Author Archives: winemusings
Final Tasting from my trip to Paris – June 2021
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, 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 Ari Cohen, yet again, because all the wines tasted here, other than the wines from Elvi, were managed by Ari. The total number of boxes in my hotel room, still makes me laugh!
Moises Cohen from Elvi Wines sent me the Elvi wines tasted below while the rest of the wines either I or Ari bought.
As I stated, in my previous post, I kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. Even vaccinated, I was worried, and am still worried, as such I kept to myself, where possible. Almost all the wines below were tasted alone in my room other than the last few wines which were tasted at IDS’ offices.
Magrez wines continue to be a horrible mess
Besides the 2017 Chateau Fombrauge, Blanc, which was an oxidized disaster, I also tasted five more Magrez wines and they all continue to be a shadow of what the 2014 vintage was for this winery. Truly unfortunate for all of us kosher wine drinkers.
Memorias del Rambam
These were also not very impressive. I had them over a few days and they never turned the corner. They stayed very much a ripe ball of oak and fruit, classic parker style. The Yunikko was interesting, without the oak overpowering the wine, it has potential, but it also never came together.
Elvi Wines
I got the chance to enjoy the 2016 Elvi Wines Herenza Reserva and it is quite a joy. It should be coming to the USA soon, definitely a wine worth stocking up on!
Languedoc & Savoie Wines
Overall not a bad batch of wines though there is a clear WINNER in the 2019 Château de Marmorières Les Amandiers, La Clape, Languedoc. WOW!! if that was available in the USA, for that price, I would drink it every week!! Much like the Maison Sarela White, I enjoyed in Paris as well. The 2020 Jean Perrier & Fils Pure, Savoie was nice, much better than the Blanc which was not useful!
Overall, IMHO, the 2019 Château de Marmorières Les Amandiers, La Clape, Languedoc is such a WINNER it is a shame it is not here in the USA. Again, I understand import prices, extra layers of costs, so I doubt it makes sense here in the USA. But, for all of those in Paris/Europe – BUY IT!
Various Bordeaux Wines
This group was a total loser, other than the Cru Ducasse family of wines and the two Taieb wines. The two Taieb wines were nice and documented here. The rest were a total mess.
The 2012 Château Cru Ducasse, Haut Médoc and the 2012 Chateau Moutinot, Saint-Estephe are two more WINENRS and they were incredible! The price and the quality – WOW! The 2012 Château Cru Ducasse was imported into the USA a long time ago and then it disappeared. It is available in Paris/Europe – BUY IT!! WOW!!
Wines enjoyed at IDS’ Office
Ari gathered all the wines we tasted that day and Ben Uzman from Les Vins IDS shared a bottle of the 2020 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Symphonie Blanc, Cotes de Provence. That is a lovely wine, a bit expensive, but a lovely wine indeed!
Besides the lovely Vermentino, we had the complete set of kosher Chateau Trianon that is for sale, at this time. The early 2017 vintage – the petite was not very good. However, the 2018 and 2019 vintages were lovely!
Thoughts on this tasting
Overall, these wines were unimpressive, but wow did we find some real sleepers! The 2019 Château de Marmorières Les Amandiers is a no-brainer for those in France/Europe. The Elvi is coming here soon, and the Trianon while lovely, is not yet been imported, and when it does, I doubt the price will stay near where it is today to stay a WINNER.
Overall, many great WINNER wines will stay in Europe or may come here to the USA but will not be WINNERs here. Still, again, for those in Europe/UK – enjoy! Thanks again to Ari and IDS for their help!
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2016 Chateau Tour Blanche, Medoc – Score: 80 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is flat as is the mouth, it is not a fruit bomb, it is just boring. The nose on this wine shows black and red fruit, a bit of dirt, heat, and loam. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is flat, it has no acid, it is lifeless, and not interesting. Next! Drink now. (tasted June 2021)
2016 Chateau La Tour Carnet, Grand Cru Classe en 1855, Haut-Medoc – Score: 89.5 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is far less fruity than the 2015 vintage, showing notes of deep loam, fresh dirt, sweet oak, sweet dill, milk chocolate, nice green notes, foliage, smoke, anise, tar, and ripe fruit, interesting. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, but controlled, with proper acidity, elegance, layers of big bold blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, with lovely mouth-draping tannin, dark chocolate, rich saline, lovely graphite, all wrapped in a rich plush mouthfeel, dense yet balanced with sweet oak, sweet tobacco, and nice mineral. The finish is long, sweet, balanced, with green notes, bell pepper, foliage, leather, rich earth, and lovely clean fruit on the long finish. Drink from 2024 until 2030. (tasted June 2021)
2016 Chateau Fombrauge, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This wine, much like the Tour Blanche, is empty, it is not unbalanced or a fruit bomb, rather it is none of the above and free of anything that will grab my attention. The nose on this wine is red and black, with green notes, sweet oak, and anise. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is empty, free of acidity, life, or fruit, it has a bit but all I get is oak, sweet fruit, and smoke. The finish is long, with mouth-draping tannin, sweet fruit, leather, and more sweet oak on the long finish. Drink by 2027 (tasted June 2021)
2017 Chateau La Tour Carnet Grand Cru Classe en 1855, Haut-Medoc – Score: 85 (QPR: POOR)
WOW, I am confused the 2015 vintage was overripe, the 2016 vintage was balanced, now the 2017 vintage is lifeless with hints of ripe fruit in the far background, like what??? The nose on this wine is empty, hints of ripe black fruit, overripe blue fruit, sweet oak, sweet dill, and not much else. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, with mouth-draping tannin, and not much else, blackberry, raspberry, all trying to cover up the glaring hole in the middle, with not enough acid to get this all around. The finish is a bit short, with more milk chocolate, smoke, green notes, and leather. Drink until 2027. (tasted June 2021)
2017 Chateau Magrez la Peyre, Saint-Estephe – Score: 83 (QPR: BAD)
Another Magrez and another wine without any life, I guess 2017 Magrez = empty lifeless wines. The nose on this wine is ripe, unbalanced, and empty, again, with notes of milk chocolate, sweet oak, ripe black fruit, a bit of earth, and that is it. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is empty, it has nice mouth-draping tannin, it has no holes, but it has no acid, and it lacks life, the fruit is nowhere, with a bit of blackberry, raspberry, and green notes. The finish is long, green, red, and ripe, with milk chocolate, leather, sweet spices, more oak, and good mineral. Drink until 2027. (tasted June 2021)
A tasting in Paris with a few WINNERS – June 2021
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, and while it took forever to post these notes, I am happy to finally be getting to them at this point. I will note, that almost none of these wines are or will be available here in the USA. The Vins de Vienne and Famille Mayard are available here, and the Tassi Brunello di Montalcino is here as well. The rest, are either in Israel or Europe.
