In May 2020 I wanted to drive home the need for QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wines. So I set out to create what I thought a QPR metric should be! Gone were arbitrary price ranges and such. Instead, I let the market define what the QPR price range should be. I did this by grouping the wines by their type (white, red, rose, sparkling, and dessert) and then further refined the grouping by ageability within the white and red wines. This gave me the following groups:

• Drink “soon” White Wine (Simple whites)
• Rose Wine (always drink soon)
• Drink “soon” Red Wine (Simple reds)
• Mid-range aging Reds (4 to 11 years)
• High-end Red wines (11 and more years)
• High-end White wines (7 and more years)
• Sparkling Wine (No need here for extra differentiation)
• Dessert Wine

I then made the mistake of trying to create an Orange wine range/group – that was a HUGE mistake. Again, the wines themselves were not the issue, the issue revolved around trying to group such a small sample set into its group. They will go into their respective white wine category, next year.

Throughout the year, I posted many QPR posts, for almost all of the main categories. I will continue down this road until I find a better way to categorize and track wines that are QPR WINNERS. Talk about WINNERS, that secondary QPR score was a 2.1 revision to my QPR scoring, and that is explained in this post. All the wines listed here are QPR WINNERS from my tastings in 2022.

Let us discuss the approach

I have heard from a few of you. I do not understand your QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) scoring. So, let us take another shot at this! Every time a customer comes into a shop or goes online to buy kosher wine they have a choice of a few thousand wines, online, or many hundreds in a store. The question is how does a buyer differentiate one wine from the next?

If they like Terra di Seta wines, as I do, and it costs 30 dollars then he/she will compare other wines to that wine, in regards to the wine and the price. That is the same for any wine they like and any wine they are looking at buying. Price matters! Now, the real question is how can you compare two wines to each other? Any two wines in the world of kosher wines? What characteristics can you use to compare them?

Let us say they like the 2018 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah, the 2022 wine of the year (AKA best-priced QPR wine). It is a red wine from Montsant, Spain. OK, what other wine can you compare with it? You can compare other Montsant kosher wines, like the Cellar Capcanes wines. However, the Cellar Capcanes wines have an issue – they have been poor for many years! As the ratio states it is QUALITY to price! Quality is primary; once you have a good wine, you can attempt to compare it with similarly good wines.

OK, so we need equal or comparably equal quality and that is it??? So, let us say there exists a rose from Montsant that scores the same quality score as Clos Mesorah are they comparable? What about a white wine – same? Can/should compare them? I will tell you that no one would act in such a manner. People will compare items. OK, so are we then forced to compare Montsant wines with Montsant wines – again I will tell you no! People will compare like-scored red wines with like-scored red wines.

OK, but what is “like” – that is the body of work that my QPR approach works to answer. If you agree that people will attempt to compare items that are similar in nature but not locale, region, or price, what is that characteristic that they will use to compare two arbitrary kosher wines? Price IS NOT the answer.

So, let us recap – we have two similarly scored wines (AKA quality) but they are very different in many ways. Let us look at three of the wines below, two of which are from the greater Medoc region:

1. 2020 Chateau Clarke, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
   Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)
2. 2020 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac – Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
   Drink from 2024 until 2035. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
3. 2019 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
   Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted December 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

These wine price from 38 dollars to 55 dollars. The question you need to ask is are they comparable? I would state they are and I would further state that wine buyers compare them every time they read my lists and other lists that like these wines. Again, the primary requirement is quality – and these all scored the same quality score.

So, next, would you at least compare two Listrac-Medoc wines to each other? The Chateau Fourcas Dupre and the Chateau Clarke? I would say yes for sure. Well, why is the Royaumont any different? They are very different wines, of course, but in the end, what do oenophiles buy such wines for?? To store them and share them at a later date, meaning that wine buyers classify wines by regions but ultimately they classify them by their ability to age gracefully or not! Meaning some wines age beautifully and many are good to enjoy in the coming years.

