Category Archives: Kosher White Wine
The Top and Best 34 QPR Kosher Wine WINNERS of 2024
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 age-ability 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 2023.
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 2022 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah. 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 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 (by the way no such wine exists!)? What about a white wine – same? Can/should someone compare them? The answer is no, of course. People will compare similar items. OK, are we then forced to compare ONLY Montsant wines with Montsant wines? Of course not, that is NOT how people think. People will compare like-scored red wines with like-scored red wines. Further, there are literally SIX Monstant Kosher red wines on the market. How can one compare six wines to each other? It has no value.
So, the question remains how do we compare two wines? What criteria can we use to compare them? The first step is for us to agree that people will compare wines that are similar in style, but not in locale, region, or price. So 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:
- 2022 Chateau d’Agassac Cru Bourgeois, Haut-Medoc – Score: 93+ (QPR: WINNER)
Drink until 2038 - 2022 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2034 until 2040 - 2022 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2030 until 2038
These wines sell for between 38 dollars and 60 dollars. So, are these wines comparable? I would state they are, and 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 – these all scored roughly the same quality score.
So, next, would you at least compare two Medoc wines to each other? The Chateau Fourcas Dupre and the Chateau d’Agassac? I would say yes for sure. Well, why is the Royaumont any different? Of course, they are very distinct wines, 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! This means some wines age beautifully, and many will be 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 must 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
Before we get to the list of the best QPR wines for this past year, I wanted to give you some raw stats. I tasted more than 1200 wines this past year. In actuality, it is probably far more, I just did NOT care to write notes on hundreds more because all it would have said was NO. I made sure to taste all the Israeli wines at three KFWE, and while some were worthy of notes, none garnered these scores. The pain was all I remember. In the end, 188 wines were scored with a QPR score of WINNER, for the blog year 2024.
I have stated it over and over again now, there is no way we can buy all the good wines out there unless you have a local warehouse to store them and you drink two or more bottles a day. That is the excellent news about Kosher Wine today! I hope we have not yet hit peak QPR WINNER Wine.
This year, the list came to a total of 34 names, and none had to dip below 93 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. This year, there are 34 or so QPR WINNERS who scored 93 this year but not in a single area.
The 4 regions that encompass the 34 WINNERS are in order of size, France (27), Spain (4), USA (2), and Hungary (1). Within France, it is not all Bordeaux! There are wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Chateauneuf du Pape.
Of the 34 WINNER, 4 of them are white, 28 are red, and 2 are sweet. However, at the lower price and quality QPR WINNERS (think 20 dollars 91 scoring wines), you will find that white wines are the majority!
This year we have 9 wines that are a WINNER in Europe and the rest of the world and NOT in the USA.
- The 2020 Chateau Haut Brisson) is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2023 Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils Chateauneuf du Pape, Blanc is not the same here in the USA as it is in Europe. I have no idea what happened to it but the quality is vastly different.
- The 2021 Tokaj-Hetszolo Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2020 Chateau Haut Brisson is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2022 Chateau Royaumont is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good, though still a WINNER, but not at the same quality.
- The 2022 Les Roches De Yon-Figeac is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good.
- The 2022 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good.
- The 2022 Chevalier de Lascombes is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good.
- The 2022 Château Olivier Grand Cru Classe is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2022 Chateau Haut-Marbuzet is not available at all here in the USA.
Sadly, there were no new Sparkling or Rose wines to make it to the score of 93 and to meet its counterpart pricing. To me this is a HUGE issue in the kosher wine market! The kosher wine market has lifted up one of the previous sad wine categories, white wine! Which is HUGE! Sadly, we have not moved from there. We have a dominating red and white kosher wine scene. What is lacking sorely, is quality, sparkling wines! The rose wines will never reach the upper echelons, at least in the Kosher wine markets! However, there is actual demand for sparkling wines, and sadly, the products being sold are nice, but the prices are too high, or the quality is too low.
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:
2022 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah Garnatxa, Montsant – Score: 95 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely. It pops with intense brightness, followed by a massive attack of ripe but controlled fruit, dense minerality, rich salinity, intense graphite, lovely cloves, cinnamon, warm spices, loam, dirt, earth, lovely raspberry, strawberry, and ripe/bright red berries. WOW! With time, the wine becomes even more complex, showing floral notes, ripe fruit, and lovely sweet spices. Bravo!
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is so elegant, complex, and singular in grape, and there is nowhere to hide in this bottle; it is complex, lithe, rich, and layered but intensely refreshing. This wine is the Pinot Noir of the Rhone and Spain; there is nowhere to hide, and yet the wine is so impressive. This wine is pure black magic; it is ripe, lithe, tart, acidic, elegant, and dirty, all in the same glass, and yet this is a wine that does not exist in Kosher. Sure, there are lovely blends, but a wine this ripe that is also elegant, lithe, and smoky, you want to drink it all!
The mouth is lovely, ripe, layered, elegant, and toasty, with sweet spices, lovely raspberry, and strawberry, nice umami, really fun, expressive, and captivating; it is so unique and special, with umami, and mouth-drawing elegance, WOW! Bravo! The finish is long, dirty, earthy, smoky, and umami-dense, with great graphite and ripe, mouth-draining tannin. Dirt, minerality, graphite, ripe and tart red fruit, and intense acidity linger long. Drink from 2030 until 2036. (tasted December 2024) (in Clos Mesorah, Spain) (ABV = 15%)
Hotel Wine tastings – Taieb Wines, Mercier Wines, Corcos Wines, Bokobsa Wines, Honest Grapes (Montille), plus more
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in January with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered. The number of boxes in our room was not nearly as insane as two years ago. That was a tower of boxes. Still, we had a lot of wines to taste and some good wines to talk about.
Two years ago, we had some 80 wines, this past tasting we were at 58 wines. There were a couple of wines I think were bad bottles, so I will not post them, so I guess it comes to some 56 or so bottles.
This post will close out the blog’s 2024 year, and then we can get to the wines of the year and such! Then we can get to the KFWE post! Yeah, lots ahead!
As I have stated before. I want to taste all of these blind. Let me make this simple: unless we can find someone to pay to help us manage the tastings, taste blind, and gather all the metadata and the forms and sheets, it is just INSANE! We really need to get a helper who understands English enough and can handle sheets and the such in Paris and wherever else we taste wines. Until then, we will have to give up on tasting blind.
The wines were tasted in classic region/style order, whites, reds from Burgundy, Rhone-like areas, Bordeaux/Blend wines, and I think that is it. The comments are listed by the producer.
Taieb Wines
There were 23 Taieb wines. We received the usual Jean-Philippe Marchand wines. This year, there are eight wines. There are two whites, the Meursault and the new Puligny Montrachet, and then we have the return of the same reds. Sadly, I could not taste the Pommard or the Aloxe Corton. The two white wines are wines that feel bottle-shocked and also have more oak than I expected. They may come around in a few years. We opened them Tuesday night, and they never came around. They kind of lost some of their oak after 7 days, but honestly, well before that, wine should either be there or not. The red Burgundies we received were terrific and show the continued success of Jean-Philippe Marchand wines.
