As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, and while it took forever to post these notes, I am happy to finally be getting to them at this point. I will note, that almost none of these wines are or will be available here in the USA. The Vins de Vienne and Famille Mayard are available here, and the Tassi Brunello di Montalcino is here as well. The rest, are either in Israel or Europe.

So, returning to the trip, other than hanging out with my family and doing a few tastings in-person with Menahem Israelievitch of Royal Wines Europe, Clarisse and Lionel Bokobsa of Sieva/Bokobsa Wines, and Shlomo Corcos of Guter Wein, I kept to my hotel and tasted wines I bought throughout Paris. This is the tasting I had with Ari Cohen, David Naccache, Cedric Perez, Benjamin Sebbah, and Mickael Marciano. A really fun group of guys. I must thank Ari Cohen and his lovely family for hosting us during the tasting.

In the end, these were mostly painful wines but there were some real WINNERS as well. We did the tastings in parings of the same regions or style and some were quite nice.

Roses

There were three roses and none of them interested me at all. I was surprised as they had been hyped and they were expensive, but ultimately, they came up short.

Chablis

There were a few Chablis and overall they were boring. The best one 2019 Domaine des Malandes Chablis, Cuvee Amandine, Chablis, but it is not worth the money.

Two White Wines

Next, we had two white wines, one from Pays d’Oc and the other from Savoie, sadly they were both boring.

Sancerre

Next, we had some Sancerre! Yes, finally a real list of Kosher Sancerre! They were nice, some were crazy expensive and none really blew us away like the 2012 Chavignol Sancerre, but still nice. The WINNER from Bokobsa was the one wine that was both enjoyable and reasonable in price.

I do not normally care about price in regards to wine. However, I do care about the overall value of wine in regards to other options in its category, AKA QPR. There are so many great white wine options out there at this time that a 75 dollar Sancerre, nice as it is, really is not as interesting to me when I can have a better wine for half the price.

Another Chateau Magrez Fombrauge disaster

We then had 4 wines – they were all horrible. The 2017 Chateau Magrez Fombrauge Blanc, Bordeaux was an oxidized mess. The others were equally poor, I did not even write notes for them.

Rhone Wines

First we had four Rhone wines, two from Cotie-Rotie, one from Cotes du Rhone, and another from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The two Cotie-Rotie were produced for Mes Vins Cacher and they were quite lovely, though expensive. The Cristia Collection are nice wines made for Israel that Ari was able to also get a few bottles of. This is yet another example of the growing list of French Kosher wines being made solely for Israel’s export. This has been the case for some USA purpose-made French wines as well, but in this case, Israel has taken the lead, at this point.

Next, we had another four Rhone wines, this time these were all made by Nathan Grandjean for sale on his website: yavine.fr. These wines and others from his collection were quite impressive and are WINNERS. Nathan had the largest number of QPR WINNERS in the tasting. Bravo!

Next, we had four Rhone white wines, all were again made by Les Vin de Vienne and Famille Mayard for Nathan Grandjean. Two Condrieu, one Crozes-Hermitage, and one Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Very nice. Two more WINNERS here!

Brunello

Finally, we had the 2016 Tassi Brunello di Montalcino, Bettina Cuvee, Brunello di Montalcino. It is a lovely wine but for the price and the quality, I would stick with Terra di Seta. I will try and taste this again, but for now, it is a lovely wine that is just too expensive.

Overall Feeling

Overall, there were some WINNERS and there were some nice wines that are not worth the money. Magrez continues to make wines I would never buy and the rest of the simpler whites and roses were a total waste of money.
The higher-end wines were nice but many were far too expensive to make it reasonable. Still, there is a growing selection of wines from regions that we could have only dreamed about in the past!

I must state that I could NEVER have tasted these wines without the incredible help of Ari Cohen, Nathan Grandjean of yavine.fr online wine shop, and MesVinCacher. Ari tracked down all the wines for this tasting and hosted us for the afternoon that turned into the evening. I was sure he was ready to throw us out an hour earlier! Thanks so much, Ari, and thanks to your wife and family for putting up with me, and the gang that invaded your home!

