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A Royal Wine tasting in NYC featuring some serious QPR WINNERS!
Last week, I found myself in the JFK/Queens area for the first time in my life for longer than a few hours. I was there for the wonderful Bar Mitzvah of my Nephew, and it was a great time to meet up with my family and friends. Most of the time, JFK is a way in or a way OUT of NYC. This time, it was the gateway for my entire trip, and I would not be surprised if that continues in some proportion going forward.
Anyway, while I was there, I took it upon myself to buy my own wines because the timing was too tight and I could not get to NJ and get back. I was in NY for essentially three days, and I worked two of them. So, yeah, it was fun and hectic, and YES, the best part was Shabbat and the Bar Mitzvah, but I made sure to taste some wines.
Wine Tasting
Zev Steinberg was kind enough to pick up the phone and call me – we seem to have issues when typing over WhatsApp – a story for another time! After a short conversation, I worked the phones, WhatsApp, and many other communication tools, and thankfully, I was able to corral the wines I thought were possible. The shocker would be a bit later in the evening!
My job was to get all the new wines that Royal had brought in from France and from South Africa. So, I got:
- 2025 ESSA Altira
- 2024 Baron de Mamour Chenin Blanc
- 2024 Baron de Mamour Pouilly-Fume
- 2024 Baron de Mamour Pinot Noir
- 2022 Marchesi Fumeanelli Terso Vento Bianco
- 2021 Cascina Minot Langhe Nebbiolo
- 2023 Le Comte de Malartic Blanc
- 2023 Chateau Malartic Blanc
I tried to get the Gazin Blanc, but it slipped through my fingers. In the end, I was able to get what I could from Midwood Wine Merchants. I am not promoting things here for the sake of a dollar. It was very challenging to obtain the Baron de Mamour wines, which had just been released, along with the rest of the Malartic white wines (there are three), and the two Italian wines. My tight schedule and insane timing meant I had to PUSH people/stores to try to get the wines from Royal, and thankfully, the Midwood guys came through! Midwood also sent me a bottle of 2023 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Aera, North Coast.
Zev brought the 2023 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt Blanc, and ALL the Arnaud Burgundies, more on that in a bit, and a VERY special wine – the 2021 L’interdit de Valandraud! Just a crazy wine indeed! Very unique, and while many think it is a 100% Cabernet Franc wine, in reality, it is a blend. It shares the distinction of being my highest-scoring 2021 Bordeaux wine, along with the 2021 Chateau Marquis d’Alesme Becker and the 2021 Chateau La Gaffeliere.
Finally, MS brought a lovely bottle of the 2019 Domaine Roses Louise, Pomerol. Then Zev brought out a bottle of the 2020 Echo de Roses Camille, Pomerol! It was quite the evening!
Arnaud Baillot Burgundies
Arnaud Baillot has been making wines since 2017, when he bought his first vineyard. That soon expanded when he bought even more plots, and slowly he expanded to many more regions with Burgundy. He is one of those up-and-coming, rising stars within the region, and it is great that we are getting more Kosher Burgundy options.
In the first Kosher vintage from Arnaud Baillot, Royal made five red Burgundies: Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes-de-Beaune, Monthelie, Savigny-les-Beaune, Beaune Premier Cru, and Volnay. What was very interesting was the opportunity to taste a red Monthelie; we have already tasted a kosher White Monthelie. The Savigny-les-Beaune is also new in Kosher. The other sub-regions have existing and successful iterations of those grapes.
I really need to shout out Zev and Royal for making these wines available to us! Thanks!
Tasting
I have kept names out of this post, other than Zev, because he works in the business, and that is fair game. The others are regular folks like me. That being said, the host for the event was terrific – and I thank him for the wonderful home, atmosphere, and good nature. Anyone who hosts me for a tasting understands that things need to be orderly and professional, to whatever extent it can be. This host went beyond, and I really appreciate that! That being said, good lord was it a long tasting, but it was a TON OF FUN!
Well, with that, I will let the wine notes talk for themselves. We did retaste the wines twice, but it is not the same as tasting the wine over a day. For example, the Chateau Malartic Blanc really came into its own after a few hours. In some ways, other wines moved in the wrong direction after a few hours as well. All of this is compiled, and the final scores reflect the final state of the wines we tasted.
The wine notes are listed below in the order in which they were tasted. The explanation of my “scores” can be found here , and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2025 ESSA Altira, Elgin – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely, bright, effusive, with white peach, grapefruit, saline, smoke, and lovely brightness. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely; the acidity is off the charts, the complexity is not as pronounced as in previous vintages, and the notes of peach, grapefruit, and melon are on point, with lovely tension and a deeply refreshing finish. The finish is long, tart, refreshing, and fruity, with lovely saline and a lovely bite. Drink by 2027. (tasted August 2025) (in New York, NY) (ABV = 13.5%)
2024 Baron de Mamour Chenin Blanc, IGP Val de Loire (M) – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is classic with Chenin notes of smoke, grass, straw, hay, and yellow peach, very nice, but a bit simple. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has excellent acidity, great attack, good fruit, nice hay, smoke, and lovely gooseberry, grapefruit, honeysuckle, and honeyed peach – lovely! The finish is long, dry, with ripe fruit, smoke, and hay, lovely! Drink by 2027. (tasted August 2025) (in New York, NY) (ABV = 11.5%)
2024 Baron de Mamour Pouilly-Fume, Pouilly-Fume (M) – Score: 92+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely, classic Pouilly Fume, crazy good, with rich smoke, flint, intense minerality, ripe fruit, intense citrus notes, good nectarines, honeysuckle, orange, and funk. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is smoky, tart, and acidic, with incredible honeysuckle, grapefruit, orange, nectarines, great smoke, funk, and crazy acidity. Bravo! The finish is long, tart, smoky, with intense minerality, flint, and rock. Bravo! Drink by 2028. (tasted August 2025) (in New York, NY) (ABV = 13%)
The Top and Best 34 QPR Kosher Wine WINNERS of 2024
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 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
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 2023.
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 2022 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah. 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 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 (by the way no such wine exists!)? What about a white wine – same? Can/should someone compare them? The answer is no, of course. People will compare similar items. OK, are we then forced to compare ONLY Montsant wines with Montsant wines? Of course not, that is NOT how people think. People will compare like-scored red wines with like-scored red wines. Further, there are literally SIX Monstant Kosher red wines on the market. How can one compare six wines to each other? It has no value.
So, the question remains how do we compare two wines? What criteria can we use to compare them? The first step is for us to agree that people will compare wines that are similar in style, but not in locale, region, or price. So 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:
- 2022 Chateau d’Agassac Cru Bourgeois, Haut-Medoc – Score: 93+ (QPR: WINNER)
Drink until 2038 - 2022 Chateau Fourcas Dupre, Listrac-Medoc – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2034 until 2040 - 2022 Chateau Royaumont, Lalande de Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
Drink from 2030 until 2038
These wines sell for between 38 dollars and 60 dollars. So, are these wines comparable? I would state they are, and 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 – these all scored roughly the same quality score.