So, now you see the logic to the categories I use to compare wines – this is the list once again:

• Drink “soon” White Wine (Simple whites)
• Rose Wine (always drink soon)
• Drink “soon” Red Wine (Simple reds)
• Mid-range aging Reds (4 to 11 years)
• High-end Red wines (11 and more years)
• High-end White wines (7 and more years)
• Sparkling Wine (No need here for extra differentiation)
• Dessert Wine

Essentially, ignoring sparkling, rose, and dessert wines, there is white wine and red wine. Each of those two major categories is broken into their age-ability. Red wines have three age ranges while white wine has two. Then there are the other three aforementioned groups, rose, sparkling, and dessert wines.

Once you have scored a wine – IRRELEVANT to the price – this is KEY you are then required to place that wine into one of the 8 categories listed above. Once you have done that any wine in that category is available for comparison. Using the median approach wines are stacked and ranked by their price, within that category, and some rise above others, by having an equal or better quality for a lower or equal price. Please read more about this here and here.

The Summary

This year, the list came to a total of 24 names, and none had to dip below 92+ in the scores, which is a large number and better scores overall than last year, but again, the pool from where they are culled continues to grow, and the diamonds in the rough are getting harder and harder to find. There are 24 or so WINNER that scored 92+ this year but not in a single area.

Like last year, we return with QPR for France, the prices for many wines there, are dirt cheap! There is also QPR for the USA, which is the default. Finally, some wines are QPR here in the USA but not in France.

Of course, the first wine on the list is the 2022 Wine of the year! Elvi Wines is a perennial producer of QPR WINNER wines and a most deserving winner of the 2021 Winery of the year!

Maybe, Avi Davidowitz, from kosher wine unfiltered, can create a list like that for Israel, this year, a bunch of wines became available there, and a proper QPR list would be worthwhile!

The wines on the list this year are all available here in the USA, and in Europe, and a few can be found in Israel, as well. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:

2018 Clos Mesorah, Montsant – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine shows more black fruit than the 2019 vintage, with lovely blackberry, smoke, root beer, and roasted animal, more than 2019, with some red fruit, a bit bluer, with white and pink flowers that emerge after time, raspberry, and mineral. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, elegant, and a bit riper than 2019, with rich salinity, sweet oak, black olives, blackberry, plum, boysenberry, root beer, dark currants, anise, and rich mouthfeel and fruit structure, that gives way to saline, roasted herbs, and graphite. The finish is long, dark, brooding, smoky, earthy, forest floor, and blackcurrants, with dirt, loam, clay, leather, and rich spices. Bravo!! Drink from 2027 until 2036. (tasted November 2021) (in Montsant, Spain) (ABV = 15.5%)

2020 Château Olivier Grand Cru Classe, Pessac-Léognan – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER (France), GOOD (USA))
The nose of this wine is quite nice, a wine I would drink, with a bit of soy sauce, rich salinity, mushroom, earthy, and dirty, like a rich and redolent mud pen, with a bit of heat, and lovely smoke. With time, the heat drops off, ripe, muddy, mushroom haven, lovely! The mouth of the full-bodied wine is dense, layered, rich, and concentrated, with rich extraction, dark and brooding, with juicy blackberry, ripe strawberry, mushroom, forest floor, wet leaves, rich salinity, soy sauce, umami, just a fun, ripe, savory, and dirty wine. The finish is long, dark, and brooding, but well controlled, one of those rare ripe/dirty/earthy controlled monsters, with dense minerality, scraping graphite, ripe fruit, and leather, Bravo! Drink until 2035. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)

2019 Chateau Tour Seran, Medoc – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER (France))
This is one of the best wines of our blind tastings here in the hotel. The nose of this wine is lovely, and perfectly balanced, with licorice, smoke, black and red fruit, char, toasty oak, loam, lovely mushroom (that comes out after a few hours), and forest floor. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is dense, ripe, layered, and rich with good acidity, richly extracted, but savory, not overly ripe, a real joy, with blackberry, ripe raspberry, currants, dense loam, forest floor, with scraping minerality, graphite, tar, and rock, this is too much fun! The finish is long, and mineral-driven, with good fruit focus, great graphite, and rock. Drink until 2036. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)

