The past 10 days have been sheer hell in California and I should have posted these wines already as mountains are not an option to climb in these temps. These 11 wines are not QPR WINNER wines, they all fell short for many differing reasons, but the ultimate issue continues to revolve around a lack of balance and a lack of acidity. Even the vaulted Pacifica Riesling, a wine I have liked over many iterations fell short with the 2021 release, which was unfortunate.

As usual, my QPR posts are a hodgepodge of wines and normally we have some nice QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wines. This post sadly highlights no new QPR WINNER.

If there was a wine to kvell about I would happily do it but sadly there is none among these 11. Please look forward to my next post – that one will have a wonderful list of QPR WINNER and all 91+ wines, coming from a winery we all know well here in California.

Sadly, this was the new full release of the 2021 Chateau Riganes, with the usual white, rose, and blend. This year they added single varietal bottles, of Malbec and Cabernet Franc. IMHO, this was the least interesting release of these wines in some years.

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 Zion Rose, Imperial, Israel (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is made of Grenache and is off-dry. The nose of this wine is nice, it shows sweet notes, and clear RS, with raspberry, jasmine, peach, guava, cherry, and sweet fruit. The mouth of this medium-bodied rose is sweet, with balancing acidity, ripe fruit, sweet cherry, raspberry, guava, peach, and nice honey. The finish is long, sweet, but balanced with fruit, and not much else. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2021 Rose Adasa, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine starts poorly, it feels cooked, flat, and boring. After it opens, the nose shows notes of rhubarb, strawberry, cooked cherry, hints of flint, and that is it. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has good acidity, a bit too much pith, very uni-dimensional, with strawberry, more cooked cherry, and some flint. The finish is a bit short with not much at the back. Drink now. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2021 Chateau Les Riganes Rose, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 80 (QPR: N.A.)
I have liked this wine in the past but this vintage tasted flat and boring. The cherry and raspberry notes were nice enough, but the acid felt a bit missing and the finish a bit short. Drink up! (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Chateau Genlaire Blanc, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 83 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is a bit cooked, with some straw notes, peach, green apple, and yellow melon. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, it has some acidity, but the cooked apple, pear, and melon show too clearly. The wine feels fruity and sweet and not as balanced as in previous vintages. The finish is long, sweet/tart, and simple, with green notes, almond, straw, and cooked pear. Drink now. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)

2021 Chateau Les Riganes Blanc, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 85 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is nice with notes of straw, mineral, lemon, lime Fraiche, limoncello, and sweet apple. It smells far more enjoyable than the mouth. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has enough acidity to say hello, but it runs away very quickly, with sweet candied apple, pear, lemon, lime, and straw. The finish is long, sweet/tart, with hints of flint, too sweet for me, and more limoncello. Drink now. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)

2021 Pacifica Riesling, Evan’s Collection, Washington (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
Originally I wanted to call this a QPR WINNER but sadly it fell apart within a few hours and while it was OK in the end it was not a WINNER.
These notes are the notes at the start. The nose of this wine is lovely, showing rich honeysuckle, honeyed sweet melon, honeydew melon, mineral, citrus, and white flowers, with some almond pith. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is their least enjoyable, in its 4th iteration, still a nice enough wine, with enough acidity, sweet notes, and some residual sugar, it starts perfectly balanced, but with a few hours the balance falls off and it feels flatter, with honeydew melon, key-lime pie, orange notes, Asian pear, ripe yellow melon, guava, ginger, nectarines, and sweet tangerines with their pith. The finish is long and ripe, but a bit more pith than I care for, with more ginger and sweet notes on the long finish. After a few hours, the wine falls apart and loses its acidity, which is primal to this wine. Drink by 2023. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)

2021 Chateau Les Riganes, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is ripe, with more oak than I remember on this wine, milk chocolate, sweet dill, smoke, black and red fruit, garrigue, and green notes. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is riper than what I remember, with some heat, enough acidity, good sweet tannin, sweet blackberry, raspberry, dark cherry, smoke, gravel, loam, and green notes. The finish is long, green, ripe, herbal, and smoky, with clear sweet oak, sweet dill, and garrigue. A bit too green for me, which is strange with all sweet fruit, but the green notes stick out. Drink by 2024. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)

2021 Chateau Les Riganes Malbec, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine lacks the classic Malbec characteristics of plum and dark cherry. The nose of this wine is nice enough with green notes, garrigue, raspberry, dirt, loam, and not much else. The mouth of this wine is ok, it is a bit hollow, and green, with tinny notes on the edge, smoke, herb, raspberry, some tannin, and loam. The finish is long with green notes, herbs, loam, and some more red fruit. Drink now. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2021 Chateau Les Riganes Cabernet Franc, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is the greenest of the group of Chateau Les Riganes wines I tasted today and that is OK for Cabernet Franc but it does not help the cause. The nose of this wine is green, herbal, smoky, loamy, and yes, green, with red fruit, and more dirt. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has the most acid of the group of Chateau Les Riganes wines, even more than the white Bordeaux, with more green notes, very herbal, more herbal than the rest with raspberry, smoke, minerality, sweet tannin, and vanilla. The finish is long, balanced, and tannic, with good smoke, but the wine shows too green. Drink now. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)

2020 Chateau de Parsac, Montagne Saint-Emilion (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is nice but herbal and green with notes of garrigue, raspberry, cherry, smoke, mineral, dirt, and mint. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, with good acidity, but the green notes are overpowering, not quite tinny, but close, with mint, asparagus, cloves, sweet raspberry, cherry, hints of plum, and while the acidity is there, the middle feels a bit empty. The finish is long, herbal, and green, with nice mineral notes, smoke, tobacco, dry basil, and sweet dill. Drink by 2025. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.5%)

2021 Chateau Trijet, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is ripe but worse, the nose is dominated by fermenting notes, dark fruit, banana, plum, and anise. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine lacks the acidity of previous vintages, the fruitiness is over the top, with plum, raspberry, and hints of smoke, but really, what takes over are fermenting notes that are classic in a micro-oxygenation-style wine. The finish is long. but hollow, with dirt, green notes, tinny aspects, and more of that micro-ox style wine notes. Drink by 2024. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)