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The Top 24 QPR Kosher Wine WINNERS of 2022

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 ageability 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 2022.

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 2018 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah, the 2022 wine of the year (AKA best-priced QPR wine). 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 attempt to 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? What about a white wine – same? Can/should compare them? I will tell you that no one would act in such a manner. People will compare items. OK, so are we then forced to compare Montsant wines with Montsant wines – again I will tell you no! People will compare like-scored red wines with like-scored red wines.

OK, but what is “like” – that is the body of work that my QPR approach works to answer. If you agree that people will attempt to compare items that are similar in nature but not locale, region, or price, 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:

2020 Chateau Clarke, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13.5%)
2020 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac – Medoc – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2024 until 2035. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
2019 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted December 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

These wine price from 38 dollars to 55 dollars. The question you need to ask is are they comparable? I would state they are and I would 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 – and these all scored the same quality score.

So, next, would you at least compare two Listrac-Medoc wines to each other? The Chateau Fourcas Dupre and the Chateau Clarke? I would say yes for sure. Well, why is the Royaumont any different? They are very different wines, of course, 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! Meaning some wines age beautifully and many are 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 are then required to 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

This year, the list came to a total of 24 names, and none had to dip below 92+ 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. There are 24 or so WINNER that scored 92+ this year but not in a single area.

Like last year, we return with QPR for France, the prices for many wines there, are dirt cheap! There is also QPR for the USA, which is the default. Finally, some wines are QPR here in the USA but not in France.

Of course, the first wine on the list is the 2022 Wine of the year! Elvi Wines is a perennial producer of QPR WINNER wines and a most deserving winner of the 2021 Winery of the year!

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:

2018 Clos Mesorah, Montsant – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine shows more black fruit than the 2019 vintage, with lovely blackberry, smoke, root beer, and roasted animal, more than 2019, with some red fruit, a bit bluer, with white and pink flowers that emerge after time, raspberry, and mineral. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, elegant, and a bit riper than 2019, with rich salinity, sweet oak, black olives, blackberry, plum, boysenberry, root beer, dark currants, anise, and rich mouthfeel and fruit structure, that gives way to saline, roasted herbs, and graphite. The finish is long, dark, brooding, smoky, earthy, forest floor, and blackcurrants, with dirt, loam, clay, leather, and rich spices. Bravo!! Drink from 2027 until 2036. (tasted November 2021) (in Montsant, Spain) (ABV = 15.5%)

2020 Château Olivier Grand Cru Classe, Pessac-Léognan – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER (France), GOOD (USA))
The nose of this wine is quite nice, a wine I would drink, with a bit of soy sauce, rich salinity, mushroom, earthy, and dirty, like a rich and redolent mud pen, with a bit of heat, and lovely smoke. With time, the heat drops off, ripe, muddy, mushroom haven, lovely! The mouth of the full-bodied wine is dense, layered, rich, and concentrated, with rich extraction, dark and brooding, with juicy blackberry, ripe strawberry, mushroom, forest floor, wet leaves, rich salinity, soy sauce, umami, just a fun, ripe, savory, and dirty wine. The finish is long, dark, and brooding, but well controlled, one of those rare ripe/dirty/earthy controlled monsters, with dense minerality, scraping graphite, ripe fruit, and leather, Bravo! Drink until 2035. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)

2019 Chateau Tour Seran, Medoc – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER (France))
This is one of the best wines of our blind tastings here in the hotel. The nose of this wine is lovely, and perfectly balanced, with licorice, smoke, black and red fruit, char, toasty oak, loam, lovely mushroom (that comes out after a few hours), and forest floor. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is dense, ripe, layered, and rich with good acidity, richly extracted, but savory, not overly ripe, a real joy, with blackberry, ripe raspberry, currants, dense loam, forest floor, with scraping minerality, graphite, tar, and rock, this is too much fun! The finish is long, and mineral-driven, with good fruit focus, great graphite, and rock. Drink until 2036. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14%)

2019 Clos Mesorah, Montsant – Score: 93.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is beautiful with lovely floral notes of rosehip, violet, tisane tea, and red and blue fruit, with roasted herb, smoke, roasted animal, rhubarb, dried cherry, and lovely forest floor notes. The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is lovely with screaming acidity, lovely dark raspberry, plum, tart currant, mouth-draping tannin, rhubarb, dark cherry, with lovely green notes, rich saline, mineral, spice, roasted herb, lovely blackberry, smoke, and rich graphite. The finish is long, green ripe, blackberry, with saline, smoke, blueberry, leather, cloves, cinnamon, and sweet oak, bravo!!! Drink from 2026 until 2034. (tasted November 2021) (in Montsant, Spain) (ABV = 15.5%)

2020 Chateau Lafon-Rochet, Saint-Estephe – Score: 93.5 (QPR: WINNER (FRANCE), USA(EVEN))
This wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon & 45% Merlot.
The nose of this wine is a less ripe wine, with savory notes, lovely green and red fruit, elegant redolence, minerality, lovely iron shavings graphite, beautiful pencil shavings, with incredible raspberry, cherry, and rich smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, elegant, extracted, rich, and beautiful with ripe and juicy cherry, elegant tart/juicy raspberry, beautiful smoke, intense and elegant charcoal/graphite, just lovely, with red fruit, loam, and mouth-scraping tannin. The finish is long, red, ripe, and smoky, with great tobacco, rosemary, savory notes, dark chocolate, loam, leather, and lovely smoke. Drink from 2023 until 2033. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

2016 ElviWines Herenza Rioja, Reserva, Rioja – Score: 93.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This is what I crave in wine – balance, complexity, elegance, and all bottled for a price that makes it a WINNER! The nose of this wine is beautiful, balanced, complex, and lighter than 2014, but still bold, rich, and expressive, soy sauce, umami, rich mushroom, loam, spices, blue and red fruit, and sweet anise, lovely! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is not as bold as the 2014 and it starts a bit ripe, with time the wine opens to show balance, dark blueberry, plum, candied/spiced raspberry, and rich sweet spices give way to a mouth-draping elegance, sweet tannin, plush mouthfeel, and rich loam, clay, and earth, beautiful. The finish is long, and balanced, with leather, sweet tobacco, root beer, sweet baking spices, cloves, cinnamon, sweet cedar, dark chocolate, and rich searing acidity that brings this wine altogether. Bravo!! Another smash! Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted November 2021) (in Montsant, Spain) (ABV = 14.5%)

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Posted in Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, QPR Post, Wine

Another round of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Hits and Misses, Four USA QPR WINNERS (two more for France)– January 2023

Jan 13

Posted by winemusings

I hope you all had a wonderful Gregorian Calendar New Year! This will be my last post for my blog’s Calendar year. As usual, my QPR posts are a hodgepodge of wines but thankfully we have some nice QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wines.

For all those asking for my yearly Four Gates Winery post – that will have to wait till after my year-end posts. No worry, the sale will end in 14 minutes so get your wines, everyone!!

QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wines

It has been three months since my last QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) post and many people have been emailing me about some unique wines I have tasted and some lovely wines that are worth writing about.

Thankfully, no matter how much garbage and pain I subject myself to, we are still blessed with quite a few wonderful QPR wines out there. This post includes some nice wines and some OK wines with the usual majority of uninteresting to bad wines.

The story of 2021 Israel whites and roses is very unfortunate, it started with a bang. Matar and a couple of others showed very well. Sadly, after that, every other white and rose wine from Israel was not as impressive. They all show middling work and product, very disappointing indeed. Since then, there have been more hits and misses, but overall the 2019 and 2021 vintages look good enough.

My thanks to Ari Cohen for helping me again with some of these wines! The 2007 Chateau Peyrat Fourthon La Demoiselle D’Haut Peyrat, 2013 Porto di Mola Aglianico Roccamonfina, Aglianico, and the 2021 Domaine Bousquet Alavida, Mendoza were all thanks to him!

