Unlike previous May trips, Avi Davidowitz, from Kosher Wine Unfiltered finally made one! This was the first May trip he made with me. This trip changed no fewer than three times with such a late Passover and then Avi had timing issues, so the trip was pushed out to late May. Thankfully, the trip was successful, we got there and came home, so I call that a success.

We did little to no wine searching, other than one store, and the theme is exactly as stated in my Rose post, there are very few new 2023 Whites or Rose wines in Paris, anywhere! All the stores are still selling the 2022 white and roses.

Also, I continue to be shocked by how little French people drink wine. It is a declining Kosher wine demographic for sure! Israel is drinking more kosher wine as is the USA, but Europe, as a whole, is drinking less kosher wine. The UK is a demographic that seems to be holding its own, but that is mostly among the wine geeks. Go to a store in London and the kosher wines are behind by a year or more.

As in past trips, the hotel knows me by now, they are very gracious and put up with all the wine deliveries and always make sure to handle them with care. Kudos to the team!

Avi and I met at the airport, we landed at the same time, give or take 40 minutes. It would have been exactly the same time, but SFO is doing construction on its runway, yet again! So we sat on the tarmac waiting to take off for an hour, joy! Thankfully, Avi met me at the terminal I landed in and we found our way to the hotel together, checked in, and then started in on some of the wines that had already been delivered. That post will be the last, as always, aka the hotel wine post.

The next morning, we made our way to the lovely home of Menahem Israelievitch, Managing Director and Winemaker at Royal Wine Europe. At the tasting, we enjoyed many lovely wines, and you can read the notes below, I want to point out a few thoughts on them.

• My overall feeling about 2023 whites and roses from Europe, as a whole, is that they are lacking in either verve, acidity, or finish. I have no idea why but this is a strong theme I have seen throughout the tastings I have made.
• Overall, I think Rose production is slowing down and stores I visited in NYC and NJ said they are being very diligent in which/what Roses they bring in.
• We had Six WINNER wines with one Rose and five White wines. Two of those wines will not be here as we only get the Mevushal versions here in the USA. The 2023 Chateau Roubine Rose, Premium, Cru Classe and the 2021 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt Grand Vin, Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux.

The tasting was great as always. We tasted about 27 wines, three of them were red. It is the first time, that I can remember, where I had not tasted any of these wines in advance. For a multitude of reasons I just was not able to get my hands on any of these wines before I got to Paris, which is 100% fine. Also, the 27 wines were mostly the same as in previous vintages, except for a new white Chateauneuf du Pape, Blanc, and two new Vouvray wines.

Avi took all the pictures so if you have any issues blame him! Thanks, buddy!

Finally, I tasted the Mevushal versions of a few of these wines, here in the USA, so I am adding them in as well. I also retasted a few of the wines here and they showed differently. I will be posting those notes as well. Along with some other Royal wines I tasted in NJ.

My thanks to Menahem Israelievitch and Royal Wines for hosting us 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. The wine notes are in the order the wines were tasted:

2023 La Maison Bleue Merlot, Vin de France (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is good for such a simple wine, showing good fruit of plum, and cherry, along with spice, green notes, roasted herb, loam, floral notes, and Violet. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is a bit too fruity and off for me, still, it is a clean wine, with good fruit, nice tannin, plum, cherry, and some smoke. The finish is long, herbal, smoky, dirty, classic Merlot, I wish it had more acidity, but people will like this simple wine. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 La Maison Bleue Cabernet Sauvignon, Vin de France (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is nice with waxy notes, ripe fruit, smoke, blackberry, cassis, blueberry, green notes, and nice dirt. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, but the acidity is lacking for me, with nice fruit, sweet herbs, nice tannin, blackberry, plum, sweet loam, herbs, and some nice fruit profile. The finish is long, smoky, and fruity. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 La Maison Bleue Chardonnay, Vin de France (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is nice, it has notes of apple, pear, orange blossom, and a bit of smoke and spice. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, with good enough acidity, but still a nice wine with good apple, pear, smoke, spices, and yellow blossom. The finish is long, ripe, round, and ready to go. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)