So, next, would you at least compare two Medoc wines to each other? The Chateau Fourcas Dupre and the Chateau d’Agassac? I would say yes for sure. Well, why is the Royaumont any different? Of course, they are very distinct wines, 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! This means some wines age beautifully, and many will be 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 must 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
Before we get to the list of the best QPR wines for this past year, I wanted to give you some raw stats. I tasted more than 1200 wines this past year. In actuality, it is probably far more, I just did NOT care to write notes on hundreds more because all it would have said was NO. I made sure to taste all the Israeli wines at three KFWE, and while some were worthy of notes, none garnered these scores. The pain was all I remember. In the end, 188 wines were scored with a QPR score of WINNER, for the blog year 2024.
I have stated it over and over again now, there is no way we can buy all the good wines out there unless you have a local warehouse to store them and you drink two or more bottles a day. That is the excellent news about Kosher Wine today! I hope we have not yet hit peak QPR WINNER Wine.
This year, the list came to a total of 34 names, and none had to dip below 93 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. This year, there are 34 or so QPR WINNERS who scored 93 this year but not in a single area.
The 4 regions that encompass the 34 WINNERS are in order of size, France (27), Spain (4), USA (2), and Hungary (1). Within France, it is not all Bordeaux! There are wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Chateauneuf du Pape.
Of the 34 WINNER, 4 of them are white, 28 are red, and 2 are sweet. However, at the lower price and quality QPR WINNERS (think 20 dollars 91 scoring wines), you will find that white wines are the majority!
This year we have 9 wines that are a WINNER in Europe and the rest of the world and NOT in the USA.
- The 2020 Chateau Haut Brisson) is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2023 Domaine Raymond Usseglio & Fils Chateauneuf du Pape, Blanc is not the same here in the USA as it is in Europe. I have no idea what happened to it but the quality is vastly different.
- The 2021 Tokaj-Hetszolo Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2020 Chateau Haut Brisson is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2022 Chateau Royaumont is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good, though still a WINNER, but not at the same quality.
- The 2022 Les Roches De Yon-Figeac is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good.
- The 2022 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good.
- The 2022 Chevalier de Lascombes is because the wine is Mevushal here and not as good.
- The 2022 Château Olivier Grand Cru Classe is because of pricing here in the USA.
- The 2022 Chateau Haut-Marbuzet is not available at all here in the USA.
Sadly, there were no new Sparkling or Rose wines to make it to the score of 93 and to meet its counterpart pricing. To me this is a HUGE issue in the kosher wine market! The kosher wine market has lifted up one of the previous sad wine categories, white wine! Which is HUGE! Sadly, we have not moved from there. We have a dominating red and white kosher wine scene. What is lacking sorely, is quality, sparkling wines! The rose wines will never reach the upper echelons, at least in the Kosher wine markets! However, there is actual demand for sparkling wines, and sadly, the products being sold are nice, but the prices are too high, or the quality is too low.
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:
2022 Elvi Wines Clos Mesorah Garnatxa, Montsant – Score: 95 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely. It pops with intense brightness, followed by a massive attack of ripe but controlled fruit, dense minerality, rich salinity, intense graphite, lovely cloves, cinnamon, warm spices, loam, dirt, earth, lovely raspberry, strawberry, and ripe/bright red berries. WOW! With time, the wine becomes even more complex, showing floral notes, ripe fruit, and lovely sweet spices. Bravo!
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is so elegant, complex, and singular in grape, and there is nowhere to hide in this bottle; it is complex, lithe, rich, and layered but intensely refreshing. This wine is the Pinot Noir of the Rhone and Spain; there is nowhere to hide, and yet the wine is so impressive. This wine is pure black magic; it is ripe, lithe, tart, acidic, elegant, and dirty, all in the same glass, and yet this is a wine that does not exist in Kosher. Sure, there are lovely blends, but a wine this ripe that is also elegant, lithe, and smoky, you want to drink it all!
The mouth is lovely, ripe, layered, elegant, and toasty, with sweet spices, lovely raspberry, and strawberry, nice umami, really fun, expressive, and captivating; it is so unique and special, with umami, and mouth-drawing elegance, WOW! Bravo! The finish is long, dirty, earthy, smoky, and umami-dense, with great graphite and ripe, mouth-draining tannin. Dirt, minerality, graphite, ripe and tart red fruit, and intense acidity linger long. Drink from 2030 until 2036. (tasted December 2024) (in Clos Mesorah, Spain) (ABV = 15%)
Hotel Wine tastings – Taieb Wines, Mercier Wines, Corcos Wines, Bokobsa Wines, Honest Grapes (Montille), plus more
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in January with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered. The number of boxes in our room was not nearly as insane as two years ago. That was a tower of boxes. Still, we had a lot of wines to taste and some good wines to talk about.
Two years ago, we had some 80 wines, this past tasting we were at 58 wines. There were a couple of wines I think were bad bottles, so I will not post them, so I guess it comes to some 56 or so bottles.
This post will close out the blog’s 2024 year, and then we can get to the wines of the year and such! Then we can get to the KFWE post! Yeah, lots ahead!
As I have stated before. I want to taste all of these blind. Let me make this simple: unless we can find someone to pay to help us manage the tastings, taste blind, and gather all the metadata and the forms and sheets, it is just INSANE! We really need to get a helper who understands English enough and can handle sheets and the such in Paris and wherever else we taste wines. Until then, we will have to give up on tasting blind.
The wines were tasted in classic region/style order, whites, reds from Burgundy, Rhone-like areas, Bordeaux/Blend wines, and I think that is it. The comments are listed by the producer.
Taieb Wines
There were 23 Taieb wines. We received the usual Jean-Philippe Marchand wines. This year, there are eight wines. There are two whites, the Meursault and the new Puligny Montrachet, and then we have the return of the same reds. Sadly, I could not taste the Pommard or the Aloxe Corton. The two white wines are wines that feel bottle-shocked and also have more oak than I expected. They may come around in a few years. We opened them Tuesday night, and they never came around. They kind of lost some of their oak after 7 days, but honestly, well before that, wine should either be there or not. The red Burgundies we received were terrific and show the continued success of Jean-Philippe Marchand wines.
To close out the story, Mr. Taieb asked for the warehouse to send us the eight Burgundies, but instead, we received two other wines. Such is life!
Taieb Wines. Yoni and his family continue to make well-priced wines and garner QPR WINNER scores. This tasting was no exception, with five WINNER wines from the 24 wines tasted and many wines with a GREAT QPR score. I have posted often about Taieb wines, and if you want to read the entire background, read the first post I made here.
The 2023 Baron David and the 2023 Chateau Tournebrise were solid wines that are available now in Paris and ones I would pick up for a nice Shabbat! Two great wines from Taieb. The 2023 Elysee Palace Merlot is dirt cheap and a solid Mevu option. Finally, the 2023 Moise Taieb, La Petite Metairie Chinon, is a classic Cabernet Franc and shows nicely.
Honest Grapes Wines
Nathan from Honest Grapes was very kind in helping arrange a shipment of Domaine de Montille. These wines were pulled from the barrel, much like the wines I tasted last year in London. The white wines shined in this new 2023 Domaine de Montille Burgundy tasting. The red wines were fine, but one was either shocked or maybe just a bad bottle. Like all barrel tastings, I can put a score on the wine but understand that this may well not be the final score.
On an aside, you may see two wines that were associated with Honest Grapes, 2022 Chateau Teyssier and 2023 Le Nardian Grand Vin de Bordeaux. They may well still be wines Honest Grapes sells in London, but they are now also available in France. Those two wines can be found under the assorted wines.
