Chateau Musar

Last month, I went to Chateau Musar Tasting in San Francisco. I had no knowledge of wines from Lebanon. I didn't even know that they made wine there. It's almost amazing how one could be so ignorant...

Lebanon is actually considered to be one of the oldest countries of wine production, although wine making was prohibited during the Ottoman Empire era.
Because Jesuit missionaries brought grape vines and wine making methods from France in 19th century and the country was under French control in 20th century, there is strong French influence over the modern wine production in Lebanon (Wines of Lebanon).

Chateau Musar was founded by Gaston Hochar in 1930. After studying in France, Gaston's son, Serge, became their winemaker in 1959. Their wines were consumed mostly in the domestic market, but when the civil war broke out in 1975, they were forced to seek out oversea customers, and this led them to earn the high recognition in England in 1979.

Lebanon's two mountains provide enough water for vineyards, but it takes 3 hours by truck from the vineyards in Bekaa valley to Ghazir, the town more suitable for the winery. This long trip sometimes causes problems like grapes start to release their juice before the truck reaches the winery. Especially during the civil war, the road was blocked and they had to take a detour which took them extra days, or couldn't reach the vineyards so the grapes were harvested a month later.

When I tasted the wine, I felt that I could see those obstacles in it. And if I saw the problems in wine, it should have tasted problematic; however, to my surprise, the Chateau Muser tasted fantastic! It must be one of the magic which wine is supposed to possess that the hardship is sublimated into great wine.
This is a haunting wine that after a month I still try to explain what I saw there. My limited knowledge of wine terminology prevents me to describe Chateau Muser properly, but this wine was unique and charming, that I can't let go of.
One of the reason why I started this blog is this wine: I'm an old-fashioned person who doesn't even own a cell phone, but had to come out of my shell and start a digital life because I had to tell somebody about this wine.

Serge Hochar's son, Marc Hochar, gave an informative seminar. He said that he wasn't looking for a style in wine: what he wanted to see in wine were challenge and curiosity.
I guess I found them.