Like last year, I wanted to make this post short and sweet – so the criteria are simple. I could care less about price, color, or where it was made. All that matters is that it is/was available this year sometime to the public at large and that I tasted it in a reliable environment, not just at a tasting, and that it was scored a 92 or higher. Also, there are a few lower scoring wines here because of their uniqueness or really good QPR.

We are returning with the “wine of the year”, “best wine of the year” along with categories I added last year, “Winery of the Year”, “Best White wine of the year”. Wine of the year goes to a wine that distinguished itself in ways that are beyond the normal. It needs to be a wine that is easily available, incredible in style and flavor, and it needs to be reasonable in price. It may be the QPR wine of the year or sometimes it will be a wine that so distinguished itself for other reasons. The wines of the year are a type of wine that is severely unappreciated, though ones that have had a crazy renaissance, over the past two years. The Best Wine of the year goes to a wine well worthy of the title.

This past year, I think I am pretty sure about my state on kosher wine overall. In the past, I had not yet tasted the pape Clement or other such wines. However, over the past year, those have been covered, and they were a serious letdown. As stated in the article, I truly believe the entire kosher production of the Megrez wines, following the EPIC 2014 vintage of the Pape Clement and others, to be below quality and seriously overpriced, and without value in every category, which is a true shame. The 2015 reds are all poor quality and the whites are not much better, in 2015 and 2016. The 2016 Pape Clement, while better, is a total ripoff for what it is. As I will talk about in my year in review post, 2014 will come out as the best vintage for the past decade in France. That is a hotly debated subject, but IMHO, in the world of kosher wine, there were FAR more best wine options in the 2014 vintage than any other vintage in the past decade. That may not be the case for non-kosher wines, but news flash, I do not drink non-kosher wines, or even taste them, and further this blog is about kosher wines. The 2018 vintage may well have some serious “best wine of the year” candidates, but sadly, not all of those wines are here and I could not travel to France to taste them all, as I do commonly.

There are also interesting wines below the wines of the year, think of them as runner-up wines of the year. There will be no rose wines on the list this year. If last year, I thought the roses were pure junk, this year, you can add another nail in the coffin of rose wines, IMHO. Thankfully, the task of culling the bounty of great wines to come to these top wines was more a task of removing then adding. We are blessed with a bounty of good wines – just not like a few years ago when that bounty included many 95 and 95+ scoring wines.

The supreme bounty comes from the fact that Royal released the 2018 French wines a bit early! Throw in the incredible number of kosher European wines that are coming to the USA and being sold in Europe and this was truly a year of bounty for European kosher wines.

Now, separately, I love red wines, but white wines – done correctly, are a whole other story! Sadly, in regards to whites, we had no new wines from Germany, still. Thankfully, we have some awesome new entries, from the 2017 and 2018 Dampt Freres Chablis, both Grand Cru and Premier Cru, and the new 2019 Meursault!

The wines on the list this year are all available here in the USA, in Europe, and a few can be found in Israel, as well.

Finally, some of these wines are hard to find and they may have different siblings – but they are worth the effort. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

The 2020 kosher wine of the year – is a return to its greatness – the 2018 Elvi Wines EL26

Elvi EL26 is back! Back to the glory days and I have stocked up and sadly, it will sell out quickly, if it is not already sold out! Get a move on, there was not a huge production of this beauty!

So, why did EL26 win? Simple, it is a great wine, and then throw in its WINNER price, and this wine punches at two levels, at the same time! You can read more about this fantastic wine here, in my post about it. Enjoy!

2018 Elvi Wines EL26, Elite, Priorat – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 80% Garnacha (Grenache) and 20% Carignan. This wine is pure heaven, dirt, smoke, roasted animal, saline, mineral, juicy tart red, and blue fruit, with incredible precision and fruit focus – Bravo!
The nose on this wine is pure fun, showing tart red fruit, incredible fresh loam, and dirt, hints of mushroom, licorice, roasted animal, a whiff of oak, sage, rosemary, with dirt, and green notes. This wine is currently far more Bordeaux in style than that of a Spanish Priorat! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is not overly extracted, but it is well extracted, with good mouth and fruit texture, with incredible acid, good fruit focus, showing dark cherry, plum, ripe and tart raspberry, strawberry, oak, vanilla, and garrigue, with green notes, and lovely mouth-draping tannin. The finish is long, green, yet ripe, with great control and precision, with lovely graphite, more roasted meat, scraping minerality, saline, rich smoking tobacco, and smoke, lots of char and smoke. Bravo! With time the wine opens more and shows its riper side, still very controlled, but the fun red and blue fruit become a bit fuller and richer in the mouth – quite an impressive wine! Drink from 2026 until 2036. (tasted December 2020)

The 2020 kosher Winery of the Year

Well, this will not come as a shock to anyone, I have been touting them for many years now, the award goes to the well-deserved Domaine Netofa. They are a winery I have been touting for a decade and they are finally being imported again here in the USA, and this time, they are finally being appreciated for what they are – the best QPR winery in Israel with the best kosher winemaker in Israel, and probably, much of the world, Pierre Miodownik.

Domaine Netofa is sadly the last bastion of hope in Israel, as I see it today. Israel has turned their focus from excellence to focus on profit and the least common denominator. It has shown throughout the past decade and I see no resentence to that anywhere, outside of Domaine Netofa, and a pocket of wines from different wineries in Israel.

