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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!
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Final Tasting from my trip to Paris – November 2023
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in November, with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered. The number of boxes in our room was not nearly as insane as last year. Last year, we had some 80 wines, this year we were at a measly 62. Of those 62, Avi did not get a chance to taste all of them, as he had to get back to Israel. It was a miracle he was even able to come in the first place and I really thank him and his family for him making it to Paris with all that was going on in Israel.
We were in Paris for a week and during that time Avi not only got to finally see some of Paris but we had three organized tastings and we had some Hotel time to taste other wines. Given the constraints, we sadly, did not have time to do these blind. I hope next year, we will make it a priority. Heck, at this point Avi has seen as much of Paris as I have, though he really does need to go to the Musée de l’Orangerie and some more of Musee d’Orsay. Heck, even a bit of the Centre Pompidou will not hurt him, but we have next time! B”H!!!
Like last time, I wanted to break up the normal approach, or taste wines from the distributor or wine producers and instead taste the wines in their respective groups. So the wines listed below are in the order we tasted them and in the groups, we tasted them.
Rhone & White Wines
Red Rhone wines were the first round of wines we tasted. I will take the blame here. I normally get rid of the white wines first, but I wanted to stick to regions and we did not have all the wines at the start, so yeah, the tasting order, at the start is a bit wonky.
Most of these wines were from Cedev, but a few also came from Yavine.fr. There were ten reds and three whites. The overall impression of the 13 wines was not impressive, though there were two nice wines from Yavine and Les Vins de Vienne and one from Domaine de Corps de Loup.
To start, the prices of some of these wines in France are outrageous and they are no better here in the USA (though some of these are only available in Europe). The others are barely OK wines and the price really is irrelevant. The best was the Yavine Les Vins de Vienne Crozes-Hermitage (white and red). The Domaine de Corps de Loup’s price was outrageous but it is a nice enough wine.
The Cedev wines rated OK to poor. The showing may be their best yet, but I have no need to buy any of them. They do have some interesting wines, like a Kosher red Vacqueyras, I just wish they tasted better.
In the end, the relationship between Yavine and Les Vins de Vienne continues to produce good wines.
Finally, if someone had asked me the day I came home, what was the best NEW wine I tasted on your trip – the answer would have been very simple – that is the 2021 Chateau Olivier Blanc. DONE. I would then have dropped the mic and walked away. It is an incredible wine! The 2020 vintage was nice enough, but the 2021 is shockingly incredible. It is clear that the 2021 vintage is really not good for Cabernet-based wines or even for some Merlot-based ones. It feels a bit like 2013 when the whites were incredible. We had no kosher white 2013 wines, but we had the 2013 Piada, yeah it is white, but it is sweet, and yeah, that was/is incredible!
2021 is a tough vintage for Bordeaux and 2022 is NOT what folks have hyped it – so far
This section is going to be tough. The 2021 vintage is a lost cause. Sadly, a large number of Bordeaux wines were made in 2021. There were no red wines made in 2021 from the wines we tasted in the hotel that were QPR WINNERs. There are four 2022 QPR WINNER wines but I continue to stress, that in the kosher world, for me, so far, 2022 is not the panacea or quality that the non-kosher world is hyping. Sure, we have not yet tasted the Chateau Pontet Canet. LOL! My real hope is that the 2020 Moulin Riche, Montviel, Royaumont, and so on, will NOT be like the 2018 vintage! NO! Please no! We want more of the 2014/016 vintage. Sadly, from what we have seen so far in the kosher wines, it is not what those on the outside are talking about. But, the final answer will be when we get to taste the big boys in November and Feb 2025. Yeah, 2025!!
Of this group, the standouts were the Taieb 20222 wines. No surprise here, Taieb continues to prove that great wine does not need to come from the Grand Cru names. Still, there were 2022 wines that were a ripe mess, but that happens with every vintage. My main issue here is that outside of these four wines we have found no other 2022 vintage that we liked enough to give it a QPR WINNER score. As stated, time will tell.
Other regions tasted with Avi
Literally, nothing here to talk about – next! So much pain!!
Elvi Wines
Elvi has another two QPR WINNER wines, while the 2020 Rioja Crizana (Mevushal and not) is not my cup of tea. The 2021 Clos Mesorah and the 2022 Herenza White are lovely wines. Sadly, because Royal can not sell the Herenza White (AKA Invita), the only place I get to taste the current vintage is in Paris or Europe. It is pathetic, that the USA cannot appreciate the joy and happiness of the Herenza white, but hey, that is OK! They sell out in Europe anyway, this is just the loss to those of us living in the USA!
