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Paris tasting of Royal Wine’s 2023 Roses and Whites – Late May 2024
Unlike previous May trips, Avi Davidowitz, from Kosher Wine Unfiltered finally made one! This was the first May trip he made with me. This trip changed no fewer than three times with such a late Passover and then Avi had timing issues, so the trip was pushed out to late May. Thankfully, the trip was successful, we got there and came home, so I call that a success.
We did little to no wine searching, other than one store, and the theme is exactly as stated in my Rose post, there are very few new 2023 Whites or Rose wines in Paris, anywhere! All the stores are still selling the 2022 white and roses.
Also, I continue to be shocked by how little French people drink wine. It is a declining Kosher wine demographic for sure! Israel is drinking more kosher wine as is the USA, but Europe, as a whole, is drinking less kosher wine. The UK is a demographic that seems to be holding its own, but that is mostly among the wine geeks. Go to a store in London and the kosher wines are behind by a year or more.
As in past trips, the hotel knows me by now, they are very gracious and put up with all the wine deliveries and always make sure to handle them with care. Kudos to the team!
Avi and I met at the airport, we landed at the same time, give or take 40 minutes. It would have been exactly the same time, but SFO is doing construction on its runway, yet again! So we sat on the tarmac waiting to take off for an hour, joy! Thankfully, Avi met me at the terminal I landed in and we found our way to the hotel together, checked in, and then started in on some of the wines that had already been delivered. That post will be the last, as always, aka the hotel wine post.
The next morning, we made our way to the lovely home of Menahem Israelievitch, Managing Director and Winemaker at Royal Wine Europe. At the tasting, we enjoyed many lovely wines, and you can read the notes below, I want to point out a few thoughts on them.
- My overall feeling about 2023 whites and roses from Europe, as a whole, is that they are lacking in either verve, acidity, or finish. I have no idea why but this is a strong theme I have seen throughout the tastings I have made.
- Overall, I think Rose production is slowing down and stores I visited in NYC and NJ said they are being very diligent in which/what Roses they bring in.
- We had Six WINNER wines with one Rose and five White wines. Two of those wines will not be here as we only get the Mevushal versions here in the USA. The 2023 Chateau Roubine Rose, Premium, Cru Classe and the 2021 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt Grand Vin, Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux.
The tasting was great as always. We tasted about 27 wines, three of them were red. It is the first time, that I can remember, where I had not tasted any of these wines in advance. For a multitude of reasons I just was not able to get my hands on any of these wines before I got to Paris, which is 100% fine. Also, the 27 wines were mostly the same as in previous vintages, except for a new white Chateauneuf du Pape, Blanc, and two new Vouvray wines.
Avi took all the pictures so if you have any issues blame him! Thanks, buddy!
Finally, I tasted the Mevushal versions of a few of these wines, here in the USA, so I am adding them in as well. I also retasted a few of the wines here and they showed differently. I will be posting those notes as well. Along with some other Royal wines I tasted in NJ.
My thanks to Menahem Israelievitch and Royal Wines for hosting us and letting us taste the wonderful wines. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here. The wine notes are in the order the wines were tasted:
2023 La Maison Bleue Merlot, Vin de France (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is good for such a simple wine, showing good fruit of plum, and cherry, along with spice, green notes, roasted herb, loam, floral notes, and Violet. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is a bit too fruity and off for me, still, it is a clean wine, with good fruit, nice tannin, plum, cherry, and some smoke. The finish is long, herbal, smoky, dirty, classic Merlot, I wish it had more acidity, but people will like this simple wine. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2023 La Maison Bleue Cabernet Sauvignon, Vin de France (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is nice with waxy notes, ripe fruit, smoke, blackberry, cassis, blueberry, green notes, and nice dirt. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, but the acidity is lacking for me, with nice fruit, sweet herbs, nice tannin, blackberry, plum, sweet loam, herbs, and some nice fruit profile. The finish is long, smoky, and fruity. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2023 La Maison Bleue Chardonnay, Vin de France (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is nice, it has notes of apple, pear, orange blossom, and a bit of smoke and spice. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, with good enough acidity, but still a nice wine with good apple, pear, smoke, spices, and yellow blossom. The finish is long, ripe, round, and ready to go. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)
2023 La Maison Bleue Sauvignon Blanc, Vin de France (M) – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is classic with gooseberry, passion fruit, honeysuckle, citrus, and flint. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine shows good enough acidity, nice fruit focus, good gooseberry, grapefruit, lingering flint and mineral, hints of saline, and nice honeysuckle. The finish is long, smoky, and fruity, with minerality lingering. Drink now. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
Paris tasting of Royal Wines 2022 Roses and whites with some very special 2021 Reds as well – May 2023
Well, this is getting up later than I wished, but that is life (earlier than last year, but only by a few days, I sense a theme here). Life, lots of hiking, 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, here is the story, I landed in Paris, went to the hotel, and got some much-needed sleep. I was hoping to hang with the gang in Paris, but it was Lag Ba’Omer, and well, all the folks with families were unavailable as such, it was a quick burger and some sleep!
On this trip, I did not go hunting for loads of roses and whites and most of them were sent to my hotel or Ari Cohen in advance. At this point, the hotel knows me as the wine writer, I arrive, they give me my wines without even asking, it is a well-oiled machine at this point!