To close out the story, Mr. Taieb asked for the warehouse to send us the eight Burgundies, but instead, we received two other wines. Such is life!
Taieb Wines. Yoni and his family continue to make well-priced wines and garner QPR WINNER scores. This tasting was no exception, with five WINNER wines from the 24 wines tasted and many wines with a GREAT QPR score. I have posted often about Taieb wines, and if you want to read the entire background, read the first post I made here.
The 2023 Baron David and the 2023 Chateau Tournebrise were solid wines that are available now in Paris and ones I would pick up for a nice Shabbat! Two great wines from Taieb. The 2023 Elysee Palace Merlot is dirt cheap and a solid Mevu option. Finally, the 2023 Moise Taieb, La Petite Metairie Chinon, is a classic Cabernet Franc and shows nicely.
Honest Grapes Wines
Nathan from Honest Grapes was very kind in helping arrange a shipment of Domaine de Montille. These wines were pulled from the barrel, much like the wines I tasted last year in London. The white wines shined in this new 2023 Domaine de Montille Burgundy tasting. The red wines were fine, but one was either shocked or maybe just a bad bottle. Like all barrel tastings, I can put a score on the wine but understand that this may well not be the final score.
On an aside, you may see two wines that were associated with Honest Grapes, 2022 Chateau Teyssier and 2023 Le Nardian Grand Vin de Bordeaux. They may well still be wines Honest Grapes sells in London, but they are now also available in France. Those two wines can be found under the assorted wines.
Mercier Wines
Once again, Mercier delivers excellent wines at a higher price range. The 2022 vintage did take a slight bite at the 2022 Château de Fieuzal Grand Cru Classé de Graves, Pessac-Leognan. It is the return of this wine, which was last made Kosher in 2005. So, 17 years later, the wine is fine, but it lacks the acidity I crave.
Once again, the 2022 Château Olivier Grand Cru Classe, Pessac-Léognan, on the other hand was a HOMERUN! That wine has everything I want, acidity, pop, body, structure, and minerality. It is quite an impressive wine and a baby! This wine will not be ready to play for a long time.
Once again, the 2022 Chateau Fayat, Pomerol, is sensational. It is priced higher than the 2022 Montviel, higher than the 2018 Echo de Roses Camille, but lower than Gay. To me, it is a QPR WINNER.
The 2022 Chateau Haut-Marbuzet, Saint-Estephe, has the added Cabernet that really helps make the wine pop! It may well be the most balanced wine we had at this tasting overall. Quite impressive indeed! Merlot in hot vintages is more challenging to get perfect than with some Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. The Marbuzet has Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and a good amount of Merlot.
Then there were three white wines that stood out, two that were dry, and one sweet. Until now, Mercier had been making Sauternes from the Chateau Rayne Vigneau. The latest vintage of Sauternes from the main label was 2018. However, in 2022 and 2023, Pierre Miodownick and Mercier made two dry wines and one second label Sauternes. Both of these dry wines took forever to open. Avi was not even around anymore when the dry white Grand Vin finally opened up.
The 2023 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau Grand Vin Blanc Sec, is not going to be cheap, but it is a beautiful wine. The 2023 Les Sec de Rayne Vigneau, is going to be cheaper, but I am not sure what the prices will be like in the USA. In France it is a QPR WINNER. Finally, the 2022 Chateau Rayne Vigneau Madame de Rayne, Sauternes, is lovely and a solid option for those that want quality Sauternes.
Overall, this tasting may have been Mercier’s best showing, that Avi and I have tasted, so far. Bravo!
Bokobsa Wines
I keep trying to get their wines to taste. So far, I have not been very successful. If you read my previous posts, you will see that they have good wines and great prices, especially in Paris. However, getting to taste them is proving very complicated.
We got three wines to taste, and the Cissac Lamothe is back! The 2022 vintage is solid. The 2022 Bokobsa Gigondas is solid, a bit too ripe for me, but many will love this. Finally, the 2023 Dominique Piron Chiroubles is a solid Gamay for a good price.
Shlomo Corcos (Guter Wein) Wines
I have had enough wine in my life to say that there are very few things that shock me anymore in wine. That may be a blessing and a curse, but that is fine. However, tasting the 2022 Chateau Grand Corbin, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe, shocked me. I have yet to taste a wine that shows that distinct a flavor of roasted lamb. I enjoyed this wine with a freshly baked milk pizza, and I felt dirty. That is a great wine. The other wine is the 2022 Chateau Cantemerle, Haut-Medoc. Both wines are lovely, show good pop, and are made well. I have no idea if/when these wines will be in the USA, so keep your eyes open and tell me if they land in some store in NYC/NJ!
Assorted Wines
The remaining wines came from Ari Cohen, a wine Avi brought, or from stuff I bought from MVC (MesVinsCacher.com). MVC is a great place to go and see the current releases and to buy some older releases. All the wines are held in good storage, and like all old wines, you may hit or you may miss.
Ari has started a business called Bakus Wine. He gave us a few wines to taste. First was the 2023 Hans Wirsching Iphofer Riesling, Iphofen. It is a solid Mevushal Riesling. It shows like a Riesling, and at least in Paris, the price is a WINNER. He also sells three Cascina Perrone wines. We have already posted the notes for the Barbera d’Asti and the Nebbiolo. The 2020 Cascina Perrone Barolo continues to show the fine makeup of this wine line and is a good WINNER, with a long life ahead of it.
Then, I bought one wine for the tasting from (winess.com). David Sabban is a great guy, and he either has the wines in his lovely store in Paris in the 17th Arrondissement or can get them from his warehouse. He helped us with a bottle of 2023 Le Nardian Grand Vin de Bordeaux, Lugaignac. This wine shocked me, as it came in at 15% ABV for a white Bordeaux. That is CRAZY! The 2021 and 2022 Le Nardian came in at 12.5%! So, yeah, while I have no interest in buying this wine again, it is a decent wine. I just cannot get behind a 15% ABV white wine.
Ben Sitruk, owner of WineSymphony.fr, hooked us up with a few wines. The first was the 2022 Chateau Vieux Taillefer, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. It seems that now the winery is making their wines kosher on their own or maybe through some other hands, I do not know. This is solid but lacks the pop I need and is ripe. Still, it is balanced and will appeal to many people. The next wine he helped us with is the 2022 Chateau Teyssier, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. It is a solid wine, but it is NOTHING like the 2019 or the 2020. Those two wines scream acidity and pop, while this one has the 2022 curse.
Finally, we bought some older wines from MVC, such as the 2017 and 2018 Dampt Freres Chablis, Premier Cru. The 2017 is a STUNNING wine and has evolved to even higher heights than I dreamed. But it is DRINK NOW! Pop them NOW! There is no tomorrow. Please take note of my DW (Drinking Windows) on those wines – right on point, thank you! LOL! Even a broken clock is correct two times a day!
