A visit from Marc Hochar of Chateau Musar

Join us at the store on Monday, October 26th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm as we welcome Marc Hochar with the wines of Chateau Musar, the estate his grandfather founded in Lebanon in 1930.

Gaston Hochar started Musar after spending time in Bordeaux, building on a winemaking tradition in Lebanon that goes back thousands of years. His son Serge became winemaker in 1959 and spent nearly two decades refining the estate’s signature red. Musar reached a wide international audience in 1979, when Michael Broadbent championed the wines at the Bristol Wine Fair, even as Lebanon’s civil war disrupted production. Marc joined Musar in 2010 after twenty years in banking and asset management. His brother Gaston runs the winery day to day, while Marc handles international sales and finances. As he puts it, “My brother looks after the liquid, I look after the liquidity.”

The vineyards are in the Bekaa Valley, at roughly 1,000 meters between the Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges, on gravel over limestone. They have been farmed organically since the 1960s and were certified in 2006. Fermentation uses native yeasts, sulfur is kept to a minimum, and the wines are bottled without fining or filtration. Musar also holds its wines in its cellars until the family considers them ready, so its reds reach the market years after the harvest.

We'll be showing three vintages of the Rouge from very different growing seasons:

The 2003 followed a wet winter and a hot, dry summer, and was held about seven years before release. At twenty-three years old, it is approaching the age Marc names as his own desert island wine: any Musar Rouge past thirty.

The 2010 was a hard year. A dry winter with little snow gave way to a summer heat wave that reached 48.5°C and sharply reduced the crop. Cabernet was especially short, the wine was released late, and it has been sold by allocation.

The 2019, the current release, is an equal blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, and Carignan. It came after record winter rainfall that broke a run of dry years, spent a year in untoasted French oak, and rested four years in bottle at Ghazir.

The rest of the lineup:

2018 Blanc: Obaideh and Merwah from vines 50 to 90 years old at roughly 1,400 meters, fermented separately in French oak and held about seven years before release.

2020 Rosé: Produced only in select years, mostly from the same two indigenous white grapes, with a small amount of Bekaa Cinsault for color. Six years on, it is showing the dried citrus and spice of a rosé made to age.

2021 Hochar Père et Fils: The estate’s second red, from a single vineyard near Aana, released after four to five years of bottle age.