Mercier Wines
Once again, Mercier delivers excellent wines at a higher price range. The 2022 vintage did take a slight bite at the 2022 Château de Fieuzal Grand Cru Classé de Graves, Pessac-Leognan. It is the return of this wine, which was last made Kosher in 2005. So, 17 years later, the wine is fine, but it lacks the acidity I crave.
Once again, the 2022 Château Olivier Grand Cru Classe, Pessac-Léognan, on the other hand was a HOMERUN! That wine has everything I want, acidity, pop, body, structure, and minerality. It is quite an impressive wine and a baby! This wine will not be ready to play for a long time.
Once again, the 2022 Chateau Fayat, Pomerol, is sensational. It is priced higher than the 2022 Montviel, higher than the 2018 Echo de Roses Camille, but lower than Gay. To me, it is a QPR WINNER.
The 2022 Chateau Haut-Marbuzet, Saint-Estephe, has the added Cabernet that really helps make the wine pop! It may well be the most balanced wine we had at this tasting overall. Quite impressive indeed! Merlot in hot vintages is more challenging to get perfect than with some Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. The Marbuzet has Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and a good amount of Merlot.
Then there were three white wines that stood out, two that were dry, and one sweet. Until now, Mercier had been making Sauternes from the Chateau Rayne Vigneau. The latest vintage of Sauternes from the main label was 2018. However, in 2022 and 2023, Pierre Miodownick and Mercier made two dry wines and one second label Sauternes. Both of these dry wines took forever to open. Avi was not even around anymore when the dry white Grand Vin finally opened up.
The 2023 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau Grand Vin Blanc Sec, is not going to be cheap, but it is a beautiful wine. The 2023 Les Sec de Rayne Vigneau, is going to be cheaper, but I am not sure what the prices will be like in the USA. In France it is a QPR WINNER. Finally, the 2022 Chateau Rayne Vigneau Madame de Rayne, Sauternes, is lovely and a solid option for those that want quality Sauternes.
Overall, this tasting may have been Mercier’s best showing, that Avi and I have tasted, so far. Bravo!
Bokobsa Wines
I keep trying to get their wines to taste. So far, I have not been very successful. If you read my previous posts, you will see that they have good wines and great prices, especially in Paris. However, getting to taste them is proving very complicated.
We got three wines to taste, and the Cissac Lamothe is back! The 2022 vintage is solid. The 2022 Bokobsa Gigondas is solid, a bit too ripe for me, but many will love this. Finally, the 2023 Dominique Piron Chiroubles is a solid Gamay for a good price.
Shlomo Corcos (Guter Wein) Wines
I have had enough wine in my life to say that there are very few things that shock me anymore in wine. That may be a blessing and a curse, but that is fine. However, tasting the 2022 Chateau Grand Corbin, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe, shocked me. I have yet to taste a wine that shows that distinct a flavor of roasted lamb. I enjoyed this wine with a freshly baked milk pizza, and I felt dirty. That is a great wine. The other wine is the 2022 Chateau Cantemerle, Haut-Medoc. Both wines are lovely, show good pop, and are made well. I have no idea if/when these wines will be in the USA, so keep your eyes open and tell me if they land in some store in NYC/NJ!
Assorted Wines
The remaining wines came from Ari Cohen, a wine Avi brought, or from stuff I bought from MVC (MesVinsCacher.com). MVC is a great place to go and see the current releases and to buy some older releases. All the wines are held in good storage, and like all old wines, you may hit or you may miss.
Ari has started a business called Bakus Wine. He gave us a few wines to taste. First was the 2023 Hans Wirsching Iphofer Riesling, Iphofen. It is a solid Mevushal Riesling. It shows like a Riesling, and at least in Paris, the price is a WINNER. He also sells three Cascina Perrone wines. We have already posted the notes for the Barbera d’Asti and the Nebbiolo. The 2020 Cascina Perrone Barolo continues to show the fine makeup of this wine line and is a good WINNER, with a long life ahead of it.
Then, I bought one wine for the tasting from (winess.com). David Sabban is a great guy, and he either has the wines in his lovely store in Paris in the 17th Arrondissement or can get them from his warehouse. He helped us with a bottle of 2023 Le Nardian Grand Vin de Bordeaux, Lugaignac. This wine shocked me, as it came in at 15% ABV for a white Bordeaux. That is CRAZY! The 2021 and 2022 Le Nardian came in at 12.5%! So, yeah, while I have no interest in buying this wine again, it is a decent wine. I just cannot get behind a 15% ABV white wine.
Ben Sitruk, owner of WineSymphony.fr, hooked us up with a few wines. The first was the 2022 Chateau Vieux Taillefer, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. It seems that now the winery is making their wines kosher on their own or maybe through some other hands, I do not know. This is solid but lacks the pop I need and is ripe. Still, it is balanced and will appeal to many people. The next wine he helped us with is the 2022 Chateau Teyssier, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. It is a solid wine, but it is NOTHING like the 2019 or the 2020. Those two wines scream acidity and pop, while this one has the 2022 curse.
Finally, we bought some older wines from MVC, such as the 2017 and 2018 Dampt Freres Chablis, Premier Cru. The 2017 is a STUNNING wine and has evolved to even higher heights than I dreamed. But it is DRINK NOW! Pop them NOW! There is no tomorrow. Please take note of my DW (Drinking Windows) on those wines – right on point, thank you! LOL! Even a broken clock is correct two times a day!
Read the rest of this entry
Hotel Wine tastings – the final tastings from my trip to Paris – Late May 2024
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in Late May, with Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered. The number of boxes in our room was not nearly as insane as two years ago. That was a tower of boxes. Still, we had a lot of wines to taste through and some good wines to talk about.
Two years ago, we had some 80 wines, this May we were at 60 wines. There was one wine that Avi missed and there are a couple of wines I think were bad bottles, so I will not post them, so I guess it comes to some 58 or so bottles.
Half of these wines were tasted blind and the rest were not. Let me make this simple, unless we can find someone to pay to help us manage the tastings, tasting blind, and then gathering all the metadata and the forms, and sheets, it is just INSANE! We really need to get a helper, who understands English enough and can handle sheets and the such, in Paris and wherever else we taste wines. Until then, we will have to give up on tasting blind.
The wines were tasted in classic region/style order, whites, reds from Burgundy, Rhone-like areas, Bordeaux/Blend wines, and I think that is it.
Barbera, Rhone, Burgundy, Provence, Loire, and Germany
These were some of the blind wines we tasted. I honestly grabbed bottles shaped in anything other than Bordeaux and we did the tasting blind. It was eclectic and we retasted them twice, so they got their chance. There were two wines in the lineup that were off, and they were removed from the scoring. Otherwise, the wines fell into what I expected, with the real find being the Rhone from Ventoux. The German red wine was nice while the white wine, we tasted later, was a total loss.
There were a total of 13 wines on this flight and one of them was a bad bottle, so we have 12 wines scored below. Six of the 12 were from Taieb Wines. Yoni and his family continue to make well-priced wines and garner QPR WINNER scores. This tasting was no exception, with two WINNER for the Burgundies and other QPR WINNER scores for other wines we tasted in the hotel.
I have posted often about Taieb wines and if you want to read the full background read the first post I made here.