The 2021 Clos Mesorah is another WINNER and yeah, lovely wine, ripe, bold, and concentrated, but with lots of soy sauce and umami. Great stuff and it shows the complexity that so many other wines we tasted lacked.
Other regions tasted without Avi
This is mostly a press release for the Terra di Seta wines I have yet to taste! JOKING, I do not do a press release wine posts, but yeah, the wines are nice. Look, something has changed at Terra di Seta since 2019, I do not know what it is. Sure, the 2019 Chainati Classico was not bad, it was a bit short, but ok. The 2020 vintage was OK as well, while the 2021 vintage was a real mess. The 2019 Riserva was a hard pass for me at the start. It took a couple of days and then I came around to like it enough but even there, the Riserva did not meet what I expected from TDS. Time will tell what is happening or if the Riserva or Assai are good in the later vintages. I have always felt that the Riserva wines were the real age-worthy wine. I have had my issues with the Assai. Still, something is amiss in the last three years. I am hoping that things will change back soon!
I tasted a bunch of wines in June of 2023. They were at a wine event and they were imported by BAM Imports. I wrote about them here. Well, it turns out I had them again, without Avi in Paris and they showed far better. This can always be an import issue, bottle variation, or who knows what. Still, the concern is clear and the wines were not evil in Paris, so who knows!
Finally, I had a couple of wines in the hotel after Avi left and the WINNER of those was a lovely Ribeauville Pinot Noir! I know the joke, Kosher Alsace Pinot Noir is too cheap to clean the car with. Still, this vintage was a SOLID QPR WINNER. Of course, import it to the USA, and goodbye QPR! Still, for those in Europe, ENJOY! This is a daily quaffer HOMERUN!
Where can you buy these wines?
So, the Cedev wines are in the USA, I have no idea what stores are selling their wines sorry. The Olivier and others from Mercier are imported by M&M (AKA Ralph) and sold by Kosher Wine Direct. The Taieb wines will make their way to the USA soon, and should be available by Liquid Kosher, and Elk (you can contact Elk, listed to the right on the desktop view of this page) has/should have them as well. Finally, the TDS and Elvi wines will get to the USA soon or are already here. The biggest issue I find, outside of Royal Wine produced wines, is distribution for the kosher wine buyer. It is almost impossible for the average Kosher wine-buying Joe, to know where to buy each and every SKU/wine, it is crazy!
Thoughts on this tasting
OK, so overall, this tasting was a disaster, much like most of our hotel wine tastings. Look, Kosher plonk exists in spades in all regions of the world! The USA may have the largest availability to them, but Paris is not far behind! That is the MAIN takeaway! Followed by that is the horrible 2021 vintage (other than white wines). Finally, 2022 is not all it has been cracked up to be. OK, that is a wrap for Paris 2023! Looking forward to my next trip over the pond!
Before I forget – Avi took all the pictures from this trip so if you dislike them, blame him. If you love them disregard the previous sentence! Thanks, buddy!! Finally, while most of these deliveries were to the hotel this time, my man Ari Cohen, AKA El-Presidente of Bakus Wines, still put up with our many deliveries. Thanks as always! These hotel tastings could never happen with you, my man!!!
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
—————————— Rhone & White Wines ———————————————-
2022 Domaine La Martinelle Cotes du Rhone Villages Visan, Cotes du Rhone – Score: 78 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is painful, it smells hot, it tastes hot, and it feels painful, literally. It also tastes like the wine came out of the wine vat early, AKA, hard pass! The wine has no acidity, loads of astringent, and uncontrolled tannin. Next! (tasted November 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)
2022 Vignobles Vuillemin de Valois Bonne Etoile, Cotes du Rhone Villages – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 70% Syrah, 15% Grenache, and 15% Carignan. This is a solid wine for a good price the wine has nice acidity, showing blue, red, and green notes, and earthy, smoky, dirty, and loads of graphite. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is solid is nice, with good acidity, nice tannin, good fruit, herbs, nice blueberry, raspberry, roasted herbs, soft tannin, and graphite. The finish is nice, tannic, fruity, simple, and not asking for much. Drink now. (tasted November 2023) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)
Paris tasting of Moise Taieb wines – May 2022
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in May, without Avi Davidowitz, from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog, his lame excuse involved something about marrying off his first child, or something like that, whatever! He was missed but yeah, Mazel Tov!