We have a nice list of QPR WINNERS:

2021 Domaine Bousquet Alavida, Mendoza – Fun, cheap, and enjoyable wine! Bravo!
2013 Porto di Mola Aglianico Roccamonfina, Aglianico – Maybe this was the first kosher Aglianico ever!
2007 Chateau Peyrat Fourthon La Demoiselle D’Haut Peyrat, – this has been popping up all over Paris – DRINK UP!
2019 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol — A little too ripe for me but solid, BEWARE there is no 2020
2019 Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild – Another solid wine!
2020 Netofa Tel Qasser, Red, Galilee – A lovely Rhone-style wine that shows finesse

There were also a few wines that are a slight step behind with a GREAT or GOOD QPR score:

2021 Chateau de Cor Bugeaud, Blaye-Cotes de Bordeaux (M) – A nice 2021 wine that is mevushal
2021 Barkan Chardonnay, Galilee (M) – A good Barkan Classic
2019 Gush Etzion Cabernet Franc, Lone Oak Tree, Judean Hills – A solid Cab Franc, with balance and a bit of elegance
2022 Rimapere Baron Edmond de Rothschild Sauvignon Blanc, Malborough – A sad shadow of the 21 vintage
2021 Pescaja Solei’ Arneis, Terre Alfieri (M) – A nice wine but the acidity is lacking
2019 Rocca di Frassinello Le Sughere di Frassinello, Maremma Toscana – Nice enough wine but lacking acidity
2021 Bat Shlomo Sauvignon Blanc, Israel – Nice but expensive and simple SB
2021 Dalton Sauvignon Blanc, Fume, Galilee – A nice enough SB
2021 Eola Hills Wine Cellars Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon – A nice enough New-World Pinot
2021 Rothschild Flechas de Los Andes Gran Malbec, Mendoza – A ripe mess but many will like it
2019 Domaine du Castel Raziel, Judean Hills – A solid wine but too expensive

There are a few wines that got a QPR Score of EVEN – meaning expensive or average:

2021 Vitkin Pinot Noir, Judean Hills – A simple Pinot Noir
2020 Chateau Le Crock, Saint-Estephe (M) – One of those bad years for the Crock, such is life!
2020 Netofa Tel Qasser, White, Galilee – It is here because of the price, nice wine but too expensive
2021 1848 Winery Cabernet Franc, Judean Hills – A ripe wine that will make some happy
2017 Capcanes La Flor Del Flor Samso, Montsant – A ripe but controlled wine that is too expensive
2021 Chateau Le Petit Chaban, Bordeaux (M) – A simple enough but pleasant wine

The others are essentially either OK wines that are too expensive, duds, or total failures:

2021 Cantina Cignozza il Generoso, Toscana – A poor wine that is also expensive
2021 Raziel Rose, Judean Hills – A good enough rose that is crazy expensive
2017 Villa Mangiacane Magnificus, Toscana – A Super Tuscan that is oaked and overripe
2020 Domaine Du Castel Grand Vin, Judean Hills – An average wine that is far too expensive
2019 Flam Noble, Israel – Another Israeli wine that is simple enough but crazy expensive
2021 Tzora Shoresh, Blanc, Judean Hills – Another Israeli wine that is too expensive for its quality

Some things that made me stand up and take notice (AKA QPR WINNERS):

In this group, the best wine is the Chateau Royaumont, though this vintage is ripe, and will take a long time to calm down. There is no 2020 Chateau Royaumont, FYI.

The 2020 Netofa Tel Qasser, Red, is a lovely wine and one that will be here for a while.

The 2019 Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild, Haut-Medoc is the mevushal version they sell here in the USA and is quite lovely, with great balance and enough complexity.

The 2021 Domaine Bousquet Alavida, Mendoza is the TRUE WINNER to me, it is available in a few places here in the USA and it is lovely! Throw in the fact that it can be found for 12 dollars here in the USA and BRAVO!

The other two wines, 2013 Porto di Mola Aglianico Roccamonfina, Aglianico, and 2007 Chateau Peyrat Fourthon La Demoiselle D’Haut Peyrat, are in France, popping up here and there in shops, nice wines, drink NOW!

Other wines of note (AKA QPR GREAT or GOOD):

This group is not a group of wines I would buy and some are not even wines I would drink if given the chance. They are Ok wines but there are far better options out there. The two that did surprise me were the 2019 Gush Etzion Cabernet Franc, Lone Oak Tree, and the 2019 Domaine du Castel Raziel, Judean Hills, both were solid wines that I did not expect.

Wines that are either good but too expensive or average (AKA EVEN):

Three wines need a comment here. The 2017 Capcanes La Flor Del Flor Samso, Montsant, finally had a decent vintage, it is a nice wine but I would buy limited to none and drink it soon.
The 2020 Netofa Tel Qasser, White, Galilee is a lovely wine, nothing like the 2017 or 2018 vintages, but the price lands the wine here.
Sadly, the 2020 Chateau Le Crock, Saint-Estephe is just an average wine and that is why it is here.

The rest of the wines are not interesting to me and are on this list because of either quality or price.

Wines that are either OK but far too expensive or bad wines (AKA POOR/BAD):

This round this list is just duds and I will just leave you to peruse the names and scores down below.

Roundup

Overall another nice list of QPR WINNERS. I can always look at these kinds of lists and say there are only 6 wines I would want to buy from this entire list, but that would be a defeatist attitude. The correct way to classify this list is we have 6 more wines available to us and in the end, as I have stated many times now, I cannot buy all the WINNER wines even if I wanted to. There are just too many good wines out there and that is what we should be focused on!

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 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 70% Merlot & 30 % Cabernet Franc. At the opening, the wine shows its femininity, with lovely floral notes, violet, and ripe fruit, shortly after it shows a far riper expression with an intense perfume of fruit, nice loam, dirt, green notes, eucalyptus, roasted mint, and minerality. This shows you that some wines can be fruity but you can see the reality of the makeup and understand its final place. This contrasts Israeli wines whose nose and mouth are so over the top that it never comes around. With even more time the wine does return to its feminine side with lovely floral notes, still, the ripeness is there and while it is controlled it does worry me, with plum, rich loam, smoke, earth, mint, eucalyptus, and lovely fruit. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe and balanced, yet also lovely and feminine with expressive floral notes, violet, plum, cherry, rich and dense mouthfeel, not extracted yet complex, somewhat layered, mouth-drying tannin, elegant, and complex, nice sweet oak, menthol, more mint, basil, and lovely smoke. The finish is long, dirty, earthy, smoky, and ripe, with more tannin, mineral, scraping graphite, green notes, violet, and leather. BRAVO! Still, the ripeness abounds and takes over the mouth and nose it is scary. Drink from 2024 until 2032. (tasted December 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

2020 Netofa Tel Qasser, Red, Galilee – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely, it starts a bit slow but with some air, the wine opens to show bright fruit, herbs, smoke, roasted meat, tar, blue and red fruit, and a lovely floral bouquet, jasmine, violet, bravo! The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, and controlled, with lovely acidity, ripe boysenberry, juicy strawberry, raspberry, and rich saline, with lovely sweet oak, mouth-draping tannin, and nice minerality, nice! The finish is long, tart, ripe, balanced, and refreshing, with watermelon, root beer, floral notes, and coffee. Drink by 2028. (tasted December 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)

2019 Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild, Haut-Medoc (M) – Score: 91.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 85% Merlot & 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose of this wine starts with lovely notes of ripe red and blue berries followed by rich loam, funk, rich mineral, wet dirt, tar, and green notes/foliage. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is less weighty than the 2018 vintage with lovely notes of smoke, dirt, loam, dark raspberry, currants, blueberry, Elderberries, rich funk, foliage, lovely mouth-coating tannin, a bit too many green notes, and searing acidity. The finish is long, dirty, earthy, and mineral-driven, with lovely smoke, toast, pencil shavings, graphite, more green notes, dark chocolate, and lovely tension. Drink until 2028. (tasted December 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2021 Domaine Bousquet Alavida, Mendoza – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is floral, ripe, balanced, and enjoyable, with violet, rosehip, saline, green notes, dark cherry, raspberry, and smoke. The mouth of this medium-plus bodied wine is very fun, floral, ripe, well balanced, fun, with good mouthfeel, organic and without added sulfites, showing ripe plum, blackberry, raspberry, with nice mouthfeel, great acidity, balanced and fun, with lovely ripe and jammy fruit. The finish is long, ripe, balanced, and good, with smoke, mineral, roasted meat, and more floral notes. Lovely! Drink by 2024. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 14.5%)

2013 Porto di Mola Aglianico Roccamonfina, Aglianico – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER: France)
This wine is crazy, it has almost no fruit on the nose or the body but it has fruit in the structure to keep it alive with rich acidity and a lovely mouthfeel. The nose of this wine is lovely, dirty, earthy, smoky, with lovely barnyard, and rich mushroom, with hints of violet and rose. With time the wine opens to a new world. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe, with dark fruit, blackberry, raspberry, smoke, elegance, rich tannin, smoke, mushroom, and lovely tea. The finish is lovely, tannic, and herbal, with lovely barnyard and floral notes, lovely. Drink now!!! (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12%)

2007 Chateau Peyrat Fourthon La Demoiselle D’Haut Peyrat, Haut-Medoc – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER: France)
This wine is 15 years old and it does not evoke happiness in me, sure it is a perfectly good wine, it is not dead, not oxidized, but it has also not evolved. This reminds me of a recent post by my friend, Avi Davidowitz, where he said something I said often to Benyo about the early day Baron Herzog wines, they survive, but they do NOT evolve as time passes. The wine is enjoyable, but I would prefer another option.
The nose of this wine is perfectly balanced, well made, and professional, but also just OK, at this point, showing little to no evolution into tertiary notes, there are mushrooms, and there is no barnyard, but the tertiary is more in the background.
The nose is nice with good mushrooms, nice dirt, earth, with red fruit, and nice smoke. To me, the nose is dominated by dirt and the surprising fruit, and the rest is in the background.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is where things become far less interesting, sure the acidity is impressive, and the mouthfeel and tannin cover the palate with the aid of good acidity, but the wine is just there, it has not evolved, the raspberry and cherry are nice, with good minerality, and more rich loam.
If one was, to sum up, this wine, dirt, and mushroom with some fruit would be a solid descriptor. The tannin is devolving. The finish is long, and green, with enough tannin to keep it interesting, with nice mushroom, and graphite. Drink now!!! (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

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Posted in Israeli Wine, Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher Rose Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, QPR Post, Wine

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Tags: Aglianico, Alavida, Arneis, Barons de Rothschild Edmond Benjamin, Cabernet Franc, Capcanes, Chateau Le Crock, Chateau Royaumont, Domaine Bousquet, Domaine du Castel, Eola Hills Wine Cellars, Gush Etzion Winery, La Demoiselle D'Haut-Peyrat, La Flor del Flor de Primavera, Le Sughere di Frassinello, Netofa Winery, Pescaja, Pinot Noir, Porto di Mola, Razi'el, Rocca di Frassinello, Rose, Samso, Shoresh, Solei, Tel Qasser, Tzora Winery, White

The top 25 QPR Kosher wine WINNERS of 2021

Mar 1

Posted by winemusings

This past year 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

This year, the list came to a total of 25 names, and none had to dip below 91 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.