Netofa continues to evolve. It started with the original wines made from Syrah and Mourvedre, both the Domaine and Latour. However, within a few years, they added the Tempranillo Tinto, which came and went, and in its place is the new Tel Qasser which is being received far better, especially since the white Tel Qasser is STUNNING! Then came the Grenache grapes to make a true GMS Latour. We cannot also forget that the Latour white is one of the very few dry, Non-Chardonnay, white Israeli wines that can last many years. Throw in the EPIC Port, made in the actual manner of Port and the D’Or Flagship wine, which changes almost every year, and you have a lineup that meets the needs of almost anyone’s pocketbook and palate.

Bravo to Pierre Miodownik, the entire Domaine Netofa gang, but a Bravo also needs to go out to Royal for trying again with Netofa, and to KosherWine.com for working in concert with Royal to get the entire lineup here, minus the Port. Congrats to all! Well deserved!

The 2020 best kosher wines of the year!

This year we once again have no 95 scored wines. To be fully transparent, I originally gave the 2018 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone Six, Chalk Hill a score of 95, however, after fully tasting it I moved the score back down to 94. At a 95 it would have won the best wine of the year and it would have been a back to back winner, with the 2016 Clone Six being the 2019 best wine of the year award winner. So, this year we have a two-way tie between the 2018 Chateau Cantenac Brown, Margaux, and the 2016 Four Gates Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Bello Ridge, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA. Congratulations to Four Gates Winery and Bnyo, my good friend (I always disclaim this), and to the legendary Chateau Cantenac Brown. Bravo and many more great wines, please!

2018 Chateau Cantenac Brown, Margaux – Score: 94+ (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a classically built elegant lady of the night, but not for the first 24 hours upon opening. To start it is an oak and dill bomb, but with time, the wine shows its true inner beauty. This wine is absurdly young and I have no HONEST idea if I will even be alive to fully enjoy this wine when it reaches its peak and beyond. This is one of those wines that people ask me all the time about – is there a wine for my new born’s wedding? YES! THIS WINE!
I am not an ABV snob, I had loads of 2018 13% wines, and they all stunk, this is about terroir and control, but sure, it is a baby, it is NOT a fruity wine, but it has the power and elegance to go toe for toe with the other big kosher Margaux wines and beyond. This wine smells and tastes just like A Benyo wine in so many ways!
The nose on this wine is ripe, yet perfectly controlled, with crazy sweet dill, oak, red and darker fruit, with garrigue, roasted green herbs, lovely floral notes of rosehip, smoke, and sage. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is really elegant on the mouth, with ripe cherry, plum, hints of cassis, rich graphite, smoke, tar, all wrapped in a mouth-draping tannin and fruit structure, with ripe and juicy strawberry, sweet cranberry, sweet green herbs, roasted mushrooms, hints of truffle, with menthol, foliage, and loam. The finish is long, ripe, red, green, and smoky, with tar, earth, mushroom, juicy red fruit, cigar smoke, tobacco, and leather lingering long. WOW! This wine is a baby it needs loads of time. With time the oak recedes, the smoke comes out, even more, the red and black fruit emerges, but my main “issue” with the wine was the elegance was too elegant and that has stayed, meaning that wine is less aggressive and more laid back, not something I was expecting from a Margaux in 2018. It is a lovely wine, just thought 2018 was the vintage for heat and more fruit and this wine is all about elegance and less about power. Awesome! Drink from 2030 until 2040. (tasted December 2020)

2016 Four Gates Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Bello Ridge, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA – Score: 94+ (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is screaming Cabernet with loads of blackberry, plum, earth, green notes, with roasted herb, menthol, and lovely anise, with Oregano, Tarragon, with incredible green/herbal notes, wow! The mouth on this full-bodied wine is crazy good, layered rich, dense, unctuous, with incredible blackberry, rich currant, with layers of raspberry and black fruit, forest floor, green notes, and a rich and plush mouthfeel, elegant yet forceful. The finish is long, green herbal, and yet elegant, with loads of black and red fruit, rich spices, herbs galore, and smoke, with tar, and earth, graphite, hints of saline, and more anise. Bravo! Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted November 2020)

The 2020 best kosher White wines of the year!

This award is going to the first of many new white wines hailing from France. Last year we had the 2018 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Blanc, Pessac-Legonan, along with Yaacov Oryah wines. This year, no Oryah wines, but we have two wines from Burgundy. Both are made from Chardonnay but in vastly different styles. One is matured in oak while the other is not! Both are wines that have not been made kosher for almost 20 years – the kosher white wine revolution is finally HERE!

The first of two white wines is the 2018 Dampt Freres Chablis, Grand Cru, Les Preuses, a wonderful wine with no oak aging. It is lush, full in the mouth, and minerally deep, a wonderful Grand Cru that we have not had kosher in some 20+ years! The other white wine is the 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Meursault, a wine that had not been made kosher since 2004 and one that is also beautiful. The oak shows now, but that will recede with time, the wine has the minerality and backbone to age for a very long time. Bravo!!