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

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2019 Roussawine Rose, Greece – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
The wine is surprisingly good for 2019 rose. The nose on this wine is nice enough, with good fruit, nice acidity, and minerality. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is painful, it is too sweet, not balanced enough, but nice still, with melon, sweet strawberry, guava, and tart grapefruit. Nice enough. Drink now. (tasted June 2021)

2020 Chateau Gairoird Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is simple, a bit of grapefruit, strawberry, peach, raspberry, and mineral, simple. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, it lacks the acidity to balance this wine, it is good enough, but sadly move on. (tasted June 2021)

2020 Chateau de Saint-Martin Grand Reserve, Cotes de Provence – Score: 85 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is pure citrus, tart grapefruit, hints of apricot, really the nose is filled with deep minerality, smoke, and bright fruit. The mouth on this wine is balanced, but it has slight bubbles, when you shake it the acidity falls off, this is crazy, the wine was supposed to be so great, but honestly, all I get is saline, smoke, and grapefruit. The finish is short, but the minerality and saline are nice, very sad. Drink now (tasted June 2021)

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2019 Domaine Saint Prix Chablis, Chablis – Score: 75 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is flat, boring, and not much else, with apple, green notes, and nothing else. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is flat, boring, and not there, with apple, green notes, slate, and no finish. So sad. Move on. (tasted June 2021)

2019 Domaine des Malandes Chablis, Cuvee Amandine, Chablis – Score: 90+ (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is lovely, finally a nice Chablis, notes of petrol, funk, grass, hay, mineral, green apple, grapefruit, yellow plum, and green notes, lovely! The mouth on this wine is slow to open, nice green and yellow apple, slightly oily and nice weight, good fruit, quince, grapefruit, gooseberry, and passion fruit, with mineral, saline, and smoke. The finish is nice, but a bit short, but the crazy acidity covers it up, with lovely saline, slate, and rock. Nice. Drink now (tasted June 2021)

2019 M.de.Ligny Bourgogne – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine has Triangle-K Kosher supervision, FYI. OK, this wine could have been called a Chablis, and I would not have been surprised, calling you’re a Bourgogne surprises me!
The nose on this wine is pure acid, with a bit of fruit, a drop of mineral, and not much else. The mouth on this wine is ok, again, the most interesting thing is the acidity, followed by some peach, quince, apple, and pear, and that is it. The finish is ok, nice enough wine with some acidity, a very simple quaff. (tasted June 2021)

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2020 Jean Perrier & Fils Pure, Savoie – Score: 83 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is pure apple juice, with really not much else, a drop of quince, citrus, and that is it. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, nothing grabs you, and the mid-palate is empty while the finish is nice but boring. (tasted June 2021)

2019 Les Basses Collines Vermentino, Pays d’Oc – Score: 84 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is yeasty, with apple, grapefruit, and green notes. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is simple, it has no complexity, melon, grapefruit, apple, quince, and grapefruit. The acidity is OK, but the finish is a bit short, average. Drink now! (tasted June 2021)

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2020 Fournier Pere & Fils Sancerre, Les Belles Vignes, Sancerre – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose on this wine is lovely, smoke, flint, rich salinity, beautiful fruit, and bright nose, lovely! The mouth on this wine is simple but nice, acidity, minerality, gooseberry, rich passion fruit, smoke, and loam help elevate the wine, overall quite nice, and the tension and crazy acid grabs you. The finish is super long, tart, green, lemongrass, slate, mineral, saline, and orange pith, with orange on the long finish. Nice!!! (tasted June 2021)

2020 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre, La Moussiere, Sancerre – Score: 92 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is lovely a bit sweet with grapefruit, gooseberry, lemongrass, and nice mineral. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a lovely mouthfeel, rich, layered, I would have loved a bit more acidity, still well balanced, with smoke, green notes, gooseberry, saline, grapefruit, melon, guava, and lovely mineral. The finish is long, tart, saline, with incredible flint, rock, and smoke, lovely! Drink until 2025. (tasted June 2021)

2020 Domaine la Clef du Récit (Anthony Girard) Sancerre, L’indiscrete – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is on the edge of QPR WINNER in France, but it can be found for a good price, in some stores, so that helped push it to WINNER. This smells like a proper Sancerre, with classic green and white notes, crazy mineral, intensely bright fruit, lovely lemon curd, smoke, hay, straw, and stone fruit – WOW! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is well made, well balanced, with great smoke, gooseberry, passion fruit, incredible acid, minerality, saline, wow, a fruit-focus that is nice, it starts slow but it really opens up with time, and lovely grapefruit, lemon/lime, and smoke, wow! The finish is long, green, with lemongrass, smoke, flint, rock, saline, and lovely acidity that carries the fruit, and holds long! Bravo!! Drink until 2023. (tasted June 2021) (not imported to the USA)

2019 Joseph Mellot Sancerre, La Graviere, Sancerre – Score: 91+ (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is quite normal for me, it is Sancerre, it has a drop of oak, but it is about the smoke, flint, orange notes, celery, bell pepper, and good citrus. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is quite fun, as always, with nice balance, good acidity, good fruit focus, showing, smoke, flint, bell pepper, grapefruit, gooseberry, orange, and nectarines, with good acidity. The finish is long, green, gooseberry, flint, rock, and celery again, nice!!! Drink by 2022. (tasted June 2021)