2019 Clos Mesorah, Montsant – Score: 93.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is beautiful with lovely floral notes of rosehip, violet, tisane tea, and red and blue fruit, with roasted herb, smoke, roasted animal, rhubarb, dried cherry, and lovely forest floor notes. The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is lovely with screaming acidity, lovely dark raspberry, plum, tart currant, mouth-draping tannin, rhubarb, dark cherry, with lovely green notes, rich saline, mineral, spice, roasted herb, lovely blackberry, smoke, and rich graphite. The finish is long, green ripe, blackberry, with saline, smoke, blueberry, leather, cloves, cinnamon, and sweet oak, bravo!!! Drink from 2026 until 2034. (tasted November 2021) (in Montsant, Spain) (ABV = 15.5%)

2020 Chateau Lafon-Rochet, Saint-Estephe – Score: 93.5 (QPR: WINNER (FRANCE), USA(EVEN))
This wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon & 45% Merlot.
The nose of this wine is a less ripe wine, with savory notes, lovely green and red fruit, elegant redolence, minerality, lovely iron shavings graphite, beautiful pencil shavings, with incredible raspberry, cherry, and rich smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, elegant, extracted, rich, and beautiful with ripe and juicy cherry, elegant tart/juicy raspberry, beautiful smoke, intense and elegant charcoal/graphite, just lovely, with red fruit, loam, and mouth-scraping tannin. The finish is long, red, ripe, and smoky, with great tobacco, rosemary, savory notes, dark chocolate, loam, leather, and lovely smoke. Drink from 2023 until 2033. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2016 ElviWines Herenza Rioja, Reserva, Rioja – Score: 93.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This is what I crave in wine – balance, complexity, elegance, and all bottled for a price that makes it a WINNER! The nose of this wine is beautiful, balanced, complex, and lighter than 2014, but still bold, rich, and expressive, soy sauce, umami, rich mushroom, loam, spices, blue and red fruit, and sweet anise, lovely! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is not as bold as the 2014 and it starts a bit ripe, with time the wine opens to show balance, dark blueberry, plum, candied/spiced raspberry, and rich sweet spices give way to a mouth-draping elegance, sweet tannin, plush mouthfeel, and rich loam, clay, and earth, beautiful. The finish is long, and balanced, with leather, sweet tobacco, root beer, sweet baking spices, cloves, cinnamon, sweet cedar, dark chocolate, and rich searing acidity that brings this wine altogether. Bravo!! Another smash! Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted November 2021) (in Montsant, Spain) (ABV = 14.5%)

2020 Chateau Castelbruck, Margaux – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
At the opening, again blind, this wine was dead. After 10 hours the wine opens nicely to show tart and ripe red fruit, rich mushroom, loam, and nice minerality, nice! The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, showing good fruit focus, and nice acidity, not as dense as other wines, but still shows good structure, and elegance, with dark cherry, raspberry, plum, loam, earth, nice licorice, with a plush mouthfeel, nice structure, and great minerality. The finish is long, bright, and tart, yet plush and ripe, well balanced, with more minerality, scraping graphite, tar, leather, and rich tannin lingering long. Bravo! Drink from 2026 until 2035. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2020 Chateau Clement-Pichon, Haut-Medoc – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is 100% pure joy, soy sauce, umami, and black pepper, with blue and black fruit, roasted animal, tar, and nice savory notes, lovely! The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, riper than the nose would make me think, with dark black and purple fruit, ripe boysenberry, blackberry, with dense mouth-draping and drying tannin, nice acidity, richly extracted, concentrated, and comes at you in layers of fruit and smoke, nice. The finish of this rich wine is plush, mineral-driven, scraping graphite, earth, and lovely smoke! Bravo!! Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)

2020 Vignobles Mayard Le Hurlevent, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Châteauneuf-du-Pape – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This smells like Huervelent, CDP, lovely! Again, all tasted blind. The nose of this wine is lovely, ripe, balanced, and earthy, but blue like the sky, with boysenberry, elegant notes of dirt, and blue fruit, with oolong tea, lovely! The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine starts ripe, with lovely blueberry pie, baked goods, lovely minerality, rock, graphite, balanced, and rich, layered, and dense, really nice, with roasted meat, dense loam, and earth, candied raspberry, well controlled, with draping tannin and lovely extraction, all I want from a well made Rhone wine. The finish is long, dark, blue, and red, with spicy notes, white pepper, loam, graphite, and a sweet balanced plush mouthfeel that lingers long. Nice!! Drink until 2029. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 15%)