I must start by thanking Yoni Taieb and the rest of Taieb wines for sending the wines to me to taste. In the past, I have made my way to Taieb’s office, once by myself and once with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered.
As stated, in my previous post, I kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. Even vaccinated, I was worried, and am still worried, as I kept to myself, where possible. Mr. Taieb was very kind, to once again, send the wines to the hotel. I then stayed in the hotel room and tasted through them.
As always, you can get these wines and much more from Taieb’s online website. They ship within Europe and to London. Sadly, they are all sold out of the incredible 2019 Burgundies that I enjoyed tasting at Andrew Breskin’s house. The website is selling the 2017 Domaine Chantal Lescure and they will soon have new 2021 J.P. Marchand Burgundies! Thankfully, Andrew has some of them for sale, like the lovely 2017 Domaine Chantal Lescure and the 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand wines – lovely!! Get them while they last!
Tasting in the hotel room
As stated in my Paris Post, Paris was alive, not overcrowded at that time, and masks were pretty much unseen unless you were on the metro. Many in the hotel still wore them but for the most part, it was a non-event. The hotel was great and I was able to taste all the wines that were sent to me or that I bought! Thankfully, I was once again upgraded and the room had all the space I needed.
In the end, it was a wonderful outcome, short of not seeing the Taiebs, again. I had time to taste the wines at my pace, room for all the wines to sit and breathe. As stated, I missed hanging out with Mr. Taieb, and I hope he and his lovely family are doing well!
QPR WINNING Wine Distributor
Since the first time I was lucky to sit down and taste through the Taieb Wine portfolio, I kept commenting to Yoni, about how there were so many good QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wines, for those that live in Europe and London, and even a few for the USA as well! Now, how does this happen? Well, let us talk about Taieb’s wine portfolio. They have an exclusive relationship with Laurent Perrier for producing kosher Champagne, which is great. While they do not make wines like Chateau Smith Haut Lafite, Chateau Malartic, or Chateau Leoville Poyferre, they do produce and distribute wines, within Europe that are of very high quality at reasonable prices, AKA, QPR WINNERS.
Let us continue with the fact that Taieb makes some of the very best Burgundy wines on the market and has been doing so for more than 10 years now! However, those wines, while wonderful, are not as much QPR as they are quality/score stars! In Bordeaux, Taieb has gone a different route by consistently producing wines, within Bordeaux, that punch well above their weight and many that shock you for the price they are selling at. They may not top out at 95 in scores, like Domaine Chantal Lescure, Domaine D’Ardhuy (almost), or J.P. Marchand, but they do choose the wineries they work with inside of Bordeaux, incredibly well, to create QPR WINNERS at a very impressive rate!
In the end, that is what differentiates Taieb from the other Kosher wine producers. Sure, Royal Wines does a great job with QPR while also having quality superstars that are hard to fit in the QPR bucket. In my last tasting with Bokobsa, they showed high quality and good prices, in France, for a fair number of wines. Still, when I think of QPR options, within Europe, I think of Taieb’s portfolio! I am consistently shocked at why the folks in London do not buy Taieb wines by the cases – given the wonderful prices, the easy shipping, and the favorable exchange rate. The real Achilles Heel of Taieb Wines, IMHO, is the lack of great distribution and equally solid pricing in the USA.
A total aside, I enjoyed my trip to Paris in May, I got to spend time with family and went to a few lovely restaurants. At one of them, I got some lovely foie gras two ways with a wonderful bottle of 2018 Chateau de Mole! The price for the 1/2 bottle was 28 euros a steal for the wine and the ability to enjoy a lovely, non-mevushal wine, at a wonderful restaurant, that is living!
I am not sure how many of these wines will make it to the USA. The roses will not come but a few of the reds will be brought in by Andrew, at Liquid Kosher, helping to drive Burgundy excellence in the USA, and most recently bringing in some of the better Bordeaux wines, as well. In the end, most of these wines will either not be here or be impossible to find. Still, the two QPR WINNER and some of the QPR GREAT wines will probably be here soon!