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2017 Chateau Magrez Fombrauge Blanc, Bordeaux – Score: 50 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is 100% TRASH – it is oxidized and a pure disaster, there is nothing good about it, DEAD and DEAD! Save your money! (tasted June 2021)

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2018 Crista Collection Cotes du Rhone, Cotes du Rhone – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine is ripe, with lots of heat, with nice dirt, earth, smoke, tar, blueberry, raspberry, and nice loam. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is sweet, it has balance, but the fruit is ripe, but the dirt, smoke, acid, and tar/clay brings the wine around, blackberry, raspberry, boysenberry, and nice sweet tannin brings it all together. The finish is long, sweet, ripe, with more earth, clay, tar, rich milk chocolate, and nice earth/loam that lingers long. Nice! Drink until 2025 (tasted June 2021)

2017 Cristia Collection Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Cuvee Tradition, Chateauneuf-du-Pape – Score: 80 (QPR: EVEN)
This is an Israeli wine is Rhone clothing – too ripe for me. I tried to like it but the more it was open the worse it became. Maybe in a day, it would come around but for me, no thanks. 

The nose on this wine is ripe, dense, and sweet, it has some minerality but it is not for me. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is dense, sweet, ripe, and painful, with clear residual sugar, horrible. The finish is long, sweet dirt, and painful. Drink until 2024. (tasted June 2021)

2018 Domaine de Corps de Loup Cotie-Rotie, Corps de Loup, Cotie-Rotie – Score: 92 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is beautiful, well balanced, but ripe, with rich spices, smoke, and rich dirt, nice! The nose on this wine is lovely, with rich spices, sweet fruit, blue and red, with sweet spices, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, tarragon, what a lovely nose – wow, with rich spices, fruit, dirt, and sweet oak, wow! The mouth on this full-bodied wine is nice, well made, well balanced, yes it is ripe, lovely acidity, boysenberry, root beer, intense spices, rich cloves, dark fruit, blackberry, dark cherry, plum, intense mouth-drying, and layering tannin, and lovely rich clay. The finish on this full-bodied wine is well made, well balanced, with dark chocolate-covered coffee beans, blackcurrants, incredible spices, sweet notes, and intense acidity that lifts this wine – Bravo!!! Drink from 2023 until 2029. (tasted June 2021)

2018 Domaine de Corps de Loup Cotie-Rotie, Marions-Les, Cotie-Rotie – Score: 93 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 80% Syrah & 20% Viognier. The nose on this wine is lovely, with rich peach, apricot, oaked sweet white fruit, sweet milk chocolate, sweet oak, and rich spices. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, dirty, sweet, earthy, and concentrated with rich white and blue fruit, boysenberry, blackberry, peach, earth, and lovely smoke, followed by dense mouth-draping tannin that is rounder a bit but also much more acidic that pulls you in, nice!! The finish on this wine is ripe, round, balanced, and acidic, dense, and rich, with more fruit, coffee, ripe boysenberry, sweet spices, cloves, ginger, clay all that is covered up by the sweet peach and apricot, that gives way to rich smoke, clay, graphite, and dense sweet fruit. Bravo!! Drink until 2029. (tasted June 2021)

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2017 Les Vins de Vienne Crozes-Hermitage, Les Palignons, France – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine has evolved and it is now getting more balanced, it is ripe but it is nicer now. The nose on this wine is nice with sweet notes of blue and black fruit, sweet herbs, smoke, tar, clay, and rich loam. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, and finally coming around, with dense fruit, blackberry, blueberry, earth, smoke, with lovely clay, green notes, rich mouth-draping tannin, and dark foliage. The finish is long, green, earthy, smoky, and tart, well-balanced, with rich dark chocolate, and dense, with lovely acidity. Nice!! Drink by 2026 (tasted June 2021)

2017 Les Vins de Vienne Saint-Joseph, L’Arzelle, Saint-Joseph – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine is lovely, really dense, well-balanced, and rich. The nose on this wine is really lovely, ripe, well-balanced, rich, with lovely flowers, violet, lavender, licorice, and rich saline/mineral. The mouth on this medium-bodied to full-bodied wine is lovely, with layers and elegance, this is not deeply concentrated, rather this is more elegant, with smoke, blueberry, raspberry, herbal, and sweet spices, with cinnamon, cloves, lovely mouth scarping tannin, rich mineral, and lovely root beer, hints of watermelon, soy sauce. The finish is long, blue, red, and hints of dark plum, with rich scraping graphite, rock, loam, and clay, with rich smoke and lovely red fruit, pomegranate, rooibos, wow! Nice bravo! Drink by 2027 (tasted June 2021)

