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Another round of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Hits and Misses, 21 QPR WINNERS – June 2025
I have been behind in posting. However, I am back in the swing of things, and after this post, I owe you a post on the new Royal Wines in Paris. Then an IDS post – with some CRAZY wines, and finally the Hotel wrap-up with some REAL SHOCKERS (in a good way) and of course some massive failures (AKA Classic Paris Hotel tasting).
This post is not as long as my last QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) post, but it still weighs in at 86 wines. The last one I did was in December 2024. That one had around 90 wines, and 17 of them garnered a QPR WINNER score. The latest post with the largest number of wines winning a QPR Score of WINNER was the May 2023 post, with 19 wines garnering a QPR score of WINNER. This one tops them all, in regards to QPR scores, with 21 wines winning the WINNER QPR score.
QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wines
It has been six or so months since my last QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) post, and many people have been emailing me about unique wines I have tasted and lovely wines that are worth writing about.
Thankfully, no matter how much garbage and pain I subject myself to, we are still blessed with several excellent QPR wines.
Throughout the year, I post 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 QPR WINNERS wines. People are still asking me what a QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wine is and what the score of WINNER denotes. Once again, those are explained here in this post.
Some things that made me stand up and take notice (AKA QPR WINNERS):
There are many wines here, as stated, and I have been behind on this. So, these wine notes are coming from a collection of times. Some of them are the actual notes from the KFWE events in February that I posted about in March. Some of these wine notes are from personal tastings. Finally, some of these wine notes are from group tastings with friends.
Terra di Seta
Terra di Seta has returned to that special place where its wines are TOP-Tier QPR WINNERS. The 2020 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico Riserva was just lovely! Follow that with the even more affordable, yet lovely, 2022 Terra di Seta Classico. Bravo guys! Here is a slight sneak peek. I tasted an even better terra di Seta in Paris, but that is still three posts away!
Kosherwine.com Wines
I tasted two wines from KW: the 2003 Clos de Menuts and the 2015 Chateau Lavagnac. I found both of them were lovely, though some other people told me I was lucky. Clearly, these wines are on the edge, as my notes state, and they may be good or may not. However, I found the Menuts to be truly enjoyable. Hoping you all have success.
There were more French/European wines from KW that I bought, but they were less interesting.
However, there were two Sleight of Hand (wines made by Ari Lockspeiser) wines that I think KW sells exclusively, and they were both solid. Fruity, with enough brightness to pull it together.
Hajdu Wines
I bought and tasted all the Hajdu current releases, and while I found the white wines WINNERS, more on that below, the red wines are not my cup of tea. They show more fruit and power than I wish for in my cup, but I am sure there are many who will love these wines!
Alex Rubin Wines
Like the Hajdu wines, I bought all of the current releases, and again, the red wines are Cali wines, and the white wines are incredible. The 2023 Arinto is a BLOCKBUSTER and should be sold out already. His Riesling, which was macerated, is also a solid wine that I posted back here. Still, his red wines are more controlled than other Cali producers and I think many people would appreciate them.
Covenant Wines
Jeff, Jonathan, and the gang continue to impress, with no breaks so far. The latest wines I tasted were the 2024 Covenant Rose, the 2024 Mensch Zinfandel, the 2022 Covenant Syrah Bien Nacido Vineyard, and the 2024 Mensch Roussanne.
The Rose is lovely, with no bitter notes, a thing I hate in rose wines. The balance and fruit are there as well. Further proof that even in a weak vintage, the Covenant team delivers value and quality! Great work, guys!
The 2024 Mensch Zinfandel is a Zin that I would buy. Zin used to be my favorite fruit, but that blew off quickly as the wines started getting unruly and unbalanced. Still, if you can create a wine like Covenant did in 2024, my hat’s off to you!!
The 2022 Covenant Syrah Bien Nacido Vineyard is another solid wine, garnering a 92 score and showing the power of California. It was a hot season, and while I found the wine lovely, it is a slight step behind the 2021 vintage, which may well be the best Syrah I have had out of California!
Finally, the Roussanne is solid enough; it is a bit too fruity, but overall, a solid quaff. Keep up the GREAT work, guys!
White Wine WINNERS:
Of the 21 WINNERS, 11 are White or rosé wines! We are getting better in this space, year after year!
I must START with one of the best white wines I have had recently, that is not a Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Semillon, or Chardonnay, and that is the 2023 Alex Rubin Arinto. This wine has not undergone maceration, although the mouthfeel suggests it may have had a touch. The wine overall is rich, layered, fruity, intensely acidic, refreshing, and a NO BRAINER BUY! Bravo Alex!
Herzog has two Chenin Blancs, and I posted about them back in September of last year. I tasted the Mevushal one in Oxnard, as the non-Mevushal one was not yet released. The wine does show the oak now, but I found those notes recede over time and show fun wines. These will require some patience, but you will be rewarded.
The 2023 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc continues its torrid run on the kosher wine market! There has yet to be a bad vintage, and while I know of people who are too snooty for the tropical notes, you guys ALL know who they are; these wines hit on all levels for me. This vintage is more steely, more citrus-driven, while still showing enough tropical notes to make me interested. Nice!
The two Hajdu white wines were lovely, the Vermentino and the Proprietary White (a new thing) showed well.
