TN: 1998 Chateau Musar (Lebanon, Bekaa Valley)

WINE TALK
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  • 1998 Chateau Musar - Lebanon, Bekaa Valley (8/3/2025)
    Purchased though a local retail store that had received for an event directly from the winery. Above shoulder. The cork was brittle, but came out with only a little crumble thanks to a Durand. Cannot imagine trying to get this out with anything else.

    Decanted for 1 hour. At 27 years, this wine is a translucent brownish red and I would not have guessed the presence of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend based on the color. Though the bricking is evident, it is oddly not showing a normal amount of fading to the rim. If I were to receive this blind, I would be thinking Brunello or Barolo at 10 years based on appearance alone.

    This is a very aromatic wine with expressive dried cherry, sweet bbq, cassis, sandalwood, subtle vanilla and hints of manure and flint on the bouquet. There is an ingratiating brettiness that adds to this complex nose. It smells wonderful and once again, it's throwing me a curve in that if served blind, I am thinking this is a Cinsault or Oregon Pinot Noir with a lot of age. The high Cinsault vintage is pretty evident on the nose.

    This is a delicious wine. Elegant and yet somehow delivering an unctuous mouthfeel -- this successfully walks a fine line between precise and silky. Lots of dried bing cherry, plum and cassis, sandalwood, cardamom, and orange peel. Medium alcohol, high acidity, medium body and a very long finish. This is in a great spot and a great value if you can find it. (96 points)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Thanks for the note! Just picked up a bottle of this.

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Thanks for the TN. It’s nice wine but I feel the 99 edges it

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Same wine was poured blind at a dinner recently. I pegged it as a Bordeaux blend and considered Musar but refused to make the call because it lacked VA… and I’d stopped drinking Musar a long time ago because of the rampant VA many bottles have. This was spectacular and VA-free though. Maybe I should start again.

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I just drank this last month! Was fantastic. Tasted a bit like Christmas. Very Burgundian with completely resolved tannins. VA and Brett very balanced and low level (although I love VA so I’m maybe not the best judge).

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Modern Musars seem to have toned down the brett somewhat. You’ll still find it but not in heaps like in their older wines. I know some old timers might say that’s what makes Musar Musar, but I like it in moderation.

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This indeed. I find 2003 to be the last truly bretty vintage.

Of course I’ve had occasionally some bretty vintages younger than 2003, and not all bottles of 2003 have been particularly bretty. However, after having drunk quite many Musars, I find 2003 to be the last vintage where ome might encounter some brett, and not just a tiny suggestion, but actually quite a bit of it.

When it comes to VA, I find 1995 to be the last vintage where the level of VA was consistently simply rampant. After that there have been some vintages where the levels of VA have been a bit higher (like the 2006), but even if VA is more or less always there in Musars (after all, that is one of the elements that make it easy to identify a Musar in a blind tasting), very rarely if ever it gets high enough to be particularly noticeable.

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Hi Otto - What are the top Musar vintages in your opinion given your extensive sampling?

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With some Musars it’s hard to say, as my experience with them have been only one single bottle. However, I’ve loved 1979, 1988 and 1989 enormously - 1989 is still probably the greatest red Musar I’ve tasted.

1995 is atypically high in VA (for a Musar!) but still an excellent vintage. One just has to embrace VA to love it.

1997 has been notoriously wild in bottle variation and my TNs are all over the place. It is excellent when it is at its best, but not particularly great when it is not. Ditto for 1998, but it is not as extreme.

1999 is probably the best 1990’s vintage.

For the 00’s vintages, 2005 is the best; closely followed by 2003 and 2008. Conversely, 2007 has always been quite lousy and I don’t understand the Cellartracker TNs that say it is a great, classic vintage of Musar, because it most certainly isn’t. 2006 has been somewhat weird and I guess there was a good reason why the held back the release for such a long time.

For the 10’s vintages, 2013 has shown the most promise. All bottles I’ve tasted have been great, albeit still way too young. 2010 is another very promising vintage, but there seems to be quite a bit bottle variation with the levels of VA - some have been a bit too high in VA, while others have been superb. Basically the only vintages I’ve not loved have been 2012 (way too ripe, sweet and porty) and 2011 (not bad, just not particularly impressive). All the other vintages have been very good and full of promise - however, anything younger than 2013 have seemed to be too young to assess fully, because I think red Musar needs at least 10 years from the vintage before you really start to see how the vintage is really shaping up.

As for the whites, 1992 is probably the best I know. 1990, 1991 and 1997 are extraordinary as well - at least based on one single bottle each.

1998 and 1999 have been variable, but excellent when they are in great shape.

2001 is quite heavy and a bit low in acidity for a white Musar, but nonetheless an outstanding vintage for such a rich and substantial wine. However, as it was with the reds, I’d say 2003 and 2005 are the best white vintages on this side of the millennium. 2006, 2009 and 2014 show good promise, too.

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Thanks Otto. Super helpful as usual. :+1:

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Interestingly, I’ve had many bottles of the '95 here in the US over the years, and they haven’t had particularly high VA. I also consider it a top vintage.

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Quite interestingly, since I’ve seen even the winery themselves say it was a vintage that had somewhat elevated levels of VA compared to the normal style!

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For example this excerpt is from Chateau Musar: The Story of a Wine Icon.

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Yeah, I’ve seen you mention that and haven’t doubted it. A fellow Musar fanatic and I have found differences between official US imports (Broadbent) and wines sourced in the UK and Europe. We’ve been able to compare many vintages from multiple sources. Of course, there can be a lot of bottle variation anyway, but this is such a pattern that I think there’s something to it. I even had a great bottle of 1995 about a year ago, and while it had a classic Musar wildness, the VA didn’t stand out to anyone.

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Alright! This is news to me; of course bottle variation with Musar is simply A Thing, but I didn’t know there have been such consistent differences between the US imports and the stuff we have around here. To my knowledge, I’ve never had a US-imported Musar, so I wouldn’t know!

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I just opened a ‘98, opened an hour or two before first pour.

Dried rose almost potpourri scent coming straight of the glass. Light leather, sweet licorice and cinnamon on the nose. Red fruit cherry and leather notes on the palate. A testament to Musar. Mine was (near) flawless compared to other bottles of the ‘98 I have opened. Wonderful accompaniment to Lamb Tajine 94/100

The more of these 90’s Musar I open the more and more I become overcome by a sense of sadness that I cannot have more. I recently opened one of my last ‘99s and that one for me is a Musar Masterpiece….

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Agreed on 1999 and loving how several vintages from the '90s are showing. There are so many good vintages in there. The prices have kept me away since I bought everything on release for so little, but you might know that Musar does a lot of library releases, so if it’s worth it to you, you can probably find some of these vintages with great provenance from time to time.

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Looking back, I paid 32€ for the 1999 Musar (same price for ‘98), which given what I know now I should have stocked up even more (bought 12 at the time)…

I’m not even sure what these go for now, but would imagine it’s significantly more. But at its original price it cannot be beat for value in my humble opinion…… Not sure I would be willing to fork over five fold now…

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I understand and agree, even though I think the 1999 is worth $100-$150, for what it is today.

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Yeah 1999 is my favourite 90’s Musar. I find 1999 a significant step up from 1998 which is also good. Thankfully I have 12 bottles left to enjoy.