2018 Dampt Freres Chablis, Grand Cru, Les Preuses – Score: 93+ (QPR: EVEN)
OK, let’s start with the obvious, this wine uses a secondary closure of wax, I HATE wax closures, they make such a huge mess. PLEASE, do not hurt yourself, do not try to take it off with a knife of something VERY stupid like that! Simply punch the corkscrew through the wax and remove the cork. Now, in 6 years, maybe that may not be the best idea, and we may well need to rethink it at that time, more of a reason for why I HATE wax closures. Until then, and even then, use the corkscrew, along with an Osso, and pray. OK, now to the wine!

WOW! WOW! I want this!! OMG, this is so much fun! This wine feels like a merger of 2017 Lechet and 2018 Lechet! The nose on this wine is ripe, like 2018 Lechet, but it has the minerality of 2017 Lechet, with notes of beautiful ripe melon, orange blossom, yellow flowers, ripe white and yellow fruit, with loads of minerality, earth, almonds, mushroom, and rich green notes – BRAVO!!! This wine is everything I want in Chablis! When you taste the 2017 Lechet it does not have this weight, when you taste the 2018 Lechet it does not have this intense minerality, when you taste the 2018 Grand Cru you get the best of both worlds, I know, I am repeating myself – OMG just get over it!
The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is rich, layered, incredible, with intense mineral and fruit focus from the start until the very end, and even after that, it lingers forever! The mouth starts with rich layers of nectarine, orange, Meyer lemon, lime, peach, and ripe yellow apple, mingled well with shist, rock, straw, and herbs, with incredible extraction and acidity, hints of tannin, loads of smoke, but what overpowers your senses is the sheer fruit and mineral focus, refreshing, acidic, focused, and deep, wow! The finish is super long, longer than any Chardonnay I have had without oak, with more acidity, mineral, flint, rich saline, ripe Kumquat, hints of lychee, but more Kumquat than Lychee and crazy tart lime/orange – WOW BRAVO!! Drink until 2026. (tasted December 2020)

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 January 2021)

Rest of the 20 top kosher wines of 2020 (in score order)

2017 Chateau Lafon-Rochet, Saint-Estephe, Grand Cru Classe – Score: 93 to 94 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 45% Merlot. The wine starts very closed but still, at the opening, all the secondary notes are indeed still there. With time, the fruit comes out. The nose on this wine is crazy, really lovely, exceptional with true expression, showing incredibly with soy sauce, serrano pepper, with crazy green notes, herbal, with saline, smoke, and crazy green foliage, with mint, stone, rock, and loam. With time, the nose shows riper, with black and red fruit, followed by the lovely mineral and herb of earlier. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied plus wine is pure elegance, it will not hit you over the head with fruit and extraction, it has layers of elegance with layers of foliage, red fruit, herb, raspberry, plum, and dark cherry, with cassis, and loads of tar and smoke, with layers of fruit, tobacco, and herb, and crazy acid, with extraction, and mouth draping tannin. The finish is long, green, garrigue, with crazy foliage, and tobacco, dark chocolate, more tart cherry, and earth, with mushroom, and herb. Bravo! Drink from 2021 until 2030. (tasted February 2020)

2019 Pescaja Terre Alfieri Arneis Solei – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
WOW! this is Arneis fruit, but to me, it is Sauvignon Blanc all the way, but where it departs from classic SB is the pear and almond which should tell you that something is either very wrong or this is not SB, which in case, is the latter, this is not Sauvignon Blanc! If anything this is more a perfect blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier, incredible!
PSA – This wine needs to be CHILLED – LIKE Champagne chilled, PLEASE!
The nose on this wine is truly redolent and super-expressive, if this is lost on you, please do not buy the wine, leave it for others who can appreciate it! This wine does indeed have notes of gooseberry, and cat pee, and lovely green notes, but it also has loads of floral notes, showing violet, rose, salted almond, chamomile, white flowers, and sweet ripe pear, and grapefruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied white wine is INCREDIBLE, nuts, with layers upon layers of incredible fruit, sure it has a drop of RS, but who cares! The mouth is layered with ripe pear, peach, apricot, ripe pomelo, with incredible honeysuckle, followed by honey, honeyed and spiced Citron, and incredible mineral, slate, spice, nutmeg, freshly-cut grass, straw, hay, and lovely roasted almond on the super longer lingering finish – WOW!! This is fun! Drink until 2024. (tasted August 2020)

2017 Dampt Freres Chablis, Premier Cru, Cote de Lechet – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
OK, so, 2017 is the year for Chablis, and of what I had from Dampt Freres, two years ago, a few showed quite well. Those were Petit and a more minor vineyard. This wine is the 2017 Premier Cru and what a wine it is! My goodness, this is what Chardonnay, unoaked of course, ie meant to smell and taste like. It is pure mineral and fruit, with loads of dirt, smoke, and flint – a true joy – BRAVO!!!
The nose on this lovely wine is purely mineral notes, sure there is apple, peach, apricot, and some other white fruit, but who cares, what shines here is the mineral attack, shist, rock, flint, along with lovely white flowers, almonds, and hints of mushroom – I WANT THIS! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, layers upon layers, come at you, with non-stop attack of mineral, fruit, earth, rich spices, and more mineral. The apricot, peach, yellow and green apple from the nose are present, as are hints of lychee, lovely Meyer lemon, and a tiny amount of crazy Kafir lime leaves and juice – WOW! The finish is so long, with incredible minerality, showing flint, rock, shist, and lovely straw, that brings the entire wine together – wow! A true joy – get this!! Drink until 2025. (tasted December 2020)

