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:

1. 2016 Ramon Cardova Rose, is the best rose so far, but it is not a Provence style wine, it is more of a tweener.
2. The 2016 Chateau Dubois is the best French rose I have tasted so far, but it is a clear non-Provence style rose.
3. 2016 Chateau Roubine la Vie, is the best French classic Provence style rose.
4. 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)
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. The 2016 Psagot Rose (when it is on) is the best full bodied rose wine from Israel.
8. 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!

Enjoy

Make sure you find what you like, the style that suits you, and then please enjoy lots of Rose this summer! I have posted all roses here, but the last tasting was just the first 4.

The wine notes of the wines I enjoyed can be found below:

Rose sparkling wines:

2010 Yarden Rose, Brut – Score: A- to A
I have just stated above that rose wine should never be aged, but this is different, this is sparkling wine and it ages beautifully. This wine is still very young with an impressively aggressive mouth and mousse, it needs time to calm down and integrate, maybe best in a year or two. The nose on this lovely dark salmon colored wine is lovely and restrained with flint, dirt, smoke, and ripe quince. The mouth is intoxicating and demands your attention, the mousse attack is crazy, the small bubbles are lovely and well balanced with intense searing acid, that flows into cherry, raspberry, lovely gooseberry, pink grapefruit, and lovely spice. The finish is long with brioche, yeast, with more mousse attack, mineral, and sweet spices lingering long. BRAVO! Drink till 2020.

2011 Yarden Rose: Score: A-
A lovely nose, with toast, yeast, and really nice raspberry, and grapefruit. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is lovely, with great focus, small mousse focus, with great raspberry, dried strawberry, grapefruit, saline, a mineral madness that lingers long with lime and lovely toasty notes. The finish is long and mineral focused, with great acid, and joy, green olives, and a true joy that is infectious. The wine is a joy and lingers long with real focus. Bravo!! Drink by 2021.

Still rose wines:

2016 Galil Rose: Score: B+ to A-
The nose on this rose is nice, almost classic, with strawberry, but sweeter than normal, with creme notes, and spice. The mouth is not dry, showing some sweet notes, but it still has enough acid to make it work, with raspberry, peach, grapefruit, and tart lemon. The finish is really nice, showing great focus, and really fun fruit pith, with the acid, really showing up on the finish, with great slaine, slate, and rock lingering long. Nice!

2016 Ella Valley Rose: Score: B to B+
Very muted nose with strawberry notes and not much else. No thanks, this wine is hollow and has acid on the sides, but nothing in the middle. Showing fruit pith, red fruit, grapefruit, and lemon, and not much else.

2016 Jezreel Rose: Score: B+
This is a blend of bled off the fruit of 38% Carignan, 37% Syrah, 15% Argaman, and 10% Sauvignon Blanc. A strange nose, with tobacco, earth, litchi, peach, somewhat tropical, and sweet fig. The mouth is floral and not much else, showing some green notes, but also nice mineral, with crazy acid, good slate, and grapefruit, and raspberry. The finish is long and spicy, with good graphite, saline, and loads of fruit pith.

2016 Contessa Annalisa Rose: Score: B+
Crazy candied fruit, fun and exciting nose, with mounds of sweet and candied fruit, with bazooka gum wrapping a life saver cherry candy. A sweet mouth, clearly not dry, with good balance, and really good acid, with nice weight and good fruit. The finish is sweet and balanced with fruit pith and slate. A nice sweet wine rose.

Psagot Rose so far this year – I have tasted it three times and I have had bottle variation. This is not only my opinion, others have seen it as well – I am not sure what is going on here.

2016 Psagot Rose – Score: A- (QPR)
Lovely nose with a great focus of spice and good raspberry, strawberry, and lovely grapefruit. Wow mouth, really impressive, super focused with crazy acid and spice, classy with orange and nectarines in the background, with good currant, and white pepper in the foreground, with great focus and lovely cloves with tart fruit, pith, and red tea.

2016 Psagot Rose – Score: B to B+
We tasted this blind and when we saw what it was – we were shocked, as we had tasted this wine a few weeks earlier and it was lovely (note is above), clearly there is some bottle variation going on. The nose on this wine is nice with strawberry and mineral and not much else. The mouth is more focused, with a good pop, nice acid, good enough body to match, but lacking a balance, crazy manufactured rose, with so much acid and not much else. With raspberry and strawberry coulis.

2016 Tabor Rose Adama – Score: B+ to A- (QPR)
I need to stress something about this wine, it is NOT a wine that will have a long life. This wine dropped out after a few hours of being open, which we did when tasting it blind. This wine is super fragile, and I doubt it will last the summer.
The nose on this wine is a cotton candy madness, with a very fruity madness, lots of candied fruit, bubble gum, with mint, nectarine, and sugar-coated candied raspberry. The mouth is rich, layered, and really focused, showing good acid, intense fruit attack with lovely grapefruit, guava, lychee, candied kiwi, and intense mineral, slate, spice, crazy saline, and lovely long finish.

2016 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: B to B+
The nose is really muted, not really alive, with some red fruit, and apples. The mouth is round and juicy, with nice tart fruit, really acidic and focused but with little to no fruit, with a bit of kiwi, and grapefruit. The finish is long and tart. The wine lacks complexity, the mouth is almost hollow, with bombastic acid, it is all acid and not much more.

2016 Dalton Rose – Score: B+ to A- (QPR)
This is their driest and best rose Dalton has released so far. The nose on this wine is a nice slightly sweet nose, with raspberry coulis, strawberry, and cream, with nice spice, cinnamon, earth, and floral. The mouth is nice and round, good acid, good red licorice, with great grapefruit, yellow citrus, cloves, crazy acid focus, well balanced, fun, easy drinking, with pith, spice, mineral, saline, tart red fruit lingering long.

2016 Chateau L’Oasis Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: B to B+
Lovely green, earth, mineral nose, with great saline, lime, lemongrass, and citrus city. The mouth is lovely, medium body, but lacks the pop that I crave, it has basic acid, but not enough focus. The finish is long with pith, and mineral lingering long.

2016 Chateau Roubine Rose – Score: B+ to A-
OK, before the hate mail starts coming, this is a nice rose, but it pales in comparison to the 2015 vintage. Actually, having tasted most of the kosher rose out there this year, the 2015 Chateau Roubine has yet to be eclipsed this year. So, does that make this a bad wine, no? It simply makes it a wine that I will buy again, but one that is not as good as last year.

The nose starts off with all the right things, sick mineral, saline, saline, lovely gooseberry and great strawberry. The mouth is where things go astray, the wine is nice, but it lacks that focused acid, it has more weight than in 2015, showing more like an Israeli rose than a Provence rose, with good peach and pink grapefruit, good orange pith and nice spice. The finish is long and spicy with more mineral, tart strawberry, pith, and cloves lingering long.

2016 Covenant Red C Rose – Score: B+ to A-
Sadly, this time the RS (residual sugar) really bugged me, and it did not score as well. The nose on this wine is filled with strawberry heaven, with bright fruit, ripe grapefruit, heady lemongrass, and rich cloves. The mouth is lovely with good acid, but RS that bugs me too much this time, with great spice, rich lemon, and great citrus, giving way to ripe red fruit, life saver raspberry, with sweet notes of honeysuckle that is balanced by good acid and spice. Long, spicy, and tart finish with crazy tart citrus, nice citrus pith, sweet notes abound and lack that balance I had a month or two ago.

2016 Chateau Bellerives Dubois Rose – Score: A- (Crazy QPR) (mevushal)
This nose is very nice, with pure gooseberry and kiwi heaven, guava, strawberry, and crazy fruit, with lovely mineral, and herb. The mouth is awesome, truly rich, layered, and controlled, with layers of dirt, saline, acid, and good fruit, like a sauvignon blanc but in a rose format. Awesome finish with a crazy acid lingering, with good mineral, slate, and great tart fruit lingering long. Nice!

2016 Chateau Laurier Rothschild Rose: Score: B+ to A- (QPR)
Very interesting nose, crazy Flint, tobacco, crazy smoke/charcoal, with hints of red berry, and lots of green notes, and herb. Wow, what a mouth, crazy acid, insane mineral, saline, nice flint, with rich grapefruit, currant, almost tannin like, dark cherry, almost like someone dropped a bit of red wine into this wine, with lovely balance, bracing acid, gripping, and enjoyable. Lovely pith lingers, with solid mineral, and some fruit.

2016 Ramon Cardova Rose: Score: A- (GREAT QPR)
Another reserved nose, but nice, with white pepper, floral notes, mounds of marzipan, showing flint, mineral, candied fruit, life saver, very nice. Good mouth, really nice, acid bound, not crazy, but very respectable, with perfect balance, lovely citrus, grapefruit, pineapple, nectarine, with good guava, tangerine, really nice, with good mineral, earth, good charcoal, flint, and currant, with pith lingering long.

2016 Borgo Reale Rose: Score: B+ (mevushal)
The nose is interesting, showing hand lemon soap, with candied lemon pie. The mouth on this wine is rich, layered, with lots of body, no huge pop of acid, but balanced, with good fruit focus, of strawberry, dirt, floral notes, good drinking and enjoyable wine, with nice grapefruit, candied red berry, with good fruit pith, gooseberry, and vanilla. The finish is long and tart, sweet, but balanced.

2016 Twin Suns Rose – Score: B (mevushal)
This is a red wine that is watered down, that is the best I can say. The mouth on this wine is manufactured, sorry, not for me. The acid is so over the top, with no balance to the fruit.

2016 Kos Yeshuos Rose: A- (Not publically available)
This vintage is very nice, but not akin to the epic 2015 vintage. Lovely nose, really ripe fruit, marzipan, flint, mineral, good earth, currant, and dried peach. Bravo! The mouth is balanced, nice, earthy, controlled, richer bodied, and nice ripping acid, with pineapple, lovely dried currant, intense fruit pith, drenched in tart cherry, with more lovely tart summer fruit. The finish is long and mineral-bound, saline, and lovely tart fruit lingering.

2016 Domaine du Castel Rose: Score: A-
This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Malbec, and 20% Cabernet Franc. The nose is
lovely with lychee, guava, gooseberry, mounds of floral notes, with dirt, mineral city, slate. The mouth on this wine is layered, controlled, with good focus, not over the top, but really good acid that is popping, easy drinking, and it can go with lots of food from its fruit structure, lots of sauvignon blanc stylings, with vanilla, and strawberry, followed by earth, and mounds of fruit pith. Bravo!! Fruit pith and acid lingering long.

2016 Dalton Alma Rose, Coral: Score: B
Lovely nose, sweet dill, lots of oak (not fun on rose), with mounds of vanilla, and good earth. The mouth is nice, but the oak overpowers, with good acid, with some fruit. People may like this, but not me. Unbalanced.

2016 Vitkin Rose – Score: A- (QPR)
This wine is a blend of Grenache Noir and Carignan. The nose on this wine is lovely,
very flinty, earthy, rich with strawberry, floral notes galore, peach, and lychee. The mouth is lovely, with crazy mineral, slate, saline, lovely acid, rich earthy, lovely tart gooseberry, with ripe fruit, but perfect control, lovely, showing peach, currant, nice rich slate, rock, with good flint and lovely kiwi, gooseberry, and grapefruit. Bravo!!! An elegant wine.

2016 Flam Rose – Score: B+
This wine is a blend of mostly Cabernet Franc with some Syrah. The nose on this wine starts with lovely strawberry, ripe raspberry, with gooseberry, and nice spice. The mouth on this wine is round, with good spice, but it lacks the needed acid to make the wine work, along with candied currant, dried quince, and peach. The finish is long and spicy with herb, orange pith, and Orangina.

2016 Gilgal Rose – Score: NA
This wine tastes like a red wine that was cooked, with acid added and then watered down. Not fun

2016 Yatir Rose – Score: B+
This wine is a blend of 67% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, and 3% Viognier. The nose is really nice, old world in style, with strawberry, raspberry, creme, lovely grapefruit, with a lovely feminine and perfumed scent. Wow, what a letdown, the nose was intoxicating and then it went downhill really fast, showing not enough acid, almost hollow, with good saline, and mineral, and red berries and not much else.