Read the rest of this entry
IDS tasting of a few new wines in Paris – January 2025
As stated in my previous post Avi Davidowitz, from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog, and I went to Paris and had three organized tastings. This was the second organized tasting of the trip and it was with IDS. IDS is officially called Les Vins IDS and IDS stands for International Distribution Service. On a lovely Wednesday afternoon, Avi and I jumped in an Uber and went to see Ben Uzan at IDS’s offices.
Le Vin IDS Wines
These wines are newly released, and the tasting was enjoyable, as always. Ben was so kind to air out the office room before we came in, as the smell of tobacco ash is always insufferable. I understand France is one of the few advanced nations in the world where smoking is still a thing. I have never tolerated it; the smell makes me retch, so Ben is always so kind as to air out the room before we begin tasting his excellent wines.
The list of wines was short, but they were lovely. The most unique wines were the newly released mirror Jeeper Champagne, aka Luxe. These wines are not the same blend, and the notes made this clear. These wines are made for show but also deliver on the product. The mirror glaze on the glass is cool, and it shines nicely. They are produced in limited quantities and made for clubs and other low-light environments where the mirror glaze pops.
Whether these wines are available in the USA, the vast majority are indeed imported by M&M Importers and should be available in the NYC area. I am not sure about the Jeeper Luxe, time will tell.
Champagne
The two mirror Luxe Jeeper Champagne were quite nice. They are a more rich and more opulent wine in comparison to the baseline Jeeper wines that we had in May 2024. These two Luxe wines show quite nicely, and while I think the prices are a bit extended, the process and their exclusivity are how the prices come to be.
White, Rose, and Red Wines
The white and rose wines from Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Fantastique are always consistent in their quality and access.
The Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Fantastique’s Red wine is also quite nice. I liked the smokey notes and the good acidity.
The 2022 Chateau Trianon is a wine I have already spoken about, and I like it. It is a wine that checks all the boxes for me. Acidity, body, and focus. Trianon has had a good track record so far.
The 2021 Virginie is one of the better wines from this winery. While the other wines are normally too ripe for me, the 2021 is closer to what I like. The only thing I wanted was more acidity and pop.
My many thanks to Ben Uzan for setting up the meeting, sharing his wines with us, and taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with us.
My thanks to Avi for the pictures, I was too lazy, and he is far better anyway!! 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:
N.V. Maison Jeeper Luxe, Brut, Champagne – Score: 92+ (QPR: EVEN)
This Champagne has 8 grams per liter for the dosage, and all the grapes are sourced from a single plot versus the multi-plot for the baseline Jeeper Champagne.
The nose of this wine is pure yeast, with a lovely perfume of brioche, apple, pear, quince, and lovely minerality. Nice! The mouth of the medium-bodied wine is lovely, fresh and vibrant, elegant, and calmer than the main Champagne, showing bracing acidity, lovely small-mousse bubbles, creme Fraiche with dry grass, smoke, lovely apple, baked quince pie, and hints of lemon/lime/orange. The finish is long, bracing, and tart with great tension, smoke, creamy, and rich, with more salinity and citrus over the base Champagne. Lovely wine indeed! Drink now. (tasted January 2025) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12%)
N.V. Maison Jeeper, Luxe, Grand Rose, Brut, Champagne – Score: 92+ (QPR: EVEN)
The color is very sparkly and shiny as light is shone on it. The nose of this wine is ripe with raspberry, and there is little to no strawberry, unlike the base Champagne, creamy and slightly oxidative, with lovely brioche, yeasty and driven by minerality. It is fresh even with the slight oxidative notes, but it has the unique aspect of minerality, slate, and slight oxidation that lifts the wine and makes things lovely. The mouth of this medium-plus bodied wine is richer than the Brut Luxe, riper, and more layered, with ripe raspberry, highlighted by its peak note of quince and Asian Pear, and creme, the mousse bubbles are persistent, the acidity is intense, and the mouthfeel is plush and creamy with some orange peel, orange notes, and the orange blossom notes that interplay with the raspberry and small bubble mousse. Bravo! The finish is a beast, with rich minerality, intense acidity, and layers of attack that show the power and precision of this wine. Bravo! Drink until 2027. (tasted January 2025) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12%)
2023 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Fantastique Rose, Cru Classe, Cotes de Provence – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine’s color is Gris, less Rose-colored. It shows nicely with ripe strawberry, raspberry, peach, smoke, clean lines, bitter notes, and tangerine. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine shows nicely with good acidity, peach, strawberry, and nice minerality. The fruit works well to tamp down the bitter notes, the weight helps as well, showing an almost oily rounder approach, but the finish ends without the joy. The finish is a bit short, the acidity helps, but the fruit is missing at the end. Drink now. (tasted January 2025) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2023 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Fantastique Blanc, Cru Classe, Cotes de Provence – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is lovely, showing tart peach, apricot, rich minerality, slate, funk, smoke, rock, and flinty, very nice! The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice; it has enough acidity, with lovely minerality, rich peach, apricot, and sweet pear, with nice tannin and nice tension, along with an oily structure that comes from the sweet oak, and the acidity is slow to come out, but it does eventually. The finish is long, tart, and balanced, with excellent minerality, nice smoke, and slightly bitter, with slate and flint and the acidity and oak that lifts the wine. Very well done! Drink until 2026. (tasted January 2025) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)
2022 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Cuvee Fantastique Rouge, Cru Classe, Cotes de Provence, Cru Classe – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is stinky, earthy, dirty, smokey, and funky, with rich minerality, charcoal, flint, and wet loam. The fruit is blue and black, with rich black pepper and smoke, and a lovely perfume of fruit, smoke, and dirt—lovely! The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is lovely, bracing acidity, with lovely smoke, dirt, rich blackberry, plum, blueberry, lean but bracing. If asked blind, I would guess Rhone, but leaner, cleaner lines, really fun. The finish is enough for me, with bright fruit, dirt, minerality, and blue and black fruit, lovely! Drink by 2026. (tasted January 2025) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)
2022 Chateau Trianon, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is really lovely. It is the best 22 Bordeaux I have had so far, with cherry, plum, tar, minerality, green herbs, sweet spices, oak, and dark fruit. It is really nice. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, layered, and concentrated, showing milk chocolate, good acidity, rich minerality, nicely extracted, with dark plum, candied blackberry, cassis, and rich cherry, so lovely, bravo. The finish is long, ripe, and concentrated, with great acidity, lovely fruit focus, not tense but very professional, with more tar, minerality, graphite, rock, and sweet herbs. Drink from 2028 until 2036. (tasted January 2025) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)
2021 Virginie de Valendraud, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – Score: 91+ (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is the most controlled Virginie I have ever tasted. It is lovely, well-controlled, dirty, and smoky, with nice milk chocolate, showing nice pop, lovely minerality, smoke, and dense dirt.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is beautiful. Bravo! It shows that the 2021 vintage can be made into a great wine. The mouth is full-bodied and rich, with good acidity and lovely mouth-draping tannin. It shows great minerality and elegance with velvety tannins, blackberry, plum, raspberry, and dark cherry. The tannin and minerality are the focus.
