Published by Jeremy.
Disclaimers: This review uses WSET Diploma terminology and our own rating scale. Read more here. We use demographic data, email opt-ins, display advertising, and affiliate links to operate this site. Please review our Terms and Conditions for more information. This website is intended for those of legal drinking age in your jurisdiction.
We have a long history with Chateau Musar, and we often identify this producer as being our gateway wine that helped us go down the rabbit hole in the first place (the 1998 vintage, in particular)- so much so that we now have a rule that whenever we see a bottle in the wild, we grab it no questions asked.
One of the reasons we love Chateau Musar is that they tend to hold vintages at the winery until they're ready to drink, and you are far more likely to find a fairly old bottle in a store compared to other producers.
This was how we came to acquire a few bottles of the 2000 vintage of Chateau Musar Rouge, made with nearly equal proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, and Carignan. We grabbed a bottle in early 2025 to see how this one was holding up at nearly 25 years of age.
Naturally, it is aging beautifully, but we'd consider letting our next bottle go a bit longer!
Chateau Musar Rouge 2000 is a Treat
This Chateau Musar 2000 was medium garnet in color with medium(+) aromas of dried black cherry, tar, olive, tobacco, leather, dried fig, date, cedar, smoke, blueberry, cassis, balsamic, dried leaves, thyme, vanilla, and cacao.
On the palate, it was dry with medium(+) acidity and flavor intensity, medium velvet smooth tannin, alcohol, and body, and a long finish. We had flavors of dried red cherry, dried cranberry, blueberry, black cherry, cassis, leather, olive, tobacco, balsamic, thyme, and smoke to name a few (but honestly could keep going here).
This one had all the hallmarks that we love in an aged Cabernet, but still had some fruit notes and impressive tannin that would suggest that it could benefit from a bit more aging. Good now if you like a balance of everything, but opportunity for more if you want to wait- the best of all worlds! Just be sure to give this one a good decant to let it open up after spending so much time in bottle.
Chateau Musar Food Pairing – Lamb Meatballs
We paired this beautiful Chateau Musar with Mediterranean lamb meatballs as we thought the fattiness of the lamb and rich spices would pair nicely with this older wine. As expected, the fattiness cut through the tanning beautifully and we had a pop of cooking spices, blueberry, and dark cherry with the pairing.
This one really holds up well to unctuous lamb!
Score: 5 / 5
We'd buy a case of this one.
As with most aged Chateau Musar, we give out a rare 5 out of 5 rating here because it really is the kind of bottle we wish we could have a case of at home. Although, in practice, finding a case's worth of the 2000 vintage is incredibly tricky, but we'll still grab a bottle whenever we see it, no questions asked- it is just that good.
Chateau Musar is located in Ghazir, Lebanon. We purchased this bottle locally and enjoyed it in 2025. Wine.com carries many Chateau Musar labels including young wines and a few aged at the time of publication; however, we have not seen a bottle as old as this one available.
Upgrade Your Home Wine Bar
Need to upgrade your wine bar? Grab some new wine accessories:
Love Musar too – but everyone should be aware that it deliberately has a lot of volatile acidity (nail polish remover aromas)
I love it.
My MW for my WSET course says “its like the electrics on a 1970’s Alfa Romeo – when does a fault become a characteristic ?”
It is interesting but the last couple of Musar bottles I’ve had weren’t too bad on that end. But if they are doing it deliberately, then it is a characteristic! But I can see how that may be off-putting to some.