UPDATED: I added the 2016 Clos Lavaud wine note below. Great WINNER!

Last week I had the chance to taste through the new kosher 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand red and white Burgundies. Yes, you heard me correctly, white and red! There is a new white Burgundy from Meursault, we have not had one since 2004 and sadly, that wine is long dead. However, we did have a lovely Meursault, in 2014, with Pierre Miodownick, and that wine was really fun! There were Pinot Noir Burgundies from 2019, along with a few Bourdeaux wines as well, from both Taieb and Domaine Roses Camille.

I will keep this to a minimum, a simple post about the wines I tasted. If you want more on Taieb Wines – read the family history here. However, before I fast-forward to the notes please understand the enormity of what is going on here – kosher white wine has finally arrived, with this new 2019 Meursault, the 2018 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt Blanc, the 2019 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Blanc (not yet released), and the 2019 Chateau Malartic, Blanc! We have finally hit the escape velocity from the kosher wine world’s sole fascination with Cabernet Sauvignon!

The 2019 Pinot Noirs were from Jean-Philippe Marchand. I loved the 2017 Jean-Philippe Pinot Noirs, wines I bought and purchased already. IMHO, the 2019 vintage is far more reminiscent of what is expected from a Burgundy. The 2019 wines are lither than the 2017s were. They show more floral characteristics than their 2017 brethren. Overall, I was highly impressed. Beware, sadly there is no Lescure for 2018, 2019, or 2020 – SO SAD!

The Bordeaux wines came from both Taieb and Domaine Roses Camille, and I think they all showed very well with a WINNER and some very solid options as well! Much to all of this should be soon available with Andrew Breskin and Liquid Kosher, so keep a lookout for these wines from him. They will, of course, also be available in France from Taieb’s website, and Domaine Roses Camille’s European distribution, which I do not know much about. Though, I am sure the usual websites and stores in Paris and Belgium will have the wines.

NOTE: I need to taste the 2016 Clos Lavaud, Lalande de Pomerol again before I can post my final score on it. I added the Clos Lavaud below. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

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The 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Burgundies

2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Meursault– Score: 93 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is lovely, it is a closed to start, with lovely sweet oak, yellow apple, with lovely candied pear, cardamom, with hints of lemon, spice, and herbs, wow! The waxy and oily approach to this wine is unique.  With time the wine opens and WOW, the nose explodes with sweet toasted oak, toasted almonds, hazelnuts, and more floral notes, honeysuckle, honey, lemon/lime, melon, and lovely herbaceous notes. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is lovely, layered, rich, with sweet oak, Meyer lemon, apple tart, sweet fig, creme brulee, honey, crazy acidity, lovely mouth-coating tannin, smoke, crazy minerality, and lovely flint, rock, and smoked duck, with brioche, lemon/lime, and sweet yellow plum. The finish is long, sweet, tart, ripe, and well-balanced, with flint and toast. PLEASE, many of you will be motivated to drink this up as it is an awesome wine, but control yourselves please, this wine needs time! Drink from 2023 until 2028, maybe longer. (tasted Jan 2021)

2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Bourgogne, Hautes-Cotes de Beaune – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
I rarely talk color, but this wine is almost clear electric magenta, really wild. The nose on this thing starts with off notes, but with time, the wine opens to show pomegranate, that passes with time and moves far more floral, with English lavender, funk, with loads of dirt, earth, mineral, and smoke, and roasted meat. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, rich, layered, and earthy, with loads of floral notes, lavender, rosehip, smoked meat, and classic dark cherry. The finish on this wine is floral, very feminine, with herbs, graphite, smoked meat, toast, saline, mushroom, forest floor. Nice! Drink from 2022 until 2028. (tasted Jan 2021)

2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Bourgogne, Hautes-Cotes de Nuits – Score: 92 (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is evolving, changing with air and time, with more floral notes, showing rosehip, violet, and menthol, with roasted herb, green notes, green citrus/lime, cucumber/asparagus, and foliage. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, layered, with more depth, focus, and impression than the Beaune, with dried floral leaf, cherry, smoke, earth, and more floral notes, with classic cherry notes, earth, mushroom, and smoke, with menthol, green notes, and roasted herb. The finish is long, green, sweet, floral, and herbal, with tobacco, earth, flint, graphite, and smoke. Bravo! Drink from 2023 until 2029. (tasted Jan 2021)