So, returning to the trip, other than hanging out with my family and doing a few tastings in-person with Menahem Israelievitch of Royal Wines Europe, Clarisse and Lionel Bokobsa of Sieva/Bokobsa Wines, and Shlomo Corcos of Guter Wein, I kept to my hotel and tasted wines I bought throughout Paris. This is the tasting I had with Ari Cohen, David Naccache, Cedric Perez, Benjamin Sebbah, and Mickael Marciano. A really fun group of guys. I must thank Ari Cohen and his lovely family for hosting us during the tasting.
In the end, these were mostly painful wines but there were some real WINNERS as well. We did the tastings in parings of the same regions or style and some were quite nice.
Roses
There were three roses and none of them interested me at all. I was surprised as they had been hyped and they were expensive, but ultimately, they came up short.
Chablis
There were a few Chablis and overall they were boring. The best one 2019 Domaine des Malandes Chablis, Cuvee Amandine, Chablis, but it is not worth the money.
Two White Wines
Next, we had two white wines, one from Pays d’Oc and the other from Savoie, sadly they were both boring.
Sancerre
Next, we had some Sancerre! Yes, finally a real list of Kosher Sancerre! They were nice, some were crazy expensive and none really blew us away like the 2012 Chavignol Sancerre, but still nice. The WINNER from Bokobsa was the one wine that was both enjoyable and reasonable in price.
I do not normally care about price in regards to wine. However, I do care about the overall value of wine in regards to other options in its category, AKA QPR. There are so many great white wine options out there at this time that a 75 dollar Sancerre, nice as it is, really is not as interesting to me when I can have a better wine for half the price.
Another Chateau Magrez Fombrauge disaster
We then had 4 wines – they were all horrible. The 2017 Chateau Magrez Fombrauge Blanc, Bordeaux was an oxidized mess. The others were equally poor, I did not even write notes for them.
Rhone Wines
First we had four Rhone wines, two from Cotie-Rotie, one from Cotes du Rhone, and another from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The two Cotie-Rotie were produced for Mes Vins Cacher and they were quite lovely, though expensive. The Cristia Collection are nice wines made for Israel that Ari was able to also get a few bottles of. This is yet another example of the growing list of French Kosher wines being made solely for Israel’s export. This has been the case for some USA purpose-made French wines as well, but in this case, Israel has taken the lead, at this point.
Next, we had another four Rhone wines, this time these were all made by Nathan Grandjean for sale on his website: yavine.fr. These wines and others from his collection were quite impressive and are WINNERS. Nathan had the largest number of QPR WINNERS in the tasting. Bravo!
Next, we had four Rhone white wines, all were again made by Les Vin de Vienne and Famille Mayard for Nathan Grandjean. Two Condrieu, one Crozes-Hermitage, and one Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Very nice. Two more WINNERS here!
Brunello
Finally, we had the 2016 Tassi Brunello di Montalcino, Bettina Cuvee, Brunello di Montalcino. It is a lovely wine but for the price and the quality, I would stick with Terra di Seta. I will try and taste this again, but for now, it is a lovely wine that is just too expensive.
Overall Feeling
Overall, there were some WINNERS and there were some nice wines that are not worth the money. Magrez continues to make wines I would never buy and the rest of the simpler whites and roses were a total waste of money.
The higher-end wines were nice but many were far too expensive to make it reasonable. Still, there is a growing selection of wines from regions that we could have only dreamed about in the past!
I must state that I could NEVER have tasted these wines without the incredible help of Ari Cohen, Nathan Grandjean of yavine.fr online wine shop, and MesVinCacher. Ari tracked down all the wines for this tasting and hosted us for the afternoon that turned into the evening. I was sure he was ready to throw us out an hour earlier! Thanks so much, Ari, and thanks to your wife and family for putting up with me, and the gang that invaded your home!