2017 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes, 1st Grand Cru Classe 1855 – Score: 94 (QPR: EVEN)
WOW, we have waited 16 years from the last released kosher Chateau Guiraud, a wine I scored very highly. This one is a slight step behind that one, but who cares, this is a lovely wine. The Grand Vin also has a diam cork, but this one is a good 2 inches in length, this will be fun to follow!
Now, let us get to the slightly controversial issue, and then let us get to the wine note, the price! It currently goes for 130 or so dollars and the EPIC, and to be fair, better Sauternes from Chateau Tour Blanche 2014 is the same price, give or take a few dollars. Look, Sauternes does not sell quickly, not with Jews or non-kosher, which is SUPER strange, given how much the kosher market LOVES dates and figs in their wines! Look, this wine is epic and it will sell and it deserves to be bought, I will be buying many, but it is going head-to-head on the open market with a superior wine, not sold by Royal. Fun times in 2020! We will not even START to talk about pricing in France and how it will not show as well given the pricing for the 2014 Tour Blanche and the 2014 Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey, Magrez Sauternes. The 2014 vintage was incredible, throw in the 2014 Chateau De Rayne Vigneau Sauternes, and it is going to be madness in France and Europe! This may well be the best example of Sauternes competition in the kosher wine world ever! Now on to the notes!
Ok, so where maybe the Petit Guiraud had an issue with the bitter notes, which do not bother me at all, the Grand Vin has no such “issues”, it is a classic Sauternes and where the Tour Blanche takes the crown, is the incredible acidity and tartness that pops like nothing else on the kosher Sauternes market. There are others that like the sweeter, less tart, Sauternes, all I can say is – they are wrong! so, on to the notes already!
This wine is ready as is, the nose on this incredible Sauternes is popping with sweetness, aromas of sweet orange marmalade, followed by still subtle botrytis funk, with fresh melon, dried apricot, honeysuckle, loads of rich honey and beeswax, and lovely jasmine/white floral notes. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine has a more concentrated structure than the Petit does with an almost oily structure, showing a hint of the orange pith bitterness that portrays as a much larger part in the Petit, ripe pineapple, sweet honeydew melon, followed by candied orange and its pith, sweet and extremely juicy nectarines, with a body wrapped in honey, backed by mineral, a good enough acidity, nothing like the 2014 Tour Blanche, but clearly, some people will be happy. The finish is super-long, incredible, layered, and rich with a sweetness that is riper than the 2014 Tour Blanche, closer to the 2014 Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey, Magrez Sauternes, with loads of candied ginger, more honey, lemon fruit, slate, and sweet vanilla. This is a wine that could be drunk now, but why? Look the mad funk has not even begun to start and the bitterness will give way to even more fruit. Let this one lay! Drink from 2025 until 2042. (tasted July 2020)

2017 Chateau Haut Condissas, Medoc, Prestige – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is incredible – so happy it was managed by Royal and Menachem Israelavitch, this wine makes up for the MASSIVE dud that was the 2016 vintage.
This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Petit Verdot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Cabernet Franc. The nose of this wine is lovely, dirt, earth, tar, and mineral are the primary notes, even before the fruit, then the fruit comes in with currant, raspberry, cherry, and loads of earth, garrigue, and mad green notes of menthol, and spices. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is where the black fruit comes to play, there you will find lovely blackberry, cassis, lovely spices of cloves, cumin, and then comes the layers upon layers of concentrated fruit, smoke, crazy roasted herbs, more menthol, mint, with crazy graphite, nice acidity, a real fruit focus, and concentration, not heavily extracted but focused, with lovely saline, green/black olives, and rich dirt/loam. The finish is incredible, all wrapped in a rich and textured mouth coating tannin, with soy sauce, lovely mushrooms, and a richness that is not over the top, but unctuous and captivating with graphite, dirt, and tar, wrapped in rock and sweet tobacco, all giving way to black and red fruit, more smoke, concentration, and focus, with garrigue, and earth. Bravo!!! Drink from 2023 until 2032. (tasted October 2020)

2018 Chateau Le Crock, Saint-Estephe (M) – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine, is deep dark beautiful notes of black and red fruit, with rich salinity, mineral galore, with lovely tar, smoke, and what I crave from French wine – DIRT, DIRT, and more dirt! The nose is lovely, with green notes lurking in the background, and lovely licorice.
So, while I have been unhappy with the 2018 vintage so far, this wine returns my hope for the vintage, this wine is better than 2016, and that IS SAYING a lot!
This wine is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc. The 2018 vintage has more Cab in it and it smells blacker than 2016 in many more ways than just that. Lovely wine! The blueberry of the past is gone and all you get is this intense earth, dirt, smoke, along with some shockingly beautiful violet, black and red fruit bonanza, with ripples of minerality through it – bravo and this is the Mevushal version!
The mouth on this full-bodied beast is impressive, with rich extraction, like in 2016, deeply concentrated, yet with lovely finesse and elegance, showing a richness that belies its youth, with blackberry, dark, yet controlled, plum, dark raspberry, earth, cherry, smoke, and a mouth draping elegance in the tannin structure that is impressive for its youth, with a lovely plushness, with deep furrows of graphite, saline, and rock. The finish is long, not so green, there is a few green notes, more in the way of tobacco than in the way of foliage, but here the finish is about the dirt, loam, forest floor, smoke, and dark chocolate, with hints of oak, with crazy acidity, leather, all wrapped in roasted herbs that linger long and forever. Bravo!!! This is the best Chateau Le Crock, I have ever tasted, at least in regards to the Mevushal version! Drink from 2025 until 2037. Incredible! (tasted November 2020)