2020 Chateau Labegorce, Margaux – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER (FRANCE), USA (GOOD))
This wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 5% Petit Verdot.
The nose of this wine is epic, dense, ripe, rich, buttery, and creamy, with toasted cedar, lovely, great bright, and ripe fruit, rich minerality, sweet loam, roasted animal, iron, and rich licorice. The mouth of this full-bodied wine starts a bit closed but with time the wine opens with lovely dense fruit, rich salinity, dense minerality, plush, layered, concentrated, and ripe fruit of blackberry, plum, earthy and smoky, with dark raspberry, dense and mouth draping elegant tannin, so lovely, with rich loam and lovely smoke. The finish is lovely, ripe, dense, and rich, with elegant extraction, the most elegant extraction we have seen so far from the 2020 vintage, with scraping graphite, gravel, rock, iron, and floral notes of violet, with ripe red fruit, tannin, black pepper, leather, and smoke lingering very long, forever. BRAVO! Drink until 2033. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)

2018 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Riserva, Chianti Classico – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is incredible, showing pure elegance, with toasty oak, mushroom, smoke, rich salinity, and incredible density, with weight, richness, and elegance all wrapped in black and red fruit, lovely! The mouth of this full-bodied wine is dense, rich, layered, concentrated, and extracted, with great acidity, yet very approachable, with smoke, scraping minerality, graphite, mushroom, loam, dirt, and almost barnyard, great blackberry, and nice loam. The finish is super long, dense, and ripe, with great fruit, minerality, dense tannin, and coffee, lovely! This feels like the most accessible of the Terra di Seta wines I have had in a long time. Drink by 2030. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 15%)

2016 Echo de Rose Camille, Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is incredible, elegant, dense, rich, and layered, but also black, red, and green, with rich milk chocolate, mineral, loam, and spice, really impressive! The mouth of this full-bodied wine is dense, and extracted, but also elegant, with blackberry, raspberry, sweet oak, sweet dill, rich, plush, smoky, green, graphite, mineral, and foliage, nice! The finish is long, green, dense, oaky, smoky, and rich, with dark chocolate, and elegance. Bravo!!! Drink from 2025 until 2034. (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2018 Clos Lavaud, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is already showing beautifully and has a great approach that makes me smile. The nose of this wine starts with bramble, smoke, dirt, earth, roasted herb, forest floor, almost mushroom notes, mint, rosemary, nice red and black fruit, and bramble. The mouth of this medium to full-bodied wine is nice showing great acidity, green notes, bramble, cherry, raspberry, plum, and tart fruit, with nice mouth-coating tannin, fun Brett, nice plush mouthfeel, and good extraction, with green notes, menthol, and herbs. After tasting this again in Paris it shows richer and denser with more graphite, mineral, lovely black fruit, and elegance. Bravo! The finish is long, green, herbal, smoky, extracted, and tannic, with a nice fruit focus, scraping minerality, graphite, dark chocolate, tobacco, and smoke. Lovely! Drink from 2024 until 2031. (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA & Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2021 Covenant Solomon Blanc, Bennett Valley, Sonoma County, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is from the Moaveni Vineyard, in Bennett Valley, Sonoma County.
The nose of this lovely wine is impressive with intense bright fruit, screaming bright acid, tart lemon/lime, sweet orange blossom, gooseberry shows after time, sweet bright pear, tart limoncello, and tart fruit.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is intense, layered, and complex, with rich layers of tart orange, ripe gooseberry, tart orange, and creme, a really impressive expression, of fruit and oak, with sweet oak, smoke, pear, apple, sweet mint, and sweet fruit. Bravo! The finish is long, tart, sweet, sweet ginger, bright, and oaky, lovely! Bravo!! Drink until 2030. (tasted September 2022) (in Berkeley, CA) (ABV = 13.8%)