In Closing
Again, the theme of excellent Taieb wines being very hard to find in the USA is a consistent issue to me. Thankfully, some of these wines are being brought in by Andrew, at Liquid Kosher, so I hope to taste at least some of these again in the USA soon.
My many thanks to Yoni Taieb and all at Moise Taieb Wines & Spirits for taking the time to send me the wines to my hotel. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2018 Pavillon Mougneau, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 85 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is a bit too green for me with notes of foliage, a bit tinny, with loam, smoke, and red fruit. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice enough, less tinny and green than others like it, with enough fruit, raspberry, dark cherry, screaming acid, gripping tannin, nice minerality, scraping graphite, and good spice. The finish is long, green, and earthy with more graphite, foliage, jalapenos, and dry mint. Drink until 2024. (tasted May 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)
Paris tasting of Moise Taieb wines – November 2021
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in November, with Avi Davidowitz, from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog, and while it took forever to post these notes, I am happy to finally be getting to them at this point. I must start by thanking Yoni Taieb and the rest of Taieb wines for sending the wines to us to taste. In the past, I have made my way to Taieb’s office, once by myself and once with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered.
As stated, in my previous post, we kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. Even vaccinated, I was worried, and am still worried, as such we kept to ourselves, where possible. Still, we were ready to take the train down to the offices, but things could not line up and so Mr. Taieb was very kind, to once again, send the wines to our hotel. We then stayed in the hotel room and tasted through them.
As always, you can get these wines and much more from Taieb’s online website. They ship within Europe and to London. Sadly, they are all sold out of the incredible 2019 Burgundies that I enjoyed tasting at Andrew Breskin’s house. Andrew has some of them still for sale, like the lovely 2017 Domaine Chantal Lescure and the 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand wines – lovely!! Get them while they last!
Tasting in the hotel room
The most hilarious part of our trip was life in the hotel. Everything in Paris is masked and distanced. We had cases, upon cases of wines coming to us at the hotel, differently than last time, as this time, they all came to the hotel. Still, we thankfully had loads of room as we had the top floor suite and the space was ridiculous.
In the end, it was a wonderful outcome, short of not seeing the Taiebs, again. We had time to taste the wines at our pace, room for all the wines to sit and breathe. As stated, we missed hanging out with Mr. Taieb, and I hope he and his lovely family are doing well!
NOTE: A few of the wines seemed to be a bit off, the 2019 Pavillon du Vieux Chantre, 2019 Domaine de Grava, and 2019 Château De L’Anglais. I will not post my notes here as I need to taste them again when I go back to France or if I can get them here in the USA. There were a few Champagne as well, but none of them stood out enough for me to post them here. Finally, we have very few photos of these, apologies.
QPR WINNING Wine Distributor
Since the first time I was lucky to sit down and taste through the Taieb Wine portfolio, I kept commenting to Yoni, how there were so many good QPR wines, for those that live within Europe and London, and even a few for the USA as well! Now, how does this happen? Well, let us talk about Taieb’s wine portfolio. They have an exclusive relationship with Laurent Perrier for producing kosher Champagne, and that is great. While they do not make wines like Chateau Smith Haut Lafite, Chateau Malartic, or Chateau Leoville Poyferre, they do produce and distribute wines, within Europe that are of very high quality at reasonable prices, AKA, QPR WINNERS.
Let us continue with the fact that Taieb makes some of the very best Burgundy wines on the market and has been doing so for more than 10 years now! However, those wines, while wonderful, are not as much QPR as they quality/score stars! In Bordeaux, Taieb has gone a different route by consistently producing wines, within Bordeaux, that punch well above their weight and many that shock you for the price they are selling at. They may not top out at 95 in scores, like Domaine Chantal Lescure, Domaine D’Ardhuy (almost), or J.P. Marchand, but they do choose the wineries they work with inside of Bordeaux, incredibly well, to create QPR WINNERS at a very impressive rate!
In the end, that is what differentiates Taieb from the other Kosher wine producers. Sure, Royal Wines does a great job with QPR while also having the quality superstars that are hard to fit in the QPR bucket. In my last tasting with Bokobsa, they showed high quality and good prices, in France, for a fair number of wines. Still, when I think of QPR options, within Europe, I think of Taieb’s portfolio! I am consistently shocked at why the folks in London do not buy Taieb wines by the cases – given the wonderful prices, the easy shipping, and the favorable exchange rate. The real Achilles Heel of Taieb Wines, IMHO, is the lack of great distribution and equally solid pricing in the USA.