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2019 Roussawine Rose, Greece – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
The wine is surprisingly good for 2019 rose. The nose on this wine is nice enough, with good fruit, nice acidity, and minerality. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is painful, it is too sweet, not balanced enough, but nice still, with melon, sweet strawberry, guava, and tart grapefruit. Nice enough. Drink now. (tasted June 2021)
2020 Chateau Gairoird Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is simple, a bit of grapefruit, strawberry, peach, raspberry, and mineral, simple. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, it lacks the acidity to balance this wine, it is good enough, but sadly move on. (tasted June 2021)
2020 Chateau de Saint-Martin Grand Reserve, Cotes de Provence – Score: 85 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is pure citrus, tart grapefruit, hints of apricot, really the nose is filled with deep minerality, smoke, and bright fruit. The mouth on this wine is balanced, but it has slight bubbles, when you shake it the acidity falls off, this is crazy, the wine was supposed to be so great, but honestly, all I get is saline, smoke, and grapefruit. The finish is short, but the minerality and saline are nice, very sad. Drink now (tasted June 2021)
Paris tasting of Moise Taieb wines – June 2021
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, 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 Yoni Taieb and the rest of Taieb wines for sending the wines to me to taste. In the past, I have made my way to Taieb’s office, once by myself and once with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered.
As I stated, in my previous post, I kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. Even vaccinated, I was worried, and am still worried, as such I kept to myself, where possible. Because I did not want to ride trains and automobiles with all the COVID madness, Mr. Taieb was so very kind to send them to my hotel. I then stayed in my hotel room and tasted through them.
As always, you can get these wines and much more from Taieb’s online website. They ship within Europe and to London. Sadly, they are all sold out of almost all the incredible 2019 Burgundies that I enjoyed tasting at Andrew Breskin’s house. Andrew has some of them still for sale, like the lovely 2017 Domaine Chantal Lescure and the 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand wines – lovely!! Get them while they last!
Tasting in the hotel room
The most hilarious part of my trip was my life in the hotel. Everything there was, at that time, and I think still is, at this time, masked and distanced. I had cases, upon cases of wines coming to me, in my hotel, and to Ari Cohen’s house, and it became quite a balagan to get things moved around. My many thanks to all the guys that helped make that trip work!
In the end, it was a wonderful outcome. I had time to taste the wines at my pace, room for all the wines to sit and breathe. The A/C was running full-time but it was great and the hotel folks were very nice. Of course, I missed hanging out with Mr. Taieb, and I hope he and his lovely family are doing well!
NOTE: I bought a few wines as well and I tasted them in my room and with some friends. These wines are denoted below and they were wines I never tasted at Taieb’s offices.
QPR WINNING Wine Distributor
Since the first time I was lucky to sit down and taste through the Taieb Wine portfolio, I kept commenting to Yoni, how there were so many good QPR wines. Now, how does this happen? Well, let us talk about Taieb’s wine portfolio. They have an exclusive relationship with Laurent Perrier for producing kosher Champagne, and that is great. But, to be fair you say. they may make QPR wines but they do not make Chateau Smith Haut Lafite, Chateau Malartic, or Chateau Leoville Poyferre!
Well, let us continue with the fact that Taieb makes some of the very best Burgundy wines on the market and has been doing so for more than 10 years now! However, those wines, while wonderful, are not as much QPR as they quality/score stars! In Bordeaux, Taieb has gone long and slow with great names, many of whose latest vintages I tasted in June. They may not top out at 95 in scores, like Domaine Chantal Lescure, Domaine D’Ardhuy (almost), or J.P. Marchand, but they do choose the wineries they work with inside of Bordeaux, incredibly well, to create QPR WINNERS at a very impressive rate!
In the end, that is what differentiates Taieb from the other Kosher wine producers. Sure, Royal Wines does a great job with QPR while also having the quality superstars that are hard to fit in the QPR bucket. In my last tasting with Bokobsa, they showed high quality and good prices, in France, for a fair number of wines. Still, when I think QPR, I think Taieb, again in France! I am consistently shocked at why the folks in London do not buy Taieb wines by the cases – given the wonderful prices, the easy shipping, and the favorable exchange rate. The real Achilles Heel of Taieb Wines, IMHO, is the lack of great distribution and equally solid pricing in the USA.
Until then, you can follow what I wrote up in this post, and try to piece together some of these wines in the USA, if you can! Thankfully, we have Andrew, at Liquid Kosher, helping to drive Burgundy excellence in the USA.
In Closing
Again, the theme of very solid Taieb wines being very hard to find in the USA is a consistent issue to me and a sad one. My many thanks to Yoni Taieb and all at Moise Taieb Wines & Spirits for taking the time to send me the wines to my hotel. 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 La Chablisienne Chablis, Chablis (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is too simple, I was hoping for more complexity, yellow apple, quince, pear, and mineral. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is a bit lacking, it has enough acidity, but the middle is a bit hollow, pear, tart apple, smoke, and melon. The finish is long, green, with flint, more baked apple, lemon, and nice acidity lingering. Drink now. (tasted June 2021)
2018 La Chablisienne Chablis, 1er Cru, Chablis (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is slightly more elevated with fresher notes, apple, pear, melon, more minerality, starfruit, and hints of gooseberry. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine, shows nice weight, with a lovely mouthfeel, nice acidity, mineral, tart and sweet fruit, starfruit, gooseberry, grapefruit, melon, Asian Pear, and good green foliage. The finish is long, green, tart, and richer, with saline, slate, rock, mineral, straw, and good tart acidity on the long finish. Drink by 2022. (tasted June 2021)
Paris tasting with Shlomo Corcos (Guter Wein) – June 2021
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, 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 Shlomo Corcos (Guter Wein) and Yoel Kassabi from YayinKosher. They were so kind to host me and allow me to taste the lovely wines. I was also joined by Ari Cohen.