The Otter & Fox (a wine by David Edelman) showed quite nicely! Fruity, balanced, and controlled.
Israeli WINNERS
Yes, there were some good wines from Israel, and they were all Rose or Whites. The 2024 Puzzle Rose is lovely! As was the 2023 Dalton Sauvignon Blanc, Family Collection, the 2024 Netofa Latour Tzahov, White, and the 2024 Dalton Sauvignon Blanc, Fume. Solid choices to enjoy this Summer.
The outlier is the 2023 Matar Cumulus. The 2022 vintage was Shmita so I have no idea what that one tasted like, but the 2021 and the 2023 vintages were both QPR WINNERS! Good for them!
Two Outlier Wines
Every so often, the Vieux Chateau Chambeau Reserve has a good wine! I have tasted three of these wines, which were good, and the rest were not. They are a classic, Mevushal French wine, Russian Roulette. The 2015 was a solid wine, though not the reserve. 2018 was a WINNER under the Reserve label, and it happened again in 2022. The 2022 Vieux Chateau Chambeau Reserve, Lussac Saint-Emilion, has the same score and almost the same notes – perhaps they require a hot vintage to make the wine work; I have no idea.
The other outlier is the 2023 Quinta do Cerrado da Porta Troviscal Tinto, Reserva, Lisboa. Andrew Breskin, of Liquid Kosher, asked me to taste it, and thanks to him, the winery sent the wines to my hotel. I tasted them here in the USA, after they rested for a long time. I sent one or two to him as well, so we both enjoyed this WINNER. I am not sure if they want to export the wine. The notes indicate how much I enjoyed this wine, as does the score; however, it’s essential to understand that the price of this wine in Europe is incredibly affordable.
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A quick post of four new Covenant Wines releases – January 2025
I just published a different post and wanted to catch up on the rest of my California wine notes with this post. Covenant Wines continues to excel year after year with wines that show what California has to offer. They have been slowly expanding their portfolio with two new Mevushal wines, the Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon (that started in 2021) and the Black Label Pinot Noir, which they just released in 2023. Since the start, Covenant Wines, led by Jeff Morgan, Jonathan Hajdu, Jodie Morgan, and the rest of the awesome Morgan family, have been making wines since their inaugural 2003 release. Not all the family was working on this effort, from the start, but they all joined slowly. Now, this is a family-run operation that continues to push on what I would call QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) WINNERs. They continue to prove that California does not need to be expensive, and they continue to prove that California can excel at making balanced and refreshing wines. Those two statements – quality wines and wines sold at reasonable prices (compared to their peers) is the VERY DEFINITION of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) winemaking.
The good news continues with their newly released 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon, Black Label. So far, and I am already late closing my blog year, this is the Mevushal wine of the year. It is a wine that pops, shows no boil/cooked notes, and is clean, alive, fresh, and exciting. The same can be said for the 2024 Sauvignon Blanc, Red C, and the 2024 Viognier, Red C. Both wines are varietally authentic, showing great pop, acidity, and balance for California wine.
Finally, the newly released 2022 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Solomon, Lot 70. It is a ripe wine, but give it time. The wine finds its place and is quite lovely!
I know this is a rushed piece, but I wanted to get it out there and move on to some very large-format posts—hint, hint. Best wishes to all, and prayers for the Hostages and for those suffering down south in SoCal. Prayers go out to all!
My many thanks to Jeff, Zoe, and the rest of the clan for sharing these wines with me. They are listed in the order I tasted them. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here, and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2024 Covenant Viognier, Red C, Lodi, CA – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is varietally true, with fresh and clean aromas of ripe and juicy yellow peach, lychee, grapefruit, and flint. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, with almost no bitterness at all, refreshing and ripe at the same time, not too fussy, with great acidity, creamy with juicy peach, apricot, lychee, grapefruit, and slight tension. The finish is long, tart, ripe, and refreshing, with good ripe fruit and fruit-focused. Nice!. Drink now! (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.8%)
2024 Covenant Sauvignon Blanc, Red C, Lake County, CA – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is nice, showing notes of creamy lychee, grapefruit, gooseberry, passion fruit, and nice smoke.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, but right out of the bottle, it has a bit of issues. Give this wine a few minutes, or it may be the bottle shock; either way, give this lovely wine a bit of time to breathe.
After 30 minutes, the wine has great acidity and a nice fruit focus; it has a creamier/fatter mouth than last year, with lemon/lime notes, nice gooseberry, loads of great flint, nice passion fruit, and lovely minerality, nice!
The finish is long, tart, and creamy, with lemongrass, flint, and lovely lemon/Lychee/flint notes lingering long. Nice! Drink now. (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)
2023 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Black Label, Sonoma County, CA (M) – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
WOW! This is the third Mevushal (Black Label) Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, and it is lovely! I am also getting used to the amalgamated corks, and I am happy.
The nose of this wine is lovely, controlled, ripe, California, creamy, and rich. It shows iron shaving, minerality, rich smoke, tar, anise, black pepper, ripe black and red fruit, lovely pop, and dirt. Bravo. This is the best Mevushal one so far.
