TNS: 2000 Chateau Leoville Barton, 1999 Chateau Musar

I decided to check in on a 2000 Chateau Leoville Barton given the recent thread showing some ups and downs. Well, this bottle was all up. Took about an hour to open in a decanter, but it really showed well all night at that point. Lovely Bordeaux perfume of rich dark cassis, a little barn funk, and some developing nuances of leather and tobacco. Full bodied on the palate, still a bit chewy, but coming into its own. A lovely, warm rich expression with a fairly broad range of the fruit color spectrum from red to darks. Not a great Leoville Barton for the vintage, and not one that I would chase at current pricing, but quite fine in its own right (92 pts.)

The 1999 Chateau Musar was lovely. Once you blew off some of that VA these bottles always seem to throw. And itā€™s still barnsy, horsey, but in an intoxicating perfumed sort of way. Like east meets west, Bordeaux meets Chateauneuf. Meat market meets a fruit market meets a spice market. An odd but convincing blending of things that produce a product that is intriguing, unique. Light colored and lithe, but still packing considerable punch on the palate. Creamy, yet high acid and spicey. Pure ripe fruit mixed with dried fruits and spices. Dried meats and leather. And that omnipresent, sexy scent of something taboo. Like a Moroccan bazaar. Perhaps like a tryst at the bazaar. And yes, a bit bizarre. (93 pts.)

Thanks for the 2000 LBarton data point. I havenā€™t had since release but have a bunch in storage.

Robert: This makes me happy to own 1/2 case 2000 Leoville Barton, which I havenā€™t yet touched.

And I love your Musar description. The 1999 is, in my view, just coming into its own.

Good to hear! I think I was one of the recent disappointed TNs, but I have one bottle in my cellarā€¦

Love the LB, but the Musar is not something I can understand. Every bottle I have had has been flawed, and usually in several different ways.

True story: I bought a bottle of Musar at one of Tom Collichioā€™s places in NYC and, although I am loath to complain about wine in a restaurant, it was so bad I had no choice. Told the wine guy it was thick with reek and VA and he looked at me as if to say ā€œyes, and?ā€ Like, he was waiting for me to tell him what was wrong with the wine because I ordered Musar and WTF did I expect?

+1

I just had the 1999 Musar last night from a 375, and Alfertā€™s TN nails it. I tried it based on the noise from this board, and man it was killer. I donā€™t know how much was psychological (a recent blind tasting reminded me how much I project when I know the label), but this was such an intriguing blend of Bordeaux and Chateauneuf, and yes, exotic.

Neal, what a bummer all your bottles have been flawed. On the label of my '99 they explicitly warned of a brittle cork, seems they know these bottles are finicky.

Perfect Musar TN! [cheers.gif]

You ordered Musar, WTF did you expect? I think we should get T-shirts made that say that.

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You would think that Musar is right in my wheelhouse. Alfert is known to love the funky and feral: Levet. Raffault. Barral. Sociando. Et al. And yet, I have more often tended not to like this wine, or it just falls flat. Iā€™ve had bottles that were technically proper, but just didnā€™t wow me. I have also had wines that were just tainted. I have bought with trepidation. I had a 2004 last year that was damn good. So when Iā€™m out with the family last night having fun before the J-Lo concert - yes getting ready for the funk, and she used that term, in addition to ā€œbooty,ā€ countless times - Musar seemed like the right choice. Like a booty call.

I call over the Sommelier. I knew that they had just held a small dinner party with multiple vintages of Musar, so presumably they sourced from quality and have been happy with their stash. She raved about the ā€˜99. This Board has raved about it. I told her my experiences with Musar, and flat out asked her, if it is off, may I sent it back. I really was not asking a question, though, more like a nice statement. She was cool about it.

The wine soared. It really did. I have some more coming now.

The 99 Musar is pretty killer. Bought a bunch for $38 direct imported from U.K. back in 2012, all have been terrific.

Wish i could have gotten it for $38. Sigh. One of the few wines I have a full case of, and I love it. Iā€™ve brought out bottles on occasion but twice, with different audiences of wine-interested-but-wine-novice professional dinner crowds, bought it off the list. Once at No. 9 Park in Boston and once at Bourbon Steak in DC. Both times we ended up going through multiple bottles because the crowd loved it so much.