I have added a few new things this year. The first is QPR for France, the prices for many wines there, are dirt cheap! 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!

Shoutout to a GREAT wine that is just sitting around!

I am sorry to get on my soapbox before we get to the top QPR wines of 2021. But I have to ask what is wrong with the 2018 Vitkin Grenache Blanc??? Yes, it is a bit expensive, but it is also one of the best white wine on the market currently, hailing from Israel. It is incredible – funky, acidic, rich, and expressive – please folks – try the bottle and then once you find out how awesome it is, buy some!! As always, I get nothing for promoting/suggesting a wine, NOTHING, I am simply reminding folks – great wines still hail from Israel!

The wines on the list this year are all available here in the USA, 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:

The 2021 Red QPR kosher WINNER

The 2017 Clos Mesorah is lovely! It is available in the USA and elsewhere. I tasted the 2018 and 2019 as well, and they are lovely, but I will taste them again on the release here in the USA.

2017 Clos Mesorah, Montsant – Score: 94 (QPR: WINNER)
This is a super elegant, floral, and feminine wine, bravo!! The nose on this wine is beautiful, showing floral notes of violet, white flowers, with blueberry, black fruit, smoke, roasted duck, earth, and loads of smoke, dirt, and loam. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is so elegant, layered, concentrated, earthy, fruity, smoky, and richly extracted, with boysenberry, lovely green olives, blackberry, dark cherry, plum, smoke, earth, loam, and lovely sweet cedar, with green notes, sweet tobacco, sweet basil, and lovely acid. The finish is long, green, with draping elegant tannin, showing a bit more acid than even 2019, sweet smoking tobacco, dark chocolate, white pepper, and anise. Bravo!! Drink from 2025 until 2035. (tasted November 2021) (in Montsant, Spain) (ABV = 14.5%)

The 2021 White QPR kosher WINNERS

These two wines were available before but I fear the 2019 Netofa Latour, White is sold out, and the 2020 vintage is not as good as the 2019 vintage. The 2018 Tel Qasser, White is lovely and available.

2019 Netofa Latour, White – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine is pure heaven, incredible, refined oak, with a refined approach to the fruit, straw, earth, pear, white apple, and smoke, with creme brulee, awesome! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is truly impressive, with layers of acidity, elegance, sweet oak, with oak tannin, but the creme brulee and smoke are beautiful, with green notes, pear, tart guava, and sweet apple brioche, wow! The finish is long, green, tart, with sweet fruit, mineral, slate, and more freshly baked goods. Bravo! Drink from 2023 until 2030. (tasted January 2021)

2018 Netofa Tel Qasser, White – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
The 2018 vintage shows far more of the classic Roussanne reductive aspects than 2017 does today, but it is also far richer, deeper in intensity, and approachable, but I would let this lie. The nose on this wine, like 2017 starts closed, yes, it is open, but please there is so much more here, it is just covered in marzipan, almonds, walnuts, oak, smoke, orange, orange blossom, with rich salinity, big bold and bright fruit hiding, and lovely spice. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is incredible, just WOW, and that is with 10 minutes of air, this wine will improve with a couple of years, but I do see how approachable this wine can feel, and if you want to go ahead, but it will be better in a few years, with layers upon layers of smoke, ripe controlled fruit, with ripe peach, apricot, melon, incredible nutty notes, lovely tannin, green olives, wrapped in an unctuous and oily mouthfeel that feels like being wrapped in a sushi roll of oak, smoke, fruit, and nori – WOW! The finish is so long, I AM VERY HAPPY it was my last wine of the tasting, this is crazy, so incredible, with lingering notes that last forever of almonds, walnuts, nuts, smoke, grip, orange blossom, orange, tannin, acid, rock, hay, and more acid, incredible! BRAVO!! BRAVO to the master! Drink from 2023 until 2027. (tasted March 2021)

Rest of the top QPR Winners (in no particular order)

2019 Chateau LaGrange Grand Cru Classe En 1855, Saint-Julien – Score: 94+ (QPR: GREAT)
WOW, what wine for a 12.5% ABV wine, come on, the next time someone says I need to wait for the phenolics to talk with me, the answer is this wine! This wine is a blend of 80% cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, & 2% Petit Verdot.
The nose on this wine is lovely and perfumed with rich minerality, dense loam, graphite, smoke, roasted animal, clay, black and red fruit, all wrapped in more dirt, tar, and licorice, wow!
The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is beautiful, the acid is perfect, balanced and tart, elegant and layered, with lovely raspberry, plum, dark currants, hints of blue fruit, with ripe cassis, scraping mineral, dirt, loam, roasted herbs, menthol, with sweet vanilla, and lovely licorice.
The finish is long, with draping tannin, scraping mineral, and lovely tar, loam, nice leather, and rich garrigue, really lovely! Drink from 2031 until 2042. (tasted November 2021) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)

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Posted in Israeli Wine, Kosher Dessert Wine, Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, QPR Post, Wine

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Tags: 5 Puttonyos, Assai, Chateau Castelbruck, Chateau Cru Ducasse, Chateau du Courneau, Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Chateau Haut Breton Larigaudiere, Chateau Haut Condissas, Chateau Haut-Bacalan, Chateau La Tour du Pin Figeac, Chateau LaGrange, Chateau Le Crock, Chateau Royaumont, Chateau Saint-Corbian, Chateau Tour Baladoz, Chateau Trianon, Château de Marmorières, Chianti Classico, Clos Mesorah, Elviwines, Gran Selezione, Herzog Cellars Winery, La Clape, Les Amandiers, Les Roches, Netofa Winery, Pinot Noir, Reserva, Reserve, Rioja, Riserva, Tel Qasser, Terra di Seta, Tischler & Halpern, Tokaji Aszu, White

Paris tasting of Royal’s 2019 and other French wines – November 2021

Dec 2

Posted by winemusings

So, in June I made my way to Paris and I posted the Royal wines I tasted, they were mostly white, rose, and a few red wines as well. For the past many years I have been tasting the new releases from Royal wines with Menahem Israelievitch. Sadly, last year, because of COVID I tasted the 2018 vintage in my house. Thankfully, Paris was open in November, and I returned to taste more wines.

The 2014 vintage to me, was crazy fun because it is less ripe than the 2015 or 2016 vintages. 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 it comes at a crazy high price. I warned you at that time, during the epic post of my visit to Bordeaux with Mr. Israelievitch, 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.

In a previous post about the most recent French wines (at that time in 2017) that were arriving on the market – I already spoke about pricing and supply, so there is no need to talk that over again in this post.

While the 2015 and 2016 vintages were ripe, the 2017 vintage was not ripe at all, with the 2018 vintage making the 2015 ripeness look tame! Well, I am happy to say that the 2019 vintage is far more in control, less heat is obvious, though it showed up in a few wines below. Now that is a very broad-stroke statement that cannot be used uniformly, for the most part, go with it! Thankfully, the 2019 vintage will be priced slightly lower than 2018, overall, more on that below.

The Mevushal push, from Royal wines, is continuing for the USA labels. More wines are being made Mevushal and while I wonder if this is good overall for myself, it makes sense for Royal wines, which in the end, I guess is what matters to them. Will this be an issue? In the past, I have found that the mevushal work of Mr. Israelievitch is top-notch, and just ages the wine rather than ruining it.

