wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected.
For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.

Log in Become a Member

Château Musar

The winery, which has its headquarters in the 18th-century country castle of Mzar (from which the winery takes its name) in the town of Ghazir, 25 kilometres north of Beirut in Lebanon, was founded by the Frenchman Gaston Hochar (1910-1972) in 1930. From 1959, his son Serge (1939-2014), educated at the University of Bordeaux, was cellar master and his brother Ronald (*1944) was responsible for finance and marketing. With the advice of the Barton family, ageing in French oak was introduced in the mid-1950s. The winery suddenly became famous overnight at the 1979 wine fair in Bristol, England, when all tasters rated its red wine very highly. This paved the way for further successes and brought Lebanese wine and Serge Hochar the highest recognition worldwide. He became a heroic legend when he continued to produce wine during the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s, even though Syrian tanks were in the vineyards (only in 1976 and 1984 there was no harvest due to the war). After the harvest, the grapes had to be transported through minefields.

Château Musar - Weingutsgebäude

Since 1994, Gaston Hochar (*1966), the third generation of the family, has been in charge. The winery does not have its own vineyards, but buys the grapes from long-term contract vintners. Both the planting and the cultivation or care of the vines are carried out according to strict guidelines or conditions under the supervision of the winery. The widely scattered vineyards cover a total of 130 hectares of vineyards 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 have to be transported about a hundred kilometres from the Bekaa Valley to the winery.

The red wines are made from the French varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan Noir (Mazuelo), Cinsault, Grenache Noir (Garnacha Tinta), Mourvèdre (Monastrell) and Syrah. The flagship is the long-lived red wine "Château Musar" made from Cinsault, Carignan Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, which matures for 12 months in French barriques. Before marketing, it is stored in the bottle for another four years. The white "Chateau Musar" is made from the varieties Obeïdi (probably Chardonnay clone) and Merwah (Sémillon). The wines are usually bottled without fining or filtration. It also produces arrack called "L'Arack de Musar". 600,000 to 700,000 bottles of wine are produced annually. Of this, 80% is exported, half to the UK, 10% to North and South America and 50% to the rest of the world.

Voices of our members

Hans-Georg Schwarz

As honorary chairman of the Domäne Wachau, it is the easiest and quickest way for me to access the wein.plus encyclopaedia when I have questions. The certainty of receiving well-founded and up-to-date information here makes it an indispensable guide.

Hans-Georg Schwarz
Ehrenobmann der Domäne Wachau (Wachau)

The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

26,379 Keywords · 46,984 Synonyms · 5,323 Translations · 31,713 Pronunciations · 202,114 Cross-references
made with by our author Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer. About the Lexicon

EVENTS NEAR YOU

PREMIUM PARTNERS