Until then, you can follow what I wrote up in this post, and try to piece together some of these wines in the USA, if you can! Thankfully, we have Andrew, at Liquid Kosher, helping to drive Burgundy excellence in the USA, and most recently bringing in some of the better Bordeaux wines, as well. Further, three of these wines, posted below, are QPR WINNER, even in the USA. We need more of this!!!
In Closing
Again, the theme of very solid Taieb wines being very hard to find in the USA is a consistent issue to me. Thankfully, some of these wines are being brought in by Andrew, at Liquid Kosher, so I hope to taste at least some of these again in the USA soon.
My many thanks to Yoni Taieb and all at Moise Taieb Wines & Spirits for taking the time to send me the wines to my hotel. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2020 Baron David, Bordeaux (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER (France))
The nose on this wine shows very much like previous vintages, with good clean lines, green notes, red fruit, herb, forest floor, foliage, and loam. The mouth of this medium-plus wine is tannic, balanced, acidic, and green, with herbal notes, foliage, bell pepper, raspberry, dark cherry, roasted mint, basil, and tarragon, with a backbone that is based in fruit and acid and nice minerality. The finish is long, green, tannic, with scraping minerality, graphite, clay, and nice loam. Nice!! Drink until 2024. (tasted November 2021) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)
Paris tasting of Moise Taieb wines – June 2021
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in June, and while it took forever to post these notes, I am happy to finally be getting to them at this point. I must start by thanking Yoni Taieb and the rest of Taieb wines for sending the wines to me to taste. In the past, I have made my way to Taieb’s office, once by myself and once with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered.
As I stated, in my previous post, I kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. Even vaccinated, I was worried, and am still worried, as such I kept to myself, where possible. Because I did not want to ride trains and automobiles with all the COVID madness, Mr. Taieb was so very kind to send them to my hotel. I then stayed in my hotel room and tasted through them.
As always, you can get these wines and much more from Taieb’s online website. They ship within Europe and to London. Sadly, they are all sold out of almost all the incredible 2019 Burgundies that I enjoyed tasting at Andrew Breskin’s house. Andrew has some of them still for sale, like the lovely 2017 Domaine Chantal Lescure and the 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand wines – lovely!! Get them while they last!
Tasting in the hotel room
The most hilarious part of my trip was my life in the hotel. Everything there was, at that time, and I think still is, at this time, masked and distanced. I had cases, upon cases of wines coming to me, in my hotel, and to Ari Cohen’s house, and it became quite a balagan to get things moved around. My many thanks to all the guys that helped make that trip work!
In the end, it was a wonderful outcome. I had time to taste the wines at my pace, room for all the wines to sit and breathe. The A/C was running full-time but it was great and the hotel folks were very nice. Of course, I missed hanging out with Mr. Taieb, and I hope he and his lovely family are doing well!
NOTE: I bought a few wines as well and I tasted them in my room and with some friends. These wines are denoted below and they were wines I never tasted at Taieb’s offices.
QPR WINNING Wine Distributor
Since the first time I was lucky to sit down and taste through the Taieb Wine portfolio, I kept commenting to Yoni, how there were so many good QPR wines. Now, how does this happen? Well, let us talk about Taieb’s wine portfolio. They have an exclusive relationship with Laurent Perrier for producing kosher Champagne, and that is great. But, to be fair you say. they may make QPR wines but they do not make Chateau Smith Haut Lafite, Chateau Malartic, or Chateau Leoville Poyferre!
Well, let us continue with the fact that Taieb makes some of the very best Burgundy wines on the market and has been doing so for more than 10 years now! However, those wines, while wonderful, are not as much QPR as they quality/score stars! In Bordeaux, Taieb has gone long and slow with great names, many of whose latest vintages I tasted in June. They may not top out at 95 in scores, like Domaine Chantal Lescure, Domaine D’Ardhuy (almost), or J.P. Marchand, but they do choose the wineries they work with inside of Bordeaux, incredibly well, to create QPR WINNERS at a very impressive rate!
In the end, that is what differentiates Taieb from the other Kosher wine producers. Sure, Royal Wines does a great job with QPR while also having the quality superstars that are hard to fit in the QPR bucket. In my last tasting with Bokobsa, they showed high quality and good prices, in France, for a fair number of wines. Still, when I think QPR, I think Taieb, again in France! I am consistently shocked at why the folks in London do not buy Taieb wines by the cases – given the wonderful prices, the easy shipping, and the favorable exchange rate. The real Achilles Heel of Taieb Wines, IMHO, is the lack of great distribution and equally solid pricing in the USA.