So, returning to the trip, as stated in my previous post, I kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. Even vaccinated, I was worried, and am still worried, as such I kept to myself, where possible. However, Messrs Corcos and Kassabi were super busy the entire week and the only time they had was a lovely Friday morning, so we met to taste through the wines then. Corcos has been the mashgiach behind many wines, including Falesco and some IDS wines, along with his own Guter Wein wines.
It was a short tasting, but there were some interesting and unique wines. Including a lovely and very unique 2013 Falesco Innocence, Blanco, a wine I would love to drink every day, sadly, it is not available here in the USA. All of the wines I tasted are available on Mr. Kassabi website YayinKosher. We also tasted the incredible QPR WINNER, for France, of 2012 Plaisir de Siaurac – which sells for 12 euros! Sure, it is a drink now wine, but how often can you get a lovely QPR WINNER, aged to perfection, ready to drink, and dirty/filthy as all-get-out! Just lovely and crazy great price!
There were also three very unique Bulgarian wines. Along with another lovely Italian Verdeto. Along with a few new Bordeaux wines that we did not get the chance to taste the last time we had a tasting with Messrs Corcos and Kassabi. The 2016 Chateau Saint Eugene Martillac, QPR WINNER 2016 Chateau Haut-Bacalan, and the lovely 2018 Chateau Kirwan Grand Cru Classe.
In regards to whether these wines will be available in the USA, I suppose that would matter on import and other such issues. For now, they are all in France/Europe.
My many thanks to Messrs Corcos and Kassabi for setting up the meeting, sharing the wines with us, and for taking time out of their incredibly busy schedule to meet with us. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2013 Falesco Innocence, Blanco, Umbria – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
This is a blend of 55% Chardonnay and 45% Semillon. The nose on this wine is lovely with sweet oak, crazy funk, rich straw, hay, and lovely smoke, with fresh bright apple, quince, and mineral, wow! The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, rich, layered, ripe, but acidic, with great fruit focus, showing funk, mineral, saline, earth, dirt, sweet melon, apple, quince, and crazy funk, wow! The finish is lovely, bright, tart, with lemon/lime, smoke, graphite, hay, and sweet spices. WOW!!! Drink until 2024. WOW! (tasted June 2021)
Paris tasting of Bokobsa/Sieva wines
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, 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 allow me to taste through the lovely wines. I was also joined by Mr Henri Molko, sales manager at Sieva, and Benjamin Kukurudz.
So, returning to the trip, as stated in my previous post, I kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. Even vaccinated, I was worried, and am still worried, as such I kept to myself, where possible. However, Clarisse was so nice to setup the tasting so on a bright summer morning, I made my way to the Sieva offices, just outside of Paris.
The last time I was at a Bokobsa tasting, it was at the very early days on this insane life we now live, February, 2020. Of course, until June, 2021, no one from the United States was allowed access to France. Bokobsa, like Royal did not have a tasting in 2021. So, I was really happy to catch up with what new wines were available and to see the offices of Sieva, as I only ever see the Bokobsa family at KFWE or their own tastings.
The pricing of these wines are mostly cheaper in France than they are here in the USA, as such, some of them of the wines have better QPR scores in France. Also, many of these wines will not come to the USA, but overall I was impressed by the quality of the wines and how some of them have really improved from the first time I tasted them in 2019.
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:
2019 Jean Pierre Bailly Pouilly Fume – Score: 92 (QPR: EVEN (In France: WINNER))
Another smash hit for this lovely wine, showing notes of sweet fruit, lovely orange blossom, with good fruit focus, gooseberry, melon, grapefruit, and flint galore. The mouth on this lovely medium-bodied is truly fresh, ripe, and well balanced with screaming acid, smoke, flint, gooseberry, melon, grapefruit, orange, orange blossom, and lovely screaming acid, wow! Lovely weight and mouthfeel. The finish is long, green, ripe, and well balanced, with crazy mineral, screaming acid, and lovely rock, flint, and mineral. WOW!! Drink until 2024. (tasted June 2021)
More white and rose wines from my Paris trip
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, and while it took forever to post these notes, I am happy to finally be getting to them at this point. I will note, that almost none of these wines are or will be available here in the USA. The Elvi wines will get here eventually and maybe some of the KWI roses, but who knows.
So, returning to the trip, other than hanging out with my family and doing a few tastings in-person with Menahem Israelievitch of Royal Wines Europe, Clarisse and Lionel Bokobsa of Sieva/Bokobsa Wines, and Shlomo Corcos of Guter Wein, I kept to my hotel and tasted wines I bought throughout Paris. I did have a tasting with Ari Cohen and the guys, and that will be a post soon as well.
In the end, these wines were mostly painful, they were all 2020 roses and whites from varied vintages. However, there were some good finds, especially the still unreleased Elvi Herenza Blanc wines, those were lovely! Along with the wines from Richard Winery and Maison Serela.
So, the last time I posted about roses, we had the lovely 2020 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Rose and the 2020 Chateau Sainte Marguerite, Cuvee Fantastique Rose, and I also tasted a couple of roses at the Royal tasting. With that said, I had other roses and they will not change this final set of recommendations, in regards to Roses.
I will not repost all my thoughts on roses and the such or how they are made, please read my last post for all of that information.
This will be a quick and simple post for the roses I had not yet posted to the blog.
Best rose so far in 2021
At this point, I have probably tasted all the roses that I will get to and this is my final set of roses. I probably tasted as many as I did last year, again given the logistics of life today. That will still be fewer than in 2019.
