As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in May, and while it took forever to post these notes, I am happy to finally be getting to them at this point. I must start by thanking Clarisse and Lionel Bokobsa of Sieva/Bokobsa Wines. They were so kind to host me and let me taste the lovely wines. I was also joined by Mr. Benjamin Kukurudz, sales manager at Sieva, sadly Mendy Asseraf was onsite at a winery that day. Also, for some reason, I forgot to take pictures, but thankfully, Clarisse did.

So, like my trip last year, I kept in my hotel room for much of the trip. Clarisse was so friendly to set up the tasting so on a bright summer-like morning, I made my way to the Sieva offices, just outside of Paris. Sadly, Alexandre did not join me on this tasting, nor would we meet up again until Friday of that week. Thankfully, he had time on Friday and tasted most of the wines I bought – more on that in posts to come.

Late last year, I enjoyed some lovely wines at the offices, and that was in the throws of the COVID madness. Thankfully, this year both Royal and Bokobosa brought back their events, in June 2022. From the images, I see on my Facebook feed, it looked nice. Mabruk and Mazel Tov guys! Sadly, I knew I was not going to be able to come back in June, so Clarisse and her family were so nice to let me crash in May.

The pricing of these wines is mostly cheaper in France than they are here in the USA, as such, some of the wines have better QPR scores in France. Also, many of these wines will not come to the USA, but overall I continue to be impressed by the quality of the wines and how Bokobsa’s selection and quality have grown from year to year.

In regards to the wines tasted, the two sparkling wines, a Vouvray and the Champagne Demoiselle Vranken were both very nice. The 2019 Chateau Cantelaudette, Cuvee Prestige showed better this time.

My thanks to Clarisse and Lionel Bokobsa and the rest of the Sieva/Bokobsa team for hosting me and letting us taste the wonderful wines. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:

2021 Selection Bokobsa Chardonnay, Vin de France (M) – Score: 89.5 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a simple but very nice quaff, a wine that shows well and is easy to enjoy while also refreshing. The nose of this wine is a bit stunted but shows well with green apple, pear, herb, and flint. The mouth of this wine is nice, simple, but a nice quaff, with good acidity, flint, a nice mouthfeel, with pear, green apple, citrus, and herb. The finish is long, green, enjoyable, and refreshing, with flint, and nice minerality. Nice! Drink now. (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2019 Domaine Patrice Bailly Pouilly Fume, La Fontaine des Plumes, Pouilly-Fume – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this lovely Pouilly Fume is ripe and well balanced with smoke, flint, blossom, citrus, minerality, rock, lime, and lemon Fraiche, with lovely herbs. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, tart, and refreshing, with lemon/lime, pomelo, citrus, green apple, quince, hay, smoke, and straw, showing a lovely mouthfeel, precision, and quite nice. The finish is long, green, and mineral-based, with flint, herb, and great fruit and mineral focus, lovely! Drink by 2023. (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2020 Pascal Bouchard Chablis, Chablis (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a lovely wine, one that shows the beauty of Chablis, clean, professional, balanced, and piercing with acidity, fruit, and mineral. The nose of this wine is lovely, showing green apple, pear, mineral, slate, citrus, yellow floral notes, and flint, lovely! The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is well-balanced, smoky, earthy, green, and yet screaming with acidity, freshness, pear, green apple, flint, mineral, smoke, and fruit focus. The finish is long, green, earthy, and fruity, with a nice balance, minerality, and flint. Nice! Drink now. (tasted March 2022) (in San Jose, CA & Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

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 wow it 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, May 2022 in Paris, France) (not imported to the USA, yet)

2021 Selection Bokobsa Chinon, Les Rosiers, Chinon – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is green, herbal, red, and smoky, with rosehip, oolong tea, and tart raspberry. The mouth of this wine is lovely, after a few minutes of opening, with lovely acidity, a lovely precision, and fruit focus, with green notes, raspberry, strawberry, earthy, smoky, and minerality, nice! The finish is long, green, and earthy, with lovely acidity, slate, rock, graphite, red flowers, and red fruit that lingers forever. Nice! Drink by 2023. (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2019 Chateau Cantelaudette Cuvee Prestige, Graves de Vayres (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is quite interesting with roasted herbs, smoked meat, red and green fruit, and rosehip. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, starting with excellent acidity, followed by nice sweet oak, precise fruit, roasted herb, foliage, intense tannin, sweet raspberry, plum, cassis, roasted herbs, and nice smoke. The finish is long, green, with loads of roasted herb, foliage, mineral, and graphite, very nice! Bravo for the price and the quality! Drink by 2024. (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2019 Chateau Le Lescot – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot. The nose of this wine is solid, green notes, red fruit, with good smoke, earth, notes of ripe black fruit in the background, and roasted herb. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is dark and red with plum, tart cherry, tart blackberry, smoke, foliage, with a lovely tannic structure, acid, and great roasted herbs, but the acid is incredible. The finish is long, green, smoky, with loads of roasted herb, lovely fruit, and screaming acid, with coffee, and spice. Nice!!! Drink by 2026. (tasted June 2021 and May 2022 in Paris, France)

N.V. Selection Bokobsa Vouvray, Brut, Vouvray – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose on this wine is fun, funky, and smoky, with hay, straw, apple, and smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is quite nice, with nice medium-sized mousse, not too aggressive, with lovely citrus, acidity, hay, straw, smoke, and green apple, with pear, and lemon, quite nice and refreshing! The finish is long, tart, acidic, and funky, with minerality and smoke, while the acidity and minerality linger long. Drink now!. Nice! (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

Champagne Demoiselle Vranken – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
This is another great Champagne from Bokobsa, showing lovely yeasty notes, with a restrained nose, showing flint, straw, orange blossom, white flowers, and quince. The mouth on this lovely bubbly is dry, with a great attack of small bubbled mousse, with green apple, intense acid, pear, and apricot, balanced well with tart citrus, grapefruit, intense mineral, and brioche. The finish is long and tart, with more minerals, crushed fruit, and lovely honeyed notes on the long finish. Drink now!