The Mevushal wines from France for the 2018/2019/2020 vintages will be the

2020 Les Marrionniers Chablis, Chablis
2020 Chateau Les Riganes, Bordeaux
2020 Chateau Genlaire, Bordeaux Superieur
2018 Des Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild Les Lauriers, Montagne Saint-Emilion
2019 Des Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild Les Lauriers, Montagne Saint-Emilion
2018 Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild, Haut-Medoc
2019 Chateau Greysac, Medoc
2019 Chevalier de Lascombes, Margaux – YES this is new for 2019 – OH! How exciting (note by sarcasm!!!)
2019 Chateau Le Crock, Saint-Estephe, Bordeaux
2018/2019 Chateau de Parsac
2019 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Blanc, Grand Vin – YES this is new for 2019 – OH! How exciting (note by sarcasm!!!)
2019 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Red, Grand Vin – YES this is new for 2019 – OH! How exciting (note by sarcasm!!!)
2018/2020 Chateau Les Riganes, Blanc
2017/2019 Chateau Mayne Guyon

Now does mevushal impede the long-term viability of aging in regards to the wine? Well, that too is not something that we have scientific proof on. I have tasted a mevushal 1999 Herzog Special Edition and it was aging beautifully! Same with the Chateau Le Crock, over the past few years. So, would I buy the mevushal versions of the wines I tasted below! The answer is yes! Would I age them? Yes, I would hold them for slightly fewer years. To me personally, it is very clear, if Royal had their way they would make the Pontet Canet Mevushal! Nothing to Royal is sacred and this will not stop with the list above, it will grow, proof is Chevalier and Gazin!

Other than the mevushal aspect, there are no differences between the European version of the wines and the USA version of the wines. While that sounds obvious, I am just stating it here. The wines will be shipped now and the temperature issues that affected Israel’s wines of old, have not been a factor here.

The 2019 Pricing and access

When the 2019 wines were released “En primeur” the date was late May 2020. The world, at that time, knew nothing about COVID other than it was killing thousands and questions were all we had. Still, wineries in Bordeaux decided to plow on and the first of the virtual tastings took place on May 28th, 2020 – from Chateau Pontet Canet! This was the non-kosher tasting but at that moment when wines were shipped the world over, wineries decided to lower prices! Remember, we had been raising prices year over year, 2014 to 2015, to 2016, to 2018, it was time to reset. The pandemic allowed for that. Thankfully, and sadly, the world has slowly come back from the brink of death, and now, the 2020 vintage, which has the “En primeur“, in Bordeaux, June 2021, raised prices – so yeah, the 2020 Chateau Pontet Canet is more expensive than the 2019 vintage.

On top of that, the 2019 Chateau Pontet Canet is going to be impossible to buy. I have asked why certain wines in the past were not made more often or the such? Like why do we have Leoville every 2 or more years? Why can it not be more like Giscours? The answer I have received, from many at Royal is that folks still fear what happened during the last recession of 2007/2008. They had made too much of Leoville and Pontet Canet, in a short period, and well, sadly it sat. I get it, who wants to stare at walls of wine they cannot sell?
My issue with that is – well that was more than 15 years ago guys! Maybe a better way to say it is to channel Dorthy – Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
Do we believe that another 100 cases would not sell?? The Malartic white is almost sold out! Malartic white! A wine no one thought they could sell 10 years ago. The world of the kosher wine consumer has moved in leaps and bounds – to continue to think like it is still 2008 is to belittle us and deny many what they want – more Pontet Canet! I will get off my soapbox, but it is truly time to stop with the kneejerk mindset. Like no 2019 Chateau Leoville Poyferre, why? Look at the famous 2014 Chateau Montviel story! It sold out in a week. Why? Because there was so little made. Again, the kosher consumer has moved past the days of old – I think it is time for Royal to do the same.

I understand that when Pontet Canet started up, again, with a new run of kosher wine, they created a separate sub-winery for the production. Further, they replicated the process, the varietal blend, and overall physical impact. The physical impact does define the total potential output, but it is time to start to grow the market. The market can and should support large output, especially in the trophy wine space, you can always control the output by skipping a vintage, in the end, Giscours and Leoville have proven it is doable, and I hope that Royal will continue to feel comfortable and grow Pontet and Leoville as we progress down the road.

Still, as always, we are indebted to the work of Menahem Israelievitch and Royal Wines for producing so many wonderful wines, even if they are in low supply. The 2019 Chateau Pontet Canet is a very different wine than the 2003 or the 2004 Chateau Pontet Canet. First of all, the system used to make those wines, back then, have changed drastically in the past 10 years, at the Chateau. Everything is now over the top, in regards to everything there. All production is done by hand and that adds to the cost. To me, the wine is also very different, stylistically, gone is the powerhouse, what we have now is a refined masterpiece. It may shock some people, and that is good, but to me, it is a classically styled and built wine for the future, and the best wines I have tasted this year, so far anyway.

Tasting in Paris

I landed in Paris, the day before this tasting and I met up with Avi Davidowitz from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog. It was a true joy to hang out with Mr. Davidowitz for a few days. It was so nice of him to fly from Israel to join me in the tastings. We also tasted over 70 wines – outside of the planned tastings. We thankfully had a great hotel room and it gave us loads of space to hang out and taste through those wines.

We had the chance to taste both the Mevushal and the non-Mevushal versions of two wines, side-by-side. Those were the 2019 Chevalier de Lascombes and the 2019 Chateau Le Crock. I missed the Chevalier de Lascombes but I got the Chateau La Crock. In my defense, both of the Chevalier de Lascombes are ripe, and differentiating the ripe from the riper was not obvious, but hey, I missed it!

My many thanks to Menahem Israelievitch for going out of his way to help me to taste all the current French wines from Royal Wines before they were publicly released. The labels on the pictures may not all have a kosher symbol, but that was because they rushed some of the bottles to Mr. Israelievitch before they were properly labeled with supervision symbols attached. My many thanks to Mr. Israelievitch, Royal Europe, and Royal Wines for making this tasting possible in the first place, and secondly, for taking the time to taste the wines with me.

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 Domaine Ternynck Bourgogne, Les Truffieres, Burgundy (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is ripe apple, pear, melon, a bit of citrus, and spice. The mouth on this wine is nice but lacks the acidity to make it come together well, with melon, pear, mineral, and spice. The finish is a bit short with hints of nectarine, orange, mango, and sweet mint. Drink now. (tasted November 2021) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)

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Posted in Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, Wine, Wine Tasting

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Tags: Barons de Rothschild Edmond Benjamin, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superieur, Burgundy, Chateau Canteloup, Chateau de Parsac, Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Chateau Genlaire, Chateau Giscours, Chateau Greysac, Chateau Haut Condissas, Chateau La Clare, Chateau LaGrange, Chateau Le Crock, Chateau Les Riganes, Chateau Moulin Riche, Chateau Pontet Canet, Chateau Rollan de By, Chateau Royaumont, Chateau Saint-Corbian, Chateau Tour Seran, Chateau Trijet, Chateau Yon-Figeac, Château Malmaison Baronne Nadine, Chevalier de Lascombes, Domaine Ternynck Bourgogne, Etoiles de Mondorion, Grand Cru, Grand Cru Classe en 1855, Haut-Medoc, Lalande de Pomerol, Les Brulis, Les Lauriers, Les Marronniers Chablis, Les Roches, Les Truffieres, Margaux, Medoc, Montagne Saint-Emilion, Montee de Tonnerre, Pauillac, Premier Cru, Royal Wine, Saint-Emilion, Saint-Estephe, Saint-Julien, Wine Tasting

Finishing my tasting of Royal Wine’s 2018 French wines in California

Jul 1

Posted by winemusings

I know some of you are hoping for posts from my trip to France. However, I need to clean-up some missing posts, I have a lot of wine that needed to be posted and now I will do those quickly. After that I will start posting the wines I tasted in France.

So, back in November 2020, I did a tasting at my home to taste the 2018 wines from Royal, at least the ones that were here in the USA at that time. I will skip much of the text that I wrote then, but I will repost all the 2018 notes, to make it complete. Remember, all my notes have tasting dates on them.

While the 2015 and 2016 vintages were ripe, and the 2017 vintage was not ripe at all, the 2018 vintage makes the 2015 ripeness look tame! Now that is a very broad-stroke statement that cannot be used uniformly, but for the most part, go with it!

I see no reason to repeat what Decanter did – so please read this and I will repeat a few highlights below.

For a start, the drought came later in 2018,’ says Marchal, pointing out that early July saw less rain in 2016. ‘But when it came in 2018, it was more abrupt, with the green growth stopping across the whole region at pretty much the same time’. He sees it closer to 2009, but with more density to the fruit. … and high alcohols!
Alcohols will be highest on cooler soils that needed a long time to ripen, so the Côtes, the Satellites, and the cooler parts of St-Emilion have alcohols at 14.5-15%abv and more. I heard of one Cabernet Franc coming in at 16.5%abv, but that is an exception. In earlier-ripening areas, such as Pessac-Léognan and Pomerol, alcohols are likely to be more balanced at 13.5% or 14%abv, as they will have reached full phenolic ripeness earlier.
‘Pessac-Léognan did the best perhaps because it’s an early ripening site,’ said Marie-Laurence Porte of Enosens, ‘so they were able to get grapes in before over-concentration. If you had to wait for phenolic ripeness, that is where things could get difficult’.
The final averages per grape, according to Fabien Faget of Enosens, are Sauvignon Blanc 13.5%abv, Sémillon 12.5%abv, Merlot 14.5%abv, and Cabernet Sauvignon 14%abv’.

