Before the Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) Josh Rynderman from Kos Yeshuos wines and his wife who owns ESSA Wine Co. swung by to taste the new wines from their inaugural vintage from the Southern Hemisphere. Josh and Chana Rynderman are dear friends and as I posted here, we went to their wedding in South Africa.

I have written a couple of times now about Kos Yeshuos and the wines that Josh has made here in Califonia. The wines they brought over were the new 2018 wines from South Africa and the 2018 wines from California.

The two 2018 white wines had changed some from the last official tasting last year, with the Califonia Kid showing incredibly well and the Viognier losing some of its flint madness and turning into a wonderful glass of true peach-driven wine.

The new wines were the red wines that will be made available under the name of ESSA Wine Co. For the 2018 vintage, they made three red wines in South Africa. They are almost all Bordeaux grapes, excepting for the small amount of Cinsault in the red blend. That said, they are not made in the Bordeaux style, these wines are far more New-World in style, but still well controlled and impressive for their first wines from South Africa.

There is no real name yet for the red blend, that is made from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cinsault. The wine starts off quite austere in style, but that blows off and becomes a truly New-World wine in style. It should be ready in a couple of months and will last for a couple of years. The wine is the ripest of the batch and while I liked the wine it is not built to last. The bigger brother, in terms of style and elegance, is the 2018 Essa Wine Co. Collaborative, a mix of fruit from ESSA Wine Co. and Alex Rubin’s winery, that is unnamed as of this point. It is a beautiful wine that shows just how wonderful New-World wines can be the incredible potential of what can be made in South Africa!

Finally, there is the beast of the group, the 2018 Malbec. This wine is a true beast, ripe but with wonderful acidity to make it all come together. Yes, it is a new-world wine, however, I still enjoyed it much like I enjoy Cali New-world wines. It is ripe, but the blue and black fruit meld together wonderfully, with juicy fruit, acidity, smoke, and loads of animal. A truly enjoyable new-world wine.

Now, before you ask, when will these wines be available here in the USA, I have no idea. This is the issue with posting about wines that are not generally available. Still, to me this is the chicken and egg problem, folks need to know they exist and hopefully, a desire for them to be here will create enough of a market for them to be brought here. So, I am trying to help make that a reality. Still, as stated above, Josh is a good friend, so my notes should always be understood with that in mind.

I hope they make their way to our hemisphere. Until then, get some of the California Kid which I have enjoyed recently and is showing beautifully now.

The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

2018 Kos Yeshuos California Kid – Score: 91 to 92
Ok, so this is the fifth time I have had this wine and it really ready to go. Also, the sweeter side of the wine has moved to a drier side, the orange and nectarines are gone, with more passion fruit, and citrus galore lingering.
This wine is a blend of Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine starts to show like a 100% Sauvignon Blanc, showing crazy gooseberry, fresh-cut grass, cat pee, with herbal notes, and nice peach in the background, lemongrass, and really fun and bright citrus notes, with loads of green notes, with peaches and creme in the background! The mouth on this medium plus bodied wine is rich and acidic, with a lovely acid core, followed by more peach, grapefruit, and more lovely gooseberry, with salinity that is off the charts, now the orange and nectarines are gone, and now what we have is more lemongrass, more saline, and hints of melon. The finish is long, green, tiny hint of orange, and tart. Bravo!!! Drink by 2021

2018 Kos Yeshuos Viognier, Sentinel Oak Vineyard, Shenandoah Valley – Score: 91
This wine has changed a LOT! Gone is the flint bomb, Pouilly Fume like wine. Now we have a proper Viognier with classic peach and apricot notes. The nose on this wine is awesome, so fun, so unique, showing rich peach and apricot, with a hint of flint, showing lovely sweet and tart fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, sweet, and well balanced, with more stone fruit, followed by tropical notes, with guava and melon, and passion fruit, with a nice balance. The finish is where the tropical notes show up, while the tart stone fruit and lovely citrus is on the front, with nectarine, and orange pith lingering long. Drink by mid-2020.

2018 Essa Wine Co. Red Blend – Score: 90
This wine is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cinsault. The nose is ripe, with green, black, and blue notes, with nice smoke, vanilla, with good fruit, showing tar, and loads of licorice, with mounds of black olives, and hints of floral notes (that blow off with time). The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine has good acidity, with searing tannin, showing lovely blackberry, plum, green notes, with foliage, tobacco, mineral, gravel, and lovely earth, and gripping tannin, that give way to earth, loam, and tar. The finish is long, green, and ripe to start, but with time shows cedar, smoke, tart, and juicy raspberry, with sweet fruit, tobacco, milk chocolate, loam/mushroom, and earth lingering long. Nice! Drink until 2021.

2018 Essa Wine Co. Malbec – Score: 91
The color on this wine is incredibly dark, almost purely black. The nose on this wine is dense, black, and truly fruity, with incredible roasted meat, black and blue fruit, and red fruit lurking somewhere, with black olives, and the smoke monster coming out in the background. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe and starts off a bit scary, with time this calms down very well, mostly because of the incredible acidity and tart juicy fruit, showing lovely juicy strawberry, boysenberry, with blackberry, and plum, backed by layers of brooding dark fruit, with nice earth/loam, smoke, and roasted animal. The finish is long, ripe, with strawberry juicy fruity, with mineral galore, graphite giving way to layers of smoke, with crazy tobacco, tar, and asphalt. Nice! Drink until 2024.

2018 Essa Wine Co. Collaborative – Score: 92
This wine is a 50/50 blend of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose on this wine starts off truly black, but with time the wine opens to show a nice blend of black and red and eventually it gives way to the red fruit from the Cabernet Franc, with a clear backbone of black fruit as well. The nose is red and black, with rich foliage, licorice, and ripe but well-balanced fruit, followed by glorious loam, earth, and mineral. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, black, blue, and red, with classic Napa leanings, with screaming pencil, mineral, showing blackberry, lovely sweet raspberry, with blueberry, tar, earth, plum, smoke, and screaming acid, with mouth draping tannin, and tobacco. The finish is long, green, with smoke, earth, ripe red and black fruit lingering, and chocolate-covered coffee, sweet cedar, and tilled earth. Bravo!! Drink from 2021 until 2026.