The mouth of this full-bodied wine is lovely, showing great acidity, nice mouthfeel, creamy and rich, but with good pop, blackberry, plum, cassis, beautiful minerality, graphite, nice smoke, mouth-draping tannin, rich and layered. This is an impressive showing for a Mevushal wine, showing power, plush mouthfeel, finesse, almost elegant (though with all this power it is tough), some sweet oak, but it is not in your face, and nice dirt. Bravo!
The finish is long, dirty, ripe, balanced, with sweet tobacco, milk chocolate, graphite, and lovely tannin/acidity. Bravo!!! Drink until 2034. (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.8%)
2022 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Solomon, Lot 70, Napa Valley, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is ripe, a bit more than I had hoped, but let’s watch this wine evolve over the next day or so.
The nose shows ripe notes of candied fruit, almost dried black fruit, with tar, anise, nice minerality, smoke, sweet oak, and dirt. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe but not as candied as the nose. It has impeccable acidity, good pop, mouth-watering blackberry, cassis, and raspberry flavors, great salinity, minerality, rock, and graphite. The wine is mouth-draping, almost elegant, with nice black and red fruit and hints of green notes, while the heat/candied notes lurk.
Thankfully, with time, the fruit and heat calm, and the elegance comes out fully. The mouth is layered, rich, controlled, and elegant with mouth-draping tannin, good fruit, great focus, and refreshing, with more blackberry, cassis, and blackcurrant, all wrapped in sweet oak and lovely dirt. Bravo!
The finish is long, dark, brooding, smoky, and toasty, with dark chocolate, leather, smoke, and tobacco. Drink from 2028 until 2035. (tasted January 2025) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.8%)
Best Kosher Whites Wines from 2021, 2022, and 2023
I have been complaining about Roses recently. Yes, we had a good slate of them, for those that need them. However, I state over and over, that White WInes are what we need more of and they fill the abilities that Rose wines were meant to help with. This post will be short and to the point. I hope you all use this to enjoy the crazy heat waves rolling over the world. White wine is the answer to some lovely meals with friends and family!
White Wines
I understand the thought that people have, that Rose wine will be more enjoyable with certain food/fare than a white wine. That thought is wrong, but I understand. People see the red hue and think it is a red wine that can be enjoyed with a burger. The truth is that Rose or white wine can do the same thing if they are dry and have intense acidity. The acidity is the main point here. Sadly, while some Roses will work, most of them lack the acidity for that to be an honest assessment. So, people buy the Roses, they lack the refreshing acidity and leave unhappy. The better option is white wines. They have a higher probability of existing with good acidity and they are just more enjoyable. The last point is 100% subjective and I understand that.
People see Rose as a way for people to learn about red wine without the need for Cabernet Sauvignon or what. While I see that as an approach and I appreciate it, soon enough, Red wine folks just go back to Red wine as they miss the tannin/sweet wine punch. Big, fat, even balanced Oaky wines can give you the closest thing to a wine that Red wine drinkers will appreciate.
The oak, fat fruit, and rich mouthfeel, followed by good tannin will make the Red Wine drinker happiest. The hope is eventually, they will jump on the ABC train (Anything But Chardonnay) that is slowly rising up again, given the heavy whites coming out of Cali. Hopefully, they will desire less oak, and more balance, and find the plethora of Kosher White wines that we are blessed with.
Peak Kosher White here or very near
We are currently blessed with an almost never-ending list of white wines. They may not all be great, they may have acid issues or balance issues, but we have so many options that it is impressive! We will see even more soon so I hope you are getting your white wine mojo going!
Methodology
So, the idea here is to post the new white wines that I have not already posted – some of which date back to March of this year. I will also post WINNER wines from the years 2021, 2022, and 2023, when/if they are for sale. That last part will be tough but I will use KosherWine and Google as my guide. Either way, they will be reposts of existing posts, so the info is always available.
Ok, that is a wrap, note, I have a TON of wine notes I still need to post after this, my guess is that will end up being a massive QPR post with loads of red wines.
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2022 Covenant Solomon Blanc, Bennett Valley, Sonoma County, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This is the third time I have tasted this wine and messed up, I admit, it is impressive, I scored it a 92 and then I backed off the WINNER QPR score. Mistake! This wine is rich, round, and not as piercing as in 2021, and I have put that wine on a pedestal This wine stands on its own, it has fruitier notes, OK, but it is also balanced, riper, rounder, and quite enjoyable. This is the 3rd year of this lovely wine, I think this one sits right between the 21 and 20 vintages, which means this is another WINNER. Bravo!
The nose of this lovely wine is impressive with intense bright fruit, bright acidity, tart lemon/lime, sweet orange blossom, lanolin, sweet bright pear, sweet Honeydew melon, and lovely oak influence. The mouth of this medium-plus bodied wine is intense, layered, and complex, with rich layers of tart orange, lemon/lime, melon, Asian pear, yellow apple, and piercing acidity, with an impressive expression, of fruit and oak, sweet oak, smoke, sweet mint, and sweet fruit. Bravo!
The finish is long, tart, ripe, and fruity, with some oak influence, and hints of vanilla, but really the finish is a focus of acidity, melon, orange, mineraity, white pepper, and lemon, all wrapped up beautifully! Bravo!! Drink until 2030. (Retasted July 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.4%)
2022 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough (M) – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
At the start, the wine feels/smells leaner than previous vintages but the fruit and style are absolutely similar, thankfully, O’dwyers Creek is so dependable, that it is fantastic. Still, the weight we expect is a bit lacking and the acidity here is just incredible. However, after a few hours, the wine is rich, tropical, layered, and complex, AKA Classic WINNER!