The finish is long and tannic, balanced with good fruit, smoke, and graphite. I would have loved a bit more acidity and pop, but it’s still lovely. Drink from 2027 until 2032. (tasted January 2025) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)
Paris tasting of Royal Wine’s 2022 and 2023 Bordeaux and other French wines – January 2025
Let us start with some facts; Avi Davidowitz, from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog, and I were in Paris together this past week. We were there to taste as many Kosher Bordeaux wines from the 2022 and 2023 vintages as humanly possible. We arrived on a Monday and by Noon, we were knee-deep into a plethora of Bordeaux wines. As is typical, the trip started with a massive tasting of Royal Wine’s latest releases, followed by two more organized tastings, and many tastings we did in our hotel room, as usual.
The first wine tasting that Avi Davidowitz and I organized during our trip to Paris was with Menahem Israelievitch, the Managing director and Winemaker of Royal Wine Europe, in his lovely home.
The 2022 Vintage in Bordeaux
So, the 2022 vintage is one that I will openly say surprised me. Until this trip, I had found the 2022 Bordeaux to be a ripe mess. Yes, there were a few exceptions, but the majority of wines, until that week, were a mess. However, even after the week of wonderful wines, I finally realized my issue, there is a difference between a good wine and a wine I want to drink. In this post and the rest of the 2022 Bordeaux wine posts (with more yet still untasted), the theme will be ripeness. Now, ripeness can be managed with good acidity, but at 15.5% ABV or 15% ABV, you may say that the wine is too ripe. However, that is not true. There are examples on this blog of wines we have tasted at that ABV that are actually refreshing!
Some of the wine notes you read below will state those words, the magic refreshing word. The wines, without that word, are still wonderful, and wines I may buy, but there is a sense of weight to those wines that I wonder about. How will they manage themselves in 15 years?
Let us talk about the age-ability of these 2022 Bordeaux wines. They are 100% UNDRINKABLE at this time. PERIOD. Sure, for tasting sake, we can taste them, but they are either horribly closed, horribly fat (meaning showing absurd fruit), or just so large and clumsy that they are not enjoyable at this time. So, when you look at the drinking windows, do not be shocked to see 30-year windows. The Leoville Poyferre, Pontet Canet, and even the Moulin Riche are wines that will cost you dearly now and in the future. These are wines that you will need to put away for 20+ years. In my opinion, these are not wines that will get to their tertiary dream state before a long time. These are wines that will require a very long and patient approach before you will get that payoff. For many of us on this earth, I wonder if I want to buy a wine that will not meet that plateau before I am pretty old. Ignoring mortality or the desire to enjoy wines like that at an advanced age – it is also the knowledge that the space in your cellar is locked away for these wines, and you really are not going to touch them for an extended period.
With all that said, sorry for the tangent; these are very special wines that should deserve some thought on how/where you will age and preserve them, given the long drinking windows. Now, I hear all of you. What about 2015, 2016, and the like? Are they not also akin to this? The answer is NO! Those vintages were balanced and, as such, will come around soon enough. Still, it has been 10 years now, and they are not ready, and they will not be ready for some time. I guess I am just projecting my thoughts here regarding what I can buy, store, and dream about enjoying in 20+ years.
Finally, unlike the 2021 vintage, these wines are not green. Maybe they have roasted herbs, but that is more oak, and they rarely show vegetal notes.
How do I see the 2022 vintage in comparison to other recent vintages? I say the quality and personal interest I have in buying these wines are behind the 2019, 2016, and 2014 but ahead of the 2015, 2018, and so on.
Looking through this list of wine notes below for the 2022 vintage and the ones coming for the other wines we tasted from this vintage, you will see a pattern, good scores, and many QPR WINNERS. Mr. Israelievitch and the team did an excellent job with the 2022 vintage. As you will see soon, there are many wines here. This is an outlier vintage BOTH regarding the number of labels made by Royal and others and the ripeness of the wines. I am not sure, but this feels like the largest number of French labels made by Royal in a single year. That does not even include the dual label (Mevushal and non-Mevushal issue/situation). Even if you look at Bordeaux alone, it has to be the largest, in my opinion. So, when you compare this vintage’s number of QPR WINNER scores, it is unfair. A more interesting thing is to look at the percentage of QPR WINNER to wines. Something I hope to explore.
The truly great vintage, for me, was the 2019 vintage, as I stated many times already, but even there, the 2019 vintage only had 13 QPR WINNER. It was the most balanced vintage so far, outside of 2014 and some of 2015. Of course, PLEASE be clear, I speak of kosher wines. I am sure many think 2020 was the perfect vintage in Bordeaux. However, IMHO, and I think I have tasted every kosher wine made from Bordeaux over the past 8 years; 2019, 2014, and some of 2015 were the winners. Still, the 2022 vintage takes the award for the most QPR WINNER wines produced by Royal Wines, 28! That is an incredible number! I state again that the 2022 vintage is incredible; it shocked me, and the ripeness is my issue. I crave balance, both in my life and in the and in the wines I drink. I think that most will find these wines enjoyable, and they will fly off the shelves, even given the more significant number of wines made.
To me, the 2014 vintage was crazy fun because it is less ripe than the 2015 or 2016 vintage. They were also FAR cheaper. Then you had the 2015 wines, which were more expensive and far riper than the 2014 vintage. This 2016 vintage is the best of both worlds but comes at a crazy high price. During the epic post of my visit to Bordeaux with Mr. Israelievitch, I warned you at that time that you better start saving your money; sadly, nothing has changed about that. The REAL shocker price-wise of the 2016 vintage was Chateau Malartic, which rose to almost 150 or more a bottle! That was close to double the 2014 vintage.
The 2022 vintage is more expensive than the 2021 vintage, which was more expensive than the 2020 vintage. The “deals” were from the 2019 vintage and the upcoming 2023 vintage. In between, the prices went up and up and up! The real Chutzpah was 2021. It was not a good vintage and yet Bordeaux raised their prices! The 2022 vintage is just one of those generational vintages, to those that crave massive fruit, and as such, garnered so many high scores during “En Primeur week” that they had to raise prices, yet again.
In a previous post about the most recent French wines (at that time in 2017) that were arriving on the market, I already discussed pricing and supply, so there is no need to discuss that again in this post.
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A quick post of four new Covenant Wines releases – January 2025
I just published a different post and wanted to catch up on the rest of my California wine notes with this post. Covenant Wines continues to excel year after year with wines that show what California has to offer. They have been slowly expanding their portfolio with two new Mevushal wines, the Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon (that started in 2021) and the Black Label Pinot Noir, which they just released in 2023. Since the start, Covenant Wines, led by Jeff Morgan, Jonathan Hajdu, Jodie Morgan, and the rest of the awesome Morgan family, have been making wines since their inaugural 2003 release. Not all the family was working on this effort, from the start, but they all joined slowly. Now, this is a family-run operation that continues to push on what I would call QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) WINNERs. They continue to prove that California does not need to be expensive, and they continue to prove that California can excel at making balanced and refreshing wines. Those two statements – quality wines and wines sold at reasonable prices (compared to their peers) is the VERY DEFINITION of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) winemaking.