Final comments, disclaimer, and warnings

These wines are widely available in the USA, so support your local wine stores folks – they need your help! If you live in a wine-drinking desert, like California, support the online/shipping folks on the side of this blog. They are folks I buy from (as always – I NEVER get a bonus/kickback for your purchases)!

Again, I am just posting the 2018 reds and a couple of other wines that have changed in a good and bad way. My many thanks to Royal Wine for their help in procuring some of these wines. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

2018 Les Marronniers Chablis (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
Sadly, as I continue to watch this wine evolve I feel it is not a wine that I will stock up on. This and the 1er Cru, sadly. The reason is that the wine keeps losing acidity as it ages. We opened the wine on Friday afternoon, and even then it had turned, and by Shabbat morning the acidity was far removed from where it was on Friday and that feels further removed from my notes and memories.
This wine is made with native yeasts and as little manipulation as possible. The nose on this wine is beautiful with orange blossom, yellow apple, and rosehip, with lemon curd, and yeasty and creamy notes. The mouth was lovely in the past, at this point, it has moved even further. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is not as acidic as in the past and it is time to drink, sweet Meyer lemon, quince, pie crust, with Anjou pear, and nice peach. The finish is a bit short, with baked pear and apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, some mineral, and now the fruit is showing sweeter. Drink now. (tasted March 2021)

2018 Les Marronniers Chablis, Premier Cru, Cote de Jouan – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, as I continue to watch this wine evolve I feel it is not a wine that I will stock up on. This and the 1er Cru, sadly. The reason is that the wine keeps losing acidity as it ages. We opened the wine on Friday afternoon, and even then it had turned, and by Shabbat morning the acidity was far removed from where it was on Friday and that feels further removed from my notes and memories.
The nose on this wine still shows floral notes, starting with rosehip and yellow flowers, followed by some minerals, slate, blossom water, apple, and smoke. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is where things have gone wrong, with a bit of weight at this time, yellow apple, some citrus, Asian Pear, nice peach/apricot, Orange pith, hints of nectarines and orange. Sadly, as I state above the acidity slows early and leaves in a few hours, so while I loved the wine at release, it is not for long holding. Drink now. (tasted March 2021)

Red Wines ordered by Vintage and QPR

2018 Chateau Le Crock, Saint-Estephe (M) – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine, is deep dark beautiful notes of black and red fruit, with rich salinity, mineral galore, with lovely tar, smoke, and what I crave from French wine – DIRT, DIRT, and more dirt! The nose is lovely, with green notes lurking in the background, and lovely licorice.
So, while I have been unhappy with the 2018 vintage so far, this wine returns my hope for the vintage, this wine is better than 2016, and that IS SAYING a lot!
This wine is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc. The 2018 vintage has more Cab in it and it smells blacker than 2016 in many more ways than just that. Lovely wine! The blueberry of the past is gone and all you get is this intense earth, dirt, smoke, along with some shockingly beautiful violet, black and red fruit bonanza, with ripples of minerality through it – bravo and this is the Mevushal version!
The mouth on this full-bodied beast is impressive, with rich extraction, like in 2016, deeply concentrated, yet with lovely finesse and elegance, showing a richness that belies its youth, with blackberry, dark, yet controlled, plum, dark raspberry, earth, cherry, smoke, and a mouth draping elegance in the tannin structure that is impressive for its youth, with a lovely plushness, with deep furrows of graphite, saline, and rock. The finish is long, not so green, there is a few green notes, more in the way of tobacco than in the way of foliage, but here the finish is about the dirt, loam, forest floor, smoke, and dark chocolate, with hints of oak, with crazy acidity, leather, all wrapped in roasted herbs that linger long and forever. Bravo!!! This is the best Chateau Le Crock, I have ever tasted, at least in regards to the Mevushal version! Drink from 2025 until 2037. Incredible! (tasted Nov 2020)

2018 Chateau Royaumont, Grand Vin Bordeaux – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 70% Merlot & 30% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is balanced, though a bit ripe, with bright fruit, ripe plum, dark cherry, anise, menthol, tobacco, with green notes from the Cabernet Franc, foliage, smoke, and slightly burnt oak. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is well-balanced, with loads of fruit to start, layered, concentrated, plush, with screaming acid, black raspberry, plum, smoke, oak, rich fruit, nice saline, good dirt, earth, black pepper, with ripe fruit, and loads of mouth draping tannin. The finish is long, ripe, with loads of sweet chewing tobacco, dark chocolate almost milky, with more earth, graphite, and smoke galore. Nice! Drink from 2028 until 2034. (tasted May 2021)

2018 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 44% each Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The nose on this wine is ripe, scary ripe, but under a blanket of dirt, earth, smoke, more ripe fruit, mushroom, forest floor, and earth, wow! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, rich, layered, elegant, but ripe, but the ripeness is balanced well by the acidity, with incredible dirt, along with floral notes, blackberry, currant, plum, and rich salinity, with dark chocolate, smoke, and rich loam, acid galore, and smoke. The finish is long, green, black, and mineral-driven, with loads of scrapping graphite, dirt, and foliage, wow! Bravo!! Drink from 2026 until 2033. (tasted January 2021)

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Posted in Kosher Dessert Wine, Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, Wine, Wine Tasting

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Tags: 1er Cru, 2018 Chateau Fontenil, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Chateau Cantenac Brown, Chateau Clarke, Chateau Du Tertre, Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Chateau Giscours, Chateau Guiraud, Chateau Le Crock, Chateau Malartic Lagraviere, Chateau Meyney, Chateau Montviel, Chateau Piada, Chateau Rayne Vigneau, Chateau Royaumont, Château Grand-Puy Ducasse, Château Lascombes, Fronsac, Les Marronniers Chablis, Listrac-Medoc, Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre, Petit Guiraud, Pomerol, Royal Wine, Saint-Estephe, Saint-Julien

Tasting of Royal Wine’s 2018 and some 2019 French wines in California

Nov 23

Posted by winemusings

Well, it is official, 2020 continues to take, and though my annoyances are minor in comparison to the pain others are feeling, it still has impacted my routine, which I guess is the story of 2020. For the past three years, I have been tasting Royal’s latest wines with the man in France for Royal, Menahem Israelievitch. Sadly, this year, no matter how much I planned and tried, it is a no go. So, for the first time, in a long time, the tasting will be here in Cali and it will only be a small part of the 2018 and 2019 wines, such is life.

So, no there will not be a picture with all the wines, and some of the wines from last year are still not here right now! But, I will post here what I did taste so far, and my overall feeling of the 2018 and 2019 vintages.

I see no reason to repeat what Decanter did – so please read this and I will repeat a few highlights below.

For a start, the drought came later in 2018,’ says Marchal, pointing out that early July saw less rain in 2016. ‘But when it came in 2018, it was more abrupt, with the green growth stopping across the whole region at pretty much the same time’. He sees it closer to 2009, but with more density to the fruit. … and high alcohols!
Alcohols will be highest on cooler soils that needed a long time to ripen, so the Côtes, the Satellites, and the cooler parts of St-Emilion have alcohols at 14.5-15%abv and more. I heard of one Cabernet Franc coming in at 16.5%abv, but that is an exception. In earlier-ripening areas, such as Pessac-Léognan and Pomerol, alcohols are likely to be more balanced at 13.5% or 14%abv, as they will have reached full phenolic ripeness earlier.
‘Pessac-Léognan did the best perhaps because it’s an early ripening site,’ said Marie-Laurence Porte of Enosens, ‘so they were able to get grapes in before over-concentration. If you had to wait for phenolic ripeness, that is where things could get difficult’.
The final averages per grape, according to Fabien Faget of Enosens, are Sauvignon Blanc 13.5%abv, Sémillon 12.5%abv, Merlot 14.5%abv, and Cabernet Sauvignon 14%abv’.

The Mevushal push, from Royal wines, is continuing for the USA labels, a fact I wonder about more and more. Look, if you are going to force Mevushal wine down our throats, why not import BOTH? If you look at the numbers for wines like we will taste in the post, the majority of the buyers are not restaurants or caterers. Sorry! No matter how much Royal Wines wants to fool itself into thinking. Throw in COVID and FORGET about this INSANITY, please! I beg of you!

There is no denying that it affects the wine, it does. I have tasted the Chateau Le Crock side by side, the Mevushal, and non-Mevushal and while I feel that Royal does a good job with the boiling, it is still affected. If you want to have Mevushal wines in the USA, then bring them BOTH in! Royal does this for Capcanes Peraj Petita and the undrinkable Edom and others in Israel. So what Royal is saying is – that could not sell the Chateau Le Crock numbers that they import into the USA without boiling it? Why else would they feel forced to boil it and import it if not otherwise? To me, it makes me sad, and in a way, it disrespects what Royal is trying to do to its French wine portfolio, IMHO. They should, at minimum, import both! Allow for the caterers and restaurants (like anyone needs that nowadays – HUH???) to have the Mevushal version and sell the non-mevushal version to us, as you do with Edom and Petita. There I have stated my peace, I am 100% sure I will be ignored – but I have tried!

