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Three more French roses
I was in NYC for a few days and I walked into as many wine stores as I could and in one of them, I found three more French roses that made me hopeful. Sadly, they were all disappointments, essentially.
This continues to prove the point – there are not many good roses from 2016, at least so far – no matter how many I taste. Well, this is the 5th attempt to taste roses in a group, and these were some of the worst.
The previous tasting – had my roundup of best kosher roses and nothing has changed after this tasting – sadly.
I tasted three wines from Provence, two from the Cotes du Provence and one from Bandol. Shockingly, the mevushal Almae rose was the best of the tasting. I tried to look up the Almae Rose, and all I find was the Alma rose from Dalton, which we had at the first rose tasting.
I have no idea who this Almae rose is – it is made by Rashbi wines, but not sure of more than that. The other two are famous – and neither has been very good for me, on previous tastings, and this one was no different for me either. The 2016 Bandol Rose and 2016 100 Tropez Rose. The funny part is that when I put some of the Almae rose into the Bandol it was very nice, it became a really nice Provence. When I did it the other way around (Bandol into the Almae) it was not very interesting at all. Adding anything to the Tropez netted us nothing.
The notes follow below:
2016 Almae Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: B+ to A-
This wine is a blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Cinsault, and 20% Syrah. The nose on this wine is nice with peach, rose hips, floral notes, slate, and good apricot. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is nice, with good weight, showing nice acid, good structure, with nice fruit pith, strawberry and creme, nice light tannin, and nectarines. The wine is slightly sweet but very nice and round.
2016 100 Tropez Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: B to B+
The nose on this wine is lovely with good citrus, grapefruit, lemon, raspberry, and peach. The mouth on this medium weight wine is flat, lacking the middle, showing fun saline, and green olives, with strawberry, Sad.
2016 Domaine Bunan, Bandol, Provence – Score: B+
A really nice nose of strawberry and creme, vanilla, rose hips, with juicy raspberry, and good spice. The mouth on the medium bodied wine is ok, but lacking the acid I crave, it has an ok balance, with more fruit pith than acid, that does help it a lot, not bitter, with good sweet red fruit, showing a bit of sweetness, but balanced with slate. A nice enough wine, wish it had more acid and more interesting notes.
An assortment of kosher French wines that I have tasted recently
This past week, I had the chance to taste a bunch of French wines and while some were OK, many were so bad that I was truly shocked. It all started when I tasted a French wine when going out to dinner, it was horrible, like drinking water, that I was shocked. It happened again the next day, and I finally realized that I was going to be very unhappy buying French wines.
I have spoken about this issue in the past, and I am sad to report that basic run of the mill French wines are not getting better. In the end, when I was forcing myself to continue to buy French wines, I decided to go with wines that I was absolutely sure about – because I had tasted them already – sad.
Well, actually I had tasted earlier vintages of them. I bought a bottle of the 2010 Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Haut Medoc and I had tasted the 2006/2007/2008 at the past IFWF 2012. The 2010 continues the bone drying tannins, but has nice complexity and fruit as well.
I also bought a bottle of the 2010 Domaine Lafond Tavel Rose – which was nice and I had drunk the 2009 vintage at the 2011 IFWF, which they also poured at the 2012 IFWF.
I did enjoy another rose, the 2011 Domaine Buman, Bandol, Rose. It was a nice wine and one that is good enough when in the pinch. It will not please everyone as it is far too sweet, with nice acidity and lemon zest. Still, the extra sweetness will turn people off I am sure.
Well, there you have it, a collection of French wines that you can take or leave as you see fit, the wine notes follow below:
2010 Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Haut Medoc – Score: B+ to A-
The wine continues it wonderful history of solid results and its unusual mouth drying tannin. The nose explodes with dark plum, rich loamy earth, graphite, raspberry, anise, blackcurrant, spice, and cloves. The mouth is medium to full bodied and lovely with layers and complexity, with nice mouth drying tannin, that coats the mouth in a funny but nice way, along with kirsch cherry, and nice oak, that is just starting to come together. The finish is long and earthy with dark chocolate, vanilla, mineral, and a hint of lemon zest.
2010 Domaine Lafond, Tavel, Rose – Score: B+
The nose is lovely with ripe strawberry, raspberry, grapefruit, lovely rose, and jasmine, followed by white chocolate, and citrus zest. The mouth is medium in weight, but nice and dry, with good acidity, along with peach and bitter herb. The finish is long and spicy, with mineral, cloves, slate, and graphite.
2011 Domaine Buman, Bandol, Rose – Score: B to B+
The nose on this pink salmon and beautiful colored wine explodes with nice strawberry, raspberry, and herb. The mouth is medium in weight with bitter herb, lemon zest, nice bracing acid, too much sweetness does throw the mouth, along with grapefruit, fig, and lemon zest. The finish is long and spicy with good slate, rose, floral notes, and peach.
2009 Chateau Pouyanne, Graves – Score: B- (At best!)
The wine is simply water with a red color. It has ZERO complexity, though it does have a bit flavor, and texture, it misses everything else that it is not worth buying – unless there is no beer or anything else.
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