Lebanese
Last night I opened a bottle of Chateau Musar's Jeune Red from Lebanon; it's a blend of Cinsault (50%), Syrah (30%) and Cab Sauv (20%). This is slightly different from the Musar Red which has Carignan instead of Syrah. The grapes for the Jeune range (there is a white and rosé) come from young vineyards in the Bekaa valley at around 1000m. The wine is made to be more youthful than its big brother, so that it can be drunk now. It is a lovely wine; plenty of red fruit and a slight sweet spice hint with an almost violet hint from the Syrah. It is very easy to drink and would pair well with a huge variety of food.
But I can't talk about gorgeous off the wall wines without mentioning the big boy from Musar. It is quite possibly one of my favourite wines, but it most certainly isn't to everyone's taste...what I love about it is that no vintage is ever the same as the last. The hostile weather (and wars) have shaped Chateau Musar into a cult wine, with a very loyal following. The wine is smokey, leathery, with masses of baked fruit and cocoa. It is bottles unfined and unfiltered so in every bottle there will be quite a lot of sediment, so one should definitely decant this wine! I have a whole booklet for Musar that tells me about each vintage (should I be lucky enough to ever find some of the older vintages).
Musar also do a White, made from the native varieties Obaideh and Merwah - which are apparently ancestors of Chardonnay and Semillon! I love love LOVE this wine, probably because people always talk about it with such reverence. It is unlike ANY white wine on the planet, you will literally never taste anything like it. The vines are between 50-90 years old and are still on their original roots, still phylloxera-free! They are grown at 1300m in chalky soil in the Anti-Lebanon mountains.
The taste is reminiscent of a rich dry sherry with pears and honey with a gorgeous golden colour and a nose of honey and tropical fruit. This wine should be served (according to Chateau Musar) at 15 degrees (cellar cool) and would benefit from decanting! Wow! But both of these wines do not come cheap at around £20 for red and £25 for white, depending on vintage...but they are totally worth it!
Hungarian
Hungarian wine is also one of those things that people wouldn't ever think to try! There is a dry white wine made from Furmint that is absolutely lovely and has been made in the region for centuries (apart from when the communists owned everything). I've tried a few from different producers, but the one I like he most is from The Royal Tokaji Company (owned by Hugh Johnson). It has a beautiful nose of apricot, with a slight hint of honey on the nose. It has a really pleasant sharp minerality that pairs fantastically with any savoury food done in a creamy sauce. It is also great value at around £8-10.
But the most historically grounded wines is Hungary's Tokaji sweet wines...within Hungary, the region of Tokaji is well known for producing wines of superior quality since the 17th Century. In the 18th Century, Louis XV of France was given a bottle by the King of Transylvania and he liked it so much he referred to it as “Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum” (Wine of Kings, King of Wines) and from then on served it at court in Versailles.
On Queen Victoria's Birthdays, Emporer Frans Josef of Hungary gave her 1 bottle of Tokaji wine for every month she had lived, so on her final 81st Birthday, the gift was 972 bottles!
Napoleon III ordered 30-40 Barrels of Tokaji wine for the French court every year. Pope Pius IV ordered Tokaji wine to be the wine at the Papal table!
The sweet wines are produced by first making a base wine. Then baskets (puttons) of the botrytised grapes are added to this, the number of baskets added determines the sweetness. There are a few producers that make this style of wine, but I have only tasted RTC's offerings. Their 5 and 6 Puttonyos are fabulous; apricot, marmalade and caramel make for a glorious wine to end a dinner party in style!
...I'll discuss more in Part 2!
No comments:
Post a Comment