As you all know, I am a huge fan of Four Gates Winery, and yes Benyamin Cantz is a dear friend. So, as is my custom, as many ask me what wines I like of the new releases, here are my notes on the new wines.

I have written many times about Four Gates Winery and its winemaker/Vigneron Benyamin Cantz. Read the post and all the subsequent posts about Four Gates wine releases, especially this post of Four Gates – that truly describes the lore of Four Gates Winery.

Other than maybe Yarden and Yatir (which are off my buying lists – other than their whites and bubblies), very few if any release wines later than Four Gates. The slowest releaser may well be Domaine Roses Camille.

Four Gates grapes versus bought grapes

It has been stated that great wine starts in the vineyard, and when it comes to Four Gates wine, it is so true. I have enjoyed the 1996 and 1997 versions of Benyamin’s wines and it is because of the care and control that he has for his vineyard. That said, the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes he receives from Monte Bello Ridge show the same care and love in the wines we have enjoyed since 2009.

I have immense faith in Benyo’s wines which are sourced from his vineyard and the Monte Bello Ridge vineyard. The other wines, that he creates from other sources, are sometimes wonderful, like the 2010 Four Gates Syrah that I tasted recently. I would have sworn it was a Rhone wine, crazy minerality, acid, and backbone, with fruit NOT taking center stage, though ever so evident, the way it is meant to be! Others, while lovely on release may well not be the everlasting kind of Four Gates wines.

Two new wines

This year Benyo decided a Rose was a good idea, well, I mean last year! Yeah, he held the wine for a year! I have no idea why, it is just classic Benyo! The 2022 Rose is called Rosalinda and the fruit is Grenache from the Santa Clara Valley, CA.

OK, once we move on from the outlier, we come to a new wine in the Four Gates lineup, it is called Gidon. It is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. That blend has been consistent now for a couple of years, and Gidon is a wine that is here to stay.

The rest are returnees from previous vintages. The 2021 Petit Verdot from the Santa Clara Valley AVA, and a 2021 Malbec, also from Santa Clara Valley, CA. I will say that while I normally do not care for the Malbec or Petit Verdot, they are wines crafted for the “average man”. However, this year, they are controlled and ones I would have bought if I had more space to store them. They are good to go right now but for that price, I have other things I need space for.

We have another vintage of the classic Four Gates fruit. The Chardonnay is from 2022. The Pinot Noir is from 2021. The Cabernet Franc is from 2021. The rest are from 2019, the Gidon, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Frere Robaire. The 2019 wines are stunning and are babies, please do not open these wines for a decade each. I am not sure about the Pinot Noir, it is such a lightweight but also so ethereal, so I am not 100% sure about that one. The Chardonnay is another wine to leave for 10 years.

Prices and Quantities

I have heard it over and over again. That I and others caused Benyo to raise his prices. First of all that is a flat-out lie. I never asked for higher prices, but when asked about the value of his wines, the real answer I could give was more than 26 dollars.

Let us be clear, all of us who got used to 18/26 dollar prices and stocked up on his wines in those days should be happy. The fact that he raised prices, is a matter of basic price dynamics, and classic supply and demand. Four Gates has been seeing more demand for wines while the quantity of what is being made is slowing down.

The law of Supply and Demand tells you that the prices will go up, even if you beg for lower prices.

Four Gates Winery is one of the few cult wineries in the kosher wine world that releases wines every year. Sure there have been crazy cult wines, like the 2005 and 2006 DRC wines, or some other such rarities.  His wines are in a class of their own, especially when it is his grapes, and there is less of it out there.

This year, the prices reached their highest Zenith, again, and while the majority of the wines sold out within minutes the last two are still available as they were the wines that he had the most of and the highest-priced wines as well. Still, the crazy prices people paid for the Auction wines that he had last year show the high demand for the wines. These are wines for the long haul, other than the Rose, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

My thanks to Michel and Sima Rynderman for hosting the tasting and for putting up with me and Benyo crashing their home. This year we did it earlier in the day so we did not keep them up! My apologies for not getting pictures, I got used to Avi taking the pictures!

The notes speak for themselves. Again, this year, I did not buy the Rosalinda, Malbec, or Petit Verdot. The wine notes follow below, in the order, they were tasted – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:

2022 Four Gates Rosalinda, Santa Clara Valley, CA – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine has changed a lot over the year, I had the wine in early 2023, but Benyo held out on releasing it.
The nose shows notes of peach, lemon, orange, orange blossom, and nice minerality.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is eh, what a lovely wine this was last year, sadly now, this is a nice and acidic wine with orange, peach, and lemon rind, but it is uni-dimensional. Drink now! (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.9%)

2021 Four Gates Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is beautiful, fruity, earthy, dirty, and smoky, with red fruit, loam, funk, coffee, minerality, roasted animal, and graphite.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, layered, not concentrated, not big and bold, but fruity, and balanced, with lovely cherry, and ripe raspberry, showing great acidity, minerality, red plum, lovely saline, mouth-draping tannin, and smoke. Bravo!
The finish is long, funky, smoky, and dirty, with milk chocolate, loam, sweet spices, and fun. Drink from 2026. This is a really light wine for Benyo and I am not sure about its longevity. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.9%)

