the secondary market - especially older vintages - I’ll often take the chance. I agree with Ian that Musar is more resilient than most. Some of the best bottles I’ve tasted had made a cross-country journey in my car, spending weeks at 90-100f in the summer. I’ve had a particularly bad experience with some bottles from JJ Buckley of unclear provenance from the late 80’s and early 90’s - both white and red. They seemed muted and off somehow.

Maybe time to start asking the other merchants about provenance

Said jokingly, as they’ll argue they need to protect their sources, but if you explain why, the ones that bought IB in the UK may be happy to declare the wine went from Musar to IB storage and hadn’t moved from there until they bought and shipped it.

Yes, free to charge whatever the hell you want. Remember, we have more (and higher paid) lawyers than you Europeans!

Interesting thread. I usually buy Musar when visiting London as the prices here in Canada are outrageous.

FWIW I brought back 6 bottles from Beirut last time I was there and they sat in my suitcase in the garage for like 4 days after I got back and it was summertime…have drank 3 so far and they have all been fantastic, though I’ll note I ALWAYS decant for a minimum of 90 minutes and it does wonders.

I was there for the underwhelming bottle of 1991 recently. We did give it plenty of air, but I didn’t see any significant improvement. Without much experience with great bottles of older Musar, I could easily see thinking that was an impressive bottle. Knowing what it could have been, it was not. It was a nice older wine, but not a special wine. I didn’t notice any excessive VA or brett (for Musar); something was just lacking for what should be a very good vintage. Since Kirk is starting to notice a pattern (and he has a LOT of experience with Musar), I’m very interested to know if this might be a supply chain or batch issue. It’s tough to come up with any theories with the absence of any noticeable flaws, but almost every bottle of Musar I’ve had with that much age on it was far better than this one.

Doug…just a reminder, but you were there for the '82 and the '89 as well…it’s probably been so long you don’t remember. The '82 was last summer…the '89 maybe a few months before June last year.

Oh, yeah! I do remember the '89 now that you mention it, and having probably too-high expectations of the '82 because Musar of that age can be so magical. It is strange to find nothing noticeably wrong with these and yet not to find them showing very well. I really do wonder now if Broadbent might be selecting certain lots or barrels, or what is going on. Have you had bottles from other sources that have been excellent?

It would be interesting to know if this is from barrel selection or something like chilled trucks for transportation to a temp controlled shipping CONEX. Or is it just poor storage from another importer? The wines never smell or taste cooked…and I’ve had plenty of those leaking 94’s with faulty corks that were this side of spectacular…but I am far more hesitant to buy offers I see now for 98’s & 99’s despite thinking that they’re great vintages.

Yeah, the best US pricing on back vintages is definitely grey market at this point. I’d take one amazing bottle over two that are just good, so this whole thing makes me very curious.

I opened a bottle of 1988 a few days ago. It was grey market (not Broadbent). It was a nice aged Musar, but not on the level that I would expect from this vintage. There were no overt flaws. It did show a bit more advanced that I would expect at this age, so a cork issue is a possibility, but it held up well on day 2, so there was certainly no major oxidation problem.

Bottle variation is a factor with Musar, which considering everything else about the wine, is unsurprising.

Absolutely, but there does seem to be a pattern emerging here with some consistency. Despite the bottle variation that does exist, I’ve found older bottles that come through Broadbent to be more consistently excellent than most other wines at 25-30+ years of age. This could all be coincidence, but I think it’s worth collecting more information because I’m starting to think it is not. I’m assuming most other bottles would be coming through the UK. It would be very interesting to do a tasting with a few side by side comparisons of UK vs. Broadbent sourced bottles of the same vintages.

As an internet buyer in the US, how would you know if the bottles are Broadbent or not?

Please tell me how any of you have even heard of Musar wines and what enticed you to try them? And, what do they offer?

You would have to see the back label with their importer info on it. If it’s not there they didn’t import it.

Full disclosure first: I know Bart and some of his employees. That said, as someone who drinks a fair amount of different wines/Ports Broadbent Selections imports here in the States, from the producers themselves at point of origin and in the past having bought some of those same wines gray market here in the States, I can state that I’ve also seen some slight quality differences in non-Broadbent bottles. I can only assume it was storage issues somewhere along the way during the gray marketing process. Of course, I’ve also had good bottles of gray market wines as well.

As for Musar specifically. There was a period of time that Musar filled the bottles to different levels to see how they would age differently. IIRC off the top of my head I think it was around the 1991-1994 time frame (need to go find my notes, so that may be off a bit and someone correct me if wrong). Anyways, that is why you can get a bit of bottle variation (and also fill levels) in certain vintages of his wines.

Regardless, in my experience there can be issues with gray market wines and it’s a good reason to stick to official channels to get your wine. Even if it’s a small uptick in price.