TN: Broadbent Selections (Musar, +++)

BROADBENT SELECTIONS (MUSAR, +++) - Western Reserve Wines (4/6/2017)

Last night a local wine store had a pop up tasting of Broadbent Selections. I met Bartholomew a few years back so I have paid attention to the portfolio. First,t here are a lot of great values, and second, it has Musar. One of the great wines of the world IMO and certainly one of the great stories. Yvonne Gallo, the regional rep was pouring and knowledgeable about the wines. It was a typical store stand around tasting over a couple of hours or so.
In the order initially tasted although I did go back for some second pours.

• NV Broadbent Vinho Verde - Portugal, Minho, Vinho Verde
  Sampled this from a few different bottles (yes, I hung around for a bit). The first had the secret code indicating a 2016 release and it was not quite as fresh and less spritz as later bottles of unknown release of course, it may have been opened for a while too. In the end all were 87-88 points and excellent values. Light gold in color with a bit of green. The nose has some green apples and bits of minerals. On the palate, the spritz is nice, but mild. Refreshing. Easy to drink. Some green apples. Nice finish. At $9 and 10%, this begs for summer evenings on the patio. (88 pts.)
• 2013 Broadbent Grüner Veltliner - Austria, Niederösterreich
  My first time trying this wine. It sells for $13 in a 1L bottle. That is an amazing deal, especially for a Gruner from Austria. Light golden in color. The nose is very nice with limes and a slight sweetness to the nose. some minerality. Enough acidity. On the palate, limes with a touch of asparagus on the finish. Very friendly wine. Not a lot of complexity, but not shallow either. Given that is is 4 years from vintage, this does not show any age (of course, i dont know what it was like young) that I would worry about for the next couple of years anyway. Seemed to be a crowd please. (89 pts.)
• NV Broadbent Vinho Verde - Portugal, Minho, Vinho Verde
  Everyone kept saying that they didn’t like Rose but this was not bad. It is definitely more than not bad, but I get what they meant. I don’t recall having a Vinho Verde Rose before. It is interesting. There is still the spritz, in fact, stronger than the white. No idea of the vintages used. Light pink in color with slight copper. On the nose, this has rhubarb and strawberries. No visible bubbles, but on the palate, a definite spritz. Refreshing. no bitterness. Not a lot of fruit on the palate, more mineral drive. Clean. At $10, another great value. (87 pts.)
• 2013 Chateau Musar Musar Jeune Red - Lebanon, Bekaa Valley
  I really liked this as the crowd seemed to. First time trying it and not what I expected. Deep ruby in color. The nose has some earthiness, bit of barnyard, black cherries, and some black raspberries. I was surprised to hear it saw no oak. It has a nice body to it. On the palate, plenty of black raspberries, dark cherries with a bit of earth. Nice acidity. $25 it is well worth the money vis a vis similar wine around the globe. I will need to revisit this one again. (91 pts.)
• 2011 Chateau Musar Hochar Père & Fils - Lebanon, Bekaa Valley
  My first time trying this wine as well. I was a bit underwhelmed, especially after the 13 Jeune. Its a solid wine for sure and may need some time. Deep ruby in color. The nose has cherries and slight spice. On the palate, medium bodied. Cherries and some darker cherries. It seemed to lack the depth I expected, but maybe not in a great place right now? Who knows. Certainly a fine to drink but my expectations were higher. (88 pts.)
• 2008 Chateau Musar - Lebanon, Bekaa Valley
  I used to buy these regularly but they sort of fell off the radar. I need to correct that (and indeed I bought a bottle). $55. This is pretty tight right now. It seems to be the current vintage. Deep ruby in color. The nose has dark cherries, some cassis, slight spice, some merde and a bit of dry earth/dust. On the palate, there is a nice juiciness to it. Firm tannins and tightly packed. I let it sit in my glass for a long time and it slowly opened, but this needs some time. It seems to have the pieces parts. It will need to be well stored, so it is worth buying now to lay down in a good cellar. Certainly a couple points of upside here. (92 pts.)
• 2015 Dr. Hermann Riesling H - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
  I was excited to try another 2015 Mosel. My first time trying this producer. For $15, it is fairly priced but this is pretty sweet almost cloying. Light golden in color. The nose has peaches and a slight sugary note but also a bit of slate/minerals. Slightly viscous. On the palate, this is very sweet. 46.2RS I would prefer to have more acidity countering it, but this said it had 9.3TA. A good wine for your friends who only drink sweet wines. For me, a little went a long way, but I would be happy to start an evening off with it. At this tasting, it was served last and that isn’t a bad idea either. I noticed people buying it, so that is perhaps the best judgment. (88 pts.)
• 1999 Chateau Musar - Lebanon, Bekaa Valley
  I brought this along and as the evening neared the end, it was brought out and popped, decanted and consumed by those of us who stayed. On decanting, i was worried as the VA was noticeable. That blew off quickly. There was some bottle stink, but that also blew off quickly. This bottle was everything one would want in a mature(ish) Musar. deep ruby in color. The nose is gorgeous with cassis, cherries, cigar box, slight merde and funk and earthiness. On the palate, the tannins are slight but present, the fruit is fresh with just a bit of dried notes. There are layers of depth and complexity. Great acidity. Wonderful texture. Nice finish. Very Bordeaux like as well. It’s awlays great to hit a wine at peak and although this will probably have years left, it sure seems damn close to peak. At 18 years from vintage, I don’t see it getting better. (95 pts.)