2016 Chateau Roubine La Vie (QPR) – Score: A- (QPR)
This wine comes in a beautiful Provence-styled bottle, a winning bottle in terms of its bottle and its content, at least so far in 2017. At the start, the bottle is pure pineapple and peach. With time, the wine changes and becomes one of the better and maybe top two roses on the market. With time the Rose opens to show mineral, pineapple, nectarines, kiwi, honeysuckle, and floral notes. The mouth on this medium bodied wine needs time to open, but when it does, it shows rich peach, creme, with lovely saline, mineral, earth, followed by grapefruit, white plum, backed by searing acid, and rich structure that handles lots of food, followed by earth, and fruit pith. The finish is super long, backed by green tea, lovely sweet yet tart balanced fruit, all centered with fun summer fruit. Bravo!

2016 Sainte Beatrice, Cotes de Provence – Score: B to B+
The nose is very nice with classic Rose notes or strawberry and creme, raspberry, citrus, with peach, and lovely floral notes, rose hip. Where the nose was lovely, the mouth fails, with lovely pith and red fruit, but the mouth is too round and lack the piercing acidity I need to make me happy. The finish is long with more pith, mineral, and some slate. Bummer.

2016 Shirah Rose – Score: A- (QPR)
This wine needs to be aerated to open up its nose and to remove some of the lingering chemical notes, but do not let this deter you from enjoying this lovely wine! This wine reminds me so much of the 2013 rose, epic and screaming acid based. The nose on this wine is classic Cali rose, with ripe strawberry, raspberry, with rich peach, and lovely floral notes. The mouth on this wine has a lovely body, with a great acid punch, with rich fruit red berry focus, followed by lovely citrus, grapefruit, and nectarines. The finish is long and red berry, with more acid, lovely fruit pith that lingers long, followed by light tannin, sweet hints of pineapple, and lovely acid lingering long. BRAVO!! This is a top 3 non-Provence style rose for 2017.

2016 Hajdu Grenache Rose – Score: B to B+
Sad, I had so much hope for this wine, but it shows blue notes, sweet pineapple, sweet vanilla, and a few floral notes. The mouth is nice and round, but too flat for me, with sweet raspberry, strawberry, pineapple, and nectarines. The finish is long and spicy, with sweet fruit notes, and nice mineral.

Available only in Israel

2016 Recanati Gris de Marselan – Score: B+ to A-
Lovely rose hips, orange blossom, really nice with great tart fruit and gooseberry and grapefruit. Nice medium wine, but lacking the bracing acid, with good spice and lemon, with pepper and tart spicy notes, passion fruit and guava. Nice long finish with good acid and slate galore.

2016 Domaine Netofa Rose – Score: A- (Great QPR)
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache, and 20% Mourvedre. Yes, this is the new Grenache that came online this year, and I really hope it helps the Rose last longer.
The nose on this lovely Gris wine, s redolent with strawberry, crazy raspberry, peach, apricot, showing crazy bright notes, lovely floral notes, spice, with lavender, smoke, rose and flint. Wow, what a joy of a mouth, the medium bodied wine is popping with acid, with rich dried aromas, lovely currants, tart summer fruits, showing dried lychee, gooseberry that goes on and on, with pink grapefruit, and lovely tart juicy fruit. The finish is long and crazy tart, with rich flint and chalk. Lovely fruit pith. Bravo!!!

2016 Domaine Herzberg Rose, Coteaux de Sitrya – Score: B+ to A-
This is a fun wine that shows a unique nose with great spice, strawberry, with hints of blueberry, and cloves. The mouth on this lovely medium body has very nice acid and solid fruit focus, showing a nice effort, with dark currant, showing a good balance, though not a classic Provence wine in any way, showing a more rich mouthfeel. Nice grapefruit, citrus on the finish with cloves and nutmeg. Nice.

It is officially Spring (though it snowed in Chicago for Passover – so I will hold judgment on that fact for a bit), which means it is Rose time! Rose wine in the non-kosher market is exploding – especially Rose wine from Provence; a wine region of France. Sadly, in the kosher wine market – that is not quite the case. I did not stress my previous statement with a suffix of AT ALL, even though I am not allowed to open a bottle of rose on my Shabbos table with guests – why? Well, that is simple – no one will drink it!!

Even worse, is that wine manufacturers may well have jumped the shark! There will be some 50 dry-ish kosher roses available in the USA this year! That may not sound like a lot, but when all you had was Herzog White Zinfandel 10 years ago – it is insane. The first high-end rose was Castel’s 2009 rose and that was only 9 years ago. Back then, there were few to no real Rose wine options, other than a handful of Israeli wines and almost no French Rose made it here. Now we will have tons of Rose, and I really think the real question here is will people drink it all?

Wine Color

What is a rose wine? Well, simply said, a rose is a wine that can best be defined as the wine world’s chameleon. Where white wine is a pretty simple concept – take white grapes squeeze them and you get clear to green colored juice. Yes, the white grape juice is clear – well so is red grape juice, but more on that in a bit.

White wine is not about color – almost all color in a white wine comes from some oak influence of some sort. So, an unoaked Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris can sometimes look almost clear, depending on the region and how the wine was handled. Now oaked Chardonnay, of course, is what most people use as an example of a dark white wine. As the Wine Folly linked above states, different wine regions oak their Chardonnay differently and as such, they are sold with different hues from the start. With age, the wine changes color and the light gold moves to darker gold shades.

The only real exception to the stated rule above – that white grape juice without the influence of oak is somewhere in the clear to green color spectrum, is – orange wines. We have spoken about orange wines – mostly thanks to Yaacov Oryah. Outside of Yaacov’s work there really is no orange wine in the kosher world to speak about. Orange wine is made exactly like red wine, which means that the clear grape juice is left to sit on the yellowish to dark yellow grape skins (depending upon what varietal is used to make the orange wine).

Red wine juice – straight from the grape comes out the same color as white grapes. You see the juice from grapes is mostly clear to greenish in color. The red wine color comes from macerating the juice on the grape skins. The longer the juice sits on the grape skins (wine must) the redder in color the wine becomes until it reaches its maximum red color potential.

The only real exception to the rule of a grape’s juice color is the Teinturier varieties. The grapes are called Teinturier, a French language term meaning to dye or stain. The list of grapes whose juice is actually red colored is long – but the list of kosher wine options that is a wine made from these grapes – is the Herzog Alicante Bouschet. The Gamay de Bouze is not a normal Gamay grape, it is one of those grape mutations that are very red in nature.

Rose wines are the in-between story – hence the chameleon term I used above.

Rose Wine

Rose wine is made in one of three ways. I will list the most dominant manners and leave the last one for last.

Maceration:

This is the first step of the first two options and the only difference is what you do with the rest of juice after you remove it? You see, as we stated above, the color of the juice from red grapes is clear to green and for one to get the lovely red hues we all love from red wine, it requires the juice to lie on the grape skins – AKA maceration.

The rose hue depends on how long the juice macerates. I have heard winemakers say 20 minutes gives them the color they like, and some say almost half a day or longer. The longer the juice macerates the darker the color. While the wine is macerating, the skins are contributing color by leaching phenolics – such as anthocyanins and tannins, and flavor components. The other important characteristic that the skins leach into the rose is – antioxidants that protect the wine from degrading. Sadly, because rose wines macerate for such a short period of time, the color and flavor components are less stable and as such, they lack shelf life – a VERY IMPORTANT fact we will talk about later. Either way, drinking rose wine early – like within the year – is a great approach for enjoying rose wine at its best!

Now once you remove the liquid, after letting it macerate for the desired length of time, the skins that are left are thrown out or placed in the field to feed organic material into the vines. This is a very expensive approach indeed because the grapes are being thrown away, instead of doing the Saignée process which is described in option #2. This approach is mostly used in regions where rose wine is as important as red wines, like Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. Mind you, the grapes used in this method are most often picked early, as they are being solely used for making the rose.

You can tell which method is used (Saignee or plain Maceration), by looking at the wine’s alcohol level. If it is above 14% – you can be sure it is a Saignee, meaning the wine was made as an afterthought of the main wine – its red brother. The wines I crave are the maceration type. When you taste the wine, look for the acid, is the acid natural or out of place? If the grapes are picked at red wine maturation, the alcohol will be high, sure it can have good acid, but it will still have high alcohol and weight. That kind of wine, even if well balanced with acid (whether added or natural) is not the kind of rose I like to sip. That is more of a light colored Beaujolais kind of wine. When the grapes are pulled earlier, allowing for a lower alcohol level, they tend to be crisper like a white summer wine, think Sauvignon Blanc, or Reisling. Add a touch of red notes from the short red skin contact and you get a fun and zesty wine that matches summer fare.

Saignée:

The second approach for how Rose wine is made, is essentially the same as maceration – the only difference is that they do not remove all the juice. In the second method for making Rose wine, the Rose is the afterthought – in DRASTIC contrast to the first approach, where the rose is primary.

So in places like California and Rhone in France, winemakers will pick the grapes when they reach their appropriate phenolics. Then to concentrate the wine, the winemaker will bleed some of the juice – hence the term Saignée in French which means bleed. By removing this juice, after the juice has macerated long enough, the resulting wine is further intensified, because there is less juice lying on the same amount of grape skin surface.

The interesting thing here is that the grapes used to make this kind of rose are normally one with higher Brix, as the grapes are destined for red wine. So, when you bleed the juice out of the must, what is being pulled out is juice at a higher alcohol level than Rose wines made using the first method (as explained above). So what do you do when you have a wine that is too high in alcohol so early in the game – well that is simple you water it down! Now remember this wine is already low on phenolics and color, so if you know that your rose will be high in alcohol when all is said and done, you have lots of options here. You can leave the juice to macerate for longer, yes the juice you finally pull out may well be darker than you desire. However, you will be watering it down, so it is all a question of numbers and winemakers who make these kinds of wines, are used to it and know how to handle it.

Now you ask what is wrong with high alcohol rose? Well, a rose is normally meant to be light and fruity wine, and higher alcohol wines are neither of those things.

Blending Method:

Finally, what do you get when you mix some white wine with some red wine – a rose by George a rose! This last method is the least common method for creating still rose wines. That said, it is very common in the world of Champagne and sparkling wines. Next time you enjoy sparkling rose wine, you can almost be sure that it is a blend of Chardonnay (white wine) and either Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier (red wine).

As stated before, in the pure rose still wine market, there really is very little of this kind of rose being made.

State of kosher rose wines

Types of Rose made:

1. Red Rose wines: There are truly few examples of this, but they have been made and they are not a rose wine. They are billed as a rose at times, but to me, they are essentially a light red wine, much like a Gamay
2. Sweet Rose wines: Sweet wines are created because either the winemaker could not get the wine to completely finish primary fermentation or because they stopped it. Sweet rose wines sometimes lack balance because they lack the screaming acid needed to make it all work. That said, sweeter rose wines are the gateway wines to get people to try drier wines. The best of the sweet wines IMHO is the 2017 Dalton estate rose, or Kna’an as it is called in Israel.
3. Dry rose wines: Dry is not a subjective concept it is measurable in a lab and can be tasted as well. That said, what we as humans can perceive does seem to be subjective. Some of us will think a Sauvignon Blanc is sweet unless it is a Sancerre – you know who you are JR! Dr. Vinny was asked this question here, and essentially we can start perceiving sweetness at 0.5% residual sugar, but as the Doc says, sometimes a bone-dry wine can be perceived as sweet because of its ripeness and/or lack of balancing acidity.
4. Dark rose wines: Color in any rose or red wine is defined by the amount of maceration the wine goes through, as described above. Some people like that salmon color and some like that darker rose color. The 2017 Recanati Rose (not the Gris de Marselan which is lovely and light colored) is a dark rose – and OK, I guess. There are so many colors in the rose spectrum, and no, the darker roses are not based on what grape is used in the making of the wine, unless it is based on a Teinturier grape – which I have yet to see.

