Well, Yom Tov is now over, and the Jewish Holiday fall season is over. I will keep this very short, I tasted lots of wines and not all of them are themed or per winery, so here they are. Some were really good, like the impressive but not widely available Kos Yeshuos wines from Josh Rynderman, who continues to impress me and whose wines truly belie his youth.

Besides Josh’s fun wines, I tasted the Gachot Manot Pinot Noir wines from the 2010 vintage. Of the four I have now tasted, the only ones I would buy now is the 1er cru if you can find it. The plain Bourgogne is in drink now mode, it has a year left at most in the tank. The other two wines, the Cote de Nuits-Villages and the Gevrey are really not that interesting and are in serious drink up mode.

Sadly, the 2012 Pacifica Pinot Noir dropped off the cliff, it is in serious drink NOW mode, or you will be left with water. There is a new 2016 vintage, I hope to taste it very soon.

Also, bravo to Menahem Israelievitch and the Royal Europe group. They have created two QPR wines that are nice. The best of the bunch by far is the 2016 Chateau Riganes. It is very cheap, at less than 10 dollars on kosherwine.com, and it is mevushal!! Finally! Finally! We are starting to see real wines in the kosher market that are not jacked up. The Chateau Trijet is nice as well, but more fruit forward than I would like.

Finally, I had the chance to taste the 2016 Capcanes Rosat and it did not crack the top roses of 2017, which is a shame. The new 2016 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc is a real winner and a QPR winner to boot!

We were in a huge rush so my notes are shorter than usual. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

Kos Yeshuos Wines

2016 Kos Yeshuos Grenache, Mokelumne River, Lodi – Score: 90 to 91
The nose is really fun and feminine, with vibrant fruit, juicy strawberry, hints of blueberry, with intensely floral notes showing rose hip and nice sweet baking spices. The mouth on medium bodied is fun, vibrant, and zesty, and with a great backing of good acid that makes it a fun food wine, with good fruit focus showing tart cherry, with a good tannin that carries the wine, with lovely strawberry, and cinnamon at the start that gives way to cloves, allspice, and then great almond pith. The finish is long and spicy, with earth, really fun saline, floral notes, and a backbone of acid that really carries this wine well. Nice! Drink till 2020.

2016 Kos Yeshuos Syrah, Mokelumne River, Lodi – Score: 92
What a lovely Cali nose, a real joy, controlled, fruity, big and bold and really meaty, with really great boysenberry, blueberry, roasted meat, backed by nice floral notes (not weak Australian style – but really rich and floral), with mounds of chocolate, lovely graphite, mineral, and sweet oak. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich, layered and inky, a real joy, wow, this is a wine that belies Josh’s young career as a winemaker, a wine with great control and finesse, a true food Syrah (not because it is undrinkable without food, it has ZERO date or sweet issues), but this wine is a beast, it cannot be enjoyed on its own, unless u are a glutton for punishment, showing rich cassis, blackberry, followed by blue fruit galore, juicy and ripe, yet not over the top, wrapped in spicy and sweet oak, with rich ribbons of mineral, earth, and great baking spices to bring it all together. The finish is long and mineral based, with great graphite, rich saline, green and black olives, along with hints of other umami to come, but meaty, blue, mineral, and black lingering long. Bravo! Drink from 2018 to 2023. Not available anymore – I think sold out.

Rose and white wines

2016 Capcanes Peraj Petita Rosat – Score: 87 to 88
The nose is sweet, with sweet strawberry and creme (stress on the creme), with hints of mineral and spice. The mouth is interesting, the fruit profile is exactly what the nose shares, strawberry, and not much else, but lots of nice minerals, with graphite, spice, saline, and partially tannic, with too much fruit for me, but balanced with nice acid, and crazy fruit pith. The finish is long and tannic, but that falls off after 20 minutes and is replaced with nothing, which is sad, though the minerals do show up on the finish. Drink NOW!

2016 Tzuba Chardonnay, Metzuda – Score: 89 to 90
This wine starts off very closed and needs a good hour or two to properly open up. The nose is lovely, once it opens, with bright fruit, nice honeysuckle, butterscotch, toast, yellow apple, and rich brioche. The mouth is medium in body, with a nice mouthfeel that is well balanced showing good acid, nice pith, with sweet peach, apricot, yellow pear, and nice baked apple pie, all backed by toast, and nice sweet oak. The finish is long and nice with enough acid, backed by sweet baking spices, nutmeg, cinnamon, and nice almond pith, with hints of nectarines and citrus. Nice! Drink by 2020.

2016 Pascal Bouchard Chablis – Score: 89 to 90
This wine is also closed from the start and needs time to open, showing lovely smoke, mineral, saline, rock, and mushroom, with pear, apple, and quince. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is slow to open, but when it does it is nice, with good acid, nice dry quince that is bright and tart, with good yellow pear, and fruit focus, but well backed by mineral, and nice spice. The finish is long and tart, with grapefruit, citrus, and nice stone fruit, with saline, and mineral, slate on the long finish. Nice! Drink by 2019

2016 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 91 (QPR winner) (mevushal)
What a lovely nose, classic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, with rich gooseberry, ripe passion fruit, fresh cut grass, cats pee, and citrus galore. The mouth on this nice medium bodied wine is richly acidic, it shows a slight hollow to start, but let it come together and the hollow fills out, it shows lovely acid, rich saline, impressive fruit focus of passion fruit, guava, and citrus with nice slate. The finish is crazy long with lovely acid, gooseberry, ripe pink grapefruit, mineral, citrus pith, and acid that is incredible! A real joy, bright fruit, fruit pith, and lovely mineral – a great QPR wine!!! Drink by 2019

QPR Superstar!