If there are two ideas you get from this post that would be great. ONE: Drink only 2020 roses now. TWO: Drink refreshing roses. A rose that feels heavy, unbalanced, and one that does not make you reach for more, is not a rose I would recommend.
So with that said, here are the best options, if you must have a rose, sadly only a couple of these are worth buying – but so far, these are the best options here in the USA:
- 2020 Chateau Roubine Inspire Rose is the best rose I have tasted so far, by a bit, but sadly, only the one in France.
- 2020 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Fantastique Rose – best rose I have tasted for USA-based wines, as the 2020 Chateau Roubine Inspire Rose here is not as good here in the USA.
- 2020 Or de la Castinelle Rose and the 2020 Domaine du Vallon Des Glauges Rose – ONLY QPR WINNERS, though there are some France-based QPR options now as well.
- 2020 Ramon Cardova Rosado – is the best price to rose option out there now. It is not a WINNER, but it is a very nice wine and very well priced!
- 2020 Sainte Beatrice B – is the best of the European Mevushal Rose, with the Roubine a touch behind
- 2020 Hajdu Rose – is the best of the Cali roses (that I have tasted so far)
- 2020 Domaine Netofa Rose/2020 Dalton Rose – nicest of the riper roses (that I have tasted so far)
- 2020 Lahat Vignette Rose – is the best of the Israeli rose, but expensive
Paris tasting of mostly Royal 2019 and 2020 Whites and Roses, with some Reds as well
Well, I can honestly say I never meant it to get this out of hand, I was meant to post this months ago! But, life, shul, and so much more, got in the way. All good, just wine, and my blog had to be put on the back-burner for a bit. Thankfully, I am ready to post more often now.
So, we return to the story, I landed in Paris, and bought lots of wines, and then had lunch with Ari Cohen and Simon Berdugo. I will get to the many wines I bought in the next few posts, God willing.
But let us start with the roses and whites I enjoyed in the company of Menahem Israelievitch. These wines are almost all here, except for the two reds that will get here eventually. My guess is that just like all shipping around the world is waiting on boats, maybe these wines are also being held up behind millions of iPhones, laptops. and Elmo toys. Please, do your Chanukkah shopping NOW, the supply of many items will be very limited in the next few months.
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.
- The high-end Chateau Roubine wines tasted FAR better and different in France – like VERY different! All I can say is that the score represents what I had in France, and I noted that the wines here taste different..
- The 2019 vintage is showing nicely for some parts of France and less so for others, time will tell how well it shows.
- Finally, the 2019 Chateau Malartic, Blanc is simply one of the best, if not the best white wine I have ever tasted, again, all I drink or taste is kosher. It is shockingly wonderful. Yes, there are the beautiful 2014 Von Hovel Auction Rieslings, I did not forget them, and they may well outlive the Malartic, who knows, but this wine is special!
In closing, all of these wines will get here eventually. I cannot say that for the vast majority of wines I will be posting over the next weeks. So many wines made in France either live and die in France and Europe, as a whole, or are made JUST for Israel. These new phenomena started with Shaked, and others have joined in. Either way, lots of French wine is not sold in France and lots of French wine never leaves the country – just the fascinating life of French wine. Most of it is made by very small producers or ones with horrible distribution, and as such, they are very difficult to find. Thankfully, as I stated all of these wines and many of Bokobsa wines, a post coming soon, should be available in the USA.
My thanks to Menahem Israelievitch and Royal Wines 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:
2019 Les Marrioners Petit Chablis (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose on this wine is nice, tart, with floral notes of apple blossom, quince, mineral, slate, hay, straw, and smoke. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, with great acidity, nice fruit focus, and a life to it that is quite refreshing. The mouth shows apple, quince, pear, hints of melon, blossom, orange pith, nectarines, and nice flint. The finish is long, green, with lemongrass, flint, and smoke, with acidity lingering long. Bravo!! Drink until 2023. (tasted June 2021)
2019 Les Marrionniers Chablis (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose on this wine is quite nice with a rich focus that brings incredible minerality, rich saline, fruit that is more white and yellow with a clear precision that makes me smile. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is rich, layered, and focused, with deep acidity and saline that brings the mouth together incredibly well, followed by rich apple, quince, peach, and mineral galore, the mouthfeel is oily and rich and really incredibly refreshing and also quite elegant, nice! The finish is super long, tart, green, with lemongrass, saline, slate, rock, and smoke, with grapefruit, lemon, and citrus galore. Bravo! Drink until 2024. (tasted June 2021)
Three 2018 California Napa Valley Wines
I know some of you are hoping for posts from my trip to France. However, I need to clean up some missing posts, I have a lot of wine that needed to be posted and now I will do those quickly. After that, I will start posting the wines I tasted in France.
In April Gabriel Geller and I went to Marciano Estate, along with Hagafen Cellars, both of them in Napa Valley, California. Then we went to Herzog Wine Cellars, Oxnard, California. Most of the wine notes from Hagafen and Herzog were posted in this blog post. Of the 2018 vintage, I am still a massive fan of the Sonoma County wines over the Napa Valley wines, in this case, the EPIC 2018 Herzog Wine cellars lineup. Though, the 2018 Herzog Forbearers Cabernet Sauvignon was quite nice but too expensive. Overall, the Napa Valley wines are all too expensive for the value, and really, I would stick 100% with the Sonoma County wines. That said, the Marciano wines are beautiful but at 350 dollars or 140 dollars, it really is a matter of value to me. Are they great wines? Yes, you can see that from the scores below. Napa Valley wines are not cheap, and the cost of labor and kosher wine supervision at such a small scale adds to the overall cost of the kosher product. This is just a matter of Napa Valley wines while being nice, are almost pricing themselves out in the kosher market, when there are better options available.
