Château Musar takes its name from the 18th-century castle of M’Zar, in the town of Ghazir, 25 kilometres north of Beirut.  Musar was established by Gaston Hochar (1910-1972) in 1930, who, aged just 20, saw a market for red Bordeaux-style wines to supply French soldiers stationed in Lebanon.  During WWII, Gaston became friends with Ronald Barton, of Château Leoville-Barton (who was at that time stationed in Lebanon as an army officer).  Their conversations and friendship further convinced Gaston of the potential for Musar to become the ‘Lafite of Lebanon’.

Gaston’s son Serge (1939-2014) went to study winemaking at the University of Bordeaux and took over as cellar master as Musar in 1959.  His bother Ronald (named after Ronald Barton, perhaps?) took on finance and marketing.  Advised by the Barton family, Musar began ageing its wines in French oak barrels in the mid-1950s.

Musar’s extraordinarily close relationship with the UK began in 1979, when Michael Broadbent hailed the 1967 as the ‘find of the fair’.  From the mid-late ‘70s onwards, Serge Hochar became famous for continuing to produce wine during the Lebanese crisis and the civil war which raged into the 1980s.  Grapes were harvested as Syrian tanks rolled through the vineyards and the journey to transport the fruit to Musar’s winery took them through minefields.  The only vintages in which no wine at all was produced were 1976 and 1984.  This helped to build Musar’s legend in the UK.  We can recall Musar being an institution with wine merchants and their customers in the City by the 1990s. Gaston Hochar (b. 1966) took over the running of Musar in 1994.

Musar does not have its own vineyards but buys the grapes from long-term contract grape growers in the Bekaa Valley, where there are around thirty other wineries.  The Roman Temple of Bacchus in the Bekaa Valley (home to Musar's vineyards) is a reminder that grapes have been grown here for more than five thousand years, pre-dating viticulture in Bordeaux by three millennia!  Ralph Hochar describes the style of Musar as not 'New World' or 'Old World' but 'Ancient World'.  Temperatures in the Bekaa can be high, but cool air from the surrounding Anti-Lebanon Mountains help to maintain a balance.  The location of the valley, just a few kilometres from the border with Syria, is an amazing testament to the complex cultural melting-pot of Lebanon.  Although around two-thirds of the country are Muslim, winemaking is tolerated and pride taken in the wines the country produces.  When ISIS controlled the parts of Syria immediately across the border, Hezbollah militants protected the border and Bekaa…yet another example of what a miracle it is that this wine exists at all!

The vineyards supplying Musar cover a total of 130 hectares on gravelly slopes with lime subsoil at an average altitude of 1,000 metres above sea level. The extremely low yields are limited to a maximum of 25 hectolitres per hectare. The grapes are still transported about a hundred kilometres from the Bekaa Valley to the winery.

The red wines are made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan Noir (Mazuelo), Cinsault, Grenache Noir (Garnacha Tinta), Mourvèdre (Monastrell) and Syrah. Château Musar itself is a blend of Cinsault, Carignan Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, matured for 12 months in French barriques and in bottle for four years.  White Chateau Musar is made from Obeïdi (thought to be a clone of Chardonnay) and Merwah (Sémillon). The wines are usually bottled without fining or filtration. 600,000 to 700,000 bottles of wine are produced each year, 80% of it exported.  The UK accounts for around half of this, the rest being exported to 60 different countries around the world. Musar also has extensive reserves of older vintages for sale, dating back to the 1954.  These are stored in their cellar at M’Zar and are reconditioned and recorked as required.