2023 La Maison Bleue Sauvignon Blanc, Vin de France (M) – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is classic with gooseberry, passion fruit, honeysuckle, citrus, and flint. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine shows good enough acidity, nice fruit focus, good gooseberry, grapefruit, lingering flint and mineral, hints of saline, and nice honeysuckle. The finish is long, smoky, and fruity, with minerality lingering. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Chateau Les Riganes Blanc, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 89+ (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is classic Sauvignon Blanc, with gooseberry, flint, honeysuckle, minerality, smoke, and lemongrass. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is where I have an issue, the wine needs a bit more acidity for me, showing good flint, gooseberry, lemongrass, citrus, and smoke. The finish is a bit short, there is pith and honeysuckle on the finish. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 J. de Villebois Pinot Noir, Vin de France (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is clean with red fruit, nice smoke, cranberry, hints of pomegranate, and dirt, showing nice rosehip, violet, and green notes. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine tastes clean, with enough acidity, sweet herbs, sweet tannin, smoke, earth, candied plum, cherry, and pomegranate. The wine shows spikes of fruit, acidity, and green notes. Nice! The finish is long, green, and herbal, with menthol, smoke, rose hip, and rich fruit, backed by acidity and smoke. Nice! Drink by 2026. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)

2023 J. de Villebois Touraine Sauvignon Blanc, Touraine (M) – Score: 89+ (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is nice with flint, smoke, sweet anise, honeysuckle, citrus blossom, and rock. The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is nice, it has enough acidity for me, it could have more but it is balanced, with good lemongrass, smoke, rock, grapefruit, and dragon fruit. The finish of this wine is lacking, it is the issue, with lovely acidity lingering and not much else. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Domaine De Panquelaine Coteaux Du Giennois, Coteaux Du Giennois (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine shows orange pith, orange notes, nectarines, sweet lemon, and Pomelo. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is good enough, it lacks the acidity I crave, though the finish is long, but the pith throws me. The fruit is clean with orange, nectarine, peach, and sweet lemon. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 J. de Villebois Pouilly Fume, Pouilly Fume (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is nice with lemon/lime, Kafir lime, lime blossom, deeply lime, and lemon driven, with nice flint, smoke, and some lemongrass. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, once again, I need more acidity, but this has enough with lemongrass, lime, Kafir lime, limoncello, nice flint, rock, and focused saline that shows nicely. The finish is long, tart, salty, almost sea spray, with good fruit, smoke, and flint. Nice! Drink by 2026. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 J. de Villebois Sancerre, Sancerre (M) – Score: 88+ (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is nice but the pith throws me again with lemon, lime, yellow flower, flint, orange, and smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ok, but the pith and short finish is the issue with acidity good enough, smoke, lemon, lime, grapefruit, and peach. The finish is short, with lemon and smoke. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 Domaine de Panquelaine Sancerre, Sancerre (M) – Score: 89+ (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is also very lemon-lime driven, with nice green notes, lemongrass, pith, and wet grass, but also very floral, with jasmine, yellow flowers, and lovely smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice but its flaw is the finish and pith, the mouth is nice enough along with the acidity, the fruit and minerality are there but the pith and short finish make it hard for me to love. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 Chateau Les Riganes Rose, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine has the dual issue of pith and finish though again, many will find this wine very nice with good saline, raspberry, peach, and gooseberry. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has enough acidity, with nice raspberry, peach, and apricot, but the finish is nowhere and the pith takes center stage at the end with the good acidity and pith lingering. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Rose Adasa Rose, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 90+ (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is nice with raspberry, cherry, strawberry, nice minerality, and creme. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine shows nicely, with good saline, gooseberry, peach, raspberry, saline, no pith, good acidity, a nice finish, and an overall good approach. The saline, minerality, and gooseberry linger long. Nice! Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Chateau Genlaire Rose, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is smoky, with good saline, raspberry, cherry, pith, peach, and hints of strawberry. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has good acidity, but the pith and lack of finish are an issue with the pith, raspberry, peach, and apricot showing strong, with some mineral, smoke, and saline lingering. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Ramon Cardova Rosado, Rioja – Score: 88 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is funky and smoky with peach, pith, raspberry, strawberry, and cherry. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice with enough acidity but the finish and pith once again mess with the wine, a short finish and pith are there but the salinity and funk with the lemon, lime, gooseberry, and peach are okay. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 Roubine R de Roubine, Mediterranee (M) – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is nice, the pith is there, with raspberry, strawberry, smoke, and rock. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine shows too much pith, but the acidity is okay, with good salinity, nice fruit focus, good raspberry, strawberry, more pith, nice rock, and minerality, and it feels refreshing. The finish is not long but better than others, with more saline, rock, and fruit. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12%)