My thanks to all at Marciano Estate and to all at Herzog Wine cellars 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:
2018 Marciano Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley – Score: 93+ (QPR: POOR)
The wine is a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon & 18% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is so elegant it is crazy, with sweet oak, tar, graphite, roasted animal, spice, rich black currant, sweet cinnamon, and lovely floral lavender. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is incredible, richly layered, concentrated, extracted, deep fruit focus, crazy balance, with intense mineral, the graphite and saline are far more pronounced in the Marciano than in the Terra Gratia, with pure elegance, plum, dark cherry, smoke, and loads of earth. The finish is long, green, earthy, with sweet tobacco, vanilla, dark chocolate, sweet spices, more floral notes, and tannin that lingers forever. Drink from 2026 until 2034. (tasted April 2021)
2018 Marciano Terra Gratia, Napa Valley – Score: 92+ (QPR: POOR)
Lovely nose of black currant, roasted herb, rich mineral, serious smoke, star anise, tarragon, with rich saline. The mouth on this full-bodied, really impressive, with polish, plush, rich and concentrated, layered, elegant, with black currant, plum, incredible, rich smoke, raspberry, with menthol, intense acid, draping elegant tannin, green note, lovely, sweet Oak, Asian spice, and spices galore. The finish is super long and green and ripe and smoky and spicy, with elegance, roasted animal, and lovely chewing tobacco, and earth galore, and charcoal. With time the nose changes to sweet oak, sweet dill, smoke, green notes, garrigue, sweet mint, Oregano, tar, sweet black, and red fruit. The mouth is rich, extracted, layered, and elegant. Bravo! Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted April 2021)
2018 Herzog Generation IX Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap, Napa Valley – Score: 93 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is ripe, balanced, and in control, with rich blackberry, anise, raspberry, with tar, smoke, roasted meat, lavender, rooibos tea, black tea, with dense forest floor, mineral, rich tilled earth, and loam. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, layered, concentrated, and a bit elegant, with a nice plushness, with ripe blackberry, dark cherry, raspberry, currant, plum, and lovely green note, mouth draping tannin, foliage, loam, and forest floor, with anise and tar. The finish is long, green, with chalk, graphite, black tea, dried rose petals, graphite, dried porcini mushroom, and smoke that is wrapped in rich extraction, and foliage galore, Bravo! Drink from 2028 until 2035. (tasted April 2021)
The 2021 Kosher rose season is open and I am still underwhelmed – scene 3
I know some of you are hoping for posts from my trip to France. However, I need to clean-up some missing posts, I have a lot of wine that needed to be posted and now I will do those quickly. After that I will start posting the wines I tasted in France.
So, the last time I posted about roses, we had the lovely 2020 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Rose and the 2020 Chateau Sainte Marguerite, Cuvee Fantastique Rose, and I also tasted a few roses before my trip to Paris.
I will not repost all my thoughts on roses and the such or how they are made, please read my last post for all of that information.
This will be a quick and simple post for the roses I had not yet posted to the blog.
Best rose so far in 2021
Well, let’s hold up here for a second. as stated above, I have not tasted all the roses out there yet. I will get more over the next couple of weeks. I will probably taste as many as I did last year, again given the logistics of life today. That will still be fewer than in 2019.
If there are two ideas you get from this post that would be great. ONE: Drink only 2020 roses now. TWO: Drink refreshing roses. A rose that feels heavy, unbalanced, and one that does not make you reach for more, is not a rose I would recommend.
So with that said, here are the best options, if you must have a rose, sadly only a couple of these are worth buying – but so far are the best options here in the USA:
- 2020 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Fantastique Rose – best rose I have tasted so far, but not including roses I had in France
- 2020 Or Or de la Castinelle Rose and the 2020 Domaine du Vallon Des Glauges Rose – ONLY QPR WINNERS
- 2020 Cantina Giuliano Rosato – a fun wine at a great price
- 2020 Sainte Beatrice B – is the best of the European Mevushal Rose, with the Roubine a touch behind
- 2020 Hajdu Rose – is the best of the Cali roses (that I have tasted so far)
- 2020 Domaine Netofa Rose/2020 Dalton Rose – nicest of the riper roses (that I have tasted so far)
- 2020 Lahat Vignette Rose – is the best of the Israeli rose, but expensive
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2020 Domaine du Vallon Des Glauges Rose – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This is the second rose that is a WINNER – BRAVO! This wine is a blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Counoise, yes you had me at Counoise! Interestingly, comparing the Sancerre Rose to this one, the Sancerre is riper and the Vallon is dry as all dry, it is bone dry, and it is very different. To double down on my previous statement this is not your strawberry, raspberry, cherry wine, this is more white fruit than red fruit. The nose on this wine is unique and lovely, with notes of tart strawberry, peach, apricot, jasmine, flint, smoke, and rocks galore – lovely! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is so refreshing, so lovely, so fun, so invigorating, I could not spit this one, with rich saline, plus acidity, funk galore, peach, tart red fruit, pear, and intense grapefruit/lime. The finish is so long, so lovely, balanced, refreshing, it pulls you in with pith, fruit, mineral, limestone, slate, and rock. WOW! Drink now. (tasted May 2021)
2020 J. De Villebois Sancerre Rose (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