2016 Chateau Les Riganes – Score: 90 (QPR SUPERSTAR) (mevushal)
This is the third vintage from the winery and the best one by far! The 2015 vintage was boring and the 2014 vintage was not as good. I tried writing the notes for this wine a few times and then I threw them all out, only because it keeps changing – the core stays the same but the issues I had, hollow notes, mad fruitiness, go away with time/air. So, to start – leave this wine open for two hours before enjoying it and that removes two rounds to three rounds of evolution from my notes.
After it has opened for a couple of hours, now the wine is ready to enjoy. The nose opens to rich loam, earth, gone are the fruit bomb notes, with lovely mushroom, foliage galore, with classic bramble, dark cherry, currant, and hints of raspberry. With time the wine opens to a fuller mouth than first perceived, gone is the hollow notes, with a nice fruit focus, good tannin structure, gone is the country style wine, now the wine is richer, and fuller, with a lovely green foliage focus, followed by dark red forest berry, cherry, hints of black fruit, great saline, earth, mushroom, and lovely spice. The finish is long and spicy, with more green notes, an almost lush forest with good spice, and pith. Nice! Drink from 2018 till 2021.

2015 Chateau Trijet – Score: 88 (nice enough QPR)
Lovely nose on this wine with dirt, earth, licorice, mushroom, and loads of red fruit with green notes and herbs. The mouth on this medium bodied wine feels ripe, it feels like it has gone more fruit forward over the past few months, but still with a nice focus, showing black pepper, blackberry, dark Kirche cherry, with good dirt, loam, garrigue, with more green notes, foliage, and mineral. The finish is long and mineral-driven and green, with lovely red berries, forest floor, and graphite. Nice! Drink by 2019.

Pinot Noir wines I enjoyed

Pacifica 12 Pinot Noir – Score: 89 (Mevushal)
This wine was really nice last year, but now it is in drink UP mode, this fell fast. The nose is still ripe with cherry, roasted herb, foliage, and toast. The medium-bodied wine is losing weight and attack, still showing some focus, with mineral, dirt, with graphite, rich black pepper, with cherry and toast, the extraction is mostly gone, but still present, tar and loam, all wrapped in still present tannin. The finish is nice and spicy, with nice green notes, foliage, hints of mushroom, showing nice balance and acid. Spicy oak, espresso coffee, and roasted herb linger! Drink UP!!

2010 Damien Gachot-Monot Bourgogne – Score: 89
Recently this wine has been dropping a bit and is in drink NOW mode, it has a year at most. I must admit I was expecting more old world notes to start from this wine, it starts off more Cali in style than Burgundy, but as it opens it literally transforms within 10 minutes to a classically old world wine, insane, with clear sweet notes of dill, herb, and dried cherry, to start, but with time that changes to rich loam, dirt, earth, with mounds of saline, mineral, and lovely sweet juicy raspberry, dried red fruit, and lovely spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is clearly sweet, and Cali in style to start, but with time, it opens to classical Burgundy, old-world notes of hints of sweet notes, but far more balanced, with mushroom, hints of barnyard, candied lifesaver, all wrapped in mouth drying tannin, that flows into smokey oak, charcoal, and lovely tilled earth. The finish is super long, richly balanced with impressive acid, with more smoke and mushroom lingering long, with almost hints of smoked meat, spiced plum, and candied fruit. A fun experience and a crazy good price! Drink UP!

2010 Damien Gachot-Monot Cote de Nuits-Villages – Score: 88
Sweet nose with dark fruit and tart ripe red fruit, smoke, and toast. Nice smokey mouth with great acid and attack, but not as focused as the Bourgogne, with now more temperate tannin, jammy blackberry, and plum, with sweet red fruit cherry and currant, that is coating and attacking and lightly extracted. The finish is long and fruity with sweet spices, toast, cinnamon, cloves, and licorice. Drink by 2019

2010 Damien Gachot-Monot Beaune 1er Cru, Les Cents Vignes – Score: 92
This nose in comparison is far less sweet, more controlled with good fruit focus, ripe fruit, but balanced with mushroom, mineral, and green notes. The mouth on this wine is nice, showing good focus, with tart and concentrated cherry, currant, no real black fruit, but nice red plum, all wrapped in lovely mouth coating tannin, with garrigue, lovely mineral, saline, green notes, foliage, and really fun menthol and tart red fruit. The finish is long and tart, with great red fruit, incredible tart ripe and juicy strawberry, with a lingering amount of mushroom, vanilla, sweet oak, earth, dirt, and really nice green notes. Bravo! Drink by 2021