Until then, you can follow what I wrote up in this post, and try to piece together some of these wines in the USA, if you can! Thankfully, we have Andrew, at Liquid Kosher, helping to drive Burgundy excellence in the USA.
In Closing
Again, the theme of very solid Taieb wines being very hard to find in the USA is a consistent issue to me and a sad one. My many thanks to Yoni Taieb and all at Moise Taieb Wines & Spirits for taking the time to send me the wines to my hotel. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2018 La Chablisienne Chablis, Chablis (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is too simple, I was hoping for more complexity, yellow apple, quince, pear, and mineral. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is a bit lacking, it has enough acidity, but the middle is a bit hollow, pear, tart apple, smoke, and melon. The finish is long, green, with flint, more baked apple, lemon, and nice acidity lingering. Drink now. (tasted June 2021)
2018 La Chablisienne Chablis, 1er Cru, Chablis (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is slightly more elevated with fresher notes, apple, pear, melon, more minerality, starfruit, and hints of gooseberry. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine, shows nice weight, with a lovely mouthfeel, nice acidity, mineral, tart and sweet fruit, starfruit, gooseberry, grapefruit, melon, Asian Pear, and good green foliage. The finish is long, green, tart, and richer, with saline, slate, rock, mineral, straw, and good tart acidity on the long finish. Drink by 2022. (tasted June 2021)
Taieb continues to excel at making solid wines for reasonable prices in France
After our miraculous escape from the hotel which brought vivid memories of one of my favorite songs of all time – Hotel California, highlighted by the most famous line in that song: ”Relax said the night man, we are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!”. If you were there, the dude almost said those words as we were running for the door, anyway, on to more happy thoughts.
We escaped “Hotel California” and made our way to the train station in Lyon for our trip to Roanne. This train is the common man’s train, and it allowed us an interesting glimpse into the melting pot of France’s middle class. The trains from Paris or Strasbourg were TGV trains and though they can be bought on the cheap, they are for folks moving between large cities. This train was a commuter train, the only real way to get from Lyon to Roanne.
This trip to Taieb wines was far less insane than the trip earlier this year from London, that trip was too crazy to even believe. This one was far simpler, other than the Hotel California issue. That said, overall it took two trains and an automobile to get Avi Davidowitz from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog, and me from Strasbourg to Roanne. Yoni Taieb from Taieb Wines was so kind as to pick us up from the Roanne train station and take us to the offices.
Sadly, there had been a death in the family so George Taieb, Yoni Taieb’s father, could not join us, but Yoni was so nice to facilitate the tasting.
Kosher wine pricing again
If you look at the kosher wine producers/facilitators in France, Taieb comes out far ahead in regards to their pricing and quality. I love that we have kosher Chateau Leoville Poyferre or Smith Haut Lafitte, but those prices are crazy, absolutely bonkers, especially when you see their non-kosher pricing (showing at double the price). Again, I have spoken about pricing many times, and no matter how often I talk about it, it is still crazy to me, that we pay such high prices for kosher wine.
There are two issues here. One is that the big-name wines are super expensive and this issue continues to disallow others from enjoying such wines, given the price tag. Secondly, the lower stature wines, ones that are still fun to enjoy and QPR wines, are far and few between, when you look at the sub-20 dollar bracket. Look at Kosherwine.com and tell me how many sub-20 dollar QPR wines exist? In red, there is THREE, 2018 Chateau Les Riganes, Bordeaux, the 2018 Elvi Herenza Rioja, and the 2017 Chateau Mayne Guyon. THREE wines I would buy for under 20 dollars and two fo them are Mevushal! Under 10 dollars there are none.