I had heard rumors about thsi wine but they were all wrong – this is a lovely wine! The nose on this Pinot Noir Rose, is crazy fun, with intense mineral, loads of tart strawberry, rosewater, cherry, flint, limestone, and lovely floral rose petals. The mouth on this medium-bodied rose is screaming with acid, the acid hits you and it never leaves, but it is not a one-trick pony, the wine is balanced with ripe fruit, strawberry, peach, lavender, watermelon, intense mineral, more of the limestone, slate, and smoke, with rich saline, pink grapefruit, and intense acid that goes on forever. This wine is super refreshing, tart, fruity, balanced, and really fun, Nice!! (tasted May 2021)
2020 Herzog Limited Edition Rose of Pinot Noir, Tasting Room – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is sweet, with intense floral notes, candied fruit, and rich mineral. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is solid, with intense rhubarb, pomegranate, and strawberry, with enough acid, nice rosehip, sweet fruit, and berries. The finish is long, tart, sweet, and ripe but balanced, nice! Drink now. (tasted April 2021)
2020 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: 89 (QPR: EVEN)
The wine has enough here to make me interested but in the end it comes up short. The nose on this wine is nice with the smoke and flint, that is the best part, sadly, after that, there is little to captivate you, strawberry, raspberry, and lime are also present. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine feels a bit hollow, it has the acid, it feels correct, it has some amount of refreshment, but the hole in the middle is maddening, with good acid in the front and back, strawberry, lime, tart quince, Rooibos notes, and lingering acidity on the end. a nice enough wine drink now. (tasted May 2021)
2020 Rubis Roc Rose (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 50% Cinsault and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a nice enough rose, it lacks the acid punch I crave but it has some bite. The nose on this wine is muted, with notes of funk, cherry, raspberry, plum, and flint. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is balanced but it lacks the acid, it has the fruit, and it is refreshing, but what it needs is more punch and more bite. Still, a nice enough rose. Drink now. (tasted May 2021)
2020 Shirah Rose – Score: 85 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is ripe, showing notes of candied fruit, watermelon, pomegranate, rosewater, orange blossom, red fruit, and spices. The mouth on this wine is empty, it has fruit, ripe fruit, and some mineral, but there is no acidity, it is flat, it has enough fruit to make things interesting, with ripe and candied plum, strawberry, rosewater, and sweet spices, but it truly lacks acid and lacks the refreshing factor. Drink now. (tasted May 2021)
2020 The Butcher’s Daughter South Rose (M) – Score: 80 (QPR: NA)
This wine is a blend of 60% Cinsault and 40% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is is muted and flat much like this wine, though there is acidity in the mouth the rest is hollow and empty. The mouth on this wine is flat as well and has acid, raspberry, and cooked fruit to show. Drink now. (tasted May 2021)
2020 Tura Mountain Vista Rose – Score: 70 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 68% Merlot and 32% Cabernet Sauvignon. I keep asking for wineries, to be honest, if a wine has residual sugar why are you writing the wine is dry? This is not a dry wine by anyone’s assessment. The nose on this wine is ripe, candied watermelon, lifesaver candy, and loads of ripe peach, pineapple, and candied fruit, with a hint or two of floral notes and that, is it. The mouth on this wine, to me, is appalling, it is 100% in-your-face fruit, no attempt to show balance, just candy and more candy, think of Halloween night and you are 7 years old, that is what this tastes like. This is all Jolly Rancher sweet, with watermelon, peach, pineapple, and just no balance. Sad. Drink now. (tasted May 2021)
Finishing my tasting of Royal Wine’s 2018 French wines in California
I know some of you are hoping for posts from my trip to France. However, I need to clean-up some missing posts, I have a lot of wine that needed to be posted and now I will do those quickly. After that I will start posting the wines I tasted in France.
So, back in November 2020, I did a tasting at my home to taste the 2018 wines from Royal, at least the ones that were here in the USA at that time. I will skip much of the text that I wrote then, but I will repost all the 2018 notes, to make it complete. Remember, all my notes have tasting dates on them.
In a previous post about the most recent French wines (at that time in 2017) that were arriving on the market – I already spoke about pricing and supply, so there is no need to talk that over again in this post.
While the 2015 and 2016 vintages were ripe, and the 2017 vintage was not ripe at all, the 2018 vintage makes the 2015 ripeness look tame! Now that is a very broad-stroke statement that cannot be used uniformly, but for the most part, go with it!
I see no reason to repeat what Decanter did – so please read this and I will repeat a few highlights below.
For a start, the drought came later in 2018,’ says Marchal, pointing out that early July saw less rain in 2016. ‘But when it came in 2018, it was more abrupt, with the green growth stopping across the whole region at pretty much the same time’. He sees it closer to 2009, but with more density to the fruit. … and high alcohols!
Alcohols will be highest on cooler soils that needed a long time to ripen, so the Côtes, the Satellites, and the cooler parts of St-Emilion have alcohols at 14.5-15%abv and more. I heard of one Cabernet Franc coming in at 16.5%abv, but that is an exception. In earlier-ripening areas, such as Pessac-Léognan and Pomerol, alcohols are likely to be more balanced at 13.5% or 14%abv, as they will have reached full phenolic ripeness earlier.
‘Pessac-Léognan did the best perhaps because it’s an early ripening site,’ said Marie-Laurence Porte of Enosens, ‘so they were able to get grapes in before over-concentration. If you had to wait for phenolic ripeness, that is where things could get difficult’.