So where does that leave us? To recap IMHO, rose wine is meant to be light, refreshing, tart, and low in alcohol. It can have a varying rose hue, from Gris (gray in French – light color) to Salmon, to rose, and all the way up to dark red. Yes, there have been wineries who tried making heavier rose wines, that were essentially red wines, whom I will not mention and they have all been epic disasters. If you want a red wine – make a Gamay and leave me alone! Rose is about summer, tart and refreshing wine.

White and Rose wine education

Royal Wines has done a great job in bringing these two wines in, but I must stress – we need more education! Any wine distributor today can sell a Cabernet Sauvignon in its sleep! Why? Because the kosher wine drinking public is programmed to drink big bold red wines! Nothing light and lithe, only sledgehammers! Now, who am I to disagree with what someone likes – if you like a wine enjoy it! What I would like to see is people finding a way to expand their palate – by doing so they will learn more about wines and maybe they will actually see why they like and dislike a wine more – education is the answer! Now to those who say – why bother, if they like it let them enjoy it? To that answer I say – sure, when u were three years old you liked mud, and you really liked spreading it all over your sister’s new white dress! Should we have let you enjoy it forever?? Of course not!

Now your reply will be, come on we are talking about wine – not personal growth and their humanity! Of course but like everything in this world – we should want to strive and learn more about what makes us happy and why! If you like a Monet painting – you owe it to yourself to learn why? What grabs you when you see 100+-year-old paint on a canvas? So what he painted a haystack – good for him? What makes you want to stare at it for hours? The answer is inside of you – and you need to learn the answer. I hope we can all find the answers about what makes us tick, why we all love some things and why we hate other things. That is called human evolution – it makes us what we are – human! Anyway, I am off my soapbox now, but I hope we can agree that growth is good – no matter the subject.

I beg distributors and wineries to get out and teach! Get out and go to wine stores and pour wines – pour wine to anyone that wants to taste or even to those that do not! Education is the foundation of this industry – and without it, we are doomed to stasis – something that terrifies me!

The temperature to enjoy Rose

Please do yourself a favor and enjoy rose wine at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Meaning if you leave a bottle of wine in your refrigerator and pull it out after half a day of fridge time or more, it will probably be at the refrigerator’s frigid temperature of 37 or so degrees Farenight – which is HORRIBLE for rose. Rose at room temperature of 70 or so degrees is also not fun. It needs to be a bit cold, but not over the top. Please do not think that it needs to be iced down in an ice bucket either, that is for sparkling wines.

Drink the rose at the beginning of the meal

Rose is NOT a long-term drinking animal. It is not meant to be enjoyed for more than a meal. Why? Because as we explained above once it is fully oxygenated, it will go bad – really bad fast. The tart fruit notes and the acid will dissipate faster than air leaves a punctured tire. It is simply the life of Rose, drink it very young and fast. Never stock up on Rose, there is no purpose in that! Go to the store and buy a rose and drink it, if they have none, then no worries drink something else.

White and Rose wine drinking in the kosher wine world

I find that white and rose wines just do not sell to the kosher market. Sadly, they do not see the joy that I and much of Israel now sees. Eight years ago, if you had said that Israel would be making nice white and rose wines and not so many great reds, wine aficionados would have looked at you askance. Well, that is exactly where we are today! Much of what Israel makes in the red wine world, is not very good, especially from the larger wineries. There are the usual suspects that are continuing to impress vintage after vintage, but the vast majority have sold out to the sweet-toothed date drinkers. However, they are creating wonderful white and rose wines! What is more – is that they are selling much of it in ISRAEL! Yes, that is right, Israelis are drinking far more white and rose wine than ever and the craze we are seeing here in the non-kosher world for Rose is happening in the kosher world in Israel!

Now, the rose madness is here for sure, even in the kosher market. This year the wines have arrived earlier and are available as we speak. More will be arriving soon, and some are only available at wineries, like the Hagafen rose, which is nice.  Sadly, my community has not come to appreciate rose or most whites wines. If I open one I would need to drink the bottle on my own, because few in my community drink white wines. The exception is Four Gates Chardonnay, which to be fair is a great wine and it is so rich and intoxicating that it appeals to red wine drinkers.

I really hope that articles like this can start to pique people’s interest. Rose and tart refreshing white wines have so much to offer. They are meant to be lithe and refreshing, but also complex and unique. They go well with so many great summer foods and yet, when summer comes around folks just continue drinking heavy reds or beer. Now, I like beer like most people, but between a lovely rose or beer, I choose rose!

The good news is that kosher wine drinkers are finally getting the message, but they are only buying the stuff over the summer months. Outside of those, NYC/east coast drinkers of kosher wine could care less. Which means white and rose wines from 2014, 2015 and 2016 can still be found all around at shops and stores. DO NOT buy rose wine from any vintage other than 2017! SIMPLE!!

State of affairs with rose 2017

So where are we in 2018 with Rose wines? Well, as I stated kosher wine manufacturers may well have jumped the shark. Why? Because there are MANY wine shops, even on the hallowed grounds of NYC, that still have Rose wines on their shelves, from the 2015 vintage, and even older lying around. Why is that a problem? As stated above, Rose wines are NOT meant for aging. Rose wines should NEVER be sold after their drink by date, which is the summer after the wine’s vintage. So, 2017 wines should be sold out by the summer of 2018 – simple! Sadly, I still see 2015 wines being sold all around! There is simply too much older rose lying around and too much new 2017 Rose wines coming in. The outcome is that someone is going to eat a lot of rose wines, or they will push them on to the unsuspecting public, who really do not understand roses at all.

I BEG the manufacturers to work with the stores and merchants to eat the 2015 and 2016 wines, one way or the other, and get them OFF the shelves. Please DO NOT attempt to put them on sale, they are not wines that should be pushed to consumers, as it only ends up hurting the wineries and the companies selling them. Please remove them and figure out how to handle the loss. No one will be drinking Rose wines for Rosh Hashanah. That means there is a LOT of wine to sell in a very short period of time – PLEASE help yourselves – start selling the 2017 wines already and walk away from the 2015/2016 wines!

One part that is better than last year is that many of the rose wines are here and more coming very soon. I wish they would have all been here in March, but it is MUCH better than last year. Sadly, Netofa is still not here in the USA! Very sad! I went to Netofa on my last trip to Israel, and I will post that soon enough, some really fun wines that are showing beautifully.

Best rose so far in 2018

Well, let’s hold up here for a second. I have not tasted all the roses out there yet. I have tasted LOTS of them, like 30 plus of them so far and the Israeli 2017 roses are all “sweet”. Now be careful here, when I say sweet – I mean I perceive sweetness. These roses are ripe, big in the mouth, and leave a perception of sweetness. There are a few roses from Israel that are lithe in nature, and those are my preferred options so far, from what I have had the chance to enjoy.

So with that said, here are the winners for me so far, with more European roses arriving soon I hope. The best Israeli roses – in order of preference:

1. 2017 Netofa Latour Rosado
2. 2017 Recanati Gris de Marselan
3. 2017 Covenant Blue C Rose. Nice – best of the “sweet perceived wines”
4. 2017 Netofa Rose – QPR 
5. 2017 Carmel Rose, Appellation – QPR winner so far in Israel
6. 2017 Dalton Kna’an: SHOCK! QPR Nice – SWEET! Great gateway rose

The best California Rose is the just released 2017 Shirah Rose – really fun (I have yet to taste the new Covenant or Hajdu 2017 roses)!

The best European Rose so far is the 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose – and so far it is the overall QPR winner. That may well change when the rest of the European roses appear – ASAP I hope!

Blind Tasting in Jerusalem

A bit more than a week before Passover, I was in Israel, and I had the chance to hang with my French/American crazy wine friends, AD, MB, JK, AS, AS, AO, MB, and others. The tasting entailed 65+ wines, most of them were rose or white, with a few reds thrown in at the end. It was a long night, and very enjoyable, including some crazy moments, but overall very enjoyable and my many thanks to JK’s office – where the madness took place.

At the event, we tasted over 20 roses. Besides that, I have been tasting roses for the past couple of months now. Like, in the past, some of the wine notes are really light on data some are longer, and some are just one word, like No, or boring.

Overall, as I stated Israeli roses from 2017 are mostly too sweet for me, but many are well balanced and I think will work for others. As stated above, to me at this point I will stick with the European roses from for 2017 until I taste an Israeli rose that makes me take notice, though the Netofa Latour rose is really close, sadly it is not available in the USA. That said, they do ship here from Israel!

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

2017 Shirah Rose – Score: 90 to 91 (QPR)
This wine is a blend of 66% Grenache, almost 33% Nebbiolo, with a bit of Zinfandel. This wine is a Saignee wine, though it does not show that way in style or body – lovely!
This wine is really fun bravo, the color, and style is totally Gris – bravo! The nose is lovely and really mineral with nice acid, showing quince, dried fruit, straw, and earth, so much fun! The mouth is really nice with great acid, and lovely mineral, showing nice tart and juicy strawberry, rich dried cherry, grapefruit, and lovely mineral with great slate and rich citrus and floral notes. The finish is rich and acidic and citrus-driven, with rich mineral. Bravo!!

2017 Timbre Rosé (by La Fenetre) – Score: 86
The wine shows a nice and interesting nose of blueberry and raspberry with some slate. The mouth is sweet, and nice enough with strawberry, but too much sweetness and not enough balance. The finish is long and sweet.

2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose – Score: 91 (QPR)
This wine is actually a bit better than last year’s rose, with the only aspect of last year’s showing cool charcoal that this one does not have. The nose on this wine is rich and redolent, with ripping pink grapefruit, lovely tart strawberry, mineral, and lovely floral notes with lemongrass. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows a nice weight, with good fruit focus, showing more fruit than last year, with good acidity, showing sweet but truly tart passion fruit, and a lovely mineral core, with earth, and crazy tart citrus lingering long. The finish is long and tart, with ripping acid, great balance, lovely mineral, and pith lingering long. Lovely!

2017 Amos Winery Rose – Score: No
What can I say this wine is just too strange. It was based upon Muscat and though it had acid, it is one of the many roses from Israel this year that are sweet bombs covered with layers of acid. Not my cup of tea.

2017 Carmel Rose, Appellation – 88 to 89 (QPR)
Another Israeli tropical fruit bomb rose for 2017. The nose is ripe with guava, pineapple, cotton candy, extra ripe strawberry and creme, and candied ripe fig. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is ok, it has nice acid, but man is it sweet, with clear residual sugar showing passion fruit, guava, and more tropical notes. The finish is long, it lingers very well, and while it is sweet, it is very well balanced. This is a great entry level rose for those wanting to get to more dry rose. Till then, I would not buy this one again, but nice work on balancing a sweet wine with basic fruit structure and freshness. This may well be the best QPR for under 15 dollars in Israel. The Dalton Kannan is right behind it.

2017 Yatir Rose – Score: 85
The nose on this wine is nice enough but too tropical with intense pineapple, super sweet strawberry with creme, with some mineral, and spice. Well, another year and another rose from Yatir that is pith and fruit and no acid. Sad, really sad. With more time, it open to show a bit more acid, but that is it, flat and boring, still sad.

2017 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: 87
OK, so the one redeeming fact of this wine is its nose, the rest falls apart quickly. The nose on this wine is lovely, I wish it carried to the mouth, with rich salinely, lovely mineral, and red fruit. The mouth is where things fall apart, yes there is acid, but it is all over the place with far too much sweet fruit and not enough structure and coherence in the mouth. The finish is sweet with mineral and pith, but really what lingers is the sweet fruit, candied quince, peach, guava, and tropical notes with citrus. Sad. Another year of unbalanced rose.

2017 Domaine du Castel Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Malbec, and 20% Cabernet Franc
I tasted this blind at the event and then again at the winery, and the tasting was better at the winery but not overly impressive. The nose is nice, that part is clear, showing nice citrus, strawberry, and ripe plum. The mouth shows acid, with a good fruit structure, but too round and sweet, with a makeup that is missing stuff. The finish is long and round with good pith, nice acid, saline, and citrus.