There were four Burgundies made by kosher Taieb in 2022 and we received three of them for tasting. The notes on these wines changed a bit but the scores were consistent. We also got some Loire Valley wines and they showed well as well. There was a Burgundy from Ribeauville that I had already tasted but needed to have Avi taste it, so I made sure to make that happen.
The real find was the Rhone from Ventoux, I have no idea who made the wine, maybe the winery did, but it is a nice wine. I have no idea why it sat around until now, nor do I know why the 2016 wine we tasted later sat around until now!
White and Sparking Wines
We tasted through a lot of white wines and sparkling wines. The Sparkling wines came from Taieb and they were nice to WINNER. The Elvi Vina Encina were both solid and the Herenza White are lovely WINNER wines. I have no idea why the Herenza Whites do not sell in the USA, no idea! Folks buy a few and try.
On a slight rant, I will start with the positives, thankfully, we have more kosher white wine available now than ever before, PERIOD! However, what is clear is that the kosher-buying public has made Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay their next Cabernet Sauvignon! I am happy you are all starting to enjoy white wines – finally! But good Lord, there are OTHER white wines out there! As stated, I am firmly on the ABC train, outside of a few Cali and France. Sauvignon Blanc is a wonderful grape and please ignore EVERYTHING that Avi says to the contrary, it is not his fault, he has issues with good wine!
Now, all I see is that white wines that are not Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc linger on physical or virtual shelves. Thankfully, most of you get Riesling, almost. But that is it! You guys killed the only good Albarino from Ramon Cardova because you all refused to buy it! The Herenza is the same, and this wine is 30 to 40 percent Sauvignon Blanc! OK, I’ll give up and stop my rant here! TRY OTHER white wines – please!
There was a new Sancerre and the new 2023 Domaine Lebrun Pouilly-Fume and they were nice. The 2023 Domaine Lebrun Pouilly-Fume is truly exceptional, it keeps up with the great 2021. Though I would be drinking the 2021 already! This one will be good for a few years.
Also, Avi brought an Israeli white wine! Yes! The 2021 Recanati Sauvignon Blanc, Odem Vineyards, Atelier! Lovely wine, and further proof that what Israel needs is good white wine!
The rest of them are wines that you can try and see if you like.
Italy, Spain, and Bordeaux
OK, half of the wines we tasted fall into these two categories and they garnered 8 QPR WINNER scores. Once again, Taieb had many GREAT to WINNER scores here along with some new Italian wines. There was one SHOCKER from Luzzatto, who until now have been really uninspiring wines. However, the 2019 Luzzatto Barolo is a clear WINNER, and yes, it is Mevushal. It started out very slow but with time, it came out of its shell, and showed nicely!
Avi brought the 2022 El Orador Rioja, Rioja Alta from Israel, and that also started very slowly, but it came out of its shell as well. We then tasted three Elvi red wines, which I had last year after Avi had already left. Those were the 2021 Elvi Clos Mesorah, the 2020 Elvi EL26, and the 2019 Elvi Adar. I had the 2019 Elvi Adar in Israel, and the EL26 at home.
The rest of what mattered was a mix of Bordeaux wines ranging from 2016 to 2023. Yes, we tasted a 2016 Chateau Croque Michotte! Why it was not released until now is beyond me. Sadly, I think that wine was oxidized. I have no idea if it was the wine or the bottle. I tried to get another and no matter the emails/WhatsApp chats I could not get another one to try.
The 2023 Baron David and the 2023 Palais de L’Ombriere were solid wines that are available now in Paris and ones I would pick up for a nice Shabbat! Two great wines from Taieb.
Then we had three mid-level quality wines from the 2022 Bordeaux vintage. If these wines prove to be the flag-bearer for that vaunted vintage I may come around and have as much faith as Avi does. Avi believes every vintage is innocent until proven guilty, sadly, I see things differently. I guess, I see wine as uninteresting until the glass proves me wrong.
The three QPR WINNER wines were the 2022 Chateau Tour Perey, 2022 Chateau La Fleur Perey, and the
2022 Chateau Tour Seran. We had issues with the 2022 Chateau Rollan de By. One bottle was bad and one bottle was OK to bad. At this point, if you buy it, I would not hold it for long, if at all. Buy it, open it, and enjoy!
We also tasted a 2012 Chateau Cru DuCasse, a wine I had not tasted for two years and it was on crazy sale at Winess.com. This was a wine that Avi had not yet tasted, as I tasted it back in June of 2021 when Paris was just coming to life from under the cloud of Covid. It had evolved a fair amount and was deeply closed at the start. Another crazy closeout wine I saw at Winess was the 2020 Chateau Taillefer Pavillon de Taillefer. It was selling for 40 or so dollars. I tasted that wine last year May 2023, a trip Avi missed, so I wanted him to taste the wine.
We tasted the white and rose wines from Cantina Giuliano and they are fine, I am sure some people will like them more than I did.
The one wine that Avi was not around for was the 2023 Cave D’Esclans Whispering Angel. It reminded me of the 2021. A solid showing.
Where can you buy these wines?
The Taieb wines will find their way to the USA through a menagerie of importers. Those include Liquid Kosher, Kosher Wine, and Victor Wines which I continue to be baffled at where these wines actually sell, outside of Florida! The Elvi wines are in the USA already. The Cantina Giuliano wines are in the USA already. The 2020 Chateau Haut Brisson is already in the USA, the other Corcos wines, I am not sure.
The Mercier wines will find their way here once the previous vintages are sold. As for the rest of the wines, I have no idea!
Thoughts on this tasting
OK, so overall, this tasting was solid! This was better than previous tastings because the 2021 vintage is mostly played out, unlike other hotel wine tastings. Still, Kosher plonk exists in spades in all regions of the world! The USA may have the largest availability to them, but Paris is not far behind! I am still not buying into the 2022 hype but as stated before, I will reserve happiness until I taste good wine!
Regarding other wines from France that people will ask me about, the answer is we tried. We sent out emails and got initial responses and then all follow-up emails went into the Spam Bucket. Sometimes, I wonder if French people hate us Americans! Anyway, the winning lineup, which always is the heading photo for the hotel wine-tasting posts, was solid, and wines I would drink! Sadly, that winning lineup photo is nowhere because I got really sick at the end of the week. I barely made it into Shabbat. I slept it off all Shabbat.
Before I forget – Avi took all the pictures from this trip so if you dislike them, blame him. If you love them disregard the previous sentence! Thanks, buddy!! I was flat out and Avi was trying to get out for his flight back to Israel. Sorry buddy I could not help.
Finally, 90% of the the deliveries were to the hotel this time, my man Ari Cohen, AKA El-Presidente of Bakus Wines, was totally AWOL this trip! I think the more I go to Paris the less I get to see him – maybe I am finally becoming a Parisian! Thanks as always! Thanks for all the help as always buddy!