The nose of this wine is classically New Zealand in style, with cat pee, fresh-cut grass, foliage, gooseberry, passion fruit, pink grapefruit blossom, and bright fruit all over the place. After a bit of time, the ripe fruit appears, a classic New Zealand Banker!
The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, with intense acidity, the first thing that hits you is the acid, followed by nice flint notes, smoke, rock, saline, gooseberry, lemongrass, intense passion fruit, lychee, and sweet melon. The acidity hits you in waves and with time the weight comes to you as does the lovely sweet-cut grass. With time, the ripe mango, gooseberry, and passion fruit hit you in waves, with a richer mouthfeel, and the complexity we crave along with intense bracing acidity, it is just incredible! The finish on this wine shows more saline, rock, flint, smoke, mineral, gooseberry, freshly cut grass, and intense acid, so much fun!!! BRAVO!! Drink until 2028. (tasted April 2024) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)
California Dreaming – 2021 is quite the vintage – part #2
The 2020 fire-riddled vintage in much of Northern California has thankfully given way to a stunning vintage of 2021! After suffering drought, fire, and extreme temperature swings, Cali has been gifted a vintage that while low on yields, in some locals, is high on quality.
This is the second post on California wines that I have tasted recently and this one is less complimentary of the wines than the previous one. Please go read the first post and see those wines before reading this post.
I will say I was unimpressed by the Chardonnay from 2021 and even though the Oakville came in with the highest score I wished it had more acidity and more verve. I am still trying to get my hands on the Herzog Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon, it is just impossible sometimes to get wine, such is life! I hope I finally have a line on it for next week!
The real WINNERS for me were the 2023 wines from Covenant. I have been banging the drum for their wines for around a year-plus now. dating back to the tasting I had in Berkeley in September of 2022. They have really not missed a step these past two years. and the 2023 vintage is starting with a bang! The Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc are both Fruity but balanced and refreshing, and that is the word you want to see in my posts, sometimes more than the Nice or Bravo (keywords).
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The 2021 Kosher rose season is open and once again I am underwhelmed – scene 1
It is not yet summer and here in NorCal it feels like more like a wet winter, this year has started cold and has stayed cold throughout the country, other than in Arizona and Florida, AKA, baseball Spring Training! Normally, I would have been in Israel by now, one way or the other, and I would have also visited France, sadly, with the times we live in now, neither of those wonderful ideas is possible. Sad and strange days we live in. Also, this is scene 1, more roses are coming in, but we have seen a large number already, and yes, like last year, they are underwhelming, at BEST!
While rose wine in the non-kosher market is exploding – especially Rose wine from Provence; a wine region of France, kosher roses have ebbed and flowed. Last year, the kosher market for roses slowed down a bit. This year it has returned to absolute insanity and sadly they are all expensive and boring, again, at best.
QPR and Price
I have been having more discussions around my QPR (Quality to Price) score with a few people and their contention, which is fair, in that they see wine at a certain price, and they are not going to go above that. So, instead of having a true methodology behind their ideas, they go with what can only be described as a gut feeling. The approaches are either a wine punches above its weight class so it deserves a good QPR score. Or, this other wine has a good score and is less than 40 dollars so that makes it a good QPR wine.
While I appreciate those ideals, they do not work for everyone and they do NOT work for all wine categories. It does NOT work for roses. Look, rose prices are 100% ABSURD – PERIOD! The median rose price has stayed the same from last year, so far though many expensive roses are not here yet! So far, it is around 22 bucks – that is NUTS! Worse, is that the prices are for online places like kosherwine.com or onlinekosherwine.com, with free or good shipping options and great pricing, definitely not retail pricing.
As you will see in the scores below, QPR is all over the place and there will be good QPR scores for wines I would not buy while there are POOR to BAD QPR scores for wines I would think about drinking, but not buying, based upon the scores, but in reality, I would never buy another bottle because the pricing is ABSURDLY high.
Also, remember that the QPR methodology is based upon the 4 quintiles! Meaning, that there is a Median, but there are also quintiles above and below that median. So a wine that is at the top price point is by definition in the upper quintile. The same goes for scores. Each step above and below the median is a point in the system. So a wine that is in the most expensive quintile but is also the best wine of the group gets an EVEN. Remember folks math wins!
Still, some of the wines have a QPR of great and I would not buy them, why? Well, again, QPR is based NOT on quality primarily, it is based upon price. The quality is secondary to the price. For example, if a rose gets a score of 87 points, even though that is not a wine I would drink, if it has a price below 22 dollars – we have a GREAT QPR. Again, simple math wins. Does that mean that I would buy them because they have a GREAT QPR? No, I would not! However, for those that still want roses, then those are OK options.
Please remember, a wine score and the notes are the primary reason why I would buy a wine – PERIOD. The QPR score is there to mediate, secondarily, which of those wines that I wish to buy, are a better value. ONLY, the qualitative score can live on its own, in regards to what I buy. The QPR score defines, within the wine category, which of its peers are better or worse than the wine in question.