2017 Netofa Domaine Rose – Score: 89
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache, and 20% Mourvedre. The nose on this wine is lovely but sweet, with rosehip, ripe strawberry, and grapefruit, with cherry and raspberry. The mouth is medium bodied with great acidity and with lovely currant and quince that works great with dry fruit, that is richly saline and mineral but sweeter, than the Netofa Latour. The finish is sweet and yet nicely balance with mineral, slate, and pith. Nice!

2017 Netofa Latour Rosado – Score: 91
This and the Recanati Gris de Marselan are the only two Israeli roses that I really liked, and are leaner and not tropical or fruit bombs. This wine is a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Grenache. The nose on the first ever “reserve” rose from Netofa wine is more refined than the baseline Netofa rose, with rosehip again, but now with quince, raspberry, and strawberry creme. The mouth is not the screaming acid bomb that the Domaine rose is, but this is perfectly balanced with good pith and slate, showing more refinement and elegance with more citrus and grapefruit and less of the sweet currant fruit, with lovely slate and floral notes. The finish is green and red with pith and spice. Love it. Bravo!

2017 Tabor Adama Rose – Score: 89 (QPR)
The nose starts off with lovely gooseberry, followed by big, bright, and juicy strawberry and really lovely cherry. The mouth is sweet, yet well balanced with tart fruit, great acid, bright and tart with great acid, with good balance, and lovely pith. Solid!

2017 Psagot Rose – Score: 88
The nose on this wine starts off really nice, with rosehip, cranberry, really ripe strawberry, green notes, and ripe quince and peach. This wine is nice and round, again another ripe Israeli rose, with OK acid, gooseberry and grapefruit round out the palate with tart fruit and acid. Pith and slate lingers.

2017 Tulip White Franc – Score: 75
The wine is Bubblegum and sweet fruit, boring – sorry.

2017 Shiran Rose, Conductor – Score: NO
I will say this the wine must have been spoiled or something really wrong. That said, not my cup of tea still, sweet and off.

2017 Teperberg Rose, Impression – Score: 88
Nice nose of sweet notes, with rose, currant, and sour cherry. The mouth is round and has dried/tart stone fruit, with enough acid, showing some peach, and quince, grapefruit galore, nice weight.

2017 Shiloh Rose – Score: 75
Nice nose with good fruit, slate, and grapefruit, with citrus and stone fruit. The mouth is where the wine falls apart, sadly it was flat and dead.

2017 Covenant Blue C Rose – Score: 89
This is the second time I have tasted this wine and it is nice. Rosehip and sweet notes are a theme of the 2017 Israeli roses, no idea why, this wine has them in spades, with mineral, cotton candy, sweet candied fruit, watermelon, but balanced nose. The mouth is well balanced with good fruit, grapefruit, dark cherry, slate, and ripe juicy strawberry. Nice!

2017 Dalton Kna’an (AKA Dalton Estate in the USA) Rose – Score:  89 (QPR WINNER)
Ok, first off the SAME wine is sold under two labels. It is marketed in Israel as Kna’an Rose, but here in the USA, it has kept its old Dalton Estate label. The wine is really fun in its nose, nice, with slate and mineral, good fruit, with quince, and dried cranberry. The mouth is well balanced, really nice, fun, but it is RIPE and sweet, literally, there must be some residual sugar in there, showing great balance, with slate, and nice peach, passion fruit, and graphite. Nice! Good overall body. To me, this is the perfect gateway rose to get people into the rose game!

2017 Kerem Ben Zira Rose – Score: 70
No

2017 Vitkin Israeli Journey Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of Grenache Noir and Carignan. Nice rose and sweet wine, fun with candied grapefruit, bubblegum, with sweet strawberry, and guava. The mouth is tart, really acidic, with tropical fruit, hints of floral notes, and more sweet fruit. The finish is long and sweet, but balanced enough.

2017 Galil Rose – Score: 83
Ripe, sweet, and not as fun, boring flat dead.

2017 Gvaot Rose – Score: 88
Even Gvaot could not keep the tropical notes and guava juice madness out of their rose. This wine is like many of the 2017 Israeli roses, nice enough nose with candied fruit, cranberry, watermelon, and stone fruit. The mouth is round, ripe, and tropical in nature, with some mineral, with good balance, nice stone fruit, and pith.

2017 Recanati Rose – Score: 89
This may well have been the darkest colored rose at the tasting. The nose is classic Recanati rose – Cotton candy, candied fruit, raspberry, and sweet strawberry. That said, the extreme sweet notes and all are a good gateway wine for many, it is tart, showing saline, sweet notes galore, with good acid, and candied strawberry, with hints of saline. Nice!

2017 Flam Rose  – Score: 88
Nice nose, mineral, with slate, fewer sweet notes but still ripe, and ripe strawberry. The mouth is round, ripe, with stone fruit galore, no tropical notes, but very ripe with candied fruit galore, balanced, nice enough, with good acid.

2017 Recanati Gris de Marselan – Score: 91
So far only one of the two Israeli roses I have tasted this year that is not a fruit bomb. Nice nose with good funk, flint madness, with good structure, properly made, nice! The mouth is ripping with great acid, balanced, with tart and juicy fruit, balanced but rich and saline based, with ripping mineral, and grapefruit, and dried and tart peach and hints of guava. Bravo!

2017 Kishor Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of Cabernet Franc and Grenache. The nose on this wine is ripe and tart with lovely notes of strawberry, gooseberry, hints of raspberry and floral notes with rock and herb. The mouth is weightier than most, with good acid, but the wine shows a hole that fills with time, with saline but showed poorly at the tasting. Maybe a bad bottle, but overall a nice enough wine.

2017 Herzberg Rose – Score: NO
I think this along with the Shiran Rose were DOA, but what we had was not enjoyable at all.

2017 Borgo Reale Rose – Score: 86
Last year this wine was really much better, this year it is very akin to the Israeli roses, a fruit bomb, with not enough acid to bring it all together. In the end, nice enough but lacking the acid.

2017 Hayotzer Rose – Score: 75
Oak on rose, with strawberry and spice, and OK acid, but in the end the wine is out of balance with oak, fruit and not enough acid to bring that oak around.

2017 100 Tropez Rose – Score: 89
This wine is nice enough but for the money, not a wine I would buy. The nose on this wine shows lovely strawberry and floral notes galore with raspberry and citrus. Lovely mouth with nice acidity, great flint, a bit ripe nectarines, and candied fruit and good mineral. Nice enough!

2017 Don Ernesto Hagafen Rose – Score: 89 (mevushal)
The wine is only available at the winery. The wine is like past years, very ripe, and this year the acid shows well but overall the sweet to tropical notes do really start to stick out like a sore thumb. Still, a very nice mevushal rose options. (only available at winery)

Well, after the first post I stated that I would be doing this rose wine post a few times. The subsequent posts would have the original content, and the newly revised or added rose wines as well. Well, this is part 2, and there will be at least a part 3 or maybe a part 4, such is life. My schedule is insane right now (not complaining in any way), so when I can grab a few moments to update the roses I have had, I take it with both hands!

It is still officially Spring, which means it is Rose time! Rose wine in the non-kosher market is exploding – especially Rose wine from Provence; a wine region of France. Sadly, in the kosher wine market – that is not quite the case. I did not stress my previous statement with a suffix of AT ALL, even though I am not allowed to open a bottle of rose on my Shabbos table with guests – why? Well, that is simple – no one will drink it!!

Even worse, is that wine manufacturers may well have jumped the shark! There will be some 50 dry-ish kosher roses available in the USA this year! That may not sound like a lot, but when all you had was Herzog White Zinfandel 10 years ago – it is insane. The first high-end rose was Castel’s 2009 rose and that was only 9 years ago. Back then, there were few to no real Rose wine options, other than a handful of Israeli wines and almost no French Rose made it here. Now we will have tons of Rose, and I really think the real question here is will people drink it all?

Wine Color

What is a rose wine? Well, simply said, a rose is a wine that can best be defined as the wine world’s chameleon. Where white wine is a pretty simple concept – take white grapes, squeeze them, and you get clear to green colored juice. Yes, the white grape juice is clear – well so is red grape juice, but more on that in a bit.

White wine is not about color – almost all color in a white wine comes from some oak influence of some sort. So, an unoaked Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris can sometimes look almost clear, depending on the region and how the wine was handled. Now oaked Chardonnay, of course, is what most people use as an example of a dark white wine. As the Wine Folly linked above states, different wine regions oak their Chardonnay differently and as such, they are sold with different hues from the start. With age, the wine changes color and the light gold moves to darker gold shades.

The only real exception to the stated rule above – that white grape juice without the influence of oak is somewhere in the clear to green color spectrum, is – orange wines. We have spoken about orange wines – mostly thanks to Yaacov Oryah. Outside of Yaacov’s work there really is no orange wine in the kosher world to speak about. Orange wine is made exactly like red wine, which means that the clear grape juice is left to sit on the yellowish to dark yellow grape skins (depending upon what varietal is used to make the orange wine).

Red wine juice – straight from the grape comes out the same color as white grapes. You see the juice from grapes is mostly clear to greenish in color. The red wine color comes from macerating the juice on the grape skins. The longer the juice sits on the grape skins (wine must) the redder in color the wine becomes until it reaches its maximum red color potential.

The only real exception to the rule of a grape’s juice color is the Teinturier varieties. The grapes are called Teinturier, a French language term meaning to dye or stain. The list of grapes whose juice is actually red colored is long – but the list of kosher wine options that is a wine made from these grapes – is the Herzog Alicante Bouschet. The Gamay de Bouze is not a normal Gamay grape, it is one of those grape mutations that are very red in nature.

Rose wines are the in-between story – hence the chameleon term I used above.

Rose Wine

Rose wine is made in one of three ways. I will list the most dominant manners and leave the last one for last.

Limited Maceration:

This is the first step of the first two options and the only difference is what you do with the rest of the juice after you remove it? You see, as we stated above, the color of the juice from red grapes is clear to green and for one to get the lovely red hues we all love from red wine, it requires the juice to lie on the grape skins – AKA maceration.

The rose hue depends on how long the juice macerates. I have heard winemakers say 20 minutes gives them the color they like, and some say almost half a day or longer. The longer the juice macerates the darker the color. While the wine is macerating, the skins are contributing color by leaching phenolics – such as anthocyanins and tannins, and flavor components. The other important characteristic that the skins leach into the rose is – antioxidants that protect the wine from degrading. Sadly, because rose wines macerate for such a short period of time, the color and flavor components are less stable and as such, they lack shelf life – a VERY IMPORTANT fact we will talk about later. Either way, drinking rose wine early – like within the year – is a great approach for enjoying rose wine at its best!

Now once you remove the liquid, after letting it macerate for the desired length of time, the skins that are left are thrown out or placed in the field to feed organic material into the vines. This is a very expensive approach indeed because the grapes are being thrown away, instead of doing the Saignée process which is described in option #2. This approach is mostly used in regions where rose wine is as important as red wines, like Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. Mind you, the grapes used in this method are most often picked early, as they are being solely used for making the rose.

Many producers, especially those in Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon, take a more traditional approach when making rosé wine. Grapes are grown and selected exclusively for rosé production, as stated above, and then often crushed as whole clusters, and then gently pressed until the juice reaches a desirable pale color.

Most think that Saignee wines would have a higher alcohol level, as the fruit used to make that wine is picked later, but actually, that is not always correct, as winemakers can water back the rose juice and get what they want, at least here in the USA. When you taste the wine, look for the acid, is the acid natural or out of place?

Saignée:

The second approach for how Rose wine is made, is essentially the same as maceration – the only difference is that they do not remove all the juice. In the second method for making Rose wine, the Rose is the afterthought – in DRASTIC contrast to the first approach, where the rose is primary.