2020 Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre, Saint-Julien – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon & 33% Merlot. The nose of this wine is incredible, and the minerality reaches out and slaps you upside the head, with rich graphite, saline, lead pencil, lovely tar, dense fruit that backs all this minerality, loam, smoke, and rich forest floor. Bravo! The mouth of this full-bodied starts with searing acidity, followed by rich minerality, mouth-draping tannin, lovely blackberry, plum, raspberry, and earth, that gives way to more graphite, leather, and smoke. The finish is captivating, elegant, and concentrated, with balancing fruit, acidity, tannin, nice menthol, tar, and great minerality that brings it all together, truly impressive! Bravo! Drink from 2025 to 2035 (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2020 Chateau Montviel, Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. The nose of this wine is incredible, this is what I dream about when I smell wine, dirt, earth, smoke, loam, elegance, fruit, and mushroom, yum!!! The mouth of this full-bodied wine is balanced and soft, it comes at you in layers, showing raspberry, plum, rich loam, earth, sweet spices, and forest floor, all wrapped in a silky and elegant plush mouthfeel, with lovely acidity. It is a silky seductress. The finish is long, green, herbal, dirty, loam, and more forest floor that comes out, with sweet tobacco, dry meat, and lovely green notes. Bravo!!! Drink from 2025 until 2034. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)

2020 Domaine du Chateau Philippe le Hardi Gevrey-Chambertin, Les Crais, Gevrey-Chambertin – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine initially showed off ripe notes, but again, with time, it calms to show its true colors, please give this wine time.
The nose of this wine, once it calms down, shows lovely ripe notes of milk chocolate, cacao, espresso coffee, blue and red fruit, lovely roasted meat, smoke, violet, and sweet spices. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is tart and focused, but oaky now, with sweet spices, sweet dill, sweet oak, floral notes of violet, rosehip, smoke, tart strawberry, raspberry, and white pepper, wrapped in mouth-draping tannin, and intense fruit focus. The finish is long, ripe, smoky, dirty, and earthy, with more floral notes, intense strawberry, cocoa, milk chocolate, sweet oak, coffee in the background, and pepper, really fun and intense. Drink from 2025 until 2033. (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2020 Chateau Clarke, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 70% Merlot & 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose of this wine is ripe, but well-balanced, rich, dense, aromatic, and elegant, with rich blue and black fruit, along with hints of red fruit, lovely minerality, rich smoke, licorice, and rich black tea. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, dense, layered, rich, and extracted, but elegant, with lovely acidity, scraping minerality, lovely graphite, dense and concentrated mouthfeel, with a plushness that belies its youth, along with mouth-draping tannin, blackberry, boysenberry, candied strawberry, and nice loam. The finish is long, ripe, balanced, and tart, with good saline, graphite, earthy, and smoky, this is close to the 2016 vintage, but a touch behind. BRAVO! Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2020 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac – Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
The wine changed the label and while I like the wine and have almost loved this wine the label is a step back in my opinion.
The nose of this wine is far better than the new label would suggest, showing lovely red fruit, hints of floral notes, rich minerality, lovely forest floor, rhubarb, cherry, dark red fruit as well, tar, with forest floor, loam, and a bit too many green notes. Thankfully, after a few days, the green notes do go away, leaving me to hope that this wine is built for much more than I originally thought during the tasting.
The mouth of this wine shows 12.5% ABV characteristics, with green notes, lovely raspberry, more rhubarb, and dark cherry, backed by great minerality, graphite, forest floor, hints of mushroom, with nice tar, nice tannin, and while the green notes exist they are not overpowering but they make their presence felt. Again, with a few days that does go away which is nice, the red fruit, mushroom, and forest floor come out, quite nice, with a good weight and body.
The finish is long, green, tart, and herbal, with mushrooms, smoke, and more tar. Drink from 2024 until 2035. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2019 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 70% Merlot & 30 % Cabernet Franc. At the opening, the wine shows its femininity, with lovely floral notes, violet, and ripe fruit, shortly after it shows a far riper expression with an intense perfume of fruit, nice loam, dirt, green notes, eucalyptus, roasted mint, and minerality. This shows you that some wines can be fruity but you can see the reality of the makeup and understand its final place. This contrasts Israeli wines whose nose and mouth are so over the top that it never comes around. With even more time the wine does return to its feminine side with lovely floral notes, still, the ripeness is there and while it is controlled it does worry me, with plum, rich loam, smoke, earth, mint, eucalyptus, and lovely fruit. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe and balanced, yet also lovely and feminine with expressive floral notes, violet, plum, cherry, rich and dense mouthfeel, not extracted yet complex, somewhat layered, mouth-drying tannin, elegant, and complex, nice sweet oak, menthol, more mint, basil, and lovely smoke. The finish is long, dirty, earthy, smoky, and ripe, with more tannin, mineral, scraping graphite, green notes, violet, and leather. BRAVO! Still, the ripeness abounds and takes over the mouth and nose it is scary. Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted December 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