In France, under 10 Euros, there are MANY! There lies in the issue. Obviously, to get a wine from France to here takes hands and hands cost money, but Taieb had four wines that I would buy under 10 Euros. If they were brought here, they would probably cost 20 dollars. Overall, this is the issue. The second you add hands into the picture it gets too expensive. Royal Wines makes the wines, imports the wines, and sells them to distributors. So, within all that, you have cut out many hands that would otherwise raise the cost structures. If Taieb exported the lovely 2018 Baron David, Bordeaux, which costs 9 or so Euros and even less when on sale, and the importer added his costs, this wine would probably sell for 23 dollars. This is what is so broken with the system. Of course, I have no issue with people making a living! That is not the discussion here. The issue I have is that there are MANY sub-10 dollar wines from France in the USA and some are quite nice, even scored a 90 by Wine Spectator. That is just one example. I do not get it. Are we saying that these wines, yes it is sold by Costco and Trader Joe’s, so their margins may be a bit thinner? But do they not make money? Does the importer not make money? The winery? The Distributor in the USA? The non-kosher market for sub-10 dollar wines follows the same system as kosher wines. So, please where is the money going? The kosher supervision on wines like this are a total joke, maybe 20 cents a bottle, so please move on from that. Why is it so hard to import this Baron David and make it work for everyone? Why is it not that difficult for the non-kosher market? There lies in my question!
Anyway, in France, these wines are a wonderful buy and I hope those that live there get a chance to taste them, as they are 100% worth the money!
So, to repeat the Taieb wines in the USA are hard to find, other than the Burgundy wines, because of the horrible wine distribution of Victor Wines and Touton wines, here in the USA. It is a shame as they make some very solid QPR (for France pricing) wines. You can find some of the wines here but most of them are just in France. With that said, Saratoga Wine Exchange, out of NY, seems to stock almost all of the wines, I have no idea why as they are not a kosher wine or near a large Jewish community. Still, that is only for the few wines that are imported here in the first place. Vive la France for QPR kosher wines!
Taieb Wines
Taieb started making kosher spirits 50 years ago and since then he has added kosher wine to the company. Many of the Bordeaux wines that he now makes have been in production for decades. Taieb is famous for the Phenix Anisette, a liquor made from Anis.
Recently, I have been loving the wines coming from Taieb, because they are making some really great Burgundy wines, including maybe the best Burgs to be made kosher in quite some time, the epic Domaine Lescure and the 2012 Domaine d’Ardhuy Gevrey-Chambertin, which may well be the best Burgundy in some time, though I find the 2014 Domaine Lescure to be as good.
Taieb has been spoiling us with great Burgundy wines and the only reason why we know about them is because of Nathan Grandjean and Andrew Breskin. Sadly, distribution of these and many of the lovely Bordeaux wines from Taieb have no distribution here in the USA, without Breskin. Victor Wines officially imports Taieb Wines, but the wines rarely show on shelves, I really hope this will be fixed soon, as the Taieb wines I had in France were wonderful.
Sadly, Domaine d’Ardhuy stopped doing kosher wines with Taieb, after the 2015 vintage. The Domaine Lescure was epic in 2014 and 2015, it had a hiccup with the 2016 vintage, but the 2017 vintage is lovely as well!
The line of kosher wines that Taieb produces includes entry-level wines for restaurants and weddings. It then has a myriad of wines at the next level, from lovely a Sancerre wine to Brouilly wines. The next level includes some very solid Bordeaux wines and Burgundy wines as well. Read the rest of this entry
A wine tasting of some great and sadly poor to uninspired 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 kosher French wines with Nathan Grandjean
When I last left off on the story of my trip to France, I had just ended an epic tasting of the new 2017 wines from Royal Wines. I then jumped on a train, and I was once again joined by Avi Davidowitz from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog, and we made our way to Strasbourg for a tasting of Alsace wines and other wines that are not made by Royal. It included some new 2016, 2017, and 2018 wines, but once again it mostly involved French wines from the 2014 and 2015 vintage.
2018 French wines to the rescue
Now, I need to get on my soapbox for two major topics, the first is how AWESOME the 2018 vintage is showing right now. At this tasting and again with Yoni Taieb of Taieb Wines, the 2018 vintage shows itself incredibly well wit the simple entry-level wines of Bordeaux. It takes them from tinny and boring wines to rich and well-balanced wines, that sell for 8 euros or less! This is something that we will never get in the USA! Sadly, the only wine that comes close to this is the 2018 Chateau Les Riganes, Bordeaux and maybe the 2018 Chateau Genlaire, Bordeaux Superieur, but I think this wine will be above the 10 dollar price of the Chateau Les Riganes.
