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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 for

The 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.au

2016 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.au

A star in

the East

PS

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