That was both fun and satisfying. Thanks to all.
Posted from CellarTracker

Thanks for the notes! Agree that broadbent vinho verde is awesome qpr and it’s great you got to try a bunch of Musars. No Whites in the mix though?

I love the 08 and 99 as young Musars. I think both can become great with more age.

Thanks for the notes!!

I love the Musar!!

Broadbent’s portfolio, across the board, is pretty solid at all price points from what I’ve tried. Musar, Crasto, and Ferreira/Casa Ferrerinha being my top three favorites.

The Musar Pere et Fils is often a good pointer to the Musar that will follow a couple of years later, so it might be a vintage thing as much as a label thing. Generally the Pere et Fils is a little lighter and a little safer, though the Musar is more domesticated than it used to be.

Actually the '99 has been a bit slow to mature relative to neighboring vintages. Musar tends to undergo an inflection point around 15 years, where the primary fruit drops out and a sort of tertiary fruit emerges (which you are starting to taste in the '99). The bizarre thing is that this tertiary fruit intensifies over time. If you get a good older bottle, it can seem to overwhelm the younger bottles in a vertical. I’ve seen the '81 dwarf the '94 and '99. And I’ve seen the '72 be more intense than the '95, which in turn was more intense than the '99.

My working theory is that after the primary fruit drops out, Musar creates a sort of fruit-illusion with VA, oxidative notes, and tertiary fruit. Crazy, I know, but it’s the best working model I have for what happens with age.

The '99 was powerful and primary much longer than most vintages. The 2000, 2001, '98, '96, and '95 all turned their inflection several years younger than the '99. For example, the '95 was quite tertiary around 2009 (14 yrs) and has continued to develop and intensify. The '99 only started to inflect this year (17 years), and as recently as last year, some bottles seemed almost diminished, since the primary fruit had dropped but the tertiary fruit hadn’t emerged yet.

Very interesting. I haven’t tasted many Musar vintages on release, except for the most recent sequence ('07, '08, '09) and I’ve found all of them Musarian (ripe black and red fruit, oxidation, brett, slight new oak, etc.) but of course super primary. They roughly match what I remember of the '99, or at least I can’t definitively recall the '99 being more sauvage. Do you think there are changes at the winery as of late? When I’ve talked with Marc Hochar, it seems almost nothing has changed.

Hi Rajiv
Earlier vintages (than 1999) were a bit more wild than what we commonly see today - or maybe I’ve become accustomed to it!
regards
Ian

Hah, I laughed when I read that last part because I’ve thought the same. In reality I think it’s hard to really nail it down as they can be so different depending on the vintage itself. Perhaps one of the very few examples where a winemaker totally lets them be as they are each year and that churns out some wildly different experiences when young and even more so when they get older.

This is also one of the few producers where I prefer to taste younger to older. As mentioned, even in their tertiary states the older ones can trump the younger ones. That’s something I rarely, if ever, do with any other producer.

Love the 1999 Musar
And it is (still) a bargain

Absolutely agree on both points. Younger to older, and reds before whites!

Yay Musar!
That is all.

The thing that most amazes me about thes wines is that back vintages to the 90s are easily found in UK for under US$30. It’s nuts.

Hi Joe
Please let me know where.
It’s typical for the most recent 3-4 vintages to stay around release price, but then Musar seem to release museum stock at higher prices to encourage retailers to up the price of any old stock.
regards
Ian

Did they pour the riesling b/w the two Musars? That seems like a recipe for failure IMO.

No, they didn’t. After the tasting was almost over, I went out to my car and brought this in (from my cellar). I didn’t bring it earlier as I didn’t want people to not buy the wines being shown becfause they might like this better. Also, I wasn’t sure if it was allowed (and there were 30 people so everyone wouldn’t get any). As the crowd size got down to about a dozen, someone else (a different sales rep who had wine left at the end of the day) added some other wines so I asked the store owner if it would be ok to bring this in too.