2023 Roubine Hippy, Mediterranee – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine smells like a white wine, with peach, apricot, gooseberry, and hints of strawberry, with nice smoke, and orange blossom. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, with some acidity, I would have liked more, showing nice peach, apricot, orange, orange blossom, smoke, gooseberry, and strawberry in the background, all wrapped in salinity and rock. The finish is longer than other wines with good salinity, smoke, and flint. Drink now! (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12%)

2023 Sainte Beatrice B Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: 90+ (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is classic Cotes de Provence, with strawberry and creme, rich saline, minerality, rosehip, raspberry, peach, and smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice with ripe red fruit, strawberry & creme, nice salinity, dark raspberry, and smoke, with a bit too much pith for me, but overall, the rose is nice and the finish is long with nice smoke. It is refreshing, mouth-filling, and smoky. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Chateau Roubine La Vie en Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: 87 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is lovely with floral notes of rose, yellow flowers, strawberry, peach, raspberry, and hints of plum, along with hints of pith, smoke, and flint. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, showing good acidity, but the finish is a bit short, and the pith is overpowering, still, it is good enough with nice fruit. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Chateau Roubine Rose, Premium, Cru Classe, Cotes de Provence – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is ripe, with ripe strawberries, rhubarb, pomegranate, and smoke. This medium-bodied wine’s mouth shows lovely fruit, refreshing, smoky fruit, with good acidity, strawberries, creme, pith, rich salinity, nice fruit focus, and a long finish. Nice! Drink now! (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 Clos de Caille Anomis, Cotes de Provence – Score: 87 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine follows much of Provence, with strawberries, raspberries, some floral notes, peach, smoke, pith, and rock. The mouth of this wine is okay, it lacks the acidity I need, it has pith, its finish is a bit short and while it has some acidity lingering along with a mouth of peach, strawberry, and smoke, it is not as refreshing as I had hoped. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2023 Clos de Caille White, Cotes de Provence – Score: 90+ (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is clean, fruity, and dry, with straw, peach, apple, quince, white blossom, citrus, pith, and loads of smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, with great acidity, refreshing, with a nice mouthfeel, showing peach, saline, quince, apple, pear, citrus, and nice minerality. The finish is long, fruity, clean, and balanced, with nice fruit, pith, hay, straw, quince, and acidity lingering long. Drink by 2026. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2023 Domaine Bourillon Dorleans Vouvray, Coulee d’Argent, Sec, Vouvray (M) – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine NEEDS to be served at room temperature and what a joy it is! The nose of this wine is not its strong suit, it is nice with hay, straw, apple, pear, orange blossom, smoke, and citrus, lovely! The mouth of this wine is the real shining star here with lovely notes of citrus, great acidity, salinity, lovely yeasty notes, and rich oily mouthfeel, with hay, straw, apple, pear, rich smoke, peach, and lovely hints of orange in the background. The finish of this lovely wine is long, rich, layered, and attacking, with rich saline, smoke, more yeasty notes, more minerality, hay, and good fruit focus that makes this wine richly refreshing! Lovely! Drink by 2027. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2023 Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils Chateauneuf du Pape, Blanc, Chateauneuf du Pape – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 5 fruits, Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Roussanne, Bourboulenc, & Piquepoul. The nose of this wine is lovely with peach, apricot, grapefruit, jasmine, intense minerality, rock, limestone, slate, intense tart fruit, and rich salinity. The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is incredible, layered, and tart, with intense acidity, crazy fruit, rich salinity, smoke, rock, yeasty notes with good precision, and fruit focus. The wine is richly tense, showing orange, peach, nectarines, lemon/lime, rock, jasmine, and intense minerality. Bravo! The finish is so long, so tense, so layered, with rich saline, rock, limestone, fruit, smoke, and floral notes with so much citrus intensity. Bravo! Drink until 2028. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)