The good news continues with their newly released 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon, Black Label. So far, and I am already late closing my blog year, this is the Mevushal wine of the year. It is a wine that pops, shows no boil/cooked notes, and is clean, alive, fresh, and exciting. The same can be said for the 2024 Sauvignon Blanc, Red C, and the 2024 Viognier, Red C. Both wines are varietally authentic, showing great pop, acidity, and balance for California wine.
Finally, the newly released 2022 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Solomon, Lot 70. It is a ripe wine, but give it time. The wine finds its place and is quite lovely!
I know this is a rushed piece, but I wanted to get it out there and move on to some very large-format posts—hint, hint. Best wishes to all, and prayers for the Hostages and for those suffering down south in SoCal. Prayers go out to all!
My many thanks to Jeff, Zoe, and the rest of the clan for sharing these wines with me. They are listed in the order I tasted them. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here, and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2024 Covenant Viognier, Red C, Lodi, CA – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is varietally true, with fresh and clean aromas of ripe and juicy yellow peach, lychee, grapefruit, and flint. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, with almost no bitterness at all, refreshing and ripe at the same time, not too fussy, with great acidity, creamy with juicy peach, apricot, lychee, grapefruit, and slight tension. The finish is long, tart, ripe, and refreshing, with good ripe fruit and fruit-focused. Nice!. Drink now! (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.8%)
2024 Covenant Sauvignon Blanc, Red C, Lake County, CA – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is nice, showing notes of creamy lychee, grapefruit, gooseberry, passion fruit, and nice smoke.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, but right out of the bottle, it has a bit of issues. Give this wine a few minutes, or it may be the bottle shock; either way, give this lovely wine a bit of time to breathe.
After 30 minutes, the wine has great acidity and a nice fruit focus; it has a creamier/fatter mouth than last year, with lemon/lime notes, nice gooseberry, loads of great flint, nice passion fruit, and lovely minerality, nice!
The finish is long, tart, and creamy, with lemongrass, flint, and lovely lemon/Lychee/flint notes lingering long. Nice! Drink now. (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)
2023 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Black Label, Sonoma County, CA (M) – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
WOW! This is the third Mevushal (Black Label) Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, and it is lovely! I am also getting used to the amalgamated corks, and I am happy.
The nose of this wine is lovely, controlled, ripe, California, creamy, and rich. It shows iron shaving, minerality, rich smoke, tar, anise, black pepper, ripe black and red fruit, lovely pop, and dirt. Bravo. This is the best Mevushal one so far.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is lovely, showing great acidity, nice mouthfeel, creamy and rich, but with good pop, blackberry, plum, cassis, beautiful minerality, graphite, nice smoke, mouth-draping tannin, rich and layered. This is an impressive showing for a Mevushal wine, showing power, plush mouthfeel, finesse, almost elegant (though with all this power it is tough), some sweet oak, but it is not in your face, and nice dirt. Bravo!
The finish is long, dirty, ripe, balanced, with sweet tobacco, milk chocolate, graphite, and lovely tannin/acidity. Bravo!!! Drink until 2034. (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.8%)
2022 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Solomon, Lot 70, Napa Valley, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is ripe, a bit more than I had hoped, but let’s watch this wine evolve over the next day or so.
The nose shows ripe notes of candied fruit, almost dried black fruit, with tar, anise, nice minerality, smoke, sweet oak, and dirt. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe but not as candied as the nose. It has impeccable acidity, good pop, mouth-watering blackberry, cassis, and raspberry flavors, great salinity, minerality, rock, and graphite. The wine is mouth-draping, almost elegant, with nice black and red fruit and hints of green notes, while the heat/candied notes lurk.
Thankfully, with time, the fruit and heat calm, and the elegance comes out fully. The mouth is layered, rich, controlled, and elegant with mouth-draping tannin, good fruit, great focus, and refreshing, with more blackberry, cassis, and blackcurrant, all wrapped in sweet oak and lovely dirt. Bravo!
The finish is long, dark, brooding, smoky, and toasty, with dark chocolate, leather, smoke, and tobacco. Drink from 2028 until 2035. (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.8%)
Four Gates Winery’s January 2025 new releases
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 latest wines.
I have often written 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 genuinely describes the lore of Four Gates Winery.
Other than maybe Yarden and Yatir (which are off my buying lists – other than SOME of their 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 because of his care and control of his vineyard. 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 recently tasted the 2014 Cabernet, and it is lovely while also being ripe, but the acidity there helps.
I have immense faith in Benyo’s wines, sourced from his and the Monte Bello Ridge vineyards. The other wines he creates from different sources are sometimes excellent, like the 2010 Four Gates Syrah I tasted recently. I would have sworn it was a Rhone wine, with crazy minerality, acid, and backbone, with fruit NOT taking center stage, though ever so evident, the way it is meant to be! While lovely on release, others may well not be the everlasting kind of Four Gates wines.
The wines in this release
This year, wines were missing, and you can blame the 2020 fires for that. Believe it or not, the 2020 fires affected Santa Cruz mountains as much as they did Napa Valley. In some ways, it was worse because the fires started earlier than in Napa.
This year, we have three Chardonnays, the PV, Malbec, and Pinot Noir, a Claret, and two Merlots. The Chardonnays are all very nice, some better than others, but I bought them all because I like aged Chardonnay with the kind of acidity that Four Gates has. As always, give these wines their time and due, and they will reward you for your patience.
The 2021 Petit Verdot and the Malbec are both from the Santa Cruz mountains but NOT from Benyo’s vineyards. These year’s wines almost tempted me to buy them, but I have too much wine and insufficient space. They are a step up from previous vintages, and most who buy them will appreciate them.
We have another vintage of the classic Four Gates fruit. The Chardonnays are from 2023. The Pinot Noir is from 2022. The Claret is from 2022, and it is okay, but give it some time to work itself out. The Pinot Noir is such a baby – good lord, give this time. The Merlot (the 2019 and 2021) are lovely wines, babies; leave them alone for a long time. The theme for Benyo wines made from his grapes (or the Cab, which is not for sale this year) is to leave them ALONE!
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 yearly. Sure, there have been crazy cult wines, like the 2005 and 2006 DRC wines or some other 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, you can add more California wines like Tench, Addax, Yesod, and many others to the growing list of expensive California wines.
This year, the prices reached their highest Zenith again, and most of the wines sold out within minutes, with the highest-priced wines lasting a bit longer. Good wine has been working for Benyo in small quantities so far. No one knows how much longer this will go on. Until there is a clear successor, every year may well be the last one harvested. I am not trying to sound grim or load up on FOMO; this is just the apparent reality that all of us humans face throughout our lives.
