48 GOURMET TRAVELLER
T
he world’s oldest winery is in a cave
in a remote valley in Armenia. Here,
archaeologists have found remains
of a fermenting vat, a wine press and
grape seeds dating back more than 6,000 years.
Researchers have found similarly ancient examples
of winegrowing in both Turkey and Iran.
We don’t need archaeologists, of course, to tell
us that the Middle East was the birthplace of wine.
The Bible is dripping in it: Noah was the world’s first
vigneron, and Jesus was a big fan, turning water into
wine, and wine into his own blood.
Today, though, the Middle East might not be the
first place that comes to mind when we think of wine
production. Most people’s immediate perception of
the region, I suspect, is that alcohol is forbidden in
many modern Muslim countries, while wars and civil
unrest afflict the others.
But there’s still plenty of wine being made in
the Middle East. A younger generation of Turkish
winemakers, for example, are rediscovering their local
grape varieties – such as öküzgözü, or “bull’s eye”,
which I wrote about in these pages recently – and are
making delicious, medium-bodied, characterful wines
from them. And Israel is enjoying a vinous renaissance,
boasting more than 300 boutique producers and
a thriving wine culture in the capital cities.
Perhaps the most famous of all Middle Eastern
wineries, though, is Lebanon’s Chateau Musar. It’s
not the only winery in that country, or the oldest,
but Musar has gained particular fame partly because
its backstory reads more like a Hemingway novel
than the evolution of a wine business.
The winery was founded just north of Beirut
in 1930 by 20-year-old Gaston Hochar. In the early
1940s, Gaston befriended a Bordeaux chateau owner,
Ronald Barton, who was stationed in Lebanon forThe Middle East may seem an unlikely
source for a good drop, but this is where
wine was born, writes MAX ALLEN.
the war, and Gaston’s son Serge went on to study
oenology in Bordeaux in the 1950s, solidifying their
relationship with the French region. The younger
Hochar took over as Musar winemaker at age
29 after giving his father an ultimatum: “I want
to make the wine my way, I want it to be known
worldwide – and I want you to quit!”
During the Lebanese Civil War, from 1975 to
1990, Serge Hochar steadfastly continued to make
wine, trucking grapes to the winery from his vineyards
in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, often
running a gantlet of machine guns and mortar fire.
This alone is enough to merit admiration, but the
wine Hochar made was also very good, particularly
the red Chateau Musar, an unusual, long-lived
blend of Bordeaux’s noble cabernet sauvignon
and the underrated carignan and cinsault, red
grapes from France’s hot south.
Like Hemingway, in the last decades of his
life Serge Hochar was renowned as much for his
charismatic public persona and his idiosyncratic
pronouncements as for what he produced. There’s
even a touch of Hemingway to Hochar’s end: the
75-year-old died just after Christmas in 2014 while
swimming in Acapulco.
Serge’s brother, Ronald, and sons, Gaston and
Marc, along with Ronald’s son Ralph, continue to
build on Hochar’s legacy, maintaining the style of
Chateau Musar itself, but also taking the business
in different directions: planting new grapes such as
chardonnay and viognier; converting the vineyards
to organic farming; and launching a new range of
younger, more modern wines under the Jeune label.Hurdle Creek Still
Pastis, King Valley, $95
This lovely local
anise-flavoured spirit
is infused with indigenous
botanicals mintbush
and anise myrtle. Add
a splash of water and
watch it go cloudy.
Louche, baby, louche.
hurdlecreekstill.com.au2016 Domaine Vincent
Paris Saint-Joseph,
Rhône Valley, $50
Brilliant expression of
the syrah (aka shiraz)
grape from one of
northern Rhône’s finest
winemakers: gorgeous
lifted peppery spice.
Imported by
redandwhite.com.auA star in
the East
PS
IC(^) E
TE
M
PL
E
LC
UO
YD
B
UT
FI
NE
Top drops of the month