Finally, I can, and I have, cut and paste the rest of this post from last year’s rose post and it plays 100% the same as it did last year. Why? Because rose again is horrible. There is almost no Israeli rose, that I have tasted so far, that I would buy – no way! Now, I have not tasted the wines that many think are good in Israel, Vitkin, Oryah, and Recanati roses. In reality, there is NO QPR WINNER yet, of the 30+ roses I have tasted, not even close, sadly.
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The start of 2020 roses and whites and six QPR WINNERS
I am going to keep this post real short. I am catching up on some wines that I have tasted over the past month or more. Sadly, most of these are a mess or just good enough. Thankfully, there were six QPR (Quality to Price) Winners. That included the 2017 Carmel Riesling, Kayoumi Vineyards. I have said this a few times, Rieslings need time! 2017 is no different. It needed time to come around and now it is a solid QPR WINNER.
Roses are slowly trickling in and on kosher wine sites, you can see as many as 20 2020 roses. Sadly, it takes time for them to get to me, so I will start my usual procession of rose wines in a subsequent post, as they get to me here in California. So far, like 2019, they are a mess, and they feel like a total waste of my money.
In the end, the QPR WINNERS are no surprise! The 2020 Covenant Sauvignon Blanc is a solid wine and one that has lovely control and acidity. Having a wine like this with all that mother nature threw at California in 2020, I say Bravo to Covenant Winery! There are two Netofa Latour QPR WINNERS and OMG they are absolute ROCK stars. Please do me a favor and GET THEM! They will move fast! The 2016 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Riserva is another absolute Rock Star! Finally, the last QPR WINNER was the new vintage of the Flechas Gran Malbec a lovely wine that is not ready yet but will be nice when it is.
There were a few wines that were not winners:
- The much-ballyhooed 2018 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib. I had it and it was a mess to mess. It was ripe from the start and while that ripeness did calm a bit it never really came around and for the most part, it was just OK.
- I was not a fan of any of the Carmel Mediterranean Vats wines. The 2019 Mediterranean 2 Vats white wine was ok, but it felt to me like it has RS (Residual Sugar) and that does not fly with me at all.
- The 2017 Marciano Terra Gratia was shockingly ripe and is probably the most elegant Date-juice driven wine I have ever tasted. I could be convinced, at gunpoint, to enjoy that wine, based solely on its elegance.
- The 2018 Dalton Petite Sirah was nice enough, but for the price, and the overall quality, it was a miss for me.
- Sadly, the 2018 Koenig wines continue to not impress, other than the lovely Riesling
- I tasted a large number of Victor Wines and none of them were any good.
While these other wines were not WINNERS they were quite enjoyable:
- I got to taste the new 2018 Dampt Freres Bourgogne. It is a much better version than the 2017 vintage. Sadly, the wine will probably sell for a price that does not let it be a QPR WINNER. I hope future wines will be priced lower. The sad truth is that there are few good QPR WINNER wines in the simple red wine category. It is a very hard nut to crack both in regards to making good wine and keeping it at the QPR price for that category, which is 20 or so dollars, at this moment.
- There were two nice 2019 Vitkin Wines the 2019 Vitkin Pinot Noir and the 2019 Vitkin Israeli Journey. These wines are solid, both a 90 score, but the prices are still too high for such wines. They are both simple reds and they price above the 20 dollar price range for simple red wines. They punch MUCH higher in regards to quality. The median score for simple reds is 87, at this moment. Again, getting a red wine to score WINNER in the simple red wine category is really tough!
- The Twin Sun white and Rose wines have been doing a great job, which is no surprise, as the Weiss Brothers know how to make great white and Rose wines. The 2018 Twin Suns Chardonnay-Viognier is a nice wine and at a very good price! Nice!
- The famous Matar Sparkling wine was nice enough, but it is not nearly as good as the Yarden Sparkling wines and it is more expensive. The bottle is nice!
- I had the chance to taste the 2017 Chateau Leoville Poyferre again, under less than perfect conditions, NO NOT the KFWV bottle, and I have revised notes, but the score stays the same.
