Before this day I had never tasted his wines, but I did often encouter the name of his wine in magazines, books and friend's lips. It is not the kind of wine that brings unanimous comments on the quality and the style.
First I was impressed by Serge. This person is so passionnate about wine and he speaks with greate wisdom and interest about the topic. He seems to never get tired nor bored of explaining his relation with wine, the background of Musar and how it has evolved trough years with the changes in the winemaking.
It is interesting to note that 1996 was the first vintage he did use sulphur. Still it has less than 10mg per little. Volatil acidity is part of the Musar personnality. He does not deny it and tries to put it in balance with the wine which I believe is a success. Some knows beforehand that from analysis it has VA and will call it in the tasting as disturbing just because they know it is there, even if it does not show in the wine. 96 and 97 though at this moment are showing strong VA presence but none of the other 8 were. Serge told us to be indulgent with wines as he told us one exemple of 1959 of his white that was completly disgusting one night and the day after it was a perfect marvel. Same with one of his wine that I think is the 1984, he said it was so bad that he did not sell it on the market. But 23 years after, it is so good, just like a great Madeira, now he is delighted to have wait on this wine.
I'd say that Musar is a very classic styled wine. It is fresh, elegant, silky with sharp acidity, nicely grained tannins, dominated with fresh young red berries like cherries and rasberries, fresh herbs notes too. With age the fruit will become riper, candied, flavours of leather, spices, old wood and sandal wood, nuts, balsamic notes will mix into the blend.
Here is my order of preference of the tasting :
89,95,93,79,2000,98,91,97,90,96
Musar is a disting wine, it is not a crowd pleaser but a wine to intellectualise and meditate on. You need some background as a taster to fully appreciate and understand this wine, or a quick meeting with Serge Hochar
For the price, I can't think of a wine that will age and develop qualities over years like Musar can do. It is not a fantastic wines, lacking the layers of flavours and complexity great ones can build, but for the price it is delivering much more than one can ask for.Chapeau!