The wine notes follow below in the order that they were tasted. The explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2022 Jean-Philippe Marchand Aloxe Corton, Sous Chaillots, Aloxe Corton – Score: 92.5 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is quite nice with darker plum, raspberry, cherry, and sweet spices, along with sweet herbs, floral notes, lavender, dark smoke, and minerality. The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine feels rich, layered, and smokey, dirty, with nice mushroom, forest floor, nice funk, lovely minerality, plum, ripe raspberry, dark cherry, herbal, with nice tannin, and great acidity. The finish is long, tannic, herbal, and funky, but also richer, a bit rounder, but tannic, tart, and refreshing, Bravo! Drink until 2032. (tasted May 2024) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%) (tasted Blind)
Latest releases from Andrew Breskin and Liquid Kosher
I just came back from Israel, that is a whole other post, including two stopovers, one before the trip to Israel and one on the way home. The stopover on the way to Israel was to taste Honest Grapes wines, yes, that is another post as well! The final stopover before returning home was to see my friend Andrew in San Diego. The airport is an absolute mess, but the new Terminal 1 is starting to take shape, still, please beware before going there!
Mr. Breskin is the founder of Liquid Kosher a wine curator and importer of a wide array of kosher wines, from French wines (like the famous Domaine Rose Camille to Israeli favorites). My trip this time was more of a mad dash than a proper visit and thankfully Andrew kept it simple. It was great to hang with Andrew, which I normally get to do only once a year at KFWE Los Angeles. Sadly, with no KFWE this year, this will be my only time with Andrew, unless I can find my way down there again, later this year!
Andrew has been the go-to guy for access to French wines that are not imported into the United States by Royal or the other larger kosher wine importers. Andrew has brought us Burdungdies like Domaine Chantal Lescure, and Domaine d’Ardhuy, along with the famous Domaine Roses Camille, which have been top scorers for many years now. These are all wines that Taieb has made for many years now. Sadly, 2017 was the last vintage of the Lescure, and Domaine d’Ardhuy ended in 2015.
The wines I tasted included a few JP Marchand Burgundies from the new 2022 vintage along with a few Taieb wines as well. Sadly, Taieb only made 4 red wines in 2022, no white wines. There were a couple of other wines, including the Domaine Roses Camille 2020 Chateau Les Graves de Lavaud. It is a lovely wine but I already posted the notes on that one.
Next, there were new Taieb wines that I had not tasted in Paris. First, it was a very simple but good Mevushal option called 2022 Prince George 1er Choix de Cuvee, IGP Coteaux de Narbonne. I had never heard of the region called IGP Coteaux de Narbonne. It is a region in the Rhone, but not a very well-known one for Kosher wine.
Next came the 2021 Chateau Castelbruck and the 2021 Chateau Haut-Breton Larigaudiere. The Castelbruck broke out of the failed 2021 Bordeaux mold. It showed well for such a failed vintage. The 2021 Chateau Haut-Breton Larigaudiere sadly did not follow and it too succumbed to the 2021 Bordeaux malaise. The pictures include a few other wines that I already posted, like the 2022 Chateau Tournebrise, the 2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Beaune, and the 2022 Chateau Meilhan. The Tournebrise is a refreshing wine and one that I almost drank, during the tasting, very refreshing. The 2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Bourgogne, Hautes-Cotes de Beaune showed beautifully, as during the tasting in Jan of 2023. Finally, the 2022 Chateau Meilhan is OK, one of the less impressive 2022 showings. We also tasted the 2019 Lahat Syrah, it is so Israeli, but not evil, I did not write notes. The 2022 Gehring Riesling and the 2018 Rieslings were all very nice.
After that, we tasted a few wines that are tangentially related to Andrew and his business. The Corcos wines from 2016, including the 2016 Chateau D’eck, the 2016 Chateau Haut-Bacalan, and the 2016 Verdeto. I was on point with my concern with the 2016 Verdeto, when I tasted it in June of 2021. The ripeness could never find balance and tasting it that night was not painful but not enjoyable – drink up! The 2016 Chateau Haut-Bacalan did not show well, it felt closed and nowhere, I hope it is just asleep, I will check in on it in a year, God-Willing. Finally, the 2016 Chateau D’eck was also, uninspiring, much like I felt back in 2020.
The newly released 2020 Elk Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder was quite nice. A classic Napa Cabernet. I always wish for more verve and acidity, but it is quite nice still.
Finally, I was graced with two other wines that evening, both of which I wish I could eviscerate from my memories. They are the 2019 Viniferia, Castel Luciano, Super Tuscan, and another wine I will retaste. The 2019 Viniferia Castel Luciano, Super Tuscan, is nice enough, not super, and maybe it is Tuscan, but not for me! The 2017 vintage of this wine did not score much better when I tasted it back in 2022.
My many thanks to Andrew Breskin and his wife for hosting me and for sharing his time, home, and wines with me. The wine notes follow below, in order of quality and grouping – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2022 Jean-Philippe Marchand Burgundies
2022 Jean-Philippe Marchand Bourgogne, Hautes-Cotes de Nuits, Hautes-Cotes de Nuits – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine opens to show pomegranate, sour Bing cherry, intense rosehip, cinnamon, English lavender, and funk, with loads of dirt, earth, mineral, rich smoke, and roasted meat. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, intensely acidic, layered, and earthy, with loads of floral notes, lavender, rosehip, smoked meat, and classic dark cherry. What stands out is the sweet oak influence of cedar, mouth-draping tannin, tart cherry/lavender, and minerality. The finish is floral, and very feminine, with herbs, graphite, toast, mushroom, and forest floor. Nice! Drink until 2030. (tasted January 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)
A tasting of Taieb JP Marchand Burgundies, a massive Domaine Roses Camille vertical, two Taieb Bordeaux verticals, and more!
I am sorry for the long title, I really could not succinctly summarize the tasting I had last week with Neal and Andrew Breskin in not-so-sunny San Diego. Neal and I flew in from different parts of the country on a no so warm Monday morning, I picked up Neal at the airport, and we made our way to Andrew Breskin’s home, the proprietor and founder of Liquid Kosher.
I had been bugging Andrew that it was time to meet again for a tasting of the new 2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Burgundies. I had tasted them with Avi Davidowitz in Paris, but as I said in that post, I was hoping to taste them again with the opportunity to see if they evolve with a bit of time, after opening. While I liked them in Paris, I was wondering if they would evolve with a bit more time. As stated in that post, we both flew home the next day and we did not have the chance to see them evolve over a day or so.
Thankfully, my calendar worked out, and we arrived on the day of Rosh Chodesh Shevat. The morning started with me picking up some breakfast at this lovely, but expensive bakery in La Jolla called Parisien Gourmandises. Before I continue with the story, please visit this place, when/if you are in the San Diego area. I do not like to say I am a picky eater, however, my opinions of food/food establishments, when traveling can be a bit coarse. I have recently been in Florida and Paris for different wine tastings and this bakery had better croissants and flaky dough pastries than either the bakeries in Paris or the wonderful bakery in Fort Lauderdale called Moran Patisserie Bakery. The people, food, and overall ambiance are really impressive, and aside from the actual location (a small room inside a potpourri store – you have to be there to understand), the food is worth the price of admission. Now on to the rest of the story!
I then picked up Neal at the airport, as stated above, and 20 minutes later we were ensconced under the shade of lemon trees and tasting wonderful wines.
The schedule was open-ended and after a lovely cup of coffee and Parisien Gourmandises pastries, we were ready to settle down for a day of wine tasting.
Pre-Dinner tasting
We started the tasting with two Champagne, one of them was simple enough and lacking in bubbles while the other one was nice and very accessible. The first one was N.V. Louis de Vignezac, Cuvee Special, Brut and the second was N.V. Champagne Charles de Ponthieu.