The final averages per grape, according to Fabien Faget of Enosens, are Sauvignon Blanc 13.5%abv, Sémillon 12.5%abv, Merlot 14.5%abv, and Cabernet Sauvignon 14%abv’.
Final comments, disclaimer, and warnings
These wines are widely available in the USA, so support your local wine stores folks – they need your help! If you live in a wine-drinking desert, like California, support the online/shipping folks on the side of this blog. They are folks I buy from (as always – I NEVER get a bonus/kickback for your purchases)!
Again, I am just posting the 2018 reds and a couple of other wines that have changed in a good and bad way. My many thanks to Royal Wine for their help in procuring some of these wines. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:
2018 Les Marronniers Chablis (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
Sadly, as I continue to watch this wine evolve I feel it is not a wine that I will stock up on. This and the 1er Cru, sadly. The reason is that the wine keeps losing acidity as it ages. We opened the wine on Friday afternoon, and even then it had turned, and by Shabbat morning the acidity was far removed from where it was on Friday and that feels further removed from my notes and memories.
This wine is made with native yeasts and as little manipulation as possible. The nose on this wine is beautiful with orange blossom, yellow apple, and rosehip, with lemon curd, and yeasty and creamy notes. The mouth was lovely in the past, at this point, it has moved even further. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is not as acidic as in the past and it is time to drink, sweet Meyer lemon, quince, pie crust, with Anjou pear, and nice peach. The finish is a bit short, with baked pear and apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, some mineral, and now the fruit is showing sweeter. Drink now. (tasted March 2021)
2018 Les Marronniers Chablis, Premier Cru, Cote de Jouan – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, as I continue to watch this wine evolve I feel it is not a wine that I will stock up on. This and the 1er Cru, sadly. The reason is that the wine keeps losing acidity as it ages. We opened the wine on Friday afternoon, and even then it had turned, and by Shabbat morning the acidity was far removed from where it was on Friday and that feels further removed from my notes and memories.
The nose on this wine still shows floral notes, starting with rosehip and yellow flowers, followed by some minerals, slate, blossom water, apple, and smoke. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is where things have gone wrong, with a bit of weight at this time, yellow apple, some citrus, Asian Pear, nice peach/apricot, Orange pith, hints of nectarines and orange. Sadly, as I state above the acidity slows early and leaves in a few hours, so while I loved the wine at release, it is not for long holding. Drink now. (tasted March 2021)
Red Wines ordered by Vintage and QPR
2018 Chateau Le Crock, Saint-Estephe (M) – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine, is deep dark beautiful notes of black and red fruit, with rich salinity, mineral galore, with lovely tar, smoke, and what I crave from French wine – DIRT, DIRT, and more dirt! The nose is lovely, with green notes lurking in the background, and lovely licorice.
So, while I have been unhappy with the 2018 vintage so far, this wine returns my hope for the vintage, this wine is better than 2016, and that IS SAYING a lot!
This wine is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc. The 2018 vintage has more Cab in it and it smells blacker than 2016 in many more ways than just that. Lovely wine! The blueberry of the past is gone and all you get is this intense earth, dirt, smoke, along with some shockingly beautiful violet, black and red fruit bonanza, with ripples of minerality through it – bravo and this is the Mevushal version!
The mouth on this full-bodied beast is impressive, with rich extraction, like in 2016, deeply concentrated, yet with lovely finesse and elegance, showing a richness that belies its youth, with blackberry, dark, yet controlled, plum, dark raspberry, earth, cherry, smoke, and a mouth draping elegance in the tannin structure that is impressive for its youth, with a lovely plushness, with deep furrows of graphite, saline, and rock. The finish is long, not so green, there is a few green notes, more in the way of tobacco than in the way of foliage, but here the finish is about the dirt, loam, forest floor, smoke, and dark chocolate, with hints of oak, with crazy acidity, leather, all wrapped in roasted herbs that linger long and forever. Bravo!!! This is the best Chateau Le Crock, I have ever tasted, at least in regards to the Mevushal version! Drink from 2025 until 2037. Incredible! (tasted Nov 2020)
2018 Chateau Royaumont, Grand Vin Bordeaux – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 70% Merlot & 30% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is balanced, though a bit ripe, with bright fruit, ripe plum, dark cherry, anise, menthol, tobacco, with green notes from the Cabernet Franc, foliage, smoke, and slightly burnt oak. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is well-balanced, with loads of fruit to start, layered, concentrated, plush, with screaming acid, black raspberry, plum, smoke, oak, rich fruit, nice saline, good dirt, earth, black pepper, with ripe fruit, and loads of mouth draping tannin. The finish is long, ripe, with loads of sweet chewing tobacco, dark chocolate almost milky, with more earth, graphite, and smoke galore. Nice! Drink from 2028 until 2034. (tasted May 2021)
2018 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 44% each Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The nose on this wine is ripe, scary ripe, but under a blanket of dirt, earth, smoke, more ripe fruit, mushroom, forest floor, and earth, wow! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, rich, layered, elegant, but ripe, but the ripeness is balanced well by the acidity, with incredible dirt, along with floral notes, blackberry, currant, plum, and rich salinity, with dark chocolate, smoke, and rich loam, acid galore, and smoke. The finish is long, green, black, and mineral-driven, with loads of scrapping graphite, dirt, and foliage, wow! Bravo!! Drink from 2026 until 2033. (tasted January 2021)