The next morning, I made my way to the lovely home of Menahem Israelievitch, Managing Director and Winemaker at Royal Wine Europe. At the tasting, we enjoyed many lovely wines, and you can read the notes below, I want to point out a few thoughts on them.
- The non-Mevushal versions of the roses I have had so far from Royal are much better. Mevushal does not work well for roses, at least from how Royal Europe is doing it.
- Many of the roses I have listed below were the non-Mevushal versions that sell in Europe. The ones here in the USA are mostly Mevushal and I did NOT taste those, except for ONE. You will see below the notes for wines I tasted side-by-side, Mevushal and non-Mevushal, the Sainte B Rose, and read the notes.
- The 2022 vintage for non-mevushal white and rose returns them close to the good old days!
- There are no 2021 red Burgundy wines – but there is new stuff coming in 2022.
- I came too early to taste the oak-influenced, higher-end Chateau Roubine Inspire and Lion & Dragon wines. Otherwise, I believe I was able to taste everything this time around – my sincere thanks to Mr. Israelievitch for his incredible effort in procuring these wines from all the wineries.
- There are 12 QPR (Quality to Price) WINNERS here – BRAVO to Menachem and team and bravo to the 2022 vintage!! Some of these WINNER are not coming to the USA but the majority are!
- Finally, there are many new roses here because of the lack of Roses from Israel, given 2022 is a Shmita year.
In closing, all of these wines will get here eventually, other than the non-mevushal versions of the Roses. 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. This new phenomenon 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 a few of the 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. The wine notes are in the order the wines were tasted:
2022 Les Marronniers Petit Chablis, Petit Chablis (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is lovely, with intense minerality, bright apple, peach blossom, peach, and quince. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, with bracing acidity, peach, baked apple, tart, mouth-filling, lavender, and lovely smoke. The finish is long, tart, mouth-filling, and refreshing, with saline, ocean spray, more floral notes, fresh tart fruit, and smoke. Drink Now. (tasted May 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2022 Domaine de Virvane Chablis, Chablis (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is a classic Chablis, bright, with screaming mineral, flint, smoke, matchstick, yellow apple, apple blossom, pear, and Asian pear.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, tart, balanced, and refreshing, a wine that pulls you in with saline, smoke, Asian pear, yellow apple, screaming acidity, tart, ripe quince, and good precision.
The finish is long, tart, and smoky, with saline, flint, and lovely balanced fruit, really nice with good fruit focus, and precise mineral, a lovely expression of Chablis. Drink Now. (tasted May 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
2022 Les Marronniers Chablis, Chablis (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine starts a bit closed but with time opens to show intense minerality, sea spray, saline, olives, green apple blossom, and nice pear. Lovely!
The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine is a bit more extracted, tart, elegant, and more focused, with great precision, showing tart green apple, yellow plum, hints of wood, Asian pear, and rich smoke, lovely!
The finish is long, tart, and smoky, but I wish it had more acidity. Drink until 2025. (tasted May 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
2021 Domaine du Chateau Philippe le Hardi Mercurey, Roc Blanc, Mercurey – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
This is a lovely expression of oaked Chardonnay, with ripe pear, apple, flint, acacia flower, smoked nuts, almonds, cinnamon, and red peppers. The mouth of this medium to full-bodied wine is lovely, showing white pepper, cinnamon, smoke, green apple, smoked duck, ripe plum, Asian pear, lovely tart fruit, and intense minerality, with bracing acidity, mouthcoating tannin, and lovely precision and fruit focus, a fun wine indeed. The finish is long, tart, green, herbal, smoky, and fruity, with intense flint, saline, and mouthfeel, that is refreshing and exciting. Bravo! Drink until 2027. (tasted May 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
An uninspiring list of new wines from France, Israel, and the U.S.A
The past 10 days have been sheer hell in California and I should have posted these wines already as mountains are not an option to climb in these temps. These 11 wines are not QPR WINNER wines, they all fell short for many differing reasons, but the ultimate issue continues to revolve around a lack of balance and a lack of acidity. Even the vaulted Pacifica Riesling, a wine I have liked over many iterations fell short with the 2021 release, which was unfortunate.
As usual, my QPR posts are a hodgepodge of wines and normally we have some nice QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wines. This post sadly highlights no new QPR WINNER.
If there was a wine to kvell about I would happily do it but sadly there is none among these 11. Please look forward to my next post – that one will have a wonderful list of QPR WINNER and all 91+ wines, coming from a winery we all know well here in California.
Sadly, this was the new full release of the 2021 Chateau Riganes, with the usual white, rose, and blend. This year they added single varietal bottles, of Malbec and Cabernet Franc. IMHO, this was the least interesting release of these wines in some years.
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2021 Zion Rose, Imperial, Israel (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is made of Grenache and is off-dry. The nose of this wine is nice, it shows sweet notes, and clear RS, with raspberry, jasmine, peach, guava, cherry, and sweet fruit. The mouth of this medium-bodied rose is sweet, with balancing acidity, ripe fruit, sweet cherry, raspberry, guava, peach, and nice honey. The finish is long, sweet, but balanced with fruit, and not much else. (tasted August 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)