2018 Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre, Saint Julien – Score: 92+ (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is a blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon and 44% Merlot. The nose on this wine is heaven, another home run from the 2018 vintage, with lovely notes of cedar, cigar, smoke, lots of roasted herbs, but then comes the fruit, with blue/black and red fruit, showing a scary rich and fruity approach, but you can tell this is well controlled, better than the 2018 Clarke and for sure far better control than the 2018 Chateau Fontenil, with slight floral notes, but this is about deep and dark fruit. The nose does scare me a bit, not as much as the Clarke, but it is ripe, out of the gate, let us see where this goes over the day. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, there is no hiding from this, really ripe, again, not Clarke’s ripeness and not the Fontenil’s ripeness, but there is a lot of fruit here, with richer extraction and heat than the 2018 Crock, and while I love the overall fruit-focus and structure this does care me, again, we will revisit over the next day. The mouth is rich, deeply layered, and while it is ripe, it is still in balance with clear leanings towards blackcurrants, juicy and ripe boysenberry, rich and unctuous structure, with a plush and layered mouthfeel, showing lovely saline and smoke, smoking tobacco, rich and plush tannin, with loam, wet forest floor, smoke galore, earth, with nice acidity, and mushroom/truffle. The finish is long, green, earthy, smokey, with ripe fruit, really impressive focus of fruit and extraction, with dark chocolate, elegant, though ripe, with sweet spices, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, along with incredible minerality, that is akin to the Clarke, with schist, graphite, and saline. Bravo! This wine is even less accessible than 2018 Clarke and I think this needs a ton of time to come around. Drink from 2028 until 2036. Bravo! (tasted November 2020)

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 January 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 January 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 January 2021)

2018 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone Six, Special Edition, Chalk Hill – Score: 93+ (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine, at the start, is dominated by the sweet dill, sweet oak, roasted herb, and black fruit and milk chocolate. Thankfully, with time, a few hours of air, the nose loses that milk chocolate and we get what we want, rich mineral, lovely black fruit, stone, rock, mineral, graphite, and smoke galore, more toast, with rich foliage, and green notes in the background. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is layered, elegant, extracted, rich, concentrated, and green, with loads of dark blackberry, cassis, green notes, all wrapped in elegance and plushness that is a step ahead of the Chalk, with an acid core that is at the center of this wine, with a mineral core that is clearer and more profound than the Alex or the Chalk, with charcoal, rock, and graphite, all showing a profound fruit-focus, with the power to go far, yet with the elegance to be ready a year before the others, not that I would do that AT ALL. The finish is green, balanced, rich, layered, and elegant, with dark chocolate (the milk chocolate that the wine opens to is long gone), crazy mineral, incredible acidity and olives, tart fruit, notes of juicy and crazy tart raspberry/cherry, scrapping graphite, and steel, with rock, vanilla, earth, garrigue, foliage, and smoke, all giving way to more green notes and more mineral, but all backed by the depth of fruit and acid – INCREDIBLE!
Still, I must say that this wine scared me a bit, the fruit recedes with time and the milk chocolate takes center stage, I think this wine is not as good as the Chalk Hill, IMHO. Time will tell Drink from 2025 (DO NOT) until 2032.  (tasted January 2021)

2018 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Edition, Chalk Hill (M) – Score: 94 (QPR: GOOD)
The wine starts with that classic Hershey milk chocolate note which freaked me out for a wine of 13.5% ABV. After some time, those notes fall off and you are left with elegance and power – the perfect balance.
The nose, once it calms down, is sheer elegance, with classic Chalk hill notes of rich mineral, roasted herb, smoke, loads of black licorice, anise, green notes, foliage, black fruit, and more black fruit, all wrapped in forest floor notes, and wet dirt and loam, WOW! The mouth on this full-bodied wine is richly extracted, with more elegance than the Alexander (which I tasted side-by-side-by-side the Alex/Chalk/Clone 6), with equally crazy mouth-draping tannin, extraction, and plushness, but with less ripeness, more control, excellent acidity, equal fruit-focus, showing blacker fruit than the Alexander Valley, no blue fruit, with rich blackberry, classic cassis, black cherry, dark currant, all wrapped in more mouth draping and elegant tannin, scrapping minerals, graphite, earth, loam, and smoke, wow! The finish is long, green herbal, foliage, smoke, with tar, with black fruit, more mineral, smoking tobacco, cumin, cinnamon, and steel, lingering long. Incredible, just WOW! Bravo guys! Drink from 2027 until 2038. (tasted January 2021)