2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Volnay, Lous Luret – Score: 93 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is elevated with smoked meat, lovely sweet oak, ripe green, and red fruit, with violet, coffee bean, toast, earth, and mineral galore. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is truly layered, rich, and extracted, with smoke, dark Kirche cherry, currant, rich loam, bright scream acidity, with a nice mouth draping tannin structure, followed by more floral notes, and tart fruit. The finish is long, tart, green, ripe, and smoky, with fresh espresso, earth, tart cherry, tannin, and floral notes lingering long, with mushroom and loam lingering as well. Lovely Bravo!! Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted Jan 2021)

2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Nuits-Saint-George – Score: 93+ (QPR: EVEN)
WOW, what a lovely nose, rich, earthy, smoky, with lovely cherry, dark raspberry, black fruit, graphite, flint, coffee, roasted meat, and truffle, with hints of violets, and foliage, with menthol, tarragon, and herbs. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, layered, and smoky, with nice toast, earth, cherry, raspberry, tart fruit, wonderful acidity, blackcurrant, more mushroom, garrigue, roasted herb, wrapped in sweet currants, with an elegant mouth-draping tannin, and a lovely plush texture. The finish is green and ripe, with sweet fruit, more acidity, mushroom, sweet oak, notes of a lovely firebox, chocolate-covered coffee beans, sweet herbs, licorice, candied strawberry. Love it!!! Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted Jan 2021)

2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Gevrey-Chambertin – Score: 93+ (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine starts with strawberry, dirty sock funk, that gives way to soy sauce, with violet, rosehip, more floral notes, followed by licorice, currants, roasted animal, and loads of smoke. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is lovely, showing layers of mulberry, smoke, roasted herb, Kirche cherry, dried and tart strawberry, with more rosehip, garrigue, underbrush, smoked venison, with lovely elegance and plush mouthfeel, sweet but very controlled fruit, with garrigue, and roasted herb, with mushroom and menthol in the background. The finish is long, green sweet, floral, herbal, and gamy, with more strawberry and cherry, espresso, leather, and smoke. Bravo!! Drink from 2023 until 2035. (tasted Jan 2021)

Bordeaux Wines from Taieb

2014 Chateau de Lamarque, Marquis d’ Evry, Haut-Medoc – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
This is the third time I am tasting this and it is now falling apart, much like the first time I had it. The nose is green, with red fruit, and herb galore, which gives way to menthol, garrigue, and not much else. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine was rich and layered the last time I had it, this time the wine was watery and off-kilter, with too much green, some raspberry, dark currant, roasted herb, tannin that feels like it is falling apart, showing dark fruit in the background, mineral, and dirt. The finish is where the wine feels short, with garrigue, menthol, too many green notes, with not much else. Drink now. (tasted Jan 2021)

2018 Chateau Castelbruck, Margaux – Score: 91+ (QPR: GOOD (USA), GREAT (F))
The nose on this wine is young, showing sweet cedar, rich milk chocolate, nice black fruit, with blue fruit, herb, and mineral. With time the nose adds some nice dirty socks and notes of umami as the oak recedes. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, well-controlled, showing ripe and juicy blackberry, blueberry, with milk chocolate, crazy acid core, backed by layers upon layers of fruit, with rich complexity, wrapped in sweet draping tannin, plush mouthfeel, showing rich fruit structure, with sweet oak, and a nice fruit-focus, nice! The finish is long, earthy, with mineral galore, showing lovely scrapping graphite, with earth, and leather, dirt, and mushroom galore on a bed of bright and ripe fruit. Lovely! Drink from 2023 until 2030. (tasted Jan 2021)

