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My tasting of Bokobsa/Sieva wines – Nov 2022
This past November 2022, I was back in Paris for a week, and like last year, I was joined by Avi Davidowitz, from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog. The first organized wine tasting that we went to during our trip to Paris was with Bokobsa.
I must start by thanking Clarisse and Lionel Bokobsa of Sieva/Bokobsa Wines. They were so kind to host us and let us taste the lovely wines. We were also joined by Mr. Benjamin Kukurudz, sales manager at Sieva, the Mashgiach, Mendy Asseraf, and another salesperson Patricia Uzzan.
So, like our trip last year, in November 2021, we had tastings with wine producers and we also tasted wines in our hotel. Clarisse was so friendly to set up the tasting on a lovely November afternoon that we made our way to the Sieva offices, just outside of Paris.
Earlier this year, I enjoyed some lovely wines at the offices, and that was at the tail-end of the COVID madness. Thankfully, by the November timeframe, things in Paris and the USA were calmer and easier to move around. In June of this year, Bokobsa again held their wine-tasting event, which looked lovely from my Facebook feed. There was no way I was going to be able to make it then, so Clarisse and family were so nice to host me back then. My return, a few months later with Avi, was therefore doubly kind on their part, and wow were there some really lovely wines to taste that were not yet available in May.
The pricing of these wines is mostly cheaper in France than they are here in the USA, as such, some of the wines have better QPR scores in France. Also, many of these wines will not come to the USA, but overall I continue to be impressed by the quality of the wines and how Bokobsa’s selection and quality have grown from year to year.
In regards to the wines tasted, there were two sparkling wines, a Vouvray and the Champagne Demoiselle Vranken. The Vouvray continues to be fun, it is a funky sparkling wine made in a Champenoise manner and quite enjoyable. The Vranken is starting to feel a bit old, so drink up!
The true stars of the tasting were the lovely and new 2021 Anthony Girard Sancerre, L’indiscrete, Sancerre, and the “old” (already blogged about) 2017 Pascal Bouchard Chablis Premier Cru, Chablis Premier Cru. Both of them are incredible wines and crazy QPR WINNERs, sadly, at this moment neither of them is imported into the USA. The 2017 Pascal Bouchard Chablis Premier Cru was on sale for 18 euros a bottle!! In Paris shops! Like, come on!!!! Anyway, all of you in Paris and such, enjoy!!!!
The 2020 Chateau Bellegrave, Saint-Emilion, was another WINNER and was showing quite nicely. The 2021 Jean-Pierre Bailly Pouilly-Fume is lovely once more, maybe a bit riper than I like, but still a solid wine!
2020 Vintage versus 2021 Vintage in Bordeaux
So far, the sample size of 2021 wines from Bordeaux includes very few big names because they are still in the barrels. Or should be! So, the sample size of 2021 wines from Bordeaux is all simpler and of lower starting quality. Still, what is apparent, from this sample size, is that 2021 will be a very hard year. The 2020 vintage, by contrast, is hit and miss, and so far, while the hits have been solid, there are no home runs, and we have tasted most of the wines we expect to rave about from the 2020 vintage. There will be one 95-scoring wine, ONE, from all the wines we tasted on this trip. I expect even fewer exceptional wines from the 2021 vintage and I personally, will be buying far fewer of the 2020 or 2021 wines. Finally, the wine notes from the 2020 vintage should be witness to the fact that while the 2020 wines are OK to good, they are far more accessible than previous vintages. The glaring exception to that will be highlighted in a subsequent post.
Read the rest of this entryParis 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 let me taste the lovely wines. I was also joined by Benjamin Kukurud, sales manager at Sieva, and the Mashiach, Mendy Asseraf.
So, returning to the trip, as stated in my previous post, I kept in 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)
Four solid red wines from Bordeaux, Italy, and California, with two QPR
The good news wine parade continues with four more solid QPR red wines. This time they are from Bordeaux, Chianti, and California. The last post had a bunch of obscure white varietals, check it out if you missed that one. This post’s varietals are some of the most well knows red varietals on planet earth, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese, and the less famous Petit Verdot.
Well, there you have it. The top QPR of the four wines is sadly sold out already in the USA, the 2016 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico. Some stores will probably still have bottles of it. The other QPR wine is the 2014 Chateau Leroy-Beauval and it should be widely available on the east coast at a reasonable price. The other two wines are nice enough but given the prices, I cannot give them the QPR moniker.
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:
2014 Chateau Leroy-Beauval – Score: 90+ (QPR)
Another QPR winner from M & M Importers. This is a well-made wine, a wine that out of the box is lovely, but with time opens to a really fun wine indeed. The nose on this wine shows a bit of age though it has legs on it, with dark to black currant, cherry, smoke, tar, and nicely tilled earth, with garrigue, and herbs. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is nice, a bit ripe, with more of the notes from the nose, with plum, dark cherry, nice smoke, mushroom, loads of graphite and roasted herbs, mint, oregano, and nice sweet tobacco, all wrapped in sweet mouth-coating tannin and an overall nice balance. The finish is long, green, and ripe, with more sweet herbs, blackcurrant, sweet dill, and black fruit, lingering long with mineral and green notes. Drink by 2021.
2016 Chateau Hauteville, Saint-Estephe – Score: 91
This wine is a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine starts off really chunky and green, but with time, the wine turns smoother and rounder with lovely tannin and extraction. In previous vintages this wine was OK, but nothing great, this vintage is truly another step up and makes it a 90+ wine. This wine needs a good 6 to 8 hours in an open bottle or maybe 5 hours in a decanter. After the wine fully opens the nose on this wine is redolent with dark cherry, black fruit, followed by lovely loam, earth, with green notes galore, tobacco, foliage, and hints of the forest floor. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is rich, layered, and extracted with good complexity, showing nice earth, blackberry, cassis, with loads of mineral, graphite, tar, all balanced well with mouth draping tannin, great acidity, and rich saline. The finish is long, green, earthy, and black, with raspberry notes on the finish, with more tobacco, mineral, and earth. Bravo! Drink from 2021 until 2027.
2016 Shirah Bro-Deux, Red – Score: 89
The nose on this wine is ripe, the ABV says 13.7, but wow, this is a candied ripe wine. The more I sit with it, the more I realize that the sweetness I am perceiving is not fruit sweetness or ripeness but rather oak, the oak is so pervasive that it adds a sweetness to it that makes it unbalanced.
The nose on this wine shows bright and yet ripe, with sweet and candied black and red fruit, followed by a Cali-style juicy Cherry candy, that is wrapped in mint, oregano, and some smoke. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is layered, ripe, and sweet, with ripe blackberry, plum, and hints of strawberry, that give way to layers of oak and tannin that linger long, with sweet notes of blue fruit in the background, all wrapped in sweet oak, and herbs. The finish is long, sweet, green, and herbaceous, with sweet Tobacco, and mineral lingering long, with sweet fruit. Nice. Drink by 2023.
2016 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico – Score: 92 (QPR)
The nose on this wine is pure joy, as always, it starts off a bit sweet, do not worry, all is fine. The nose is filled with classic Chianti notes, of dark cherry, raspberry, loads of herb, followed by smoke, roasted herb, and white pepper. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is packed with layers of concentrated fruit, loads of baby fat that will relax with time, the layers of fruit gives way to black plum, saline, black olives, with lovely loam, tilled earth, and rich mushroom, that gives way to mouth coating and still searing tannin, lovely acid, so classic to Chianti, and incredible unctuousness, that is balanced well with more roasted herb, oregano, mint, and garrigue galore, green dill, and a big fat Cuban cigar. Bravo!! Drink until 2025.