Now, many winemakers may take affront to this statement, and one did actually, but that is my opinion. When the juice is removed to fortify the red wine, the rose wine, again IMHO, is an afterthought. That DOES NOT mean, that the winemaker does not take the rose wine seriously. Any decent winemaker that makes a wine, should be doing it with 100% focus. My point is that if the rose was important to you, you would pull the fruit earlier, but hey that is my opinion, and yeah, I am not a winemaker.

So in places like California and Rhone in France, winemakers will pick the grapes when they reach their appropriate phenolics. Then to concentrate the wine, the winemaker will bleed some of the juice – hence the term Saignée in French which means bleed. By removing this juice, after the juice has macerated long enough, the resulting wine is further intensified, because there is less juice lying on the same amount of grape skin surface.

The interesting thing here is that the grapes used to make this kind of rose are normally one with higher Brix, as the grapes are destined for red wine. So, when you bleed the juice out of the must, what is being pulled out is juice at a higher alcohol level than Rose wines made using the first method (as explained above). So what do you do when you have a wine that is too high in alcohol so early in the game – well that is simple you water it down! Now remember this wine is already low on phenolics and color, so if you know that your rose will be high in alcohol when all is said and done, you have lots of options here. You can leave the juice to macerate for longer, yes the juice you finally pull out may well be darker than you desire. However, you will be watering it down, so it is all a question of numbers and winemakers who make these kinds of wines, are used to it and know how to handle it.

Now you ask what is wrong with high alcohol rose? Well, a rose is normally meant to be light and fruity wine, and well watered back roses are less so, but I have also enjoyed a few Saignee wines, like the 2017 Shirah Rose, which 100% shocked me when I found that out!

Blending Method:

Finally, what do you get when you mix some white wine with some red wine – a rose by George a rose! This last method is the least common method for creating still rose wines. That said, it is very common in the world of Champagne and sparkling wines. Next time you enjoy sparkling rose wine, you can almost be sure that it is a blend of Chardonnay (white wine) and either Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier (red wine).

As stated before, in the pure rose still wine market, there really is very little of this kind of rose being made.

State of kosher rose wines

Types of Rose made:

1. Red Rose wines: There are truly few examples of this, but they have been made and they are not a rose wine. They are billed as a rose at times, but to me, they are essentially a light red wine, much like a Gamay
2. Sweet Rose wines: Sweet wines are created because either the winemaker could not get the wine to completely finish primary fermentation or because they stopped it. Sweet rose wines sometimes lack balance because they lack the screaming acid needed to make it all work. That said, sweeter rose wines are the gateway wines to get people to try drier wines. The best of the sweet wines IMHO is the 2017 Dalton estate rose, or Kna’an as it is called in Israel.
3. Dry rose wines: Dry is not a subjective concept it is measurable in a lab and can be tasted as well. That said, what we as humans can perceive does seem to be subjective. Some of us will think a Sauvignon Blanc is sweet unless it is a Sancerre – you know who you are JR! Dr. Vinny was asked this question here, and essentially we can start perceiving sweetness at 0.5% residual sugar, but as the Doc says, sometimes a bone-dry wine can be perceived as sweet because of its ripeness and/or lack of balancing acidity.
4. Dark rose wines: Color in any rose or red wine is defined by the amount of maceration the wine goes through, as described above. Some people like that salmon color and some like that darker rose color. The 2017 Recanati Rose (not the Gris de Marselan which is lovely and light colored) is a dark rose – and OK, I guess. There are so many colors in the rose spectrum, and no, the darker roses are not based on what grape is used in the making of the wine, unless it is based on a Teinturier grape – which I have yet to see.

So where does that leave us? To recap IMHO, rose wine is meant to be light, refreshing, tart, and low in alcohol. It can have a varying rose hue, from Gris (gray in French – light color) to Salmon, to rose, and all the way up to dark red. Yes, there have been wineries who tried making heavier rose wines, that were essentially red wines, whom I will not mention and they have all been epic disasters. If you want a red wine – make a Gamay and leave me alone! Rose is about summer, tart and refreshing wine.

White and Rose wine education

Royal Wines has done a great job of bringing in white and roses wines, but I must stress – we need more education! Any wine distributor today can sell a Cabernet Sauvignon in its sleep! Why? Because the kosher wine drinking public is programmed to drink big bold red wines! Nothing light and lithe, only sledgehammers! Now, who am I to disagree with what someone likes – if you like a wine enjoy it! What I would like to see is people finding a way to expand their palate – by doing so they will learn more about wines and maybe they will actually see why they like and dislike a wine more – education is the answer! Now to those who say – why bother, if they like it let them enjoy it? To that answer I say – sure, when u were three years old you liked mud, and you really liked spreading it all over your sister’s new white dress! Should we have let you enjoy it forever?? Of course not!

Now your reply will be, come on we are talking about wine – not personal growth and their humanity! Of course but like everything in this world – we should want to strive and learn more about what makes us happy and why! If you like a Monet painting – you owe it to yourself to learn why? What grabs you when you see 100+-year-old paint on a canvas? So what he painted a haystack – good for him? What makes you want to stare at it for hours? The answer is inside of you – and you need to learn the answer. I hope we can all find the answers to what makes us tick, why we all love some things and why we hate other things. That is called human evolution – it makes us what we are – human! Anyway, I am off my soapbox now, but I hope we can agree that growth is good – no matter the subject.

I beg distributors and wineries to get out and teach! Get out and go to wine stores and pour wines – pour wine to anyone that wants to taste or even to those that do not! Education is the foundation of this industry – and without it, we are doomed to stasis – something that terrifies me!

The temperature to enjoy Rose

Please do yourself a favor and enjoy rose wine at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Meaning if you leave a bottle of wine in your refrigerator and pull it out after half a day of fridge time or more, it will probably be at the refrigerator’s frigid temperature of 37 or so degrees Farenight – which is HORRIBLE for rose. Rose at room temperature of 70 or so degrees is also not fun. It needs to be a bit cold, but not over the top. Please do not think that it needs to be iced down in an ice bucket either, that is for sparkling wines.

Drink the rose at the beginning of the meal

Rose is NOT a long-term drinking animal. It is not meant to be enjoyed for more than a meal. Why? Because as we explained above once it is fully oxygenated, it will go bad – really bad fast. The tart fruit notes and the acid will dissipate faster than air leaves a punctured tire. It is simply the life of Rose, drink it very young and fast. Never stock up on Rose, there is no purpose in that! Go to the store and buy a rose and drink it, if they have none, then no worries drink something else.

White and Rose wine drinking in the kosher wine world

I find that white and rose wines just do not sell to the kosher market. Sadly, they do not see the joy that I and much of Israel now sees. Eight years ago, if you had said that Israel would be making nice white and rose wines and not so many great reds, wine aficionados would have looked at you askance. Well, that is exactly where we are today! Much of what Israel makes in the red wine world, is not very good, especially from the larger wineries. There are the usual suspects that are continuing to impress vintage after vintage, but the vast majority have sold out to the sweet-toothed date drinkers. However, they are creating wonderful white and rose wines! What is more – is that they are selling much of it in ISRAEL! Yes, that is right, Israelis are drinking far more white and rose wine than ever and the craze we are seeing here in the non-kosher world for Rose is happening in the kosher world in Israel!

Now, the rose madness is here for sure, even in the kosher market. This year the wines have arrived earlier and are available as we speak. More will be arriving soon, and some are only available at wineries, like the Hagafen rose, which is nice.  Sadly, my community has not come to appreciate rose or most whites wines. If I open one I would need to drink the bottle on my own, because few in my community drink white wines. The exception is Four Gates Chardonnay, which to be fair is a great wine and it is so rich and intoxicating that it appeals to red wine drinkers.

I really hope that articles like this can start to pique people’s interest. Rose and tart refreshing white wines have so much to offer. They are meant to be lithe and refreshing, but also complex and unique. They go well with so many great summer foods and yet, when summer comes around folks just continue drinking heavy reds or beer. Now, I like beer like most people, but between a lovely rose or beer, I choose rose!

The good news is that kosher wine drinkers are finally getting the message, but they are only buying the stuff over the summer months. Outside of those, NYC/east coast drinkers of kosher wine could care less. Which means white and rose wines from 2014, 2015 and 2016 can still be found all around shops and stores. DO NOT buy rose wine from any vintage other than 2017! SIMPLE!!

State of affairs with 2017 roses

So where are we in 2018 with Rose wines? Well, as I stated kosher wine manufacturers may well have jumped the shark. Why? Because there are MANY wine shops, even on the hallowed grounds of NYC, that still have Rose wines on their shelves, from the 2015 vintage, and even older lying around. Why is that a problem? As stated above, Rose wines are NOT meant for aging. Rose wines should NEVER be sold after their drink by date, which is the summer after the wine’s vintage. So, 2017 wines should be sold out by the summer of 2018 – simple! Sadly, I still see 2015 wines being sold all around! There is simply too much older rose lying around and too much new 2017 Rose wines coming in. The outcome is that someone is going to eat a lot of rose wines, or they will push them on to the unsuspecting public, who really do not understand roses at all.

I BEG the manufacturers to work with the stores and merchants to eat the 2015 and 2016 wines, one way or the other, and get them OFF the shelves. Please DO NOT attempt to put them on sale, they are not wines that should be pushed to consumers, as it only ends up hurting the wineries and the companies selling them. Please remove them and figure out how to handle the loss. No one will be drinking Rose wines for Rosh Hashanah. That means there is a LOT of wine to sell in a very short period of time – PLEASE help yourselves – start selling the 2017 wines already and walk away from the 2015/2016 wines!

One part that is better than last year is that many of the rose wines are here and more coming very soon. I wish they would have all been here in March, but it is MUCH better than last year. Sadly, Netofa is still not here in the USA! Very sad! I went to Netofa on my last trip to Israel, and I will post that soon enough, some really fun wines that are showing beautifully.

Best rose so far in 2018

Well, let’s hold up here for a second. I have not tasted all the roses out there yet. I have tasted LOTS of them, like 30 plus of them so far and the Israeli 2017 roses are all “sweet”. And after a month or more, I have now tasted even more roses, which are added below. Now be careful here, when I say sweet – I mean I perceive sweetness. These roses are ripe, big in the mouth, and leave a perception of sweetness. There are a few roses from Israel that are lithe in nature, with a core focus of acid while being complex, and those are my preferred options so far, from what I have had the chance to enjoy.

So with that said, here are the winners for me so far, with a few more European roses I have yet to taste. The best Israeli roses – in order of preference:

1. 2017 Netofa Latour Rosado
2. 2017 Recanati Gris de Marselan
3. 2017 Covenant Blue C Rose. Nice – best of the “sweet perceived wines”
4. 2017 Netofa Rose – QPR 
5. 2017 Carmel Rose, Appellation – QPR winner so far in Israel
6. 2017 Dalton Kna’an: SHOCK! QPR Nice – SWEET! Great gateway rose

The best California Rose is the just released 2017 Shirah Rose – really fun, and that is followed by the 2017 Hajdu Rose. The 2017 Hajdu is far better than the 2016 and I really enjoyed it, but still, a slight step behind the 2017 Shirah rose.

The best European Rose so far is the 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose – and so far it is the overall QPR winner. Though the 2017 Chateau Roubine, La Vie en Rose is right up there, with the same score, but not as bone dry and tart as the Rothschild. I have the Roubine to taste still, and then we can make the final decision, with the French roses that are here in the USA.

Blind Tasting in Jerusalem

A bit more than a week before Passover, I was in Israel, and I had the chance to hang with my French/American crazy wine friends, AD, MB, JK, AS, AS, AO, MB, and others. The tasting entailed 65+ wines, most of them were rose or white, with a few reds thrown in at the end. It was a long night, and very enjoyable, including some crazy moments, but overall very enjoyable and my many thanks to JK’s office – where the madness took place.

At the event, we tasted over 20 roses. Besides that, I have been tasting roses for the past couple of months now. Like, in the past, some of the wine notes are really light on data some are longer, and some are just one word, like No, or boring.

Overall, as I stated Israeli roses from 2017 are mostly too sweet for me, but many are well balanced and I think will work for others. As stated above, to me at this point I will stick with the European roses from for 2017 until I taste an Israeli rose that makes me take notice, though the Netofa Latour rose is really close, sadly it is not available in the USA. That said, they do ship here from Israel!