2022 Philippe le Hardi Bourgogne Cote-D’Or, Bourgogne Cote-D’Or – Score: 90+ (QPR: EVEN)
This is the second time I have tasted this wine and it has changed a bit since the last tasting. The nose of this wine is nice, not an oak bomb, showing clean lines, burnt rubber, nice peach, apricot, yellow apple, salinity, and straw. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, the acidity is there, with nice yellow apple, nice saline, mineral, slate, and flint, with peach and some tension. The wine now shows layers and complexity with peach, Asian Pear, and burnt notes/toast, all wrapped in good acidity, and smoke. The finish is long, smoky, ripe, and not round, with nectarines, orange, and pear notes mingling with oak and toast. Nice! Drink by 2026. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)

2021 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt Grand Vin, Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is ripe, with rich oak, showing notes of toast, French oak, Asian Pear, yellow and white flowers, waxy notes, peach, paraffine, and gooseberry, there are no green notes on the non-Mevushal wine. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has wonderful acidity and is refreshing, with good peach, gooseberry, smoke, and flint, not hollow at all, rich and layered with sweet smoke, great tension, sweet fruit, and gooseberry that really works well. The finish is long, tense, layered, and smokey, with great flint, acidity, and waxy notes. Drink by 2030. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

2023 Domaine Bourillon Dorleans Vouvray, La Laviere, Moelleux, Vouvray (M) – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is ripe, sweet, candied but controlled, honey, sweet sugar, guava, mango, and sweet honeyed melon. The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is nice with great acidity, showing ripe and sweet fruit, mango, peach, apricot, honeyed apple/citrus, along with a sweet mouthfeel, but well balanced with bright fruit and bright acidity. The finish is long, sweet, and candied but enjoyable with nice acidity, funk, and sweet spices. Drink by 2030. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

——————————————— Wines tasted outside of Paris ———————————-

2023 Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils Chateauneuf du Pape, Blanc, Chateauneuf du Pape – Score: 91+ (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is very different than what I had in France, this wine is a blend of 5 fruits, Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Roussanne, Bourboulenc, & Piquepoul.
The nose of this wine is nice, but it does not pop, much like the mouth does not pop, with some salinity, citrus, and not much else! Wow, very different.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine feels empty in comparison to what we had in France, this wine is NOT Mevushal here, it is the same wine as what we had in Paris, with great acidity, but otherwise, this wine is asleep, with some saline, rock, nectarines, orange, smoke, and jasmine, and lemon/lime.
The finish is nice enough, not as long as in Paris, with smoke, orange, and some minerality, but the acidity is the same. Drink by 2026. (tasted June 2024) (in Bayonne, NJ) (ABV = 14%)

2022 Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils Chateauneuf du Pape, Vielles Vignes, Chateauneuf du Pape, Vielles Vignes – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is the best part of the wine, to start, with ripe fruit, that really becomes over-the-top with fruit, blackberry, plum, cassis, and root beer, big ripe and in your face, nice minerality, but not enough to save the ripe fruit.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is a freight train of fruit, rich, brooding, bordering on over the top, with nice minerality, smoke, blackberry, boysenberry, juicy and over the top, nice enough.
The finish is long, but overall the wine is too much for me. Drink by 2028. (tasted June 2024) (in Bayonne, NJ) (ABV = 15%)

2023 Chateau Roubine Rose, Premium, Cru Classe, Cotes de Provence (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is ripe, with ripe strawberries, raspberry, rhubarb, and smoke.
This medium-bodied wine’s mouth shows overripe fruit, strawberries, cooked peach, pith, and smoke.
The finish is short, drink now. (tasted June 2024) (in Bayonne, NJ) (ABV = 13%)

2022 Chateau Piada, Sauternes – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is controlled, with lovely funk, ripe pineapple, ripe and juicy guava, mango, and many other tropical fruits, chamomile, sweet honeysuckle, and honeyed notes, with some balance of nice tart citrus fruit.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is balanced, the mouth shows the same balance and elegance as the nose, with great acidity, with a lovely plush and oily mouthfeel, with the aforementioned funk, sweet honeyed melon, honeyed guava, mango, sweet peach, tart and balancing grapefruit, and nice minerality, even a bit of saline, nice!
The finish is long, mineral, sweet, not ripe, graphite, saline, more funk, and honeysuckle lingering long. Nice! Drink from 2028 until 2040. (tasted June 2024) (in Bayonne, NJ) (ABV = 14.5%)