The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:
2020 Rose Wines
2020 Flam Rose – Score: 89+ (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is nice, with floral notes, with strawberry, flint, and red fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, with good acid, nice mouthfeel, with a good fruit-focus, nice strawberry, currants, and good grapefruit. (tasted January 2021)
2020 1848 2nd Generation Rose – Score: 84 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is nice enough with notes of rosehip, floral notes, citrus, and mineral The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, with good acidity, and not much else, with more citrus, grapefruit, currants, and strawberry. The finish is long, acidic, and more currants and flowers. (tasted January 2021)
2020 Herzog Lineage Rose (M) – Score: 80 (QPR: NA)
Sadly, this is off-dry, it has sweet notes and not my thing. The nose on this wine has a Muscat feel, with floral notes, pineapple, cooked cabbage, and red fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has no acid, is sweet, ripe, guava, melon, and no citrus, no acid, tropical, and not much else. (tasted January 2021)
2020 Shiloh Rose (M) – Score: 73 (QPR: NA)
The nose on this wine is tropical and ripe, with hints of mineral, and citrus. The mouth on this wine is where it all goes bad, sweet, unbalanced, bitter, a mess. (tasted January 2021)
Wines ordered in score order
2016 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Riserva – Score: 93+ (QPR: WINNER)
This is one of the most balanced versions of the Riserva in a very long time. The Riserva is normally undrinkable for a few years, this one is far more accessible than any previous version – WOW! The nose on this wine is incredible, with mushroom, truffle, soy sauce, tar, with floral notes of violets, and earth, smoke, and rich dark fruit, WOW! The mouth on this full-bodied wine is incredible, tannic, gripping, earthy, smoky, and fruity, with lovely tart cherry, currant, plum, and ripe blackberry, with rich earth, loam, mushroom, intense saline, black olives, with intense acid, and mouth-drying and draping aggressive tannin, wow! The finish is long, black, green, and earthy, with umami, soy sauce again, with incredible floral notes, leather, tobacco, tar, and richness, wow! Bravo!! Drink from 2025 until 2033. (tasted January 2021)
2017 Chateau Leoville Poyferre, Saint-Julien – Score: 93+ (QPR: EVEN)
The nose is beautiful and well-controlled with crazy pencil shavings, rich black, and blue fruit, followed by tar, earth, smoke, and licorice. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is closed to start with layers upon layers of currants, dark cherry, blackberry, with mouth draping tannin, crazy mineral, pencil shavings galore, with plush elegance that is plush, mouth-coating, yet the ripeness in the background is ripe and scary, but hedonistic and voluptuous, with layers of tar, earth, licorice, bell pepper, and loads of tannin galore, showing elegance and plushness, with clear hedonistic leanings and graphite/acid core that makes it all work. The finish is long, black, green, and tannic, with plush fruit and smoke, with tobacco, chocolate-covered coffee bean, and earth galore. Bravo!! Drink from 2028 until 2037 (tasted February 2021)
Final take on 2020’s crop of Kosher roses – 2 QPR Winners, but overall not great
Kosher 2019 Roses charted by price and wine score (QPR)
So, as the image above shows roses are very expensive and the majority of the 28 of the 55 are at or above the median price of 23. This is not new, IMHO, roses overall have not been good or even very interesting this season.
Please read this post for my writeup on rose wines this year. I had a few follow-ups after that, including the one post with the QPR Rose for 2020, but this post will list all the rose wines I have had this year. Also, as I tasted more wines the price of the median went up and that allowed the Roubine La Vie to also become a QPR Winner. Again, the MARKET decides the QPR winners, not me! All I decide is the wine’s subjective quality score, and yes, that is subjective! The rest, the P part of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) is decided upon by the market. Please read my revised QPR scoring here.
The image does not show the 2 QPR Winners as obvious winners, as the dot that represents the Carmel Rose and the Roubine La Vie Rose is on the top left of the winner box. These wines barely made their way into the Winner’s square, but with such a horrible vintage, rose-wise, 2 is better than NONE.
In regards to rose, look a lot of my friends and I do not agree. Look at the Cantina Giuliano Rosato, it is a VERy nice and classically made Gris style rose, but it has a bit of RS (Residual Sugar) in it, at least to my palate, and I have issues with that. Other wines that have more RS drive me nuts. My friends do not care about RS or ripe notes in rose as long as it is balanced. To me, rose, red, or white, I DO NOT want RS. The funny thing is that Kedel Jackson probably got away with1% RS in his Chardonnays for decades, and made it the classic style for Cali Chard, which brought on the famous ABC movement (Anything But Chardonnay). Which spawned Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and so many other great white wines here in California.
So, yes, there are two winners now, and there are a few 91 scored roses, but please look at the chart!! LOL! It is visually clear that the vast majority of the wines are not something I would look to buy. They are either too expensive or not interesting and that is what has gone wrong with the kosher rose market. Again, I have said it a few times, IMHO, the wineries have thrown in the towel and they make rose thinking it will sell, no matter what they release. This will eventually end badly. Only time will tell. Read the rest of this entry
Easy drinking white wines for 2020 – better than I expected
Well, the roses from the 2019 vintage, so far, are not inspiring, and initially, I thought the same for the white wines, thankfully, as I tasted through the last 15 bottles of wines things shifted. There is a reason why I have been pushing Price in relation to its quality, AKA QPR (Quality to Price Relationship).
For this tasting, I tasted more than 70 wines, however, I posted only some 49 wine notes here. Rest assured, the others were either not worthy or I did not have detailed enough notes to make it here on this post.
Interestingly, initially, I had zero hope for the white wines, much as I felt about the roses. However, all of this is data-driven and other than my wines notes, the rest is all prices defined by the USA market. The more, I tasted, the more I felt that there are options in the simple white wine category. I was really ready to give up hope, but thankfully, folks like Shirah, Kos Yeshuos, and other Europen wines really pulled their weight. Sadly, of the top 27 wines, there were a total of 11 from 2019. Of them, only two were from Israel. The rest hailed from California, France, and New Zealand. In the end, so far, the vast majority of the Israeli white wines I have tasted from 2019 are also highly uninspiring.
With that said, the median price for the wine category of non-aging white wines is going up! There lies in my over-arching issue, prices keep going up!! The median price for non-aging white wines, here in the USA, is now 24 dollars! Seriously!! COME ON!! This is crazy! As the kids say, total Cray Cray! Turned around, the total number of wines below the median price of 24 dollars that received a 90 or higher was 12, and many of those are our QPR WINNERS. Overall, 2019 is still a dud in Israel, of those that have made their way to the USA, and Califonia is saving the day, so far.