The Mevushal wines from France for the 2018/2019 vintage will be, the 2018 Barons Edmond et Benjamin de Rothschild, Haut-Medoc, 2018 Chateau Greysac, 2018 Chateau Chateau de Parsac, 2018 Les Lauriers, Des Domaines Edmond de Rothschild, 2018 Chateau Le Crock, 2019 Chateau Les Riganes, Red, 2018 Chateau Genlaire, along with the whites wines, the 2019 Bourgogne Les Truffieres, Chardonnay, the 2019 Les Marronniers, Chablis, and the 2019 Chateau Les Riganes, Blanc.

Now does mevushal impede the long-term viability of aging in regards to the wine? Well, that too is not something that we have scientific proof of. I have tasted a mevushal 1999 Herzog Special Edition and it was aging beautifully! So, would I buy the mevushal versions of the wines I tasted below – yes! Would I age them? Yes, I would hold them for slightly fewer years.

The “other” wines not here yet or I have not had

There is the just-released 2018 Château Cantenac Brown Margaux (will post that when I get it), along with these yet unreleased wines. The 2019 Chateau Gazin Blanc (2018 was/is INCREDIBLE), 2018 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, 2018 Château Meyney Saint Estèphe, 2018 Chateau Giscours, 2018 Chateau Lascombes, 2018 Chatyeau Tertre, and 2018 Chateau Royaumont.

I understand this is a sub-optimal situation and blog post. It does not cover Royal’s 2018/2019 European wine portfolio. Still, it covers what has been released (or very close to it), here in the USA, and hopefully, it will help you. One day soon, I hope and pray, things will return to some semblance of normalcy, and we will all travel around again. Until then, this is the best I can do. Stay safe!

Final comments, disclaimer, and warnings

First, there are a TON of QPR winners but there are also a LOT of good wines that I will be buying. Please NOTE vintages. The 20016 Haut Condissas is a disaster while the 2017 vintage is fantastic! So, please be careful!

Sadly, there was no plane trip, no hotels, no restaurants, nothing. So, no trip to talk about – just the wines and my lovely home! Stay safe all and here are the wines I have had so far. I have also posted many scores of 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 wines which are still for sale here in the USA. My many thanks to Royal Wine for their help in procuring some of these wines. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

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Posted in Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher Semi Sweet Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, Wine, Wine Tasting

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Tags: 2018 Chateau Fontenil, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Barons de Rothschild Edmond Benjamin, Blanc, Blaye, Chablis, Chateau Clarke, Chateau D'Arveyres, Chateau de Parsac, Chateau de Santenay, Chateau Du Tertre, Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Chateau Genlaire, Chateau Giscours, Chateau Greysac, Chateau Guiraud, Chateau Haut Condissas, Chateau La Clare, Chateau La Petit Chaban, Chateau La Tonnelle, Chateau Lamothe-Cissac, Chateau Le Crock, Chateau Leoville Poyferre, Chateau Les Riganes, Chateau Malartic Lagraviere, Chateau Mayne Guyon, Chateau Montviel, Chateau Moulin Riche, Chateau Piada, Chateau Rollan de By, Chateau Royaumont, Chateau Saint-Corbian, Chateau Signac, Chateau Tour Seran, Château Lascombes, Chevalier de Lascombes, Cote de Jouan, Coteaux du Giennois, Cotes Du Rhone, Domaine de Panquelaine, Domaine Ternynck Bourgogne, Fronsac, Grand Cru, Grand Cru Classe, Haut-Medoc, Jean-Pierre Bailly, Lalande de Pomerol, Le Classique, Les Bois de Lalier, Les Lauriers, Les Marronniers Chablis, Les Roches, Les Truffieres, Limited Edition, Listrac-Medoc, Margaux, Medoc, Mercurey, mevushal, Montagne-St-Emilion, Old Vines, Pascal Bouchard, Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre, Pessac-Leognan, Petit Guiraud, Pliocene, Pomerol, Pouilly-Fume, Premier Cru, Premier Grand Cru Classe, Prestige, QPR, Ramon Cardova, Rioja, Saint-Emilion, Saint-Estephe, Saint-Julien, Sancerre, Sauternes, Sauvignon Blanc, Sec

The Top QPR Kosher wine winners of 2019

Feb 6

Posted by winemusings

I continue to lament the lack of QPR wines. If there was ONE thing I wanted on my year in review than anything else, it was lower prices. To be fair, this year’s list of QPR wines is longer than last year, and the scores are higher, but I also moved the QPR price bar up a bit to 40 dollars. So, what we are seeing here is price inflation for QPR, at least the higher-end QPR wines.

Once again, Royal has some crazy good wines, even from the 2017 vintage, but the prices are high. Yes, there are some nicely priced wines, but to get the 2017 Montviel or the 2017 Gazin, you will be in the 50 to 70 dollar range.

Also, in my top wines of the year, there was only ONE wine that clocked in at 95, and yeah, that wine is priced accordingly, at 140 dollars.

Netofa Wines are finally back and it shows! They are all over this QPR list. This list is not a list of wines that are meant for cellaring, though many can withstand a few years. The idea here is to enjoy these wines now while you let the long-term wines cellar and age. We all have that interest to drink interesting wines and while I agree with that, that is NO excuse to raid the cellar when u have a hunkering for a complex nose or flavor. Many of these wines will scratch the itch while the beasts’ lie and settle.

This year, the list came to a total of 26 names, and none had to dip below 90 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.

Finally, some of these wines are hard to find and they may have different siblings – but they are worth the effort. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

The 2019 Red QRP kosher kings

2017 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR Superstar)
The wine is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. I liked the 2016 vintage but this one may be better! The nose on this wine is pure hedonism, with incredible soy sauce, mushroom, and loads of umami, with crazy smoke, blueberry, earth, mineral galore, and black fruit, with herbs. WOW!!! The mouth on this wine carries the umami madness, with a richness in the mouth that is plush, and layered with less mushroom and more truffles, with loads of blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, smoke, mineral, all wrapped in a rich, layered, umami madness, with tobacco mineral, graphite joy, wow!! Incredible. The wine is ripe, and the voluptuous mouthfeel comes from the combination of oak, ripe fruit, mushroom, and mineral, it will be fun to see this one in three years. The finish on this wine is nuts, layered and ripe, with smoke, mushroom, and tobacco, graphite, charcoal, and more mushroom. Bravo!! Drink from 2021 until 2028. This can be drunk almost now, but it needs time to really be appreciated.

2017 Les Roches de Yon-Figeac, Saint-Emilion, Grand Cru – Score: 93 to 94 (QPR Superstar)
This is great, the Royaumont is mushroom and soy sauce and the Les Roches de Yon-Figeac is mushroom and barnyard heaven, it is insane. The nose on this wine is crazy barnyard, mushroom, forest floor, with freshly tilled earth, followed by a stick of graphite right in the eye, with crazy salinity, and loads of black fruit, wow! The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is really fun, layered, with squid-ink notes, with layers upon layers of plush and rich fruit structure, with incredible acidity, salinity, and graphite core, with crazy blackberry, blackcurrant, with dark berries, and smoke, with graphite taking center stage, followed by intense acid, and more mineral, with layers of earth, and lovely roasted herb, and screaming tannin structure that will last for a long time. The finish si long, green and ripe, with mineral at its core, followed by more squid ink, plushness that belies the searing tannin, and a fruit structure that lasts forever. Incredible! Bravo! Drink from 2023 until 2030. (the price is a bit too high to make it on this list and it is not in the USA, but it is so good, I cannot ignore it)

2015 Clos Lavaud, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 92 to 93 (QPR madness)
The nose on this wine is lovely, far more controlled than the 2014 vintage while also being richer and brighter, showing notes of dark fruit, followed by loads of incredible mineral, with saline, graphite, forest floor, and mushroom, with dark red fruit, and loam that goes on forever. The mouth on this wine is ripe, but in such an old-world manner, with rich loam, bright fruit, great acidity, mouth-draping tannin that is elegant, well-structured, and a focal point for the layers of elegant blackberry, smoke, blackcurrant, dark ripe cherry, wrapped in plush tannin, sweet cedar notes, with incredible saline and mineral, with a plush forest floor that will give way to mushroom madness in the future, with an elegance that is really impressive, and a wine that is now just starting to show its potential. The finish is long,m green, with garrigue, foliage, more forest floor, with a plush yet velvety structure that is vacked with core-acidity and mineral, dark chocolate, licorice, leather, and fine spices. Bravo!! Drink from 2021 until 2028. Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Israeli Wine, Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher Sparkling Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, Wine, Wine Industry

4 Comments

Tags: Albarino, Alexander Valley, Alsace, Baron David, Blanc, Blanc de Blanc, Bodega Flechas de Los Andes, Bordeaux, Brut, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Chateau Bois Cardon, Chateau Greysac, Chateau La Tonnelle, Chateau Les Riganes, Chateau Roc de Boissac, Chateau Royaumont, Chateau Signac, Chateau Yon-Figeac, Chianti Classico, Clos Lavaud, Cotes Du Rhone, Domaine Netofa, Eagle's Landing, Elviwines, Frankstein, Gewurztraminer, Gilgal, Goose Bay, Gran Malbec, Grand Cru, Haut-Medoc, Herenza Semi, Herzog Cellars Winery, Joseph Mellot, Koenig, La Graveliere, Lalande de Pomerol, latour netofa, Les Marronniers Chablis, Les Roches, Lineage, mevushal, Pinot Noir, Pliocene, Premier Cru, Prestige, Puisseguin-Saint-Emilion, Ramon Cardova, Red, Reserve, Rias Baixas, Riesling, Rioja, Riserva, Rose, Saint-Emilion, Sancerre, Sauvignon Blanc, Tel Qasser, Terra di Seta, White, Yarden Winery

My top 30 kosher wines of 2019 including wine of the year, Winery of the year, and best wine of the year awards

Feb 6

Posted by winemusings

Like last year, I wanted to make this post short and sweet – so the criteria are simple I could care less about price, color, or where it was made. All that matters is that it is/was available this year sometime to the public at large and that I tasted it in a reliable environment, not just at a tasting, and that it was scored a 93 or higher. Also, there are a few lower scoring wines here because of their uniqueness or really good QPR.

