2015 Chateau Musar Bekaa Valley Lebanon

Château Musar is one of the planet’s most celebrated and storied wines. 

It has graced the lists at The French Laundry, as well as Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, and countless other world-famous restaurants—and 2015 will no doubt go down as one of its greatest and most coveted bottlings.

That’s thanks to an extraordinary—and extraordinarily small—vintage. The iconic Lebanon winery was blessed with a warm spring and summer that continued right up through harvest, producing thick skins and tiny, intensely concentrated berries that delivered a wine of unusual depth and power. However, yields were down 65%, which means the world will have to make do with MUCH less Musar than usual. 

Musar leapt onto the international scene in 1979, appraised by Christie’s wine director Michael Broadbent as the “find” of the Bristol Wine Fair. Their old vines of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, and Carignan benefit from 300 days of sunshine a year, cool nights, limestone soils, 4000 feet of elevation, and, of course, their singular winemaking philosophy—the legacy of Serge Hochar. Long before it was trendy, Hochar embraced a non-interventionist approach, and it’s apparent in Musar’s impossible-to-copy vivacity, energy, and earthiness.

Musar is a wine of infinite detail and sophistication, and we could pick up this glass over the course of hours and not repeat a single descriptor. A red that ages with the character of Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux and top-quality Châteauneuf-du-Pape, you’ll want multiples of this in your cellar so you can watch them evolve over the next decade or two.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 13.50%
• 15 mins
• Now – 2035
• 34% Cabernet Sauvignon33% Carignan33% Cinsault
• Serving temperature – 62°
• Cork