The notes speak for themselves. Again, I did not buy the Malbec or Petit Verdot this year. 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:
2023 Four Gates Chardonnay, Ayala, Santa Cruz – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
Ignoring labels, let’s talk wine! The nose of this wine is lovely, showing sweet pear, melon, sweet green apple, oak, lemongrass, and sweet garrigue. Lovely! The mouth of this plush, full-bodied wine is lovely, ripe, not candied, balanced with great acidity, sweet pear, melon, smoke, tart-ripe apple, lovely fruit attack with fruit focus, and so refreshing. With time, this will improve even more. The finish is long, ripe, and lovely, with sweet vanilla, sweet oak, and butterscotch on the long finish. It’s not an overly oaky wine at all; the acidity and balance are lovely! Drink from 2032 until 2036. (tasted November 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.3%)
Incredible & Fresh new wines from Elvi Wines & Clos Mesorah in Montsant & Priorat – Dec 2024
In late November 2021, I flew to Barcelona to see Moises & Anne Cohen, and we tasted through almost every wine that they produced, minus a few. Well, fast forward to December 2024, and this time, Avi Davidowitz of Kosher Wine Unfiltered came with me! This trip was meant to be more about where the winery has come over the past 20 years than another full-tasting, though we did lots of tasting!
I have written many times about Elvi Wines, the first post I wrote about Moises and ElviWines can be found here. Truthfully, nothing has changed about that post in regards to Elvi Wines other than the labels and a few wines being dropped to streamline the marketing of the wines. My next main post on Elvi Wines was when I visited the winery with my wife. Before, in between, and after, I have consistently posted their wines in my QPR posts, wines of the year, and so on. Why? Because they make exceptional wines at reasonable prices and have a great selection of varietals under many labels. The labels have evolved, and some wines have been dropped, but overall, since I met Moises one day in San Francisco, tasting through the wines and listening to the story, the dream, nothing much has changed. Throughout it all, we have been blessed to watch the trajectory of the winery. It continues evolving, creating wonderful wines for a reasonable price while proving that Cabernet Sauvignon is not the only red wine that you can sell to the kosher wine buyer.
It is still more challenging to sell wines as diverse and different as Elvi does. There is no Cabernet, and there is no Merlot at Elvi (outside of the La Mancha wines). Sure they used to find their way into the EL26 blend (but that ended in 2017), but overall, Elvi is an expression of Spain – not an expression of the kosher wine palate. Elvi typifies Spain to the kosher buyer more than any other option and it has continued to excel in doing it. Sadly, we have seen Capcanes, which is a 5-minute drive from Clos Mesorah, take a significant step backward. They also showed Spain’s potential as a new-world wine in old-world clothing. Sadly, they have drunk from the same fountain of fruit that so many Israeli wineries have, and they have lost their way. Thankfully, Elvi Wines, Clos Mesorah, Herenza, and Vina Encina continue to execute great wines and improve and grow with new vineyards and winery plans.
Talking about new vineyards and expansion – that is what brought us to Priorat on a beautiful day in December 2024. Avi’s plane landed two hours after mine, but eventually, we found a way to meet up and then made our way to the Hertz rental desk, and off we went. Renting a car was so much better than taking the train or Uber, and it is the only way I will do it in the future. Getting OUT of the rental parking lot/area was insane, but things were fine after we were on the road. By now, Avi has already posted his take on this trip on his blog – Kosher Wine Unfiltered, but I have no desire to read that until AFTER I post this. So, if there are contradicting stories or statements, just know that mine are the truth!
Elvi Wines and Priorat
I think that people continue to see Clos Mesorah as the be-all wine for Elvi Wines, and while that may be true – on the outside – what they are missing is that Montsant essentially contains Priorat. In other words, Clos Mesorah (a winery and vineyard within Montsant) and EL26 (wine from Priorat vineyards) are twins. When the non-kosher world looks at Spain, the first region they talk about is Priorat, before they speak about Montsant, Cava, and others. Why? Because, not long ago, Priorat was almost dead. The entire story can be read on Wikipedia, and a shortened version can be read here on Jason Wilson’s recent post about Priorat wines. The takeaway is that while the region was almost dead in the late 1970s, it came storming back in the 1980s and became the darling of Spain in the 1990s. Of course, once again, Robert Parker was the person who “found” Priorat and the 100-point scores went to the most bombastic of wines.
At this point, one cannot talk about Priorat without talking about how it feels like Burgundy. Of course, not in regards to the grapes or even the wine styles, though many MWs have been tricked into thinking Grenache was a Pinot Noir. They share many characteristics, like their thin skins and light color. However, what is very interesting about Priorat is the incredible terroir, the magical steep slopes of mysterious Llicorella soil—reddish and black slate with quartz and mica particles that reflect and conserve the heat, along with clay, which holds water during the hot, dry summers. Here, Garnacha and Carignan thrive (again, Jason’s words). However, what is happening now in Priorat is that massive conglomerates are thrashing all over themselves to get a foothold into Priorat. The issue is there is just not much land out there. Priorat does not define itself by hectares or acres; it defines itself by vines. Each parcel is tiny, and they are owned by families dating far back in time. The more you read and study about the beauty and history of Priorat, the more you need to see it!
This and many other reasons brought Avi and I to Spain. I was lucky to drive up into the hills of the original Priorat vineyard, used to make EL26, with my wife in 2015, almost 10 years before this latest visit. I remember the drive up that mountain and trying to walk on it. It felt like the first time I tried walking around on a small boat in choppy waters. The experience is one you will not soon forget. The vines growing in, through, and around the magical Llicorella is just a sight to behold. The vines are literally crawling through rock, searching desperately for water. Once you taste your first EL26, you have some thoughts. Depending on the vintage, it is ordinarily HOT, ripe, almost candied; the heat of Spain is driven deep into the soul of that wine. However, given time, the heat and ripeness do calm, and the wine comes into its own. Still, this is not a wine that comes in below 14.5% ABV. Sometimes, this wine can hit 15.5% ABV. It is the nature of the beast and it is the nature of Priorat. It is this intense fruit, heat, and aging potential that captured the imagination of Robert Parker back in the early 1990s. You can get wines like the 2018 EL26, which may have been the best vintage until recently, and then you can get wines like what I had during this trip, and you start to think that there is something here, notwithstanding the incredible heat and elevated ABV.
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California Dreaming about the 2020, 2021, 2022, and early-2023 vintages – a retrospective
In May 2024, WOW, I have to get used to the new 2025 thing; I wrote a post about wines I had tasted in the past month or two. However, after tasting through so many excellent California wines from 2021, I decided it required a retrospective.
Some of these wines will be new to the blog, some will be reposts, and some will be reposts with a change in the scoring (I will denote those clearly).
The 2020 vintage was blighted by many fires, smoke taint, and a poor overall showing. The 2021 vintage was far more controlled, with almost no heat spikes. Though there was little rain before it, the vintage came out smelling like a rose. In the 2022 vintage, we saw far too many heat spikes. Add in many days of over 100-degree weather, and it is shocking that anything good came out. Still, I found some winners. The 2023 vintage is looking like the best of BOTH worlds: rich, layered, with incredible balance. The California whites from 2023 outshined all of Europe and Israel, and we wait now for the release of the higher-end red wines to make a conclusive decision.