After those two aperitifs, it was time for some Burgundy! We started with the 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Meursault followed by the 2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Meursault. Having the opportunity to taste the two of them side-by-side was quite a treat! I had not tasted the 2019 Meursault in 2 years. I had it with Andrew and Gabriel Geller later in 2021 as well, but I have less of a memory of that time.
We then started in on all of the 2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand red Burgundies and they were an exact match to the wines I had in Paris in late November 2022. They are all lovely wines with a floral approach. Even the 2017 and 2019 Gevrey Chambertin that we had later that night followed that approach. The Gevrey has more weight but overall their approach is more for the ethereal Pinot Noir than the full-bodied one.
Once we had tasted the Pinot Noir we had the opportunity to taste some soon-to-be-released Domaine Roses Camille wines, including 2016, 2017, and 2018 vintages. To be fair, I am never a fan, interested in tasting unreleased wines as they may change before being bottled. Thankfully, the 2016 and 2017 vintages are already bottled, while 2018 was a tank sample.
All the Domaine Roses Camille wines were exceptional but as I stated before I wanted the opportunity to taste them again the following day. So after our initial tasting of the wines, Andrew got some plastic Ziplock bags and bagged me some 30 ml of each wine and labeled each bag to boot! This assured me two things, I will have wine to taste the next day, as the wines were open for the dinner that was fast approaching, and I knew what each wine was, the following day!
The bags worked like a charm, Andrew placed them in a box and moved them to the garage where they stayed until the following morning – bravo my man!
Dinner – AKA SoCal RCC Jan 2023
After all the wines were tasted and bagged it was time to focus on dinner. Andrew had already started on the beautiful ribs and was getting the rib roast prepared. It was about that time that I looked at the rib fat/sauce and I started skimming off the obvious fat and then worked on cooking it down a bit and thickening it with some simple starch slurry.
After that, Andrew started cooking some nice Gnocchi and then pan-seared them. I helped a bit with this and the potatoes. I laugh because there is this Italian chef who lives in Australia (Vincenzo Prosperi of Vincenzos Plate) that loves to rant about other chefs who do things that are not exactly Italian! LOL, he tore apart some chefs for doing this very thing, but honestly, I found them very enjoyable!
Soon after Neal and I finished helping here and there the guests started to arrive. The first was Elan Adivi, who works with Jeff’s Sausage and he came armed with a basket full of sausage, charcuterie, and rectangle pie crusts. He made some pretty good pizzas and he topped them with the only green things that graced any of our plates, some arugula, though to be honest, no one went hungry that night!
The evening started with some lovely sushi and the Champagnes we tasted earlier along with some 2019 La Chablisienne, which was a nice enough Mevushal Chablis.
After the Sushi, it was red meat and wine all the way, which is the only way an RCC should be! The Ribs and the Rib Roast were just awesome, and my sauce reduction was not bad either! The Pizzas turned out quite nicely, as well. There was also some very interesting beef jerky, but I did not catch where they were sourced from, I think Andrew had them flown in from Holy Jerky in Five Towns, the stuff was solid!
First I tried the Burgundies again, as well I wanted to see if they had evolved over a few hours, but nothing had changed much. Next, I enjoyed tasting the three Gevrey Chambertin from Jean-Philippe Marchand. Much like the 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Meursault I had not tasted the 2017 or 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Gevrey Chambertin for many a year.
Of the three, at their current place, I would still go for the new 2021 Gevrey, which is quite surprising to me but also makes me happy to see that there were some good wines from the 2021 vintage.
I then tasted the two mini-verticals of Chateau Castelbruck, Margaux, and Chateau Haut-Breton Larigaudiere. We had 2018, 2019, and 2020 vintages of the Chateau Castelbruck, and Chateau Haut-Breton Larigaudiere. The two wine verticals had not evolved very far from what I had over the past three years. Some wines evolve over a short period, and while these did change slightly from previous tastings, the evolution was more about which fruit emerged ahead of another rather than moving into a drinking window or showing tertiary notes.
Domaine Roses Camille Vertical
Unlike the smaller Chateau Castelbruck, and Chateau Haut-Breton Larigaudiere verticals the Domaine Roses Camille was larger and therefore one that showed a more obvious effect in the years past.
Each of 2011, 2012, and 2014 vintages had clearly evolved with the 2011 vintage almost entering a drinking window. The younger wine (2015) followed the same script as the Taieb Bordeaux and did not change much, if anything, at this point. The even younger wines were all new to me so they may have evolved since being bottled but I would not know.
It was great getting to taste these wines all side by side and seeing the impact of a season on the same vineyard. AKA, Horizontal tasting 101!
After the DRC work, I tried the famous 1997 Chateau de Fesles Bonnezeaux, it had clearly passed its prime but it was nice enough indeed! If you have any still, drink NOW!! I also tried some Montelobos Mezcal Pechuga – it was smoked with kosher Turkey Breast!!! LOL!! Yeah, it was fun! There were some 1999 and 2001 Chateau Guiraud passed around but I missed them and that is fine, I know them well.
It was great hanging out with Shimon Weiss from Shirah Winery and Alex Rubin (a winemaker helping the guys), and I first met Alex on my way to Josh’s wedding in the plane jetway! Life is such a small world! If any of this sounds familiar, in some manner, you have a great memory! Indeed, in August of 2012 found me, along with the aforementioned Shimon Weiss, and Jonathan Hajdu with the same awesome hosts getting together for an awesome event! It was a lunch to truly remember!
Second Tasting
Noon, the next day, I crashed at Andrew’s place, once again, and I tasted through the Burgundies from the plastic bags some had indeed evolved and improved, but none took a step backward.
Once I was done tasting through the wines I bid my adieu and made my way to the airport! The sad fact is that if you have no status you get what you pay for! I was done a few hours before my flight home, but I flew down using Southwest and I have no status with them, so changing a ticket the day of, would have cost me an arm and leg, so I sat in the terminal and waited for my plane. Of course, the plane was eventually delayed, but my plane was so empty they had to distribute us across the plane – so yeah, I was fine! It is all about perspective – right?
My thanks to Andrew and Shauna Breskin for hosting the tasting and for putting up with me and everyone else who crashed their home for more than 24 hours! Also, I used many of Andrew’s lovely pictures – thank you, sir!!! The notes speak for themselves.
The wine notes follow below, in the order, they were tasted – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
N.V. Louis de Vignezac Cuvee Special, Brut, Champagne – Score: 89 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is very yeasty, with baked goods, lemon/lime, and green apple. The mouth o this medium-bodied wine is ok but uni-dimensional, with nice minerals, green/yellow apple, and lime, but not much more than the acid and the fruit to grab you. The mousse is ok, not bracing and not attacking, but the acidity is great. The finish is long, and tart, with pear, apple, and lime. Drink now. (tasted January 2023) (in San Diego, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)
N.V. Champagne Charles de Ponthieu, Champagne – Score: 91 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is screaming with bright fruit, rich minerality, slate, rock, baked goods, pear, and apple. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is fresh, with great fruit focus, a lovely small bubble mousse, pear, apple, lime, baked apple pie, and lovely yeast, with floral notes. The finish is long, fruity, balanced, tart, lovely, refreshing, and focused. Nice! Drink now! (tasted January 2023) (in San Diego, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)
2019 La Chablisienne Chablis, Cuvee Casher, Chablis (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is nice enough with nice minerality, smoke, and saline, pear, and apple. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ok, a bit cooked, funky, and fruity, with apple, pear, and lemon/lime. The finish is long, cooked, and flinty, nice! Drink UP! (tasted January 2023) (in San Diego, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Burgundies from Taieb Wines
Over the past month or so I have been posting my wine notes from my trip to Paris in November 2022. The tastings were all done with my buddy Avi Davidowitz, from the Kosher Wine Unfiltered blog. On the last day we were there we had the chance to taste the newly bottled 2021 JP Marchand Burgundies from Taieb Wines. I continue to hope that on our next trip to Paris, Avi and I will once again make our way down to the Lyon, France area. Of course, without the “hotel” memories/baggage of the last trip! That was the eventful evening that led me to state these lines; After that, we made our way to our hotel and called where we slept that night – a hotel, well that is kind of like saying World War II was a mistaken exchange of friendly fire. WOW, that place was super strange on so many levels. Next time we finally get down to the Lyon area, where the Taieb offices are, we will make sure to stay at a normal hotel!