2018 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Reserve, Alexander Valley (M) – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
OMG, Alex is back baby!! OK, let me be clear, this wine is ripe, the ABV on it is 14.5%, but if it said 15%, I would believe it. The difference here is that it is perfectly balanced. I tasted this with the 2018 Chateau Malmaison, and that is also really ripe to start, with time, that also balances out, but when it does it loses some steam, the Alex, loses NOTHING, it is a beast and will stay that way for some time indeed! After an hour of air/decanting, the nose on this Cabernet Sauvignon is classic, absolutely classic, with notes of ripe black and blue fruit, followed by loads of licorice, smoke, tar, earth, black pepper, tobacco, and nice green foliage. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is beautifully extracted, with rich acidity, lovely mouth-draping tannin, incredible fruit-focus, with blackberry, cherry, earth, ripe blueberry, with green notes, tobacco, forest floor, hints of mushroom, and lovely concentration and plushness. The finish is super-long, with more green notes, cigar smoke, green foliage, tobacco, vanilla, dark chocolate, and more green notes that linger FOREVER! WOW! BRAVO guys!!! Drink from 2026 until 2034. (tasted January 2021)

2018 Herzog Eagle’s Landing Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
Let me start by saying buy this wine, buy lots of this wine, I mean a LOT! OK, now this wine is a bigger and richer version of the 2013 Eagle’s Landing Pinot Noir, in other words, this wine is a beast, a winner, and yes – get this wine! My only comment is that this wine is not a classically styled Pinot Noir. This wine is full-bodied and not so much about cherry and raspberry and more about blackberry and spice, I would not have initially guessed this was a Pinot Noir, still this a wonderful wine. My only real complaint is the strangely small cork used as its closure, when the Cabernet Franc has a much longer cork, just not sure why. Anyway, I do not care about corks, as long as they last long enough to meet the drinking window.
The nose on this wine is pure heaven, coffee and chocolate, and fruit madness, with dirt, mushroom, loam, and spice, all wrapped in dark and brooding fruit, showing control, spice, earth, and sheer umami notes, wow!! The mouth on this full-bodied wine is wow! the mouth starts very softly, almost like a leopard crouching before it pounces upon its prey, this wine is beautifully structured to last, and so well made it is almost difficult to get all the thoughts out of my head, layers of fruit, acid, tannin, salinity (that is incredible), black olives, with epic fruit structure and concentration, with clear and bold and jammy blackberry, raspberry, dark cherry, with intense saline, forest floor, searing acidity, and layers of dark jammy brooding but well-controlled fruit. With time the cherry and raspberry fall behind the intense black and intense brooding fruit. The finish is equally impressive with layers of chocolate, coffee, leather, spices, nutmeg, cloves, rich earth, lovely smoking tobacco leaves, sweet and jammy fruit, all wrapped in mineral, spice, and earth. Bravo!!! Drink from 2024 until 2033 or longer. (tasted November 2020)

2015 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Gran Selezione, Assai – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
To start this wine is undrinkable, there is no way a person should buy this wine, open it, and enjoy it unless they like suffering. The nose on this wine starts ripe, with notes of black and red fruit, loads of tobacco, and smoke, with hints of dirt and not much else. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, ripe, and layered, with blackberry, earth, dark sour cherry, blackberry, dark plum, roasted herb, smoke, loads of mushroom, and crazy cedar and oak, with layers of rich and mouth searing tannin, backed by good acidity, and more green and herbal notes. The finish is super long, dark, and brooding, with more tobacco, incredible leather, espresso, vinegar notes, and tar.
Finally, after 12 hours of air in the bottle, the wine is drinkable, I guess at least 5 hours of decanting would get us to the same place. Now, the nose is moving in the correct direction, I still think it needs more time, the nose now shows less of that ripeness and shows more of the dirt, earth, and tar, followed by dried meat, dark cherry, dried black fruit, with mint and oregano, and loads of smoke. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is now in line with what I expect from Terra di Seta Gran Selezione, these wines are oaky to start and now the oak has moved to the background, showing more elegance, with draping tannin, mouth searing acidity, all wrapped in a cacoon of coffee and chocolate, with layers of concentrated blackberry, dark plum, dried Kirsche cherry, with loads of dirt, mineral, and lovely spice and roasted green notes all showing in a plush and elegant mouthfeel. The finish is super long, green now, with a clear backbone of dark fruit, smoke, smoked meat, mushrooms that show with time, lapsang souchong tea/soy sauce, and lingering graphite and dirt, really incredible wine. Drink from 2023 until 2031 (it may need even more time to enter the drinking window). (tasted May 2020)

2016 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah – Score: 94 (QPR: GOOD)
This is ripe, but it is strange, the bottle that was opened was an oak monster, and very ripe. The next bottle I opened was far calmer in both oak and ripeness. Strange.
The nose on this wine is lovely, still closed a bit, but lovely, with ripe fruit, well balanced, showing lovely smoke, roasted meat, black pepper, tobacco, with good black and blue fruit, all wrapped in loam and spice. The mouth on this wine is incredible, rich, layered, smokey, and earthy, and yes ripe, but the acidity is lovely, with layers of blackberry, blueberry, juicy tart fruit, with a concentration of fruit, well-focused, with loads of mouth draping tannin, showing a beautiful plush mouthfeel that belies its youth, and shows a wine capable of lasting far into the future. The finish is super long, plush, green, ripe, with black and blue fruit, backed by loads of tart raspberry, smoke, graphite, tar, and more smoked meat. Wow! True joy! Drink from 2023 until 2030, maybe longer. (tasted June 2020)