We are returning with the “wine of the year”, and “best wine of the year” while adding in a new category called “Winery of the Year”, and another new category, the best White wine of the year. Wine of the year will go to a wine that distinguished itself in ways that are beyond the normal. It needs to be a wine that is easily available, incredible in style and flavor, and it needs to be reasonable in price. It may be the QPR wine of the year or sometimes it will be a wine that so distinguished itself for other reasons. The wines of the year are a type of wine that is severely unappreciated, though ones that have had a crazy renaissance, over the past two years. The Best Wine of the year goes to a wine well worthy of the title, especially with its 2016 vintage.

This past year, I think I am pretty sure about my statement. In the past, I had not yet tasted the pape Clement or other such wines. However, over the past year, those have been covered, and they were a serious letdown. As stated in the article, I truly believe the entire kosher production of the Megrez wines, following the EPIC 2014 vintage of the Pape Clement and others, to be below quality and seriously overpriced and without value in every category, which is a true shame. The 2015 reds are all poor quality and the whites are not much better, in 2015 and 2016. The 2016 Pape Clement, while better, is a total ripoff for what it is.

There are also interesting wines below the wines of the year, think of them as runner-up wines of the year. There will be no rose wines on the list this year – blame that on the poor crop or rose wines overall, it was, by far, the worst kosher Rose vintage. Thankfully, the task of culling the bounty of great wines to come to these top wines was really more a task of removing then adding. I may have stated the obvious in my last post, about the state of kosher wine in general, and not all of it was very good. Still, as I stated, we are blessed with more QPR wines and more top wines, while the core pool of wines, which are horribly poor, continue to grow larger and larger.

The supreme bounty comes from the fact that Royal released the 2017 French wines a bit early! Throw in the incredible number of kosher European wines that are coming to the USA and being sold in Europe and this was truly a year of bounty for European kosher wines.

Now, separately, I love red wines, but white wines – done correctly, are a whole other story! Sadly, in regards to whites, we had no new wines from Germany. Thankfully, we had Domaine Netofa and Yaccov Oryah’s Orange and white Wines to come to the rescue. Throw in Vitkin’s good work, and more great work by Royal Europe, including the new Gazin Blanc, and others, and you have quite a crop of fun white wines!

Some of these wines are available in the USA, some only in Europe, and a few only available in Israel.

The 2019 kosher wines of the year – we have a four-way TIE all from Yarden!

Yes! You have read it correctly, the wines of the year come from Golan Heights Winery (AKA Yarden Winery), the 4th largest date juice producer in the entire world! The top date juice honor belongs to Barkan Winery, but I digress.

So, why is Yarden here, because albeit’s deep desire to throw away years of work creating very nice wines, at a reasonable price, with its wines from the early 2000s and before, it still makes the best kosher sparkling wines, and it is time that it receives its due.

As I stated in my year in review, the kosher wine public has finally awoken to the joy of sparkling wine! Last week I told a friend I popped a sparkler for Shabbat lunch and he replied in a sarcastic tone, “Oh only a sparkler”, like that was a crazy thing to do. I replied that the Gamla (AKA Gilgal) Brut costs less than most white wines do! Why not pop one with lunch on Shabbat??? Others tell me, yes there is more a public appreciation for Sparkling wines, but it is a different wine category. I do not agree! Sure, sparkling wine has bubbles, so yeah, it is different. However, that is EXACTLY what is wrong here, Sparkling wine is just white or rose wine with bubbles. Who cares? When it is well made, it is a wine like any other wine.

Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Israeli Wine, Kosher Dessert Wine, Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher Sparkling Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, Wine, Wine Industry

7 Comments

Tags: Albarino, Aloxe-Corton, Alpha Omega, Aux Herbues, Bianco Umbria, Blanc, Blanc de Blanc, Brut, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chablis, Chalk Hill, Chateau Cheval Brun, Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Chateau Giscours, Chateau Haut Condissas, Chateau la Tour de By, Chateau Leoville Poyferre, Chateau Peyrat-Fourthon, Chateau Royaumont, Chateau Tour Seran, Chateau Yon-Figeac, Chateauneuf du Pape, Chevalier de Lascombes, Chianti Classico, Clone Six, Clos Lavaud, Cuvee Anais, Domaine Chantal Lescure, Domaine Condorcet, Domaine D'Ardhuy, Domaine Netofa, Domaine Roses Camille, Eagle's Landing, Eccelenza, Elviwines, Falanghina, Gamla, Gevrey Chambertin, Gewurztraminer, Gilgal, Golan Heights Winery, Grand Cru, Haut-Medoc, Herenza Reserva, Heritage Marc Pages, Herzog Cellars Winery, Insight, Jean-Philippe Marchand, Joseph Mellot, Kaab Ranch, Kabb Ranch, Kos Yeshuos, La Graveliere, Lalande de Pomerol, Late Bottled Vintage, Late Harvest, latour netofa, LBV, Les Marronniers Chablis, Les Roches, Macabeo, Margaux, Medoc, Nuits Saint Georges, Pessac-Leognan, Pinot Noir, Pomerol, Pommard, Port, Premier Cru, Prestige, Ramon Cardova, Rias Baixas, Riserva, Saint-Emilion, Sancerre, Silent Hunter, Single Vineyard, Special Edition, Tel Qasser, Terra di Seta, The Anthology of Spice, The First Anthology, Vitkin Winery, White, Yaacov Oryah Winery, Yarden Winery

Tasting of Royal’s 2017 and some 2018 French wines in France

Nov 26

Posted by winemusings

This is my third year tasting wines with Menahem Israelievitch in Paris and it is the first one that is not related to my visit to Bordeaux three years ago, almost to the date of this tasting (give or take two weeks). Three years ago, I was given the opportunity to taste many of the 2015 and 2016 wines from the barrel at each of the wineries in Bordeaux.

While the 2015 and 2016 vintages were ripe, the 2017 vintage is not like that at all. The 2017 vintage in Bordeaux, though this is a massive simplification and generalization of the 2017 vintage, was overall less ripe than the 2015/16 vintages and maybe even in some cases a drop less than the 2014 vintage. The 2017 vintage flowered early and then the frost came, which killed off a fair amount of the fruit from the vines (Grapevines are self-pollinating and as such the flowers are an all-or-nothing situation in regards to yield). Quality itself is not affected by the early frost which froze the flowers, while the rest of the season was mostly OK, except for the late rains that diluted some of the acidity, again this is an overall generalization, with varying degrees of difference between the Chateaus.

The Mevushal wines from France for the 2017 vintage will be, the 2017 Barons Edmond et Benjamin de Rothschild, Haut-Medoc, 2017 Chateau Greysac, 2017 Chateau Chateau de Parsac, 2017 Les Lauriers, Des Domaines Edmond de Rothschild, 2017 Chateau Le Crock, 2017 Cuvee Hautes Terres, Chateau Fourcas Dupre, along with the whites wines, the 2018 Bourgogne Les Truffieres, Chardonnay, the 2018 Les Marronniers, Chablis, and the 2018 Chateau Les Riganes, Blanc.

Now does mevushal impede the long-term viability of aging in regards to the wine? Well, that too is not something that we have scientific proof on. I have tasted a mevushal 1999 Herzog Special Edition and it was aging beautifully! So, would I buy the mevushal versions of the wines I tasted below – absolutely! Would I age them? Yes, I would hold them for slightly fewer years.

Other than the mevushal aspect, there are no differences between the European version of the wines and the USA version of the wines. While that sounds obvious, I am just stating it here. The wines will be shipped now and the temperature issues that clearly affected Israel’s wines of old, have not been a factor here.

Tasting in Paris

I landed in Paris, got showered and the such, and then made my way to lunch with Menahem Israelievitch. This year I was not alone in my tasting, I was joined by Avi Davidowitz from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog. After lunch, we went to a lovely home to do the tasting. The wines were all laid out in the order for the tasting, and one by one we went through the 30 wines. There was one missing wine, the 2018 Chateau Genlaire, Bordeaux Superieur and two of the wines were bad, I did taste them later in the week and they are listed here as if I tasted them at the tasting.