2018 Chateau Haut Breton Larigaudiere, Margaux – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is closed, but with time it opens to show rich loam, dirt, and underbrush, with mushroom, milk chocolate, red fruit,  bright notes, rich garrigue, and smoke. The wine is more restrained and elegant than the Castelbruck with a nice mixture of green/black/red fruit. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is layered, rich, ripe, but so well balanced, with loads of saline, green notes, foliage, raspberry, cassis, tobacco, and nice acidity, dark cherry, all wrapped in mouth-draping and plush tannin, plush mouthfeel, milk chocolate, with herb, and lovely sweet cedar, with earth, dark currant, and graphite galore. The finish is long, green, sweet, well-balanced, earthy, and dirty, with mouth-coating and drying tannin, and leather, giving way to tobacco, and mineral galore. Bravo!! Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted Jan 2021)

Bordeaux Wines from Domaine Roses Camille

2014 Chateau Marquisat de Binet, Cuvee Abel, Montagne Saint-Emilion – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is 100% Merlot. The nose on this wine is black, with loads of vanilla, with black and red fruit notes followed by lovely garrigue, green foliage, with nice mineral, sage, bright cranberry, and a mound of roasted herbs. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is gripping, with mouth-coating/drying tannin, that gives way to screaming acid and lovely blackcurrant, plum, rich blackberry, with loads of tart and juicy raspberry, cranberry, and lovely loam, graphite, all wrapped in an elegant and gripping mouthfeel. The finish is crazy, with more gripping tannin, rich tart and juicy red and black fruit, more lovely green notes, foliage, with mushroom, and herb, with licorice and coffee lingering long. Nice! Drink now. (tasted Jan 2021)

2015 Chateau Marquisat de Binet, Cuvee Abel, Montagne Saint-Emilion – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is made from 100% Merlot. This nose on this wine is black, with roasted herb, tarragon, rosemary, blackberry, plum, earth, graphite, and loads of smoke, wow, so fun! With time the nose turns to funk, with dirty socks, and green notes, with loads of red and black fruit. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is dense, fun, dirty, earthy, smoky, and black, with blackberry, cassis, black pepper, soy sauce, funk, and mushroom, wrapped in mouth-draping tannin, smoke, with rich saline, green notes, jalapeno, rich dirt, and a dense plush mouthfeel, lovely! The finish is long, green earthy, smoky, with a plushness, saline, mineral, tobacco, roasted herb, and green notes galore. Lovely! Drink until 2024. (tasted Jan 2021)

2016 Clos Lavaud, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
This is a wine that is far more accessible than the 2015 Clos Lavaud, but it would be a mistake to partake of this wine early. More joy will emerge with another 6 to 7 years. This is a more supple version of the Chateau Marquisat de Binet, but it has the same earthy and herbal notes but with the suppler approach, because of oak, showing smoke, toast, with nice black fruit, hints of ripeness, along with lovely tart red fruit, but well balanced, and toast. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, smoky, earthy, with nice extraction, showing blackberry, dark cherry, plum, tart strawberry, with rich minerality, forest floor, graphite, mushroom, and rich umami notes, saline, with elegance and plushness, nice! The finish is long, green, herbal, but well balanced, with chocolate-covered tobacco leaves, leather, and roasted notes, with more mineral, graphite, and rock. Lovely! Drink from 2022 until 2030. (tasted Jan 2021)

2015 Echo de Roses Camille, Pomerol – Score: 93+ (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is closed and it is nowhere near ready to enjoy. The nose on this wine is dark, brooding, smoky, earthy, dusty and laden with mushroom, underbrush, foliage, and dark brooding fruit. This wine will be a bruiser once it finally comes around. The mouth on this rich, extracted, ripe, and full-bodied wine is a bruiser, it is incredibly dense, plush, with mouth-drying tannin, with blackberry, strawberry, dense and juicy blueberry, with incredible saline, loam, mushroom, and rich dense forest floor, wow! The finish on this wine is mouth-coating, rich, and extracted, and dense, and all over the mouth, with scrapping graphite, rock, saline, and rich minerality that is backed by great acidity and a dense fruit structure and focus, with dark chocolate, sweet tobacco, menthol/mint, and earth lingering long! WOW! Bravo! Drink from 2026 until 2034. (tasted Jan 2021)