2016 Four Gates Merlot, Estate Bottled, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA – Score: 94 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is so epic, rich, and very pretty and feminine, as Benyo says, it is familiar and yet unfamiliar, aromatic and redolent, with violet, rosehip, blue and red fruit, with loads of loam, spice, earth, and lovely anise, star anise, and lemongrass. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is incredible, rich, layered, and elegant, with more violet, dense fruit, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, all sweet plush fruit, in a plush and layered mouthfeel and attack, with ripe plum, menthol galore, and unctuous, wow! The finish is long, green, ripe, red, and blue with blueberry, chocolate-covered vanilla bean, and rich tobacco/menthol, with more anise, and sweet spices. WOW! Bravo!! Drink from 2026 until 2033. (tasted November 2020)

Interesting Wines

2018 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Forebearers, Napa Valley (M) – Score: 92+ (QPR: POOR)
The wine is very slow to open, this wine needs time, so give it the respect it deserves. The nose on this wine is lovely, not one of those “Brilliance” fruit bombs, this is a lovely earthy, anise filled joy, with smoke, tar, fruit galore, but well-controlled, with loam, candied ginger, and more fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is oaky, it starts with a clear focus of oak, and has a bit of a hole, but with time, as I said, this needs it, the hold fills in well, with a rich coat of mouth-draping tannin, earth, sweet dill, oak, blackberry, dark cherry, hints of plum, and currants, all wrapped in tannin and oak, very nice. The finish is plush, and tart, with good acidity, earth, more dill, sweet smoking tobacco, dark chocolate, and anise. Nice, a wine to get and store away. Bravo!
With loads of time, this wine starts to shine and I highly underestimated it, this wine is super young and needs time. I would wait 3 years to play with this again. Let this beast lie. Drink from 2024 until 2028 maybe longer. (tasted November 2020)

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 January 2021)

2018 Domain Netofa Latour, White – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
Wow, what a lovely wine, this wine is 100% Chenin Blanc aged 10 months in oak barrels. The nose on this wine is pure heaven, but it is slow to open, once it does, the wine is lovely with loads of floral notes, yellow flowers, orange blossom, rosehip, and lovely white fruit, pear, peach, and smoke/toast. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, with great acidity, clear and present, with layers of sweet and dry fruit, with candied and toasted almonds, hazelnuts, with hay and straw, followed by floral notes, tart melon, lemongrass, citrus galore, yellow apple, quince, baked apple, and dry grass and earth, lovely! The finish is long, dry, tart, and butterscotch-laden, with toast, smoke, ginger, and marzipan, Bravo!! Drink from 2021 until 2025. (tasted January 2021)

2020 Kos Yeshuos Viognier – Score: 92 (QPR: EVEN)
The notes are on a bottle that was bottled less than 2 weeks ago. To start the nose opens to smell very much like the 2018 California Kid, which was Viognier/Sauvignon Blanc, this vintage is 100% Viognier. The nose starts with bright peach, pear, citrus, gooseberry, fresh hay, cardamom, jasmine, and flint galore. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, layered, and rich, with waves of acidity that are almost overcoming, but they are tempered by the smoke, flint, peach, citrus galore, ripe pomelo, with an almost oily texture, followed by waxy notes, with lovely weight, ripe apricot, yellow pear, and more hay. The finish is long, green, with hints of foliage, more tart and juicy yellow fruit, gooseberry, honeydew, and loads of flint, smoke, and green notes. Bravo! Drink until 2023. (tasted December 2020)

2019 Chateau de Santenay, Mercurey, Les Bois de Lalier – Score: 92 (QPR: POOR)
I love the evolution this wine undergoes over a few hours and yes, this wine is ready to enjoy, but it is not at its peak and it can indeed enjoy a year or two of sleep. Still, one of the TRUE joys of wine drinking is watching a wine evolve, which is why I hate decanting, aeration, or any of the many ways to speed up father Time.
This wine starts closed, but with 30 minutes, it opens to a true classic Burgundy. Still, if you had me guess I would have said a Four Gates Chard, maybe 2002, 2004, or 2017. Still, the wine is lovely and as time evolves it starts to show what makes its special – Burgundy!
The nose starts with classic notes of white Burgundy, with peach, saline, green apple, and classic oaky notes. With time, that changes to show what lies ahead, with lovely yellow pear, orange apple, nectarine, lemon blossom, rich salinity, and lovely loam and oak. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is asking for thought, it is layered, ripe, yet balanced, showing great acidity and mouth-draping with an utter elegance that is incredible, the oak, sweet fruit, green apple, peel, with rich orange rind, tangerine notes, followed by roasted nuts, toast, brioche, and sweet oaky goodness that wraps the mouth with a richness and weight and brings to thought many of the great chards of the past. The finish is long, green, sweet, and joyous, with sweet orange, more floral notes, sweet oak, almond, nuts, citrus zest, and rich mineral, yellow plum, hay, but it is the piercing acidity, rich salinity, lovely fruit, and incredible yet well-balanced oak/Brioche, with nutty notes that make this wine quite impressive.
While this wine does fall off a bit the next day, by losing its acidity, it still keeps its unctuous and rich mouthfeel, without loads of oak. While I feel uneasy, the wine is solid, and while the acidity is not the same as when it was opened it is still a lovely wine. Drink until 2025. (tasted November 2020)