Iā€™ve had several dozen bottles of Musar, and maybe two that were off (a 1995 half bottle that was oxidized, and a 1998 that was bretty). The rest have all been great.

I donā€™t say that to dispute anyone elseā€™s experiences, and maybe Iā€™m just less sensitive to some things than others, but Iā€™ve definitely not found it to be a crapshoot at all.

I tend to like funk and barnyard, but a few tries with Musar years ago didnā€™t go well and has kept me away since. I should give it another try.

Glad to hear the 2000 Leoville Barton is starting to show some tertiary character. Time to dip into the stash.

Iā€™m funk and flavors-of-dirt tolerant, maybe even highly tolerant as I enjoy those elements in moderation (though Iā€™ve had plenty of wines I found too bretty, including a recent bottle of the 83 Talbot that needed a biohazard label on it).

For me the potential issue with Musar isnā€™t brett or exotic nuances, it is the VA, which can be epic, soaring from glass like a freshly opened can of rubber cement or nail polish remover. Combined with the sweetness of the fruit, this can give off-bottles a real torpedo juice taste.

Peculiar stuff.

I like red Musar - it is so exotic in taste compared to everything else I normally drink.

Popped another one last night. Finishing it off tonight.

These are very distinct, idiosyncratic wines. Like trying to capture a mirage. Like flowing sands in a desert. Moving, shifting, teasing.

Corey once told me, ā€œI generally find Musar more interesting than great.ā€ I concurred.

In fact, I concurred last night. This wine simply did not show like it did a month ago, note above. It was that proverbial mirage giving me a glimpse - or in this case, a whiff - of something wonderful, but when I reached down for the refreshing liquid, it evaporated.

Tonight, this wine is glorious. Such a hedonistic, spicy, decadent bouquet, but not in the Parker lexicon, but instead, in a Middle-Eastern exotic hint of way. The palate is so uniquely refreshing, incredibly vibrant acids and intensity of red fruits, indian spice, resin, pipe tobacco, sweaty saddle leather, old musky barn planks, and finishes with crisp blood orange rind. An almost bitter sweet finish. Tannins resolved, the structure all fruit acid.

Really excellent. Sexy stuff.

The 1999 Musar rouge is a flat out sensational, uber complex wine* from a unique producer. Best vintage of Musar Iā€™ve tried from 1995 to 2005. And unlike some other vintages of Musar, Iā€™ve had no off bottles of the 1999 from the 7 or 8 Iā€™ve consumed. Best of all, it is wide open and drinking great, even though Musarheads will say itā€™s best days are still to come (Iā€™m holding some back just in case).

*Musar will never speak to some palates of course, no matter how strong the vintage.

This thread inspired me to open a 2000 Musar last night. Which was kinda right down the middle, in Musar terms. MUCH more sediment than I would usually get from Musar. A quick decant helped. And restrained ā€“ much more so than 1999 ā€“ though not necessarily ā€œdevelopedā€. A somewhat sleepy middle age. Not so feral as Musar can be; a bit more bitter cherry that made me think of rioja. Still quite enjoyable, needless to say.

For this tippler Musarā€™s food versatility is another of its greatest qualities ā€“ though, like most wines, the cuisine of its homeland tends to bring out its best. Undoubtedly kufta rather than flatiron steak would have helped it.

Although I have probably consumed, and currently own, more Musar than anything else, I have never quite been able to articulate its appeal nearly as eloquently as others have done here. I agree with most of what has been written above, though in drinking several dozen bottles in the past dozen or so years I have not experienced the bottle variation others have described. What I have noticed fairly frequently, though, has been some degree of vintage variation (the joke is about the shells from never-ending war, but I believe Serge (RIP) also altered the varietal mix as he saw fit), and also the occasional extreme variance in bottle fill ā€“ which I have also found bears no relationship with the quality of the wine.

Appreciate the LB data point. Iā€™ve been debating about adding to the stock but Iā€™ve been hesitant because of the price relative to 1996, which I love.

Impressions from a recent 1998 Musar
Cork soft as usual for Musar, even for a young one like this
Lot of deposits
Pure and extremely attractive wine. Just a notch below 1999.
90 % of my Musar have been stellar. Counting in the white and rose the percentage is higher