As you read through this post about the Kosher wineries that reside in California, understand that California is not Napa Valley. It is a vast state with many wine regions. California is massive. It has four main wine-growing regions and 147 viticultural areas (AVA). If California were a country, it would be the fourth largest in regard to wine production.
At the start, in 1985, when Robert Parker and Michel Rolland took over the world and drove wine production toward a more fruit-driven approach, Napa Valley was the poster child for what a “proper” wine should be. The fruit was very prominent, the tannins were round, not astringent, and the alcohol levels were high. If you watch and listen closely to the videos of Peter Koff, MW, and Dr. Pat Farrell, MW, you will learn so much! Listening to them, they describe the wine critics at the tasting/judgment of Paris who were looking for the ripest fruit.
Looking at current wines, I feel such a tasting would have very different outcomes. First of all, Bordeaux’s ABV is climbing, and there is no end in sight. This is not a choice by the wineries; instead, it is a choice of nature. Secondly, Napa Valley, which was the California area of choice, is even riper than in those days, and I think they would stick out badly. Many Napa Valley wineries are trying to bring their approach back to the middle, but they run up against the same issues Bordeaux is facing, and really the entire world.
When you look at the notes below, you will find three camps. One is the tried-and-true camp of Alexander Valley, AKA Sonoma. It has continuously shown control and power, though at times lacking acidity and finesse.
Next, you will find Napa Valley split between two camps: the bid, bold, in-your-face Robert Parker dream, fruit-forward, powerful, fleshy, and alcoholic to the max. The other side of this camp is the more controlled, sinewy, and acidic, though showing Napa’s power, with a steady hand and clear horizon towards Old-world style wines.
Finally, you find the wild-wild-west at its greatest in areas like Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, and the other regions to the south. Here is where folks like Shirah Wines live. Wines that are more Rhone-style, off-the-beaten-path varietals, exciting, and not yet fully commercialized ideas that bring a smile to most who try them.
As you read through the notes, you will find that I look for balance. I like power; I do not crave it. I desire a wine with rich acidity, balance, clean lines, power or not, but a wine that makes you want to take another sip, because it is refreshing. Balance is the definition of a glass of wine that clears your palate not by giving you a headache but rather by having acidity and pop that can have power but more assuredly has an acidity that works in conjunction with the fruit.
To that point, you will find wines below that get high scores because they are balanced. Examples of wines I bought, which is the highest proof of a wine I like, are the 2021 and 2022 Marciano Estate, 2021 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, 2021 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Lot 70, 2022 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2021 Herzog Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2021 Napa Valley Cabernet, Reserve is a clear WINNER and one you should all seek out.
The 2023 Pinot Noirs from Herzog and Covenant prove that this vintage has potential, but again, we will not know where it lines up until after the full lineup of red wines is released across California.
Finally, the higher-end white Sauvignon Blanc wines from Marciano, Covenant, and Hagafen are worth finding – they are lovely! I wrote a separate post, mid-2024, about the top white wines from 2021 through 2023, which are well worth buying!
Pricing
I am fine with writing about kosher wines, but we cannot talk about Kosher Napa Wines without addressing the large elephant in the room, which is the elevated prices. I stress Napa Valley because there are no Kosher California Wines above 130 dollars outside of the Herzog Sonoma Clone Six and the new Herzog Double Creek. Please do not talk to me about Four Gates Wine. Respectfully, it is a drop in the bucket and does not move any needles, industry-wise, other than for its quality.
The number of bottles produced at the price range that raises eyebrows is starting to make people like me wonder. How many people are buying wines priced at 200 or more dollars? Many of the wines listed below are 300 or more dollars. How do you build a brand and a list of people for wines at that price?
Yes, there are more expensive wines out there, but that is one or two, and they are from storied old-world marks and vineyards, meaning they have a track record. Of course, runs at cult-like Napa Wineries have been going on underground for a very long time. Now, we are seeing Kosher Napa Wines selling in the 200-plus to 360-dollar range on store shelves, and it is all new for the kosher-wine-buying public.
There is a clear cost to everything that happens in making a wine kosher, and those people deserve to be paid. A few hands in there also need to be paid for fronting the money, marketing, and so on. However, the per-bottle “kosher tax” does not need to be commensurate with the cost of the non-kosher base price. Again, there is a cost for working in Napa and making Kosher wine there, but as proven by Hagafen and Herzog, wine can be produced without those high Kosher wine taxes.
Ultimately, I am at the mercy of those who feed me. As always, I openly state that I go and taste wines; when I do, I do not pay to taste those wines. At the same time, I post what I taste and never change a score because of the situation in which I may be placed. There is a clear reason for why I have stopped going to specific wineries and regions to taste – because the outcome was getting too awkward, and the posts were becoming a chore. I am always very thankful for the chance to taste wine, and I am always honest about what I taste, and for the most part, I stay out of wine business commentary. However, when everyone asks me the same question, I suppose I cannot just ignore the elephant.
Criteria and Process for this post
I thought long and hard about how I would manage this post. At first, I thought I would do a total dump of all the wines across wineries from both the 2021 and 2022 vintages. However, that would end up as a massive mess; there are far too many wines. So, I decided to list all the wines from all the California wineries I tasted, scoring a 91 or higher from the 2021 and 2022 vintages. There are still a lot of wines, but that is the only way to get a list in one post, and that is not insane.
I will leave the red wines from the 2023 vintage alone for now. There are too few wines from that vintage at this time. Still, I will post some 2023 white wines as they are showing well, and they were tasted at the same time! Also, Four Gates has yet to release their top 2021 or 2022 wines, so we may need yet another retrospective after that. LOL, I think not. There is one exception, Kasher Wines, which I first tasted in November, has a 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon.
You will not find Four Gates Winery here because they have yet to release the 2021 vintages, and they are so small that it is impossible to really compare them with these other players. You can look here if you want to find my posts on Four Gates Winery. Other wineries make Kosher Wines in California but I did not find their 2021 vintages that interesting to me to make it into this post.
Closing Thoughts
This post is massive and took a crazy amount of time, thought, effort, and tasting! People ask me about wines and respectfully never really think about the amount of effort it takes to put it down on paper. Of course, none of this could have happened without the kindness and generosity of the wineries in sharing their time and wines, which took them far more effort to make. Many thanks to Elk (Elchonon Hellinger from Elkwine) for helping set up a lot of this. David Edelman for sharing his time and wines as well. Many thanks to all the wineries, Marciano Estates, Ka.sher Winery, Hajdu Wines, Shirah Wines, Herzog Wine Cellars, Covenant Wines, Hagafen Cellars, Tench Vineyards, and Addax Wines.
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Another round of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Hits and Misses, 17 QPR WINNERS – Dec 2024
I have been behind on this post. After I do this post, I owe three more: a retrospective on the Kosher California Wine Scene for 2021 and 2022, a write-up on my visit with Avi Davidowitz to the newly built Elvi Wines winery in Priorat, and finally, my yearly Four Gates Wine post.
