Dom Pannell's Blog

"A bit like Marmite...

... you either love it or hate it!"

Not the ringing endorsement I necessarily wanted to hear from the salesgirl when I had just handed my credit card over to pay for a case of Lebanese classic red wine Château Musar 1999. Now I absolutely love Marmite, but not everyone does and part of the reason behind buying a case of wine is that I can give the odd bottle away as presents (thus justifying my drinking the rest). I don't want to give people something they don't like!!

So I've looked the vintage up on Musar's own website and this is what it says:

1999 was an exceptional year. Starting with a mild winter with very little rainfall, it was followed by our normal spring weather, which allowed a good flowering. However the yield seemed lower than usual due to the lack of water. The summer was mild and although July and August were cloudy, September was hot and sunny. This enabled the grapes to reach maximum maturity with great all round concentration – good acidity and a high sugar level.

Fermentation went very smoothly and took its time. It was followed by a good maceration, which enhanced the aroma, the flesh and the everlasting aftertaste.

These features were immediately apparent in the wine. Very high alcohol, high acidity and a lot of extract – the wine was rich, round and full bodied, highly concentrated with a very long finish.

This was really an exceptional year, perhaps the year of the Millennium.

Doesn't sound like Marmite to me.

Anyway, Graham's in town, so we may well crack open a bottle later. He's a fan of Marmite as well (he even had Twiglets for breakfast this morning) but I don't reckon he wants to drink Marmite-flavoured wine either!

[EDIT: Well, Graham and I have polished off a bottle of the Musar. The illustrious Mr Holliday's comments were as follows:

"Wow, that's a BIG wine!"

"It definitely doesn't taste like Marmite!"

So there you go./EDIT]

Posted by dompannell at May 7, 2007 8:21 PM