Back to the wines! As I have stated in my many posts so far I am not a huge fan of the 2020 or 2021 vintages so far. I have not had all the 2020 wines and obviously, we have only scratched the surface of the 2021 vintage. These wines did have their moments and some were quite nice but in the end, the 2021 vintage will be a tough go for almost all winemakers.
For the 2021 vintage Taieb once again made Meursault along with seven red Burgundies. There are no 1er or Grand Cru wines this vintage from Jean-Philippe Marchand and Taieb wines. I guess that the 2021 vintage was already so small in size that to have gotten those grapes would have been impossible. The Meursault was exceptional as was the Gevrey-Chambertin, and there were a few other solid wines as well. The main issue was that some of the wines were nice but not complex, sadly, they were scored from what we tasted that night. I attribute this to the 2021 vintage which was a complicated and difficult one for sure.
I want to stress that these wines were NOT tasted blind, in comparison to the other, non-organized wine tastings where all the wines were tasted blind over a couple of days. Sadly, there was just no time for that to happen. However, I will be tasting these wines in a few weeks and I will repost my notes again.
I will keep this to a minimum, a simple post about the wines I tasted. If you want more on Taieb Wines – read the family history here.
Hopefully, these wines will be brought in by Andrew, at Liquid Kosher, again I hope to taste at least some of these, a second time, in the USA soon. My many thanks to Yoni Taieb and all at Moise Taieb Wines & Spirits for taking the time to send me the wines to my hotel. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Meursault, Meursault – Score: 93+ (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is intense, funky, and dirty, with rich salinity, smoke, hay, honeyed melon, toasty oak, hazelnuts, and lemongrass. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is intense, dense, rich, and layered, truly incredible, with layers of acidity, butterscotch, toast, melon, apple, lime, hay/grass, with minerality, flint/slate, with such an unctuous and rich mouthfeel, almost oily, with a weightiness and freshness that is truly incredible. The finish is long, tart, and rich, not as ripe as 2019, but lovely with more lemon/lime Fraiche, flint, rock, saline, and honeyed notes. Lovely! PLEASE, many of you will be motivated to drink this up as it is an awesome wine, but control yourselves please, this wine needs time! Drink until 2029, maybe longer. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Bourgogne, Hautes-Cotes de Nuits, Hautes-Cotes de Nuits – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is evolving, changing with air and time, with more floral notes, showing rosehip, and violet, with roasted herbs, green notes, red fruit, and foliage. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe, with dried floral notes, cherry, smoke, earth, mushroom, and smoke, with soft tannins, menthol, and green notes. The finish is long, green, sweet, floral, and herbal, with graphite, and smoke. Bravo! Drink until 2026. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Bourgogne, Hautes-Cotes de Beaune, Hautes-Cotes de Beaune – Score: 91+ (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is lovely, far more restrained than the Hautes-Cotes de Nuits, with lovely mushroom, loam, dirt, smoke, red fruit, rich funk, and nice umami. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, layered, and concentrated, with bracing acidity, lovely salinity, dark cherry, and raspberry fruit, all balanced and wrapped with elegant tannin, more rosehip, lavender, tart notes, and sweet fruit. The finish is long, tart, and balanced, with menthol, roasted herbs, loam, and smoke. Drink by 2028. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.5%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Nuits-Saint-George, Aux Herbues, Nuits-Saint-George – Score: 88 (QPR: BAD)
the nose of this wine starts with earthy notes, smoke, and funk, a bit of heat, with lovely cherry, dark raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate, coffee, violets, and foliage, with menthol. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe, and hot, with ripe fruit, bramble, jammy pomegranate, and cranberry, with more tannin, candied fruit, roasted herb, wrapped in sweet currants, and a dense rich mouthfeel. The finish is ripe, with sweet fruit, more acidity, sweet oak, milk chocolate, sweet licorice, and candied strawberry. Drink by 2030. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Volnay, Sous Luret, Volnay – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is far more constrained and controlled with lovely mushrooms, dark cherry, smoked meat, violet, lavender, coffee bean, earth, and mineral. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is truly layered, rich, and smoky, with dark Kirche cherry, currant, dirt, bright scream acidity, with a nice tannin structure, followed by more floral notes, and tart fruit. The finish is long, tart, green, ripe, and smoky, with tart cherry, nice tannin, and floral notes lingering long, with mushroom and loam lingering as well. Nice! Drink by 2030. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Aloxe Corton, Sous Chaillots, Aloxe Corton – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
The nose of this wine is funky, with mushrooms, flowers, red fruit, herbal notes, and smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe, and floral, with cranberry, cherry, and currants, all wrapped in violets and rosehip, with nice tannin. The finish is long, tart, and candied, with almost pomegranates, and loads of floral notes that are sweet from the candied fruit, mushroom, and earth. Overall, the red fruit, dense floral notes, and acidity are what carry this wine. Drink until 2030. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Pommard, Le Dome, Pommard – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
The nose of this wine is oaky, with nice mushrooms, ripe red fruit, herbs, and dirt. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is once again a flower pot with nice red fruit, cherry, and raspberry, not as candied as others, with nice acidity, and tannin. The finish is long, floral, herbal, and fruity, with lavender and smoke. Drink by 2029. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
2021 Jean-Philippe Marchand Gevrey-Chambertin, Gevrey-Chambertin – Score: 93 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is balanced with good mushrooms, bright and ripe red fruit, cola, umami, funk, and dirty sock funk, that gives way to soy sauce, and earth. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe, balanced, and nice, with rich salinity, nice tannin structure, lovely dark cherry, ripe strawberry, rich extraction, dense fruit, and mouthfeel, smoked meat, elegant, yet ripe, with a lovely plush and rich mouthfeel, lovely! The finish is long, red, ripe, and extracted with lovely fruit, menthol, garrigue, mushrooms, smoke, and more roasted animal, lovely! Drink by 2031. (tasted November 2022) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 13%)
Final Tasting from my trip to Paris – November 2021
As stated in my previous post, I was in Paris in November, and while it took forever to post these notes, I am happy to finally be getting to them at this point. The total number of boxes in our hotel room, much like in June, still makes me laugh!