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

2017 Shirah Rose – Score: 90 to 91 (QPR)
This wine is a blend of 66% Grenache, almost 33% Nebbiolo, with a bit of Zinfandel. This wine is a Saignee wine, though it does not show that way in style or body – lovely!
This wine is really fun bravo, the color, and style is totally Gris – bravo! The nose is lovely and really mineral with nice acid, showing quince, dried fruit, straw, and earth, so much fun! The mouth is really nice with great acid, and lovely mineral, showing nice tart and juicy strawberry, rich dried cherry, grapefruit, and lovely mineral with great slate and rich citrus and floral notes. The finish is rich and acidic and citrus-driven, with rich mineral. Bravo!!

2017 Timbre Rosé (by La Fenetre), Opening Act – Score: 87 (tasted again)
The wine shows a nice and interesting nose of cherry, watermelon, with hints of blueberry, with some slate. The mouth is sweet, and nice enough with strawberry, it shows zesty fruit, but too much sweetness, but with time the wine has settled a bit and is showing a bit better than last time. The finish is long, sweet, and tart, with floral notes, and rosehip.

2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose – Score: 91 (QPR)
This wine is actually a bit better than last year’s rose, with the only aspect of last year’s showing cool charcoal that this one does not have. The nose on this wine is rich and redolent, with ripping pink grapefruit, lovely tart strawberry, mineral, and lovely floral notes with lemongrass. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows a nice weight, with good fruit focus, showing more fruit than last year, with good acidity, showing sweet but truly tart passion fruit, and a lovely mineral core, with earth, and crazy tart citrus lingering long. The finish is long and tart, with ripping acid, great balance, lovely mineral, and pith lingering long. Lovely!

2017 Amos Winery Rose – Score: No
What can I say this wine is just too strange. It was based upon Muscat and though it had acid, it is one of the many roses from Israel this year that are sweet bombs covered with layers of acid. Not my cup of tea.

2017 Carmel Rose, Appellation – 88 to 89 (QPR)
Another Israeli tropical fruit bomb rose for 2017. The nose is ripe with guava, pineapple, cotton candy, extra ripe strawberry and creme, and candied ripe fig. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is ok, it has nice acid, but man is it sweet, with clear residual sugar showing passion fruit, guava, and more tropical notes. The finish is long, it lingers very well, and while it is sweet, it is very well balanced. This is a great entry level rose for those wanting to get to more dry rose. Till then, I would not buy this one again, but nice work on balancing a sweet wine with basic fruit structure and freshness. This may well be the best QPR for under 15 dollars in Israel. The Dalton Kannan is right behind it.

2017 Yatir Rose – Score: 85
The nose on this wine is nice enough but too tropical with intense pineapple, super sweet strawberry with creme, with some mineral, and spice. Well, another year and another rose from Yatir that is pith and fruit and no acid. Sad, really sad. With more time, it open to show a bit more acid, but that is it, flat and boring, still sad.

2017 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: 87
OK, so the one redeeming fact of this wine is its nose, the rest falls apart quickly. The nose on this wine is lovely, I wish it carried to the mouth, with rich salinely, lovely mineral, and red fruit. The mouth is where things fall apart, yes there is acid, but it is all over the place with far too much sweet fruit and not enough structure and coherence in the mouth. The finish is sweet with mineral and pith, but really what lingers is the sweet fruit, candied quince, peach, guava, and tropical notes with citrus. Sad. Another year of unbalanced rose.

2017 Domaine du Castel Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Malbec, and 20% Cabernet Franc
I tasted this blind at the event and then again at the winery, and the tasting was better at the winery but not overly impressive. The nose is nice, that part is clear, showing nice citrus, strawberry, and ripe plum. The mouth shows acid, with a good fruit structure, but too round and sweet, with a makeup that is missing stuff. The finish is long and round with good pith, nice acid, saline, and citrus.

2017 Domaine Netofa Rose – Score: 89
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache, and 20% Mourvedre. The nose on this wine is lovely but sweet, with rosehip, ripe strawberry, and grapefruit, with cherry and raspberry. The mouth is medium bodied with great acidity and with lovely currant and quince that works great with dry fruit, that is richly saline and mineral but sweeter, than the Netofa Latour. The finish is sweet and yet nicely balance with mineral, slate, and pith. Nice!

2017 Domaine Netofa Latour, Rosado – Score: 91
This and the Recanati Gris de Marselan are the only two Israeli roses that I really liked, and are leaner and not tropical or fruit bombs. This wine is a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Grenache. The nose on the first ever “reserve” rose from Netofa wine is more refined than the baseline Netofa rose, with rosehip again, but now with quince, raspberry, and strawberry creme. The mouth is not the screaming acid bomb that the Domaine rose is, but this is perfectly balanced with good pith and slate, showing more refinement and elegance with more citrus and grapefruit and less of the sweet currant fruit, with lovely slate and floral notes. The finish is green and red with pith and spice. Love it. Bravo!

2017 Tabor Adama Rose – Score: 89 (QPR)
The nose starts off with lovely gooseberry, followed by big, bright, and juicy strawberry and really lovely cherry. The mouth is sweet, yet well balanced with tart fruit, great acid, bright and tart with great acid, with good balance, and lovely pith. Solid!

2017 Psagot Rose – Score: 88
The nose on this wine starts off really nice, with rosehip, cranberry, really ripe strawberry, green notes, and ripe quince and peach. This wine is nice and round, again another ripe Israeli rose, with OK acid, gooseberry and grapefruit round out the palate with tart fruit and acid. Pith and slate lingers.

2017 Tulip White Franc – Score: 75
The wine is Bubblegum and sweet fruit, boring – sorry.

2017 Shiran Rose, Conductor – Score: NO
I will say this the wine must have been spoiled or something really wrong. That said, not my cup of tea still, sweet and off.

2017 Teperberg Rose, Impression – Score: 88
Nice nose of sweet notes, with rose, currant, and sour cherry. The mouth is round and has dried/tart stone fruit, with enough acid, showing some peach, and quince, grapefruit galore, nice weight.

2017 Shiloh Rose – Score: 75
Nice nose with good fruit, slate, and grapefruit, with citrus and stone fruit. The mouth is where the wine falls apart, sadly it was flat and dead.

2017 Covenant Blue C Rose – Score: 89
This is the second time I have tasted this wine and it is nice. Rosehip and sweet notes are a theme of the 2017 Israeli roses, no idea why, this wine has them in spades, with mineral, cotton candy, sweet candied fruit, watermelon, but balanced nose. The mouth is well balanced with good fruit, grapefruit, dark cherry, slate, and ripe juicy strawberry. Nice!

2017 Dalton Kna’an (AKA Dalton Estate in the USA) Rose – Score:  89 (QPR WINNER)
Ok, first off the SAME wine is sold under two labels. It is marketed in Israel as Kna’an Rose, but here in the USA, it has kept its old Dalton Estate label. The wine is really fun in its nose, nice, with slate and mineral, good fruit, with quince, and dried cranberry. The mouth is well balanced, really nice, fun, but it is RIPE and sweet, literally, there must be some residual sugar in there, showing great balance, with slate, and nice peach, passion fruit, and graphite. Nice! Good overall body. To me, this is the perfect gateway rose to get people into the rose game!

2017 Kerem Ben Zira Rose – Score: 70
No

2017 Vitkin Israeli Journey Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of Grenache Noir and Carignan. Nice rose and sweet wine, fun with candied grapefruit, bubblegum, with sweet strawberry, and guava. The mouth is tart, really acidic, with tropical fruit, hints of floral notes, and more sweet fruit. The finish is long and sweet, but balanced enough.

2017 Galil Rose – Score: 83
Ripe, sweet, and not as fun, boring flat dead.

2017 Gvaot Rose – Score: 88
Even Gvaot could not keep the tropical notes and guava juice madness out of their rose. This wine is like many of the 2017 Israeli roses, nice enough nose with candied fruit, cranberry, watermelon, and stone fruit. The mouth is round, ripe, and tropical in nature, with some mineral, with good balance, nice stone fruit, and pith.

2017 Recanati Rose – Score: 89
This may well have been the darkest colored rose at the tasting. The nose is classic Recanati rose – Cotton candy, candied fruit, raspberry, and sweet strawberry. That said, the extreme sweet notes and all are a good gateway wine for many, it is tart, showing saline, sweet notes galore, with good acid, and candied strawberry, with hints of saline. Nice!

2017 Flam Rose  – Score: 88
Nice nose, mineral, with slate, fewer sweet notes but still ripe, and ripe strawberry. The mouth is round, ripe, with stone fruit galore, no tropical notes, but very ripe with candied fruit galore, balanced, nice enough, with good acid.

2017 Recanati Gris de Marselan – Score: 91
So far only one of the two Israeli roses I have tasted this year that is not a fruit bomb. Nice nose with good funk, flint madness, with good structure, properly made, nice! The mouth is dripping with great acid, balanced, with tart and juicy fruit, balanced but rich and saline based, with ripping mineral, and grapefruit, and dried and tart peach and hints of guava. Bravo!

2017 Kishor Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of Cabernet Franc and Grenache. The nose on this wine is ripe and tart with lovely notes of strawberry, gooseberry, hints of raspberry and floral notes with rock and herb. The mouth is weightier than most, with good acid, but the wine shows a hole that fills with time, with saline but showed poorly at the tasting. Maybe a bad bottle, but overall a nice enough wine.

2017 Herzberg Rose – Score: NO
I think this along with the Shiran Rose were DOA, but what we had was not enjoyable at all.

2017 Borgo Reale Rose – Score: 86
Last year this wine was really much better, this year it is very akin to the Israeli roses, a fruit bomb, with not enough acid to bring it all together. In the end, nice enough but lacking the acid.

2017 Hayotzer Rose – Score: 75
Oak on rose, with strawberry and spice, and OK acid, but in the end the wine is out of balance with oak, fruit and not enough acid to bring that oak around.

2017 100 Tropez Rose – Score: 89
This wine is nice enough but for the money, not a wine I would buy. The nose on this wine shows lovely strawberry and floral notes galore with raspberry and citrus. Lovely mouth with nice acidity, great flint, a bit ripe nectarines, and candied fruit and good mineral. Nice enough!

2017 Don Ernesto Hagafen Rose – Score: 89 (mevushal)
The wine is only available at the winery. The wine is like past years, very ripe, and this year the acid shows well but overall the sweet to tropical notes do really start to stick out like a sore thumb. Still, a very nice mevushal rose options. (only available at the winery)

—————- Rose wines added in my second post ——————-

2016 Sainte Beatrice Instant B Rose – Score: 84 (I tasted the 2016 and not 2017)
I was supposed to tase the 2017 Instant B, but they sent me the 2016 vintage! Go figure! I only noticed it was the 2016 vintage after I wrote my notes and saw how poor it was. Also, the 2017 vintage of the Instant B is mevushal and this one had no mevushal sign anywhere!
The nose is muted to start but comes out with vigorous movement to show nice dry notes of strawberry creme, with raspberry, and lemon. The mouth on this wine is flat, sadly, not showing the acid punch needed, the fruit is not flabby, but the lack of acid makes the wine feel like it is rose-colored water. The finish is long and has a bit of punch, but overall a disappointment, with nice pith, and grapefruit notes.

2017 Jezreel Rose – Score: 88
This is another rose wine that is using a white wine to add the needed acid punch to a rose. This wine is a blend of 45% Carignan, 40% Syrah, and 15% Sauvignon Blanc. The nose is nice enough with bubblegum notes, watermelon, pink notes, with dark plum, and grapefruit. The mouth on this dark colored rose is actually nice, with good acidity, not an overly ripe mouth, showing nice strawberry, with good acid, pomegranate, and fun overall tart notes. This is not a fun, tart, refreshing wine, as much as it is a big bold, rose wine that is well balanced, with good acidity, pith galore, with nice restraint, and balance. Nice! This is the perfect rose wine for date juice lovers, it is a classical sledgehammer of fruity notes that date juice lovers will pick up and enjoy.