On the trip to France, two things came up often, when I was speaking French with the natives, something I was not able to do as much with Avi around, as Avi still needs to learn French! One, and this really shocked me, was how common French folk think California is dangerous when I would tell them where I am from, because of all the media of the horrific shootings we have had in our state. Besides that, the Jews I spoke to, especially the ones who drink kosher wine, complain bitterly about the cost of French wines! The more I look at this issue the more it makes me wonder, why are the wines so expensive? Yes, there is a cost for kosher supervision, but that cost does not explain the double or triple pricing of the non-kosher cost. That question is even more exaggerated in France, where there is no three-legged-stool in regards to wine distribution. Yes, France has Negociants, but for the lower level wines that is a practice that is going the way of the dodo bird.
The truth is that what is needed are reasonably priced wines. Avi Davidowitz, on his Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog scores wines partially based upon price. I do not agree for many reasons, which we discussed over our trip, but it does NOT diminish the overarching issue which is 100% true, kosher wine prices have gotten 100% OUT OF CONTROL. Sorry, this is insane and before someone tells me it is the Chateau’s fault for having such high En Primeur pricing, the kosher wine prices are shockingly higher. This really needs to be rebooted, IMHO, but sadly, it will stay the same until we get into a serious crunch or glut, whichever occurs first. Yes, we are blessed with some QPR wines, and I always post about them, but overall, the grand cru wines are getting out of control.
That is why I am so happy with the 2018 simple wines from Bordeaux. Sadly they will not come to the USA under those prices, but for those in France, there are serious options.
2015 and 2016 Magrez wines are a total failure, IMHO
Last year, I wrote that this post was coming, but I had to taste the 2015 and 2016 Pape Clement first before I could make my feelings clear. At this point, I have tasted the 2015 Magrez reds 5 times and the 2016 whites 2 times. I am 100% comfortable with saying they have all taken a seriously far step backward from the epic 2014 vintage. The 2014 Magrez were world-class wines and wines I have bought happily. However, I can not say the same for any of the 2015 or 2016 kosher Magrez wines I have tasted to date. I was very disappointed when I tasted the kosher 2015 Pape Clement, and I was shocked by the results of the 2015 Tour Carnet, Fombrouge, and others. The 2016 Pape Clement is better than the 2015 vintage, but it is not worth the bottle it is in. The whites have all also lost a few serious steps from the 2014 vintage. Personally, I will not be buying any of the 2015 or 2016 Magrez wines I tasted, other than the Pape Clement wines I tasted that I bought En Primeur.
Now, with that aside, I can clearly state that the wines are not undrinkable, they are not date juice, they are not unprofessionally made, they are simply boring, lackluster, and flat, with little to grab your attention. They are simply not wines worthy of the price or their names, sadly, they are what they are.
I miss Weingut Von Hovel and the Gefen-Hashalom wines
Two years ago Nathan Grandjean and I made a run for Von Hovel, and I wanted to do that again year after year, and maybe even Nik Weis. Sadly, they told me there were no new wines for 2017 or 2018, and now I just heard there was none made in 2019 either. I am really so sad, those wineries have so much potential, but I guess Gefen Hashalom (“Vine of Peace”) felt they had too much inventory already. I am really not sure what they have that is not sold? All the Nik Weis wines are sold, from what I know, Gary got the rest of the 2016 wines. Von Hovel did not make any wines after the 2015 vintage, and they have nothing left either. I really hope they make wines in 2020.
Wine Tasting at Nathan Grandjean
After last year’s solid tasting with Nathan Grandjean, I had tasted all of the 2015 French wines that I know of. The 2016/2017/2018 wines are slowly being released, from producers other than Royal. Kosher Wine International, the producers for all the Magrez wines, has now fully released the 2015 wines. Two days after this tasting we would be tasting Taieb wines, but we wanted to taste the 2017 Domaine Lescure Pommard, so that was on the list.
After last year’s tasting of a few Magrez 2015 wines and my other tastings of them at two wine events, I wanted the chance to taste them YET AGAIN, with both of the Pape Clement and the new 2016 Clos Haut-Peyraguey, Sauternes. So, I had Nathan get all the 2015 and 2016 Magrez wines that are available and we tasted them over two days. Thankfully, we also had a couple of wonderful wines and some duds.
Finally, we tasted all of Nathan Grandjean’s Les Vins de Vienne wines from both the 2017 vintage and the 2018 whites. He had some tank samples of the 2018 reds, but honestly, they were not ready for me to write proper notes on. Read the rest of this entry
Wine Musings Blog 