2021 Four Gates Petit Verdot, Santa Clara Valley, CA – Score: 91 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of the wine is nice, and less fruity than previous vintages, with blueberry, raspberry, orange blossom, some lychee, and sweet herbs.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe but balanced with great acidity, blueberry, raspberry, hints of bubblegum, lovely smoke, and nice tannin, it’s a fun, easy drinking, not complicated, and refreshing wine.
The finish is long, balanced, and smoky. Drink by 2026. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.4%)

2022 Four Gates Chardonnay, Santa Cruz, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is ripe, and tart, with lovely orange, sweet spices, cloves, nutmeg, red apple, peach, lovely orange blossom, and rich sweet oak.
The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is lovely, concentrated, and balanced, with smoke, sweet apple, light yeasty notes, sweet elegant oak, orange, sweet apple, sweet yellow plum, Asian pear, and rich salinity. Bravo!!!
The finish is long, and spectacular, with rich minerality, saline, flint, smoke, earth, sweet spices, nutmeg, cloves, and richly refreshing. Bravo!!! Drink until 2033, but best to leave it alone for 9 years and then revisit, especially if you bought the max allotment. Drink until 2033 (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

2021 Four Gates Malbec, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA – Score: 91 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is wild, it starts with screaming elderberry, followed by ripe blue and black fruit, intense rosehip, iron shavings, cocoa, and rich smoke.
The mouth of this medium to full-bodied wine is ripe and balanced, it feels like it is on the knife’s edge, with balance, raspberry, blackberry, elderberry, smoke, sweet spices, and sweet herbs. Lovely!
The finish is long, ripe, smokey, and herbal, with sweet spices, sweet tobacco, and rich salinity. Nice! Drink by 2027. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.9%)

2021 Four Gates Cabernet Franc, Santa Cruz, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is beautiful, so elegant, ripe, and tart, with exquisite raspberry, rich rosehip, rose, so floral and tart with intense ribbons of minerality, raspberry coulis/gastrique. Stunning!
The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is lovely, layered, and concentrated with blueberry, raspberry, rich salinity, lovely minerality, intense acidity, balanced, with rich blackcurrant, lovely gripping tannin, smoke, and richly elegant. wow!
The finish is long, balanced, smokey, and tart with cocoa, and rosehip. WOW! Drink from 2027 until 2034. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.9%)

2019 Four Gates Gidon, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA – Score: 94 (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is a blend of 57% Cabernet Franc & 43% Merlot.
The nose of this wine is lovely, after a bit of time, showing ripe raspberry coulis, black fruit, rich salinity, smoke, ripe fruit, milk chocolate, sweet herbs, iron shavings, and loam.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, on the edge for a Benyo wine, with intense ripeness, blackberry, plum, raspberry, mouth-draping tannin, smoky, and ripe, with rich plush mouthfeel, and lovely minerality. With time, the ripeness calms, and the fear I had goes away and shows the power of acidity and Benyo fruit! Bravo!
The finish is long, ripe, and smoky, with milk chocolate, smoke, rich plush fruit, on the edge but balanced, funk, with loads of loam, sweet spices, and rich minerality, WOW! Drink from 2028 until 2037. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15.2%)

2019 Four Gates Merlot, Santa Cruz, CA – Score: 94 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is ripe, with rich milk chocolate, rich plum, blackberry, smoke, sweet spices, black pepper, sweet tobacco, with elegance, and lovely sweet oak. It is very slow to open and a total loss to open one now.
The mouth of this full-bodied beast is ripe, but the incredible acidity and minerality save it, with rich loam, blackberry, dark plum, raspberry, sweet oak, all wrapped in mouth-draping and elegant sweet tannin and a plushness that is impressive.
The finish is long, ripe, almost candied, with rich salinity, milk chocolate, black pepper, graphite, and lovely smoke. Bravo! Drink from 2030 until 2037. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15.2%)

2019 Four Gates Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz, CA – Score: 94 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is ripe, and well balanced, with plum, blackberry, and cassis, it is screaming with classic Cabernet Sauvignon characteristics, ripe, but tart and balanced, with anise, pepper, smoke, and garrigue.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is lovely, layered, concentrated, rich, and yet elegant, plush, and smoky, with great acidity, blackberry, plum, cassis, cocoa, intense tension, and ripeness that is balanced by its mineral and acidity, with roasted herbs, smoke, loam, and graphite, WOW!
The finish is long, ripe, plush, elegant, layered, and concentrated with cocoa, blackcurrant, rich smoke, dark tobacco, anise, and sweet spices. Drink from 2028 until 2034. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.5%)

2019 Four Gates Frere Robaire, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA – Score: 95.5 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 53% Merlot & 47% Cabernet Sauvignon.
The nose of this wine blend is lovely with rich smoke, anise, blackberry, plum, raspberry, cassis, and sweet spices.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, ripe, concentrated, plush, and herbal, with intense mouth-draping and drying tannin, and incredible acidity, the herbaceous and tannin get elevated by the combination of these two wines, unique and wonderful. The mouth is rich with blackberry, plum, raspberry, cassis, rich salinity, lovely herbs, smoke, sweet spices, and plushness. Bravo!
The finish is long, ripe, balanced, rich, and lovely with milk chocolate, rich tobacco, salinity, smoke, roasted herbs, and rich sweet spices. Bravo! Drink from 2030 until 2038. (tasted December 2023) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15.2%)