2017 Vina Encina Rosado – Score: 89 (mevushal) (QPR)
This wine is made from 100% Tempranillo fruit. This nose on this wine is popping with candied fruit, cotton candy, nice floral notes of rose, big bright and sweet strawberry, raspberry, and mineral. The mouth on this wine is popping with sweet notes but well balanced with tart fruit, gooseberry, tart pink grapefruit, and great acid, with a middle of sweet cherry/currant lifesaver candy. The finish is long and sweet, but again well balanced, tart with more candied lifesaver notes, pith galore, and quince. Nice.

2017 Ramon Cardova Rosado – Score: 90 (QPR)
This wine is a blend of 80% Garnacha and 20% Viura. This is the second year that Royal has made a rose from Ramon Cardova and once again they are using white fruit along with the red fruit. The nose on this wine is mineral-based with rosehips and rose water, followed by candied cherry. The mouth on this wine is sweet, and the sweetness shows far more in the mouth than in the nose, with watermelon, sweet pomegranate, hints of sweet quince, with candied grapefruit, and red fruit that gives way to good acidity and sweet fruit focus. The finish is long and sweet, with tart fruit, pith galore, and nice mineral, rock, slate. Nice.

2017 Chateau Roubine, La Vie en Rose – Score: 91 (QPR)
This is the second year that Royal has made the La Vie Rose from Chateau Roubine. The nose is sweeter than last year, with lovely white fruit notes of grapefruit, followed by a cacophony of red fruit notes, strawberry, raspberry, and sweet passion fruit notes. The mouth on this rose is sweet, not as sweet as the Spanish roses, but sweeter than I had hoped, and showing far more mineral, but still not as good as the Rothschild rose, with sweet raspberry, gooseberry, and ripe red fruit, that is well balanced with good acid, nice pith, and fun fruit focus. The finish is long, and tart, with good acidity, lovely mineral, slate, and pith galore.

2017 Covenant Wines, Red C, Rose – Score: 88
Lovely nose of rose hip and gooseberry, ripe fruit, with strawberry notes. The mouth on this wine is ripe and sweet in style, with clear leanings toward cherry and plum lifesaver candies, with lemonade and less acid than I was hoping for. The mouth is round and ripe and nice, balanced enough with fun red fruit and lingering notes of red tea and grapefruit.

2017 Camuna Cellars Rose – Score: 89 to 90
This wine is made by Eli Silins, one of the wine hands at Covenant Winery, and it is made of 100% Barbera fruit. The wine is as natural as you are going to get in the kosher wine world, though it did have a bit of sulfite added to it somewhere in the process, from what I understood. I will say that this wine is unique, it is not a wine that everyone will love, it has a bit of oxidation, which is common with more Natural wines, and it is a more old world style wine with funk and more dry/tart fruit.

Fun notes of yeasty, earthy aromas, hints of oxidation, with tart grapefruit and quince. The mouth of nice and balanced shows really fun acidity and great fruit focus, but also old school, with more herbal/grassy notes, with lovely yeast, tart cherry, pear, and strawberry. The finish is really fun, earthy, and richly mineral focused, with red fruit galore, unique and fun.

2017 Hajdu Rose – Score: 90
This wine is a blend of Grenache, Sangiovese, and Barbera, The nose on this nice wine shows cherry, strawberry, and rich ripe summer fruit with lovely fruity notes, with ripe melon and sweet quince. The mouth on this wine is rich and full, with fun saline, with good balance, not over the top with good acid, nice complexity, with earthy and classic rose notes of strawberry and pink grapefruit. The finish is long and dry with great mineral, slate, and lingering red fruit.

2017 Herzog Lineage Rose – Score: 88 (mevushal)
This wine is a Saignée of the Herzog Lineage Coreograph field blend. The nose on this wine is unique, showing lovely dry fruit notes, mint, with menthol, pink grapefruit, cherry, and ethereal notes, lovely! Sadly, the mouth for me is not at the same level as the nose, with a slight lack of balance, showing very ripe fruit, pomegranate, guava, really ripe plum, and even pineapple, with orange notes, and acid that exists but not in balance. The finish is long and cooked in nature, more like a confiture than a true fruit focused rose.

Well, after the first post I stated that I would be doing this rose wine post a few times. The subsequent posts would have the original content, and the newly revised or added rose wines as well. Well, this is part 3, and I hope this is the last one! My schedule was insane, but it is now slowing down, thankfully, so I hope to be adding more posts as well!

It is still officially Summer, which means it is Rose time! Rose wine in the non-kosher market is exploding – especially Rose wine from Provence; a wine region of France. Sadly, in the kosher wine market – that is not quite the case. I did not stress my previous statement with a suffix of AT ALL, even though I am not allowed to open a bottle of rose on my Shabbos table with guests – why? Well, that is simple – no one will drink it!!

Even worse, is that wine manufacturers may well have jumped the shark! There will be some 50 dry-ish kosher roses available in the USA this year! That may not sound like a lot, but when all you had was Herzog White Zinfandel 10 years ago – it is insane. The first high-end rose was Castel’s 2009 rose and that was only 9 years ago. Back then, there were few to no real Rose wine options, other than a handful of Israeli wines and almost no French Rose made it here. Now we will have tons of Rose, and I really think the real question here is will people drink it all?

Wine Color

What is a rose wine? Well, simply said, a rose is a wine that can best be defined as the wine world’s chameleon. Where white wine is a pretty simple concept – take white grapes, squeeze them, and you get clear to green colored juice. Yes, the white grape juice is clear – well so is red grape juice, but more on that in a bit.

White wine is not about color – almost all color in a white wine comes from some oak influence of some sort. So, an unoaked Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris can sometimes look almost clear, depending on the region and how the wine was handled. Now oaked Chardonnay, of course, is what most people use as an example of a dark white wine. As the Wine Folly linked above states, different wine regions oak their Chardonnay differently and as such, they are sold with different hues from the start. With age, the wine changes color and the light gold moves to darker gold shades.

The only real exception to the stated rule above – that white grape juice without the influence of oak is somewhere in the clear to green color spectrum, is – orange wines. We have spoken about orange wines – mostly thanks to Yaacov Oryah. Outside of Yaacov’s work there really is no orange wine in the kosher world to speak about. Orange wine is made exactly like red wine, which means that the clear grape juice is left to sit on the yellowish to dark yellow grape skins (depending upon what varietal is used to make the orange wine).

Red wine juice – straight from the grape comes out the same color as white grapes. You see the juice from grapes is mostly clear to greenish in color. The red wine color comes from macerating the juice on the grape skins. The longer the juice sits on the grape skins (wine must) the redder in color the wine becomes until it reaches its maximum red color potential.

The only real exception to the rule of a grape’s juice color is the Teinturier varieties. The grapes are called Teinturier, a French language term meaning to dye or stain. The list of grapes whose juice is actually red colored is long – but the list of kosher wine options that is a wine made from these grapes – is the Herzog Alicante Bouschet. The Gamay de Bouze is not a normal Gamay grape, it is one of those grape mutations that are very red in nature.

Rose wines are the in-between story – hence the chameleon term I used above.

Rose Wine

Rose wine is made in one of three ways. I will list the most dominant manners and leave the last one for last.

Limited Maceration:

This is the first step of the first two options and the only difference is what you do with the rest of the juice after you remove it? You see, as we stated above, the color of the juice from red grapes is clear to green and for one to get the lovely red hues we all love from red wine, it requires the juice to lie on the grape skins – AKA maceration.

The rose hue depends on how long the juice macerates. I have heard winemakers say 20 minutes gives them the color they like, and some say almost half a day or longer. The longer the juice macerates the darker the color. While the wine is macerating, the skins are contributing color by leaching phenolics – such as anthocyanins and tannins, and flavor components. The other important characteristic that the skins leach into the rose is – antioxidants that protect the wine from degrading. Sadly, because rose wines macerate for such a short period of time, the color and flavor components are less stable and as such, they lack shelf life – a VERY IMPORTANT fact we will talk about later. Either way, drinking rose wine early – like within the year – is a great approach for enjoying rose wine at its best!

Now once you remove the liquid, after letting it macerate for the desired length of time, the skins that are left are thrown out or placed in the field to feed organic material into the vines. This is a very expensive approach indeed because the grapes are being thrown away, instead of doing the Saignée process which is described in option #2. This approach is mostly used in regions where rose wine is as important as red wines, like Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. Mind you, the grapes used in this method are most often picked early, as they are being solely used for making the rose.

Many producers, especially those in Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon, take a more traditional approach when making rosé wine. Grapes are grown and selected exclusively for rosé production, as stated above, and then often crushed as whole clusters, and then gently pressed until the juice reaches a desirable pale color.

Most think that Saignee wines would have a higher alcohol level, as the fruit used to make that wine is picked later, but actually, that is not always correct, as winemakers can water back the rose juice and get what they want, at least here in the USA. When you taste the wine, look for the acid, is the acid natural or out of place?

Saignée:

The second approach for how Rose wine is made, is essentially the same as maceration – the only difference is that they do not remove all the juice. In the second method for making Rose wine, the Rose is the afterthought – in DRASTIC contrast to the first approach, where the rose is primary.

Now, many winemakers may take affront to this statement, and one did actually, but that is my opinion. When the juice is removed to fortify the red wine, the rose wine, again IMHO, is an afterthought. That DOES NOT mean, that the winemaker does not take the rose wine seriously. Any decent winemaker that makes a wine, should be doing it with 100% focus. My point is that if the rose was important to you, you would pull the fruit earlier, but hey that is my opinion, and yeah, I am not a winemaker.

So in places like California and Rhone in France, winemakers will pick the grapes when they reach their appropriate phenolics. Then to concentrate the wine, the winemaker will bleed some of the juice – hence the term Saignée in French which means bleed. By removing this juice, after the juice has macerated long enough, the resulting wine is further intensified, because there is less juice lying on the same amount of grape skin surface.

The interesting thing here is that the grapes used to make this kind of rose are normally one with higher Brix, as the grapes are destined for red wine. So, when you bleed the juice out of the must, what is being pulled out is juice at a higher alcohol level than Rose wines made using the first method (as explained above). So what do you do when you have a wine that is too high in alcohol so early in the game – well that is simple you water it down! Now remember this wine is already low on phenolics and color, so if you know that your rose will be high in alcohol when all is said and done, you have lots of options here. You can leave the juice to macerate for longer, yes the juice you finally pull out may well be darker than you desire. However, you will be watering it down, so it is all a question of numbers and winemakers who make these kinds of wines, are used to it and know how to handle it.

Now you ask what is wrong with high alcohol rose? Well, a rose is normally meant to be light and fruity wine, and well watered back roses are less so, but I have also enjoyed a few Saignee wines, like the 2017 Shirah Rose, which 100% shocked me when I found that out!

Blending Method:

Finally, what do you get when you mix some white wine with some red wine – a rose by George a rose! This last method is the least common method for creating still rose wines. That said, it is very common in the world of Champagne and sparkling wines. Next time you enjoy sparkling rose wine, you can almost be sure that it is a blend of Chardonnay (white wine) and either Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier (red wine).

As stated before, in the pure rose still wine market, there really is very little of this kind of rose being made.