This post may be one of the largest overall QPR roundups I have done, wine-wise, weighing in at 90 wines. The last one I did was in August 2024. That one had 26 or so wines, and 7 of them garnered a QPR WINNER score. The latest post with the largest number of wines winning a QPR Score of WINNER was the May 2023 post, with 19 wines garnering a QPR score of WINNER.
QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wines
It has been four or so months since my last QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) post, and many people have been emailing me about unique wines I have tasted and lovely wines that are worth writing about.
Thankfully, no matter how much garbage and pain I subject myself to, we are still blessed with several wonderful QPR wines.
Throughout the year, I post 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 QPR WINNERS wines. People are still asking me what a QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wine is and what the score of WINNER denotes. Once again, those are explained here in this post.
Some things that made me stand up and take notice (AKA QPR WINNERS):
There are 17 wines that won the coveted QPR score of WINNER this round, and they are all worth your attention.
The Chateau Fayat got a MONSTER quality score, and given its cost, it squeaks into the QPR WINNER score by a hair.
The same can be said for Chateau Trianon. It, too, garnered a massive score, and the price barely got it in under the wire.
The 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Aloxe Corton, Aloxe Corton, Burgundy, is a lovely wine for a challenging vintage. The Clos Vougeot may get a better score but at 5 times the price, it does not equate to a desirable QPR score.
The 2022 Eola Hills Wine Cellars Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, proves that we can get QUALITY Pinot Noir that is drinkable now at a QPR WINNER price. That deserves a shoutout!!
We have a SOLID list of QPR WINNERS:
- 2022 Chateau Fayat, Pomerol – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Chateau Trianon, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Chateau Montviel, Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Aloxe Corton, Aloxe Corton, Burgundy – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol (M) – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2023 ESSA Altira, Cape South Coast – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils Chateauneuf du Pape, Vielles Vignes, Chateauneuf du Pape, Vielles Vignes – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Chateau Larcis Jaumat, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2023 Cave De Tain Crozes Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Chateau La Fleur, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Mercurey 1er Cru, Mercurey, Burgundy – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2018 Dalton Semillon, Tic Toc, Galilee – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Chateau Piada, Sauternes – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Chateau la Clare, Medoc (M) – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2022 Eola Hills Wine Cellars Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2023 Baron Rothschild Flechas De Los Andes Gran Malbec, Mendoza – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
- 2021 Dalton Chenin Blanc, Wild One, Galilee – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
Other wines worth noting (For good reasons!):
- The 2022 Chateau Leoville Poyferre, Saint-Julien, may not be priced to fit into the QPR WINNER circle, but it is another EPIC showing for this winery. Well worth finding this wine!!
- The 2022 Chateau le Gay, Pomerol – is an excellent wine, but it is a tad too ripe for me. Still, this is the first time it has been made kosher! Bravo!
- The 2022 Philippe Le Hardi Clos De Vougeot, Grand Cru is the first Clos Vougeot made kosher in some 18+ years. So, while the price is steep, the quality is there.
Four solid QPR WINNER from Portugal – imported by Allied Importers
Recently, I saw posts from Allied Wine Importers about Portuguese wines they were importing. I had tasted the 2022 Solar das Boucas Loureiro in Israel and posted it. I thought that would be the end of it and then I saw these posts from Allied and I had to try them. I emailed Shai Ghermezian and he was very kind to send me the wines. As always, I stated, in the email, I would post what I taste, but I already knew one of them was a WINNER.
I received the wines and let them sit for almost two weeks and then I opened them this past Shabbat. The last time I had a tasting where every wine won the QPR WINNER score, was Covenant. In the end, this is impressive and great work by Allied to get these wines here and price them well.
All four of these wines were great from opening until finishing and that is proof of a good wine. Further, these wines are not for keeping. The Alvarinho may evolve a bit more, but even if you leave it open for a few hours you will get much of what may or may not appear in a year. Buy these wines and enjoy them, leave other wines for the cellar.
My thanks to Shai Ghermezian for sending me the wines and letting me taste them. 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:
2022 Godin Vihno Tinto, Red, Douro – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine would be impossible in a blind tasting, buy it and test your friends, good luck! The nose of this wine wants to take you to Israel, no it is not date juice, at all, but is it ripe, yes! Still, the acidity, the minerality, the tart, the refreshment of it, it is just an obvious old-world wine, but go ahead and guess it! With floral notes, blue and red fruit, smoke, flint, graphite, rock, loam, and root beer, good lord!
The mouth of this full-bodied wine takes you to Israel, but then you run away, once the acidity and minerality slam you in the face, followed by rich boysenberry, plum, dark raspberry, hints of the dreaded blackcurrant, with rich tannin, acidity, and mouthfeel. The minerality is what saves this wine, along with the acidity, and red fruit. With time the tannin and acidity shine, the fruit is in balance, and then mango and red fruit pull you in, a really unique wine!
The finish is long, tart, mineral-driven, and refreshing, this is a wine that pulls you in and never lets go! Nice! Drink by 2026. (tasted September 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)
2023 Godin Branco, White, Douro – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 25% Malvasia Fina, 25% Viosinho, 25% Rabigato, & 25% Fernao Pires. The nose of this wine is unique showing lemon, lime, intense minerality, orange blossom, classic beeswax, honeyed melon, orange peel, smoke, and flint. The mouth opens a bit slowly, but it shows a nice plush mouthfeel, with good acidity, and nice focus, very refreshing, and lacks complexity, but it makes up for that with the saline, minerality, lemon, lime, honeydew, beeswax, and rich saline. The finish is long, the fruit is balanced, and the minerality and salinity are really good. Drink now. (tasted September 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)
2022 Solar das Boucas Loureiro, Vinho Regional Minho – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine tastes just like what I had in January in Jerusalem, Israel, a very nice to enjoy! The nose of this wine is nice, showing good minerality, nice stone fruit, yellow plum, lemon blossom, and sweet tea. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, showing great acidity, nice tension, and good fruit focus of peach, apricot, yellow plum, lemon/lime/grapefruit, minerality, slate, flint, and good precision. The finish is long, tart, and refreshing, with nice fruit, acidity, slate, flint, and orange fruit lingering long. (tasted September 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11.5%)
2022 Solar das Boucas Alvarinho Old Vines White, Vinho Regional Minho – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The wine has some slight effervescence and that blows off with time. The nose of this wine is very unique, the last Albarino wine we had was very different from this one, showing notes of petroleum, melon, sweet pear, almost tropical with pineapple, dried guava, dried stone fruit, and nutty oxidation. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is balanced with great acidity, weighty, and almost plush, with more citrus, lemon, lime, petroleum, dried apricot, rich salinity, minerality, and more notes of nutty oxidation. The finish is long, and tart, with great minerality, saline, sea salt, sea spray, rock, and more roasted walnuts, very unique wine, and one I think can age and evolve a bit more. Drink until 2026. (tasted September 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)
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