2018 Chateau Piada, Sauternes – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The 2018 vintage is not well known for Sauternes, but this smells nice, with lovely aromas of sweet funk, botrytis, rich flint/smoke, sweet apple, apricot, candied peach, and melon, with guava, and a rich bowl of nuts. Piada continues its rich tradition of mineral-soaked Sauternes with a lovely vintage, this hot 2018 vintage still allowed Piada to create a mineral and acidic mouthfeel, Bravo!
The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is rich, layered, and unctuous, with a lovely end-to-end Palate showing rich saline, nuts, citrus, sweet melon, more funk, guava, and a beautiful nut covered white chocolate candy bar, with sweet notes, hints of pineapple, and garrigue, lovely! The finish is long, sweet, green (yes!), and palate filling and coating, with rich tannin, sweet fruit, melon, tart citrus, and graphite, that comes together nicely. Bravo! Drink from 2022 until 2035. (tasted September 2020)

2018 Dampt Freres Chablis, Premier Cru, Cote de Lechet – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
So, 2018, may have been a letdown for Chablis, and the crazy thing was that the 2018 Marrionners Chablis and Premier Cru were crazy great at release, and have taken a step back, thankfully, this Chablis is still going strong. The nose is riper, and though the ABV between 2017 and 2018 of the same wine is the same 13%, there is a clear impact of 2018 on this wine, in comparison to 2017’s mineral bomb. The nose on this wine is riper and indeed it does remind me of the 2018 Marrionners upon release, it has the riper fruit, more of pear, melon, orange blossom, yellow flowers, and such rather than the tart 2017 note, along with some mineral, but this vintage is more fruity than mineral-driven. BEWARE – this wine is still young, leave it time to open, the acidity and minerality will come out, but it needs time, at the start, it will feel short, but with time, it shows its beauty.
The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has more weight and structure than in 2017, with the acidity and minerality is in your face at the start, but the finish is shorter, the mouth starts with layers of acid, lovely mineral, followed by pear, lime, lychee, melon, honeydew, and more sweet Meyer lemon, though none of that incredible Kafir lime, still a lovely rich and fuller mouthfeel, with incredible acidity, but less minerality than 2017. The finish is long (again, it starts short, give this wine time to open) with lovely acid, green notes, followed by ripe and waxy notes, with yellow apple, flint, richly dried straw, hay, along with hints of nectarine and orange, with orange rind, and earth galore. It is interesting truly a joy to taste these two vintages of the same wine – side by side, it allows me to better understand the vintages. The 2017 vintage is a mineral bomb, while 2018 is riper, but the hay and straw are more evident in 2018 than in 2017, fun. I want more of this as well – Bravo!! Drink until 2024. (tasted December 2020)

2018 Domaine du Castel Grand Vin – Score: 92 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 10% Petit Verdot. The nose on this wine is ripe, To be a bit fair, it is not fair to taste this wine after two BEAUTIFULLY elegant wines, this is a ripe wine, not a Date Juice monster, but ripe, controlled at the start, with notes of milk chocolate that hit you first, followed by loads of oak, sweet dill, smoke, black fruit, earth, mushroom, and did I say ripe fruit? Just Checking! The mouth on this full-bodied wine is a bruiser, there is no elegance here, at this point, with more milk chocolate, more oak, smoke, tar, blackberry, plum, hints of cassis, and loads of ripe and juicy fruit, with layers of concentration, followed by more oak, earth, graphite, and yet more milk chocolate, with green notes and foliage in the far back with menthol. The finish is long, ripe, milky, chocolaty, and ripe, with more oak, loads of sweet tobacco, tar, along with an impressive mouth-coating and sweet oak tannin structure.
The wine does mellow out with time showing a far more calm and less milk-chocolate profile. The ripeness is still there but it is controlled, what falls off, a bit, is the acidity, still a very nice showing and one that will be well appreciated by all. I love the tar, fruit, balanced, and rich, layered and concentrated, to me, this is showing better than 2013 and 2016. I would buy a few of these. As always, my fear is ever-present, so a few! Drink from 2022 until 2026. I am not sure in what direction this wine will go, but it is ripe now and if it follows previous vintages it has a very short leash. (tasted December 2020)

2014 Yarden Blanc de Blancs, Brut – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine is pure heaven, it is far leaner than the previous vintages, showing brightness and focus that I crave, with notes of lemon, apple pie, lovely floral notes, all layered with a hint of rich toast. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is layered, and toasty, with lean and bright leanings, showing green and yellow apple, quince galore, toast, pear, and Asian Pear freshly baked pie, lime/grapefruit, hints of brioche, all wrapped in oak tannin, and a crazy attack of small bubble mousse. The finish is long, tart, lovely, and well-focused, with ginger, oak, toast, and freshly baked pie lingering long, with tart/green apple and quince. Bravo! Drink until 2028. (tasted November 2020)