All the wines here are scored both quantitatively, AKA using my classic wine score described here, and using the newly revised QPR score described here. So, yes, there will be more of the QPR discussion that will arise from this post. Thankfully, we have a good number of wines, 7 from my count, that received the QPR score of WINNER, sadly, they are mostly from 2018. Therefore, I repeat again, I am highly unimpressed with how many 2019 white wines I had and how many are subpar. Please be careful with the ones you buy.
Finally, in order of price, the first of the 7 QPR WINNER wines come in at wine #38, sorted by price! That means there are loads of other wines far less interesting than the 2018 Ramon Cardova Albarino, the most expensive of the 7 WINNER QPR wines. This is the kind of data that makes me scream. This is what needs to change! Wineries are willing to produce wines that are more expensive and less interesting, than more than HALF of the wine I tasted! This is what needs to change, kosher wine has gotten out of control, price-wise.
Do yourself a favor, check the price, you do it for everything else you buy! Check the wine, check the price, and then decide!
The wine note follows below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here and the explanation for QPR scores can be found here:
2018 Ramon Cardova Albarino, Rias Baixas – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is just below the median price line, so this wine SHOULD get a score of GREAT for QPR. However, it is ALSO one of the few white wines that score at least a 91, and that has a price that is below the median price line, so this wine gets the coveted score of WINNER for QPR. Bravo!!!
The 2018 vintage of this Albarino, in its second vintage, shows less tropical and ripe than the first vintage, 2017. This bottle also had the thermal active label, and it shows up when the bottle is at the proper drinking temperature. My only REAL and serious complaint is the cork, why would Royal waste the money and my money of a real cork? Use a Diam or any other amalgamated cork, like almost everyone else is. I really hope I do not hit a bad cork for the wines I have.
The nose on this wine is better than the 2017 vintage, Lovely nose of rich mineral, with loads of straw, with which salinity, and lovely peach and dry pear, with honeysuckle, gooseberry, along with green notes galore. Lovely! The mouth on this lovely green and acid-driven wine has a more oily mouthfeel than the 2017 vintage, showing rich salinity, green olives, with lovely dry quince, green apples, more peach, green apple, but also with lovely lime and grapefruit, no sense of guava or melon-like on the 2017 vintage, with a tinge of orange notes. The overall mouth is lovely and it comes at you in layers. The finish is long, green, with gooseberry, tart fruit, with an incredible freshness, and orange pith, slate, rock, and incredible acidity lingering long. Incredible!! Bravo!! Drink until 2022.
2018 Hagafen Dry Riesling – Score: 91 (Mevushal) (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is below the Median price line, so this wine gets a GREAT score for QPR. However, it is ALSO one of the few white wines that score at least a 91, and that has a price that is below the median price line, so this wine gets the coveted score of WINNER for QPR. Bravo!!!
The nose on this wine is tropical and sweet fruit-focused, with pineapple, guava, melon, peach, but now THANKFULLY the petrol is in full gear, and it commands your attention, with the tropical fruit still very present, along with some nice mineral. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is fun, tart, nice acidity, with more petrol funk, showing nice balance, with good acidity, still, the mouth is sweet and ripe, the petrol and tart notes help, with green apple, tart grapefruit, tart stone fruit, and slate galore, with waxy notes, and tart pineapple. The finish is long, green, with intense mineral, slate, flint, and lovely petrol that gives way to nice acidity, and hints of tannin. The wine has indeed come around and now petrol is more present and the hole in the middle is gone. Drink until 2024. Read the rest of this entry
The 2020 Kosher rose season is open and once again I am underwhelmed – part 1
It is not yet summer but here in NorCal, it feels more like summer than spring, and the weather is making shipments really hard at this time of year. Normally, I would have been in Israel by now, one way or the other, and I would have at least had two tastings with the gang. Sadly, with the times we live in now, neither of those wonderful ideas is possible. Sad and strange days we live in. Also, this is round 1, there will be another 15 roses I will get through over the next week or so.
While rose wine in the non-kosher market is exploding – especially Rose wine from Provence; a wine region of France, the kosher market this year will be more subdued. In the past, distributors brought in as much as 60+ kosher rose wines, this year with the issues I brought up in my previous post – there is less of an appetite for all those wines.
QPR and Price
I have been having more discussions around my QPR score with a few people and their contention, which is fair, in that they see wine at a certain price, and they are not going to go above that. So, instead of having a true methodology behind their ideas, they go with what can only be described as a gut feeling. The approaches are either a wine punches above its weight class so it deserves a good QPR score. Or, this other wine has a good score and is less than 40 dollars so that makes it a good QPR wine.
While I appreciate those ideals, they do not work for everyone and they do NOT work for all wine categories. It does NOT work for roses. Look, rose prices are 100% ABSURD – PERIOD! The median rose price has gone up this year and it is around 22 bucks – that is NUTS! Worse, is that the prices are for online places like kosherwine.com or onlinekosherwine.com, with free or good shipping options and great pricing, definitely not retail pricing.
