Caramel (2007) by actor/director Nadine Labaki and Château Musar (1999) by Lebanese winemaker Serge Hochar. Bold, full-bodied, unique and exceptional are four words which describe both great women and great wine.
In Caramel, Labaki paints a tender, heartfelt portrait of the interconnected lives of six ordinary women as they deal with life and love, and all the inherent complexities of both, in modern day Beirut. A chick flick to be sure, but an edgy one. Layale (Labaki), Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) and Rima (Joanna Moukrazel) all work together in a broken down beauty salon, the perfect metaphor for the impossible quest for eternal youth.
Think all the sisterhood stuff of Steel Magnolias, without all the schmaltz, and set in Lebanon... with stories of adultery, unrequited love, culturally motivated vaginal rejuvenation and closet lesbianism. Spicy and real, the film takes you on a poignant journey of friendship and support, and speaks directly to the universal female fight against the evils of aging, without any floodlighting. Raw and sometimes heartbreaking, the characters are completely believable and you will care what happens to them.
Now, only 15 miles to the north of Beirut there is a great little winery named Château Musar located in the Bekaa Valley, and the wines carry the same name. Founded in 1930 by Gaston Hochar, it is still run today by his two sons, Serge (the winemaker) and Ronald (the businessman). While not very many people know that they make wine in Lebanon, viticulture in Lebanon was introduced 6,000 years ago.
It is possible today to get your hands on some of the Château Musar Red ($54.95 CDN, $44.99 USD) made from an intoxicating and ever-changing blend of cabernet sauvignon, cinsault, carignan, grenache and mourvedre. This blend of the grapes varies in percentage amounts from year to year, according to the winemaker's whimsy. Château Musar has certainly received some criticism for inconsistency. But winemaking is most definitely an art form and, like any good artist, Serge Hochar is well within his rights to change it up as he sees fit.
The 1999 vintage uses cinsault (from 2 different vineyards) for rich and fragrant aromas, carignan, adding spice and complexity, and cabernet sauvignon for tannic structure and aging potential. The wines were fermented in concrete for two to four weeks, then transferred to vat. During the first year the wines were racked in French oak barrels from the Nevers Forest, known to produce the best quality oak in France, and aged for 12-to-15 months. At the end of the second year, the blending of the three different varietals took place. That blend was finally bottled in year three then allowed to rest. Hochar, a celebrated craftsman, may sometimes age a given vintage of Château Musar for 10 years prior to release.
It can be enjoyed today or the patient can cellar the 1999 vintage in safety for between five to eight more years. This vintage has great depth of color, thanks to the cabernet sauvignon and plenty of spicy fruit on the nose. The palate is round, ripe and full of blackcurrant, with a wonderful finish that seems to never end! I have been fortunate enough to have sampled three different vintages of Château Musar red, and the 1999 I preferred greatly over the others. Indeed, Hochar calls the 1999 vintage "an exceptional year, perhaps the best of the millennium."
A lovely wine blended with sufficient complexity to stand up to an equally deep, textured film like Caramel. And though it's not widely available, it can be found on both sides of the 49th parallel. Happy hunting for both and enjoy the marriage!
Jill Vanderkooy, Sommelier and certifiable bon vivant, has worked in the wine industry for over 10 years, has been drinking wine for 25 years and is a true devotee of film across all genres. Her liver thanks you for reading. This is Jill's Click Magazine debut.
