2000 Chateau Musar Bekaa Valley Lebanon 750 ml

Chateau Musar is often likened to the First Growths of Bordeaux and the great wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape—an apt comparison, but one that has its limits. After all, those great wines define their regions.

Musar, on the other hand, defines a nation. It’s one of the planet’s most celebrated and storied wines—a wine of place, whose impeccable quality puts it in great company, but whose unmistakable character makes it truly distinct. 

No wine is more fascinating than a beautifully mature Musar—one recent five-star reviewer poured our last offer (the ‘98) alongside an ‘03 Pontet-Canet and marveled at the similarities—which is why this wine is so irresistible. We’ve got the 2000 Musar, aged two decades in the winery’s cool cellars, coming straight from the estate to Wine Access members. That means all you have to do is order a few bottles, give them a little rest, then enjoy one of the world’s marquee wines in its absolute prime.

Every sip of aged Musar brims with a personality earned over decades in the cellar and backed by decades more of history. It’s hard to put a number on such a priceless experience—one of the world’s truly unique and inarguably great red wines, aged and delivered to your door with perfect provenance.

We’ll also be sending an ah-so opener with every order, to make uncorking this cellar treasure easy and worry-free. 

Past library selections from Chateau Musar have sold out on Wine Access repeatedly and quickly, and this one is bound to become one of the most engrossing selections in your entire cellar. We recommend planning ahead: Grab one to enjoy right away, and store a few to relish the evolution. 

Musar is one of the world’s most cherished estates, and this is their Grand Vin, a singular wine that combines the breadth and spice of a mature Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the balsamic-like aromatic lift of a well-aged Brunello, and the savory muscle of an aged Barolo. It’s the kind of bottle that demands a slow, measured experience, and in time reveals many expressions—along with an air of antiquity, thanks to its Fertile Crescent origins.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate has called Musar “iconic,” and we can’t think of a winery more deserving of that title. From their location 15 miles north of Beirut, Musar produces astoundingly complex and aromatic reds that are the equal of top Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux. It’s the standard-bearer of Middle Eastern wine—the only one poured at The French Laundry, and that has been on the list at Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, and countless other world-famous restaurants. 

Crafted by the late Serge Hochar, Decanter’s first Man of the Year (who passed away in 2015), Musar isn’t just about enology, but about life. It’s utterly unique, full of passion and surprises. 

The legend of Musar looms much larger than the world of wine. One of the most famous episodes involving Musar took place during the Lebanese civil war, when Hochar found himself in his Beirut apartment during an intense shelling. As shrapnel burst through the window on the floor below him, Hochar became certain that he was living his last night on Earth. So he opened a bottle of 1972 Musar, poured the wine into a Baccarat glass, and sipped it over the course of twelve intense hours. Finally, the attack ended. The next day, Hochar had one less bottle of Musar. But he still had his life, and the spirit that drove him to make wine, undeterred by the 15-year war that ravaged his country. That spirit lives on in every bottle of this storied wine.   

It doesn’t matter if you’re not familiar with Lebanese wines. The 2000 Chateau Musar is a serious Bordeaux collector’s dream bottle, and it has been safely cellared for decades at the château, where it’s been aging like a Left Bank beauty. Now softened in a way that only time can achieve, this mature library release is layered and fully integrated, giving off heady scents of dried Moroccan spices, sandalwood, and sweet incense.

Chateau Musar leapt onto the international scene in 1979, appraised by legendary Christie’s wine director Michael Broadbent as the “find” of the Bristol Wine Fair. Though it may have been a find, Musar was not a newcomer—they had been producing showstopping wine from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley since 1930. But Lebanon’s raging civil war forced them to find new markets internationally, and not long after they turned their focus abroad, the critics, sommeliers, and global wine community were all enthralled.

At Musar, 100-year-old vines of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, and Carignan benefit from 300 days of sunshine a year, cool nights, limestone soils, 4,000 feet of elevation—and, of course, their singular winemaking philosophy, the legacy of Serge Hochar. A natural winemaker long before it was trendy, Hochar embraced a non-interventionist approach, and that is apparent in Musar’s impossible-to-copy vivacity, energy, and earthiness.