As I stated, in my previous post, I kept to my hotel room for much of the trip. I was joined by Avi Davidowitz from Kosher Wine Unfiltered. Even vaccinated, I was worried, as such we kept to ourselves, where possible. Almost all the wines below were tasted with Avi, in our hotel room, a few were tasted after he returned home to Israel.
Marmorieres Wines
I truly enjoyed the Château de Marmorières Les Amandiers, La Clape, Languedoc we had in June. So, I made sure Avi tasted that along with other wines from the winery, which was only released after I left Paris in June. The rose and white were nice while the Cab and Merlot were less interesting.
White wines from all over France
For the most part, the list was weak as it had too many boring Chablis. There were one or two nice wines, so look for those WINNERS. The best of that group has the worst name I have ever seen – LaCheteau Sauvignon Blanc – like seriously??? Anyway, horrible name – great wine!
Charles Pere & Fils Burgundy Wines
I was hoping to enjoy some 2020 Burgundy wines, but sadly, none of them stood out in a good way. They felt rushed, not complete, and overall, lackluster. I hope subsequent vintages will be better.
Rhone Wines
We had wines from Famille Daubree and Les Vins De Vienne and neither of them stood out. Again, they were very ripe, and we gave them days to come around, they never did. These are not what I am looking for. They are well made but too ripe for me. If you like well-made ripe French wine, try them out.
Various Bordeaux Wines
This group was a total loser, just like in June, except this time – there were no new wines to save me! Thankfully, for Avi, there were many of the wines I enjoyed in June, but for me, there was not a SINGLE red wine I would drink. That is how bad the options were!
German Weingut Gehring Wines
These wines were the most enjoyable and reasonably priced wines we tasted in our own tasting. The wines were made for an Israeli entrepreneur, who was going to sell them to hotels and restaurants, but sadly, he died, and the wines just sat in Germany! Some of them made their way to Israel anyway and that is where Avi and a few others saw them and worked crazy hard to buy them. Avi brought one wine with him, but I wanted to taste them all, there are three of them.
Weingut Gehring made three kosher wines with this gentleman who passed away, a Riesling, Grauer Burgunder (Pinot Gris), and an off-dry muscat. So, while I was in France I called the winery and paid them to ship the wines to my hotel, which worked perfectly! That was how I was able to taste all three of them. The wines that were sent to me all have Hebrew back labels as they were meant for the Israeli market and while the Hechsher is good it is not one many would know.
Thoughts on this tasting
Overall, these wines were unimpressive, but wow did we find some real sleepers! The 2020 LaCheteau Sauvignon Blanc, Les Cimes, Haut-Poitou, Loire Valley is a no-brainer for those in France/Europe. Same for the two german wines. Other than that it was a total mess and I hope the next trip will have better options!
Though none of these wines will ever make it to the USA shores, some are in Israel and I feel bad for you. The LeChateau is in Israel, but I have no idea if there were transport issues, like with many other French wines imported into Israel, in the past. The two German wines were in Israel but I have no idea about their distribution. Either way, thankfully, these wines can stay in France/Europe, there is nothing I want here, other than maybe the German wines, but I think they are all spoken for.
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
Chevalier Wines
2020 Chevalier De Marmorieres Rose, Vin de France – Score: 90.5 (QPR: GREAT)
Clean smelling rose with good lines, bright fruit, floral notes of violet, honeysuckle, raspberry, honeyed fruit, and tart lemon. Nice job, the mouth on this medium-bodied rose is tart, right on the money, well priced, with lovely strawberry, sweet pomelo, mango, with searing acidity, tart lemon, lemon pith, sweet peach, and nice refreshing acidity to bring it all together – nice! The finish is long, ripe, and well-balanced, with slate, acid, and good fruit. Nice! Drink now! (tasted November 2021)
2020 Chevalier De Marmorieres Blanc, Vin de France – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose on this wine is very fruity, smells a lot like Viognier, with white peach, apricot, funk, guava, and sweet fruit. The mouth on this opens slowly, with nice acidity, that is slow to fully show, nice acidity, with guava, ripe peach, Pomelo, sweet honeysuckle, honeyed tropical fruit, and ripe melon. The finish is long, tart, ripe, and well balanced, with more funk, saline, mineral, and slate. Nice! (tasted November 2021) (in Paris, France) (ABV = 12.50%)
2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Burgundies and new Domaine Roses Camille vintages
UPDATED: I added the 2016 Clos Lavaud wine note below. Great WINNER!
Last week I had the chance to taste through the new kosher 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand red and white Burgundies. Yes, you heard me correctly, white and red! There is a new white Burgundy from Meursault, we have not had one since 2004 and sadly, that wine is long dead. However, we did have a lovely Meursault, in 2014, with Pierre Miodownick, and that wine was really fun! There were Pinot Noir Burgundies from 2019, along with a few Bourdeaux wines as well, from both Taieb and Domaine Roses Camille.
I will keep this to a minimum, a simple post about the wines I tasted. If you want more on Taieb Wines – read the family history here. However, before I fast-forward to the notes please understand the enormity of what is going on here – kosher white wine has finally arrived, with this new 2019 Meursault, the 2018 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt Blanc, the 2019 Chateau Gazin Rocquencourt, Blanc (not yet released), and the 2019 Chateau Malartic, Blanc! We have finally hit the escape velocity from the kosher wine world’s sole fascination with Cabernet Sauvignon!
The 2019 Pinot Noirs were from Jean-Philippe Marchand. I loved the 2017 Jean-Philippe Pinot Noirs, wines I bought and purchased already. IMHO, the 2019 vintage is far more reminiscent of what is expected from a Burgundy. The 2019 wines are lither than the 2017s were. They show more floral characteristics than their 2017 brethren. Overall, I was highly impressed. Beware, sadly there is no Lescure for 2018, 2019, or 2020 – SO SAD!
The Bordeaux wines came from both Taieb and Domaine Roses Camille, and I think they all showed very well with a WINNER and some very solid options as well! Much to all of this should be soon available with Andrew Breskin and Liquid Kosher, so keep a lookout for these wines from him. They will, of course, also be available in France from Taieb’s website, and Domaine Roses Camille’s European distribution, which I do not know much about. Though, I am sure the usual websites and stores in Paris and Belgium will have the wines.NOTE: I need to taste the 2016 Clos Lavaud, Lalande de Pomerol again before I can post my final score on it. I added the Clos Lavaud below. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:
The 2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Burgundies
2019 Jean-Philippe Marchand Meursault– Score: 93 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is lovely, it is a closed to start, with lovely sweet oak, yellow apple, with lovely candied pear, cardamom, with hints of lemon, spice, and herbs, wow! The waxy and oily approach to this wine is unique. With time the wine opens and WOW, the nose explodes with sweet toasted oak, toasted almonds, hazelnuts, and more floral notes, honeysuckle, honey, lemon/lime, melon, and lovely herbaceous notes. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is lovely, layered, rich, with sweet oak, Meyer lemon, apple tart, sweet fig, creme brulee, honey, crazy acidity, lovely mouth-coating tannin, smoke, crazy minerality, and lovely flint, rock, and smoked duck, with brioche, lemon/lime, and sweet yellow plum. The finish is long, sweet, tart, ripe, and well-balanced, with flint and toast. PLEASE, many of you will be motivated to drink this up as it is an awesome wine, but control yourselves please, this wine needs time! Drink from 2023 until 2028, maybe longer. (tasted Jan 2021)
Wine Musings Blog 