As you will see in the scores below, QPR is all over the place and there will be good QPR scores for wines I would not buy while there are POOR to BAD QPR scores for wines I would think about buying, based upon the scores, but in reality, I would never buy another bottle because the pricing is ABSURDLY high.
Also, remember that the QPR methodology is based upon the 4 quintiles! Meaning, that there is a Median, but there are also quintiles above and below that median. So a wine that is at the top price point is by definition in the upper quintile. The same goes for scores. Each step above and below the median is a point in the system. So a wine that is in the most expensive quintile but is also the best wine of the group gets an EVEN. Remember folks math wins!
Still, many of the wines have a QPR of great and I would not buy them, why? Well, again, QPR is based NOT on quality primarily, it is based upon price. The quality is secondary to the price. So, wines that are drinkable with an 88 or 89 score, though wines that I would not buy, have a low enough price to get a GOOD or GREAT score. Does that mean that I would buy them because they have a GREAT QPR? No, I would not! However, for those that really want roses, then those are solid options.
Please remember, a wine score and the notes are the primary reason why I would buy a wine – PERIOD. The QPR score is there to mediate, secondarily, which of those wines that I wish to buy, are a better value. ONLY, the qualitative score can live on its own, in regards to what I buy. The QPR score defines, within the wine category, which of its peers are better or worse than the wine in question.
Finally, I can, and I have, cut and paste the rest of this post from last year’s rose post and it plays 100% the same as it did last year. Why? Because rose again is horrible. There is almost no Israeli rose, that I have tasted so far, that I would buy – no way! Now, I have not tasted the wines that many think are good in Israel, the Netofa, Vitkin, and Recanati roses. Yes, there is ONE rose I would “buy” by my qualitative scoring approach, which is why I used the word almost above. That wine would be the 2019 Bat Shlomo Rose, but at some 28 or more dollars a bottle, it is highway robbery for that score. Read the rest of this entry
Kosher Rose wines of 2017 – final take
After all the tastings I have had for rose wines this year – I can say for now, that I am as far along as I can go without being in Israel, or asking people to schlep wines for me from Israel. I am still missing the new 2016 Elvi Wines Rose, the 2016 Terra de Seta Rose, the 2016 Matar Rose, and the 2016 Gvaot Rose. I guess that will have to be. When I get to Israel soon enough I will post again, but just on those wines.
In the end, my overall take on Israeli roses this year has been a huge and utter letdown. To me, there are few roses that I would waste my time drinking. In the end, the Netofa, Vitkin, Psagot, and Castel Roses are the only roses that I would buy this year, other than the untasted wines listed above (Matar and Gvaot), which may well be good.
The real saviors for us have indeed been Spain and USA. France has thrown in the La Vie Roubine, but it is not as good as the Ramon Cardova rose.
So, in closing, I will repeat what I listed the last posting. These wines are the best for each category, nothing I tasted in the last tasting has changed much around them, other than the sweet rose entry, which I would never buy, but is useful for those that like rose that way.
So, here are my recommendations based upon the wines I have tasted:
- 2016 Ramon Cardova Rose, is the best rose so far, but it is not a Provence style wine, it is more of a tweener.
- The 2016 Chateau Dubois is the best French rose I have tasted so far, but it is a clear non-Provence style rose.
- 2016 Chateau Roubine la Vie, is the best French classic Provence style rose.
- 2016 Ramon Cardova Rose is the best Spanish rose (that I have had the chance to taste so far, sadly I have yet to taste the new 2016 Elvi Rose)
- The 2016 Shirah Rose is the best USA rose. It is not a Provence style wine, it is a massive wine but a really fun one.
- The 2016 Netofa Rose is the best rose from Israel, it is as close to a Provence style wine I have found so far in Israel. Vitkin is right behind, along with Castel (but it is really expensive for the wine), and Psagot in the bigger/fuller rose category for Israel.
- The 2016 Psagot Rose (when it is on) is the best full bodied rose wine from Israel.
- The best sweet rose that is drinkable is the 2016 Contessa Annalisa Rose. Hopefully, a gateway rose to the drier and better options above.
Rose winemaking approaches
If you read the previous article, you would have read that there are classically three ways to make Rose; Maceration, Saignée, and blend.
The interesting thing we are seeing is a slight variation to the rose making – that is after they make the rose, using any of the aforementioned approaches, they are adding in some white wine! This is straight up genius! Why? Because as explained in the previous post, red grape juice has very few phenolics in it! The real phenolic powerhouse – for red wines, are the skins! White wine does not need skins to give it their phenolics, they have it innately from the juice alone. So, when you take red grapes and essentially crush them and bottle them, with minimal grape contact, what you get is a fun wine, that has very few phenolics in it. So, you have a few options, either let the liquid sit longer on the grape skins, thereby improving the phenolics, but that takes away from the classic rose look, as skin contact turns the juice darker. So, if you want more phenolics and less grape skin contact to keep the classic rose color, you can add in white wine!
The Ramon Cardova is a perfect example of this. As is the Elvi Rose (a wine I have not tasted), and the Jezreel Rose (see below). These three wines all added in different white wines, and it is a clear bump in the correct direction, but to the purists, it is not cool! I cannot speak to the purist’s issues, and yes, I can see that the Cardova is not a classic Provence wine, but it is a very enjoyable summer wine, and in the end, that is what rose to me, is all about!
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