OK, with all the Paris wine notes posted, the latest roses posted, and Herzog’s wonderful wines, I am finally at the finish line. This last batch of notes catches me up just in time before the next round of wines shows up. As usual, my QPR posts are a hodgepodge of wines but thankfully we have some nice QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wines.

QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wines

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

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

The story of 2021 Israel whites and roses is very unfortunate, it started with a bang. Matar and a couple of others showed very well. Sadly, after that, every other white and rose wine from Israel was not as impressive. They all show middling work and product, very disappointing indeed. Thankfully, this round has three Israeli WINNERS and two from the 2021 vintage. There is an 8th WINNER here but it is here for documentation purposes and not for advice on what to buy, as it is not available anymore. That being the 2012 Chateau Serilhan.

We have a nice list of QPR WINNERS:

1. 2012 Chateau Serilhan Cru Bourgeois, Saint-Estephe (Posted as I have never posted this yet, strange)
2. 2021 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough – A perennial WINNER
3. 2021 Castel La Vie Blanc Du Castel, Judean Hills – Finally a 100% Sauvignon Blanc and it is lovely!
4. 2021 Sheldrake Point Riesling, Dry, Finger Lakes, NY – A lovely 2nd vintage
5. 2021 Sheldrake Point Gewurztraminer, Finger Lakes, NY – Another lovely 2nd vintage as well
6. 2021 Golan Heights Winery, Yarden Sauvignon Blanc, Galilee – A nice wine
7. 2019 Netofa Latour, Red, Galilee
8. 2020 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico – Perenial winner

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

1. 2021 Cape Jewel Chenin Blanc, Reserve Collection – one of two wines that shocked me as I expected PAIN
2. 2021 Unorthodox Sauvignon Blanc, Paarl – the 2nd shocking wine in this tasting
3. 2020 Dalton Sauvignon Blanc, Reserve, Galilee
4. 2021 Golan Heights Winery Sauvignon Blanc, Gilgal – not as good as his bigger brother
5. 2021 O’Dwyers Creek Chardonnay, Marlborough
6. 2021 Capcanes Peraj Petita, Montsant – one of the best Petita since 2015, still not a WINNER like in 2015

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

1. 2021 Vitkin Israeli Journey, White, Israel
2. 2021 Gush Etzion Gewürztraminer, Judean Hills
3. 2021 Yaffo White, Judean Hills
4. 2019 Ramon Cardova Rioja, Rioja
5. 2020 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Montsant – nothing interesting but better than previous vintages
6. 2020 Domaine du Castel Lavie, Rouge du Castel, Jerusalem Hills
7. 2016 Vitkin Cabernet Franc, Galilee – Drink up!
8. 2018 Vitkin Carignan, Judean Hills – Drink up!

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

1. 2016 Vitkin Shorashim, Israel – a nice enough wine but the price is crazy
2. 2020 Flam Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve, Galilee
3. 2020 De La Rosa Taryag Gruner Veltliner, Burgenland
4. 2020 De La Rosa Chai 18 White Welsch Riesling, Burgenland
5. 2021 Unorthodox Chenin Blanc, Coastal Region
6. 2021 J. De Villebois Pouilly Fume, Loire Valley – so sad after last year’s lovely vintage
7. 2021 Odem Mountain Chardonnay, Volcanic, Galilee
8. 2016 Laufer Cabernet Sauvignon, Special Reserve, California – ripe oak juice
9. 2021 Golan Heights Winery Mount Hermon White, Galilee

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

The real WINNER here, from the entire list, is the 2012 Chateau Serilhan Cru Bourgeois, Saint-Estephe (posted as I have never posted this yet, for some strange reason), but of the available wines that would be the 2021 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough. The 2020 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough ran out very quickly, I guess that there was not much available or made, as it was right at the start of COVID! The crazy story of how it all came together.

So happy to see Castel finally dropped the Gewurztraminer from their La Vie Blanc Du Castel the solo Sauvignon Blanc is lovely!

Talking about Gewurztraminer, the 2021 Sheldrake Point Riesling and Gewurztraminer from the Finger Lakes shows one can make lovely and reasonably priced wines from the Finger lakes. Bravo Ari!

Nice to see a Yarden wine on this list again, other than the LOVELY sparkling wines, the 2021 Golan Heights Winery, Yarden Sauvignon Blanc hit on all marks.

The last two wines are red and while I loved the 2019 Netofa Latour, Red at the start, it seemed to fall off a bit and that is unfortunate. Finally the 2020 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico is not as good as the 2019 vintage but still a solid wine.

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

The fascinating wines from this list were the South African wines, the 2021 Cape Jewel Chenin Blanc, Reserve Collection, and the 2021 Unorthodox Sauvignon Blanc, Paarl. I had zero expectations for these wines, so they were a nice find.

The rest are just good enough wines, mostly well priced but not interesting to drink.

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

This list is also boring, the only real wine to call out, is the 2020 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Montsant, nothing interesting but better than previous vintages. The same for the Peraj Petita in the category above.

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

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

Like on previous versions of these lists there will always be a nice scoring wine that is so expensive it falls into this QPR list. That would be the 2016 Vitkin Shorashim, Israel – a nice enough wine but the price is crazy.

There are also, many duds to losers and I will just leave you to peruse the names and scores down below.

Roundup

Overall another nice list of QPR WINNERS and some GREAT options as well. I can always look at these kinds of lists and say there are only 7 or 8 wines I would want to buy from this entire list, but that would be a defeatist attitude. The correct way to classify this list is we have 7 or 8 more wines available to us and in the end, as I have stated many times now, I cannot buy all the WINNER wines even if I wanted to. There are just too many good wines out there and that is what we should be focused on!

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

Older Wines that I have not posted (or revising):

2012 Chateau Serilhan Cru Bourgeois, Saint-Estephe – Score: 93+ (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 57% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 8% Cabernet Franc, The nose of this wine is lovely, deeply mineral-driven, with intense rock, graphite, charcoal, ripe black fruit, balancing tart raspberry, red plum, sweet spices, and sweet oak.
The mouth of this medium-plus bodied wine is rich, layered, and well-balanced with great acidity, freshly tilled earth, mineral, smoke, hints of barnyard, mushroom, and truffle, followed by ripe blackberry, plum, dark tart raspberry, smoke, and beautiful fresh wine approach – bravo!
The finish is long, dark, green, ripe, but well balanced, with smoke, tobacco, dark chocolate, and lovely mushroom, with tertiary notes soon approaching. This wine was opened too early, such is life, still very lovely and a wine I would open again in 4 years. Drink until 2029. (tasted July 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2012 Chateau Cheval Brun, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – Score: 91+ (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is a blend of 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Cabernet Franc.
The nose of this wine is another giant Brett bomb, with crazy mushrooms, rich green notes, earth, red fruit, smoke, and nice tar. The mouth of this wine is layered, ripe, and lovely, with nice elegance, showing blackberry, raspberry, mineral galore, graphite, earth, mushroom, and forest floor, The wine’s extraction has calmed down but the Brett and barnyard are in full gear.
The finish is long and earthy, with mushroom, barnyard notes, rich tobacco, and tar. Bravo! Drink till 2025, maybe longer. (tasted July 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

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