Lebanon · Bekaa Valley

Chateau Musar

Chateau Musar is Lebanon's most internationally celebrated wine estate, founded in 1930 by Gaston Hochar in the Bekaa Valley and brought to global attention by his son Serge Hochar, whose championing of the estate at the 1979 Bristol Wine Fair — during the Lebanese Civil War — created one of the wine world's great origin stories. The estate blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, and Carignan from the Bekaa Valley into a red wine of extraordinary complexity and longevity. At auction, 135 lots have traded at an average of $176, ranging from $31 to $923. The Red averages $159 across 126 lots; the White (Obaideh and Merwah, ancient indigenous varieties) averages $404 across 9 lots — exceptional for a Levantine white wine. The $923 ceiling captures older vintages from the estate's most celebrated years: 1959, 1964, 1966, and other pre-war bottles that Musar famously released decades after harvest. Serge Hochar received the Decanter Man of the Year award in 1984. The White is produced from varieties believed to be ancestral to Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.