The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

2018 Les Marronniers Chablis, 2018 Domaine Ternynck Bourgogne, Les Truffieres,2018 Chateau Les Riganes, Blanc,2018 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Blanc,2018 Ramon Cardova Albarino

Menachem Israelievitch with the 2018 Chateau Signac, 2018 Chateau Trijet, 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild, 2017 Chateau de Parsac, 2017 Chateau Royaumont

2018 Chateau Signac, 2018 Chateau Trijet, 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild, 2017 Chateau de Parsac, 2017 Chateau Royaumont - bl

2017 Cuvee Hautes Terres, Chateau Fourcas Dupre, 2017 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, 2016 Chateau Greysac, 2017 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt

2017 Cuvee Hautes Terres, Chateau Fourcas Dupre, 2017 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, 2016 Chateau Greysac, 2017 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt - bl

2017 Chevalier de Lascombes, 2017 Chateau Giscours, 2017 Chateau La Crock (mevushal), 2017 Chateau La Crock, 2017 Chateau Moulin Riche, 2017 Chateau Leoville Poyferre

2017 Chateau Royaumont, 2017 Les Roches de Yon-Figeac, 2016 Barons Edmund Benjamin de Rothschild, 2017 Barons Edmund Benjamin de Rothschild

2017 Chateau Royaumont, 2017 Les Roches de Yon-Figeac, 2016 Barons Edmund Benjamin de Rothschild, 2017 Barons Edmund Benjamin de Rothschild - bl

2016 Chateau Rollan de By, 2016 Chateau Tour Seran, 2016 Chateau La Clare, 2016 Chateau Haut Condissas

2016 Chateau Rollan de By, 2016 Chateau Tour Seran, 2016 Chateau La Clare, 2016 Chateau Haut Condissas - bl

2018 Les Marronniers Chablis – Score: 93 (QPR madness) (Mevushal)
This wine is made with native yeasts and as little manipulation as possible. The nose on this wine is beautiful with orange blossom, yellow apple, and rosehip, with lemon curd, and yeasty and creamy notes. This is so much better than the 2016 or 2017 vintage, this is so much fun! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is crazy fun, intense acidity, incredible salinity, piercing, almost painful, with lovely layers of lemon, grapefruit, with quince, and pie crust, with Anjou pear, and quince. The finish is long, crazy long, almost oily, mostly creamy, with baked pear and apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and loads of mineral, with slate, rock, and saline. Bravo!! Drink until 2023 maybe 2024.

2018 Les Marronniers Chablis, Premier Cru, Cote de Jouan – Score: 92 to 93 (QPR)
The nose on this wine is closed, but it shows lovely notes of mineral, slate, blossom water, and loads of citrus, with apple, and smoke. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is rich, layered, and impressive, with a rich oily mouthfeel, showing a lovely weight, with yellow apple, tart citrus, Asian Pear, and beautiful acidity that is well integrated with a strong mineral core, showing Orange pith, with tart citrus and slate and yellow plum, with saline, and more earth and hints of nectarines and orange. Lovely! Drink from 2020 to 2024 may be longer. Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher Sparkling Wine, Kosher White Wine, Kosher Wine, Wine, Wine Tasting

17 Comments

Tags: Barons de Rothschild Edmond Benjamin, Blanc, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superieur, Chablis, Champagne, Chateau de Parsac, Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Chateau Genlaire, Chateau Giscours, Chateau Haut Condissas, Chateau La Clare, Chateau Le Crock, Chateau Leoville Poyferre, Chateau Les Riganes, Chateau Moulin Riche, Chateau Rollan de By, Chateau Royaumont, Chateau Signac, Chateau Tour Seran, Chateau Trijet, Chateau Yon-Figeac, Chevalier de Lascombes, Cote de Jouan, Cotes Du Rhone, Cuvee Hautes Terres de Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Domaine Ternynck Bourgogne, Drappier, Grand Cru, Haut-Medoc, Lalande de Pomerol, Les Brulis, Les Lauriers, Les Marronniers Chablis, Les Roches, Les Truffieres, Listrac-Medoc, Margaux, Medoc, Montagne Saint-Emilion, Pessac-Leognan, Pinot Noir, Pliocene, Premier Cru, QPR, Rose de Saignee, Rothschild, Saint-Emilion, Saint-Estephe, Saint-Julien

2015 Terra di Seta Riserva, Chianti Classico – QPR superstar of Italy, 2016 Chateau Royaumont, and others

Nov 11

Posted by winemusings

This past Shabbat I enjoyed the latest release from Terra di Seta, the 2015 Terra di Seta Riserva (PLEASE STOP spelling it Reserve), and yes it was sold out, but now it is back in stock, but I would buy ASAP as you cannot keep these darn wines in stock. I have a new idea for Terra di Seta, produce double the quantity going forward because we can never get enough of any of it!

Since I was finally trying the 2015 Terra di Seta Riserva I thought I would taste it side by side with other Italian wines. Sadly, none of them came close to the TDS’s quality. Two of them tasted like oxidized date juice while the 2018 Cantina Giuliano Chianti may well be the first wine from this winery that I would buy, it was close anyway. I also tried an Israeli wine that GG (Gabriel Geller) kvelled about and sadly I cannot join him in his praise.

Finally, I once again opened a bottle of the 2016 Chateau Royaumont and WOW is it fun, it is a bit ripe but it really is well balanced.

What can I say, Royal Wines keep on killing it with QPR options that are top-notch! The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

2015 Terra di Seta, Riserva, Chianti Classico, 2015 Borgo Reale Chianti Riserva, 2017 Borgo Bella Chianti, 2018 Cantino Giuliano Chianti

2015 Terra di Seta, Riserva, Chianti Classico, 2015 Borgo Reale Chianti Riserva, 2017 Borgo Bella Chianti, 2018 Cantino Giuliano Chianti - bl

2014 Recanati Merlot, Reserve, Manara Vineyard, 2016 Chateau Royaumont

2014 Recanati Merlot, Reserve, Manara Vineyard, 2016 Chateau Royaumont - bl

2016 Chateau Royaumont – Score: 92 (QPR Star)
This wine is a blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc. This is perfume heaven, this is what I want from Merlot, bright fruit, ripeness that is under control, with rich minerality, and lovely earth. The nose on this wine is lovely, ripe, bright, controlled, Merlot perfume, with the green and tart notes of the Cabernet Franc, bringing this nose altogether, with dark plum, graphite, earth, and loads of black fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has it all, the ripeness is there, get over it, but it is so beautifully balanced, with great acid, loads of mouth draping, elegant, and coating tannin, followed by blackberry, dark plum, rich mineral, lovely earth, tart, and juicy strawberry, with green notes, forest floor, and foliage/garrigue. The finish is long, green, ripe, balanced, with tart juicy fruit, elegance, lovely mushroom, smoke, and hints of tar. WOW! Bravo!! Drink from 2021 until 2030.

2015 Terra di Seta, Riserva, Chianti Classico – Score: 92 to 93 (QPR Superstar)
The nose on this wine is pure heaven, showing floral notes, dried mint, oregano, with more herbs, mushroom heaven, forest floor, and earth, with red and black fruit galore, wow. The mouth on the beautiful full-bodied wine is what I want from all wines, a clear game plan, fruit-focus, rich acidity, clear fruit, and an overall mouthfeel that is draping, elegant, and yet breathtaking, with so much acid it will take your breath away, with blackberry, dark cherry, cassis, and hints of currants and raspberry, with loads of more mushrooms, all backed by gripping tannin that is a bit harsh to start, with smoke, and bramble. The finish is long, green, earthy, mineral-driven, and acid backed, with crazy tobacco, herb central, and coffee all working together, with green notes that linger forever. Bravo!!! Drink from 2021 until 2028. Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Israeli Wine, Kosher French Wine, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher Wine, Wine, Wine Tasting

3 Comments

Tags: Borgo Bella, Borgo Reale, Cantino Giuliano, Chateau Royaumont, Chianti, Chianti Classico, Manara Vineyard, Merlot, Recanati Winery, Reserve, Riserva, Terra di Seta

Wine Musings Blog

Musings and comments on the world of Kosher wine

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QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wines

Some things that made me stand up and take notice (AKA QPR WINNERS):

Other wines of note (AKA QPR GREAT or GOOD):

Wines that are either good but too expensive or average (AKA EVEN):

Wines that are either OK but far too expensive or bad wines (AKA POOR/BAD):

Roundup

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Shoutout to a GREAT wine that is just sitting around!

The 2021 Red QPR kosher WINNER

The 2021 White QPR kosher WINNERS

Rest of the top QPR Winners (in no particular order)

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The 2019 Pricing and access

Tasting in Paris

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Final comments, disclaimer, and warnings

Red Wines ordered by Vintage and QPR

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The “other” wines not here yet or I have not had

Final comments, disclaimer, and warnings

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The 2019 Red QRP kosher kings

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The 2019 kosher wines of the year – we have a four-way TIE all from Yarden!

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Tasting in Paris

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