2020 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Reserve, Lake County, CA (M) – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
Another Herzog WINNER from lake County, this is starting to be a consistent QPR WINNER, even a bit more consistent than Alexander Valley, AKA Sonoma Valley, very interesting, IMHO! So very interesting to see how two California wines from the same vintage but in different regions are acting differently. Bravo! The nose of this wine is lovely with dense fruit, elegance, smoke, rich loam, dirt, black and red fruit, dark cherry, herbs, sweet spices, and lovely minerality. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is lovely, layered, spicy, tart, and acidic, with great fruit focus, nice fruity but controlled mouthfeel, with tart plum, ripe blackberry, sweet oak, lovely plush and dense mouthfeel, sweet smoke, hints of hickory, baked raspberry pie, and sweet spices galore, Lovely! The finish is long, tart, bright, ripe, balanced, and smoky, with intense sweet spices, cinnamon, smoke, cloves, cumin, rich loam, graphite, pencil shavings, and more smoke. Bravo! Drink until 2031. (tasted June 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

2019 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Chalk Hill, Special Edition, Sonoma County, CA (M) – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
If it is hot in your area, PLEASE chill your red wines, these big reds need to be cooled down! Twenty to twenty-five min in the fridge will do the trick! The nose of this wine is hopping, right from the start the wine is lovely, big, bold, black, earthy, dirty, and mineral-driven, with lovely green notes, loads of licorice, smoke, toast, hints of oak, tar, red, black, and blue fruit, and lovely loam, lovely! The mouth of this full-bodied wine is lovely, rich, ripe, layered, concentrated, and nicely extracted, with great acidity, lovely and almost elegant mouth-draping tannin (right now a bit too astringent), with intense tannin, blackberry, cassis, blueberry, dark raspberry, plum, loam, roasted herbs, sweet oak, sweet spices, and lovely minerality, Bravo! The finish is long, spicy, green, ripe, balanced, and bold, with lovely fruit, not jammy and fat, really fun, with more tar, sweet spices, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and some great earth. Drink from 2027 until 2035. (tasted June 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.5%)

2020 Covenant Solomon Blanc, Bennett Valley, Sonoma County, CA – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is from the Moaveni Vineyard, in Bennett Valley, Sonoma County.
The nose of this wine is a perfect blend of sweet oak and sweet fruit, showing lovely peach, apricot, bright fruit, green apple, sweet orange marmalade, orange blossom, sweet melon, and sweet Asian pear. The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is incredibly fun, with screaming acidity, and lovely minerality, and so refreshing, with lovely sweet oak, lovely green apple, orange marmalade, yellow Asian pear, peach, apricot, and cloves. The finish is long, tart, and balanced, with sweet fruit, incredible balance, loam, flint, and lovely sweet smoke and orange peel. Drink by 2027. (tasted September 2022) (in Berkeley, CA) (ABV = 13.90%)

2021 Anthony Girard Sancerre, L’indiscrete, Sancerre – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER (France))
The nose of this wine is intensely flinty, with matchstick notes, stone fruit, mango, lovely floral notes, and honeyed notes. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely and ripe, but well-balanced, with incredible minerality, and a bit of saline, but here the flint is incredible, richly focused, with intense acidity, and minerality, the mouthfeel is rich and oily, stunning, with yellow plum, pear, peach, and tart apple, lovely!! The finish is long, tart, and ripe, but the flint draws your attention, with intense minerality and nice fruit balance, Bravo!!! Drink until 2025. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)