2019 Famille Mayard Le Hurevent, Chateauneuf-du-Pape – Score: 93 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is crazy closed it is impossible to smell, this needs time. The nose on this wine is dense, ripe, rich, licorice, with deep rich dirt, barnyard, black and red fruit, rich mineral, and pomegranate. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, deep, and concentrated, with saline, blackberry, boysenberry, raspberry, intense crazy mouth-drying, and draping tannin, wrapping sweet oak, dark fruit, extracted and mineral-driven. Bravo! The finish is long, dense, smoky, earthy, dark chocolate, rich leather, smoking tobacco, and dense rich fruit, with heather, violet, and rich clay, nice!! Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted June 2021)

2019 Famille Mayard La Crau de ma Mere, Chateauneuf-du-Pape – Score: 91+ (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is ripe, deep, really too ripe, black, blue, and red fruit, sweet oak, sweet dill, perfumed smoke, and rich milk chocolate. The mouth on this full-bodied it is richly layered, concentrated, and dense, with good acidity, nice extraction, good fruit, but dense, with blackberry, blueberry, less over the top, but rich with clay, mineral, iron, loam, mushroom, good smoke, and lovely tar. The finish is long, sweet, ripe, and not that fascinating at this time. It is young, sweet, ripe, and dirty, not much else. Drink from 2024 until 2028. (tasted June 2021)

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2018 Les Vins de Vienne Crozes-Hermitage, Les Palignons, Crozes-Hermitage – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine is lovely, rich, mineral, hay, smoke, less peach than a Condrieu, but also nice apricot, with gooseberry, saline, and rich mineral, lovely! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, layered, not rich, but well-balanced, rich straw, floral with heather, violet, gooseberry, grapefruit, smoke, and honeysuckle, lovely, with acidity that goes on forever. The finish is long, green, mineral-driven, with hay, straw, yellow plum, smoke, and rich saline. wow! Bravo!! Drink until 2025. (tasted June 2021)

2017 Les Vin de Vienne Condrieu, La Chambee, Condrieu – Score: 92 (QPR: BAD)
This wine was 9 months in oak and is 100% Viognier. This is the third time I have tasted this wine. It may well be the first kosher Condrieu that I have tasted. The nose is beautiful, truly a rich and redolent viognier nose, showing rich and beautiful with rich peach and apricot, followed by rich straw, heather, rich and dense funk, and white flowers. The mouth on this wine is rich and layered and lovely, with layers of small yellow plum, dry grass, with sweet clean notes of tart peach with layers of rich tart fruit, with lovely acidity, showing sweet peaches, with a drenching mouth-coating tannin, and sweet fruit in the background. The finish is long and sweet, but well balanced, with rich saline, mineral, with nice balance, sweet fruit, slate, and sweet flowers lingering long. Chambée refers to a vine-growing technique: when erosion takes place during the springtime, growers push the vine’s soil back into the center of the row. Each section of shoveled soil is called a “chambee”. This tiring practice is still implemented by some growers. Drink by 2025. (tasted June 2021)

2018 Les Vin de Vienne Condrieu, La Chambee, Condrieu – Score: 90 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is less interesting than the 2017 vintage, the nose is empty, at this point pure oak juice, candied peach, honeysuckle, honey, candied fruit, melon, guava, and a drop of passion fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a bit of acidity, it has lots of oak, but the middle is closed, with more oak, peach, apricot, more white flowers, clay, a nice acidity. The finish is long, tart, nice acid, green notes, lemongrass, rich oak, sweet fruit, and not much else. Drink by 2025. (tasted June 2021)

2020 Famille Mayard La Crau de ma Mere, Blanc, Chateauneuf-du-Pape – Score: 87 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is ok, rich lemon, but not much else. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ok, it has nice acidity, lemon, grapefruit, nice yellow plum, melon, a bit of smoke, not much else. The finish is long, acidic, smoky, with flint, graphite, lovely lemongrass, iron, and sweet oak. Drink until 2025. (tasted June 2021)

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2016 Tassi Brunello di Montalcino, Bettina Cuvee, Brunello di Montalcino – Score: 92+ (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this is too ripe, really pushed, smoke, earth, rich loam, green notes, and rich mushroom, but ripe. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, layered, pushed, but well-made, with good acidity, nice dense fruit, but bright with saline, mineral, searing tannin, dark blackberry, cassis, raspberry, currant, and dense sweet oak. The finish is long, ripe, dirty, earthy, and fun but dense. This wine needs time, showing chocolate, coffee, tobacco, and iron, blended, with mushroom, loam, with crazy tannin and green notes! Bravo!
With time, the wine truly calms down like many a Sangiovese wine, think of Brunello as a very long-aged Chianti, in ways. The nose stays the same, deep, rich, and fruity. The mouth calms down greatly but stays the same, what happens is the fruit calms and comes together with more saline, rich acid, screaming and scraping tannin, and lovely minerals. Bravo! Drink from 2026 until 2033. (tasted June 2021)