State of kosher rose wines

Types of Rose made:

1. Red Rose wines: There are truly few examples of this, but they have been made and they are not a rose wine. They are billed as a rose at times, but to me, they are essentially a light red wine, much like a Gamay
2. Sweet Rose wines: Sweet wines are created because either the winemaker could not get the wine to completely finish primary fermentation or because they stopped it. Sweet rose wines sometimes lack balance because they lack the screaming acid needed to make it all work. That said, sweeter rose wines are the gateway wines to get people to try drier wines. The best of the sweet wines IMHO is the 2017 Dalton estate rose, or Kna’an as it is called in Israel.
3. Dry rose wines: Dry is not a subjective concept it is measurable in a lab and can be tasted as well. That said, what we as humans can perceive does seem to be subjective. Some of us will think a Sauvignon Blanc is sweet unless it is a Sancerre – you know who you are JR! Dr. Vinny was asked this question here, and essentially we can start perceiving sweetness at 0.5% residual sugar, but as the Doc says, sometimes a bone-dry wine can be perceived as sweet because of its ripeness and/or lack of balancing acidity.
4. Dark rose wines: Color in any rose or red wine is defined by the amount of maceration the wine goes through, as described above. Some people like that salmon color and some like that darker rose color. The 2017 Recanati Rose (not the Gris de Marselan which is lovely and light colored) is a dark rose – and OK, I guess. There are so many colors in the rose spectrum, and no, the darker roses are not based on what grape is used in the making of the wine, unless it is based on a Teinturier grape – which I have yet to see.

So where does that leave us? To recap IMHO, rose wine is meant to be light, refreshing, tart, and low in alcohol. It can have a varying rose hue, from Gris (gray in French – light color) to Salmon, to rose, and all the way up to dark red. Yes, there have been wineries who tried making heavier rose wines, that were essentially red wines, whom I will not mention and they have all been epic disasters. If you want a red wine – make a Gamay and leave me alone! Rose is about summer, tart and refreshing wine.

White and Rose wine education

Royal Wines has done a great job of bringing in white and roses wines, but I must stress – we need more education! Any wine distributor today can sell a Cabernet Sauvignon in its sleep! Why? Because the kosher wine drinking public is programmed to drink big bold red wines! Nothing light and lithe, only sledgehammers! Now, who am I to disagree with what someone likes – if you like a wine enjoy it! What I would like to see is people finding a way to expand their palate – by doing so they will learn more about wines and maybe they will actually see why they like and dislike a wine more – education is the answer! Now to those who say – why bother, if they like it let them enjoy it? To that answer I say – sure, when u were three years old you liked mud, and you really liked spreading it all over your sister’s new white dress! Should we have let you enjoy it forever?? Of course not!

Now your reply will be, come on we are talking about wine – not personal growth and their humanity! Of course but like everything in this world – we should want to strive and learn more about what makes us happy and why! If you like a Monet painting – you owe it to yourself to learn why? What grabs you when you see 100+-year-old paint on a canvas? So what he painted a haystack – good for him? What makes you want to stare at it for hours? The answer is inside of you – and you need to learn the answer. I hope we can all find the answers to what makes us tick, why we all love some things and why we hate other things. That is called human evolution – it makes us what we are – human! Anyway, I am off my soapbox now, but I hope we can agree that growth is good – no matter the subject.

I beg distributors and wineries to get out and teach! Get out and go to wine stores and pour wines – pour wine to anyone that wants to taste or even to those that do not! Education is the foundation of this industry – and without it, we are doomed to stasis – something that terrifies me!

The temperature to enjoy Rose

Please do yourself a favor and enjoy rose wine at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Meaning if you leave a bottle of wine in your refrigerator and pull it out after half a day of fridge time or more, it will probably be at the refrigerator’s frigid temperature of 37 or so degrees Farenight – which is HORRIBLE for rose. Rose at room temperature of 70 or so degrees is also not fun. It needs to be a bit cold, but not over the top. Please do not think that it needs to be iced down in an ice bucket either, that is for sparkling wines.

Drink the rose at the beginning of the meal

Rose is NOT a long-term drinking animal. It is not meant to be enjoyed for more than a meal. Why? Because as we explained above once it is fully oxygenated, it will go bad – really bad fast. The tart fruit notes and the acid will dissipate faster than air leaves a punctured tire. It is simply the life of Rose, drink it very young and fast. Never stock up on Rose, there is no purpose in that! Go to the store and buy a rose and drink it, if they have none, then no worries drink something else.

White and Rose wine drinking in the kosher wine world

I find that white and rose wines just do not sell to the kosher market. Sadly, they do not see the joy that I and much of Israel now sees. Eight years ago, if you had said that Israel would be making nice white and rose wines and not so many great reds, wine aficionados would have looked at you askance. Well, that is exactly where we are today! Much of what Israel makes in the red wine world, is not very good, especially from the larger wineries. There are the usual suspects that are continuing to impress vintage after vintage, but the vast majority have sold out to the sweet-toothed date drinkers. However, they are creating wonderful white and rose wines! What is more – is that they are selling much of it in ISRAEL! Yes, that is right, Israelis are drinking far more white and rose wine than ever and the craze we are seeing here in the non-kosher world for Rose is happening in the kosher world in Israel!

Now, the rose madness is here for sure, even in the kosher market. This year the wines have arrived earlier and are available as we speak. More will be arriving soon, and some are only available at wineries, like the Hagafen rose, which is nice.  Sadly, my community has not come to appreciate rose or most whites wines. If I open one I would need to drink the bottle on my own, because few in my community drink white wines. The exception is Four Gates Chardonnay, which to be fair is a great wine and it is so rich and intoxicating that it appeals to red wine drinkers.

I really hope that articles like this can start to pique people’s interest. Rose and tart refreshing white wines have so much to offer. They are meant to be lithe and refreshing, but also complex and unique. They go well with so many great summer foods and yet, when summer comes around folks just continue drinking heavy reds or beer. Now, I like beer like most people, but between a lovely rose or beer, I choose rose!

The good news is that kosher wine drinkers are finally getting the message, but they are only buying the stuff over the summer months. Outside of those, NYC/east coast drinkers of kosher wine could care less. Which means white and rose wines from 2014, 2015 and 2016 can still be found all around shops and stores. DO NOT buy rose wine from any vintage other than 2017! SIMPLE!!

State of affairs with 2017 roses

So where are we in 2018 with Rose wines? Well, as I stated kosher wine manufacturers may well have jumped the shark. Why? Because there are MANY wine shops, even on the hallowed grounds of NYC, that still have Rose wines on their shelves, from the 2015 vintage, and even older lying around. Why is that a problem? As stated above, Rose wines are NOT meant for aging. Rose wines should NEVER be sold after their drink by date, which is the summer after the wine’s vintage. So, 2017 wines should be sold out by the summer of 2018 – simple! Sadly, I still see 2015 wines being sold all around! There is simply too much older rose lying around and too much new 2017 Rose wines coming in. The outcome is that someone is going to eat a lot of rose wines, or they will push them on to the unsuspecting public, who really do not understand roses at all.

I BEG the manufacturers to work with the stores and merchants to eat the 2015 and 2016 wines, one way or the other, and get them OFF the shelves. Please DO NOT attempt to put them on sale, they are not wines that should be pushed to consumers, as it only ends up hurting the wineries and the companies selling them. Please remove them and figure out how to handle the loss. No one will be drinking Rose wines for Rosh Hashanah. That means there is a LOT of wine to sell in a very short period of time – PLEASE help yourselves – start selling the 2017 wines already and walk away from the 2015/2016 wines!

One part that is better than last year is that many of the rose wines are here and more coming very soon. I wish they would have all been here in March, but it is MUCH better than last year. Sadly, Netofa is still not here in the USA! Very sad! I went to Netofa on my last trip to Israel, and I will post that soon enough, some really fun wines that are showing beautifully.

Best rose so far in 2018

Well, let’s hold up here for a second. I have not tasted all the roses out there yet. I have tasted LOTS of them, like 30 plus of them so far and the Israeli 2017 roses are all “sweet”. And after a month or more, I have now tasted even more roses, which are added below. Now be careful here, when I say sweet – I mean I perceive sweetness. These roses are ripe, big in the mouth, and leave a perception of sweetness. There are a few roses from Israel that are lithe in nature, with a core focus of acid while being complex, and those are my preferred options so far, from what I have had the chance to enjoy.

So with that said, here are the winners for me so far, with a few more European roses I have yet to taste. The best Israeli roses – in order of preference:

1. 2017 Netofa Latour Rosado
2. 2017 Recanati Gris de Marselan (this is now state-side)
3. 2017 Covenant Blue C Rose. Nice – best of the “sweet perceived wines” (here in the USA as well)
4. 2017 Netofa Rose – QPR 
5. 2017 Carmel Rose, Appellation – QPR winner so far in Israel (In the USA)
6. 2017 Dalton Kna’an: SHOCK! QPR Nice – SWEET! Great gateway rose (In the USA)

The best California Rose is the just released 2017 Shirah Rose – really fun, and that is followed by the 2017 Hajdu Rose. The 2017 Hajdu is far better than the 2016 and I really enjoyed it, but still, a slight step behind the 2017 Shirah rose. A very special note as well to the Herzog Rose of Pinot Noir, that was made by Josh Goodman, who has been cellar master at Herzog for years. It was a fun wine and well worth you finding it at the winery.

The best European Rose so far is the 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose – and so far it is the overall QPR winner. Though the 2017 Chateau Roubine, La Vie en Rose is right up there, with the same score, but not as bone dry and tart as the Rothschild. After tasting them all, I still think the best one was the 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose.

Blind Tasting in Jerusalem

A bit more than a week before Passover, I was in Israel, and I had the chance to hang with my French/American crazy wine friends, AD, MB, JK, AS, AS, AO, MB, and others. The tasting entailed 65+ wines, most of them were rose or white, with a few reds thrown in at the end. It was a long night, and very enjoyable, including some crazy moments, but overall very enjoyable and my many thanks to JK’s office – where the madness took place.

At the event, we tasted over 20 roses. Besides that, I have been tasting roses for the past couple of months now. Like, in the past, some of the wine notes are really light on data some are longer, and some are just one word, like No, or boring.

Overall, as I stated Israeli roses from 2017 are mostly too sweet for me, but many are well balanced and I think will work for others. As stated above, to me at this point I will stick with the European roses from for 2017 until I taste an Israeli rose that makes me take notice, though the Netofa Latour rose is really close, sadly it is not available in the USA. That said, they do ship here from Israel!

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

2017 Shirah Rose – Score: 90 to 91 (QPR)
This wine is a blend of 66% Grenache, almost 33% Nebbiolo, with a bit of Zinfandel. This wine is a Saignee wine, though it does not show that way in style or body – lovely!
This wine is really fun bravo, the color, and style is totally Gris – bravo! The nose is lovely and really mineral with nice acid, showing quince, dried fruit, straw, and earth, so much fun! The mouth is really nice with great acid, and lovely mineral, showing nice tart and juicy strawberry, rich dried cherry, grapefruit, and lovely mineral with great slate and rich citrus and floral notes. The finish is rich and acidic and citrus-driven, with rich mineral. Bravo!!

2017 Timbre Rosé (by La Fenetre), Opening Act – Score: 87 (tasted again)
The wine shows a nice and interesting nose of cherry, watermelon, with hints of blueberry, with some slate. The mouth is sweet, and nice enough with strawberry, it shows zesty fruit, but too much sweetness, but with time the wine has settled a bit and is showing a bit better than last time. The finish is long, sweet, and tart, with floral notes, and rosehip.

2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose – Score: 91 (QPR)
This wine is actually a bit better than last year’s rose, with the only aspect of last year’s showing cool charcoal that this one does not have. The nose on this wine is rich and redolent, with ripping pink grapefruit, lovely tart strawberry, mineral, and lovely floral notes with lemongrass. The mouth on this medium bodied wine shows a nice weight, with good fruit focus, showing more fruit than last year, with good acidity, showing sweet but truly tart passion fruit, and a lovely mineral core, with earth, and crazy tart citrus lingering long. The finish is long and tart, with ripping acid, great balance, lovely mineral, and pith lingering long. Lovely!

2017 Amos Winery Rose – Score: No
What can I say this wine is just too strange. It was based upon Muscat and though it had acid, it is one of the many roses from Israel this year that are sweet bombs covered with layers of acid. Not my cup of tea.

2017 Carmel Rose, Appellation – 88 to 89 (QPR)
Another Israeli tropical fruit bomb rose for 2017. The nose is ripe with guava, pineapple, cotton candy, extra ripe strawberry and creme, and candied ripe fig. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is ok, it has nice acid, but man is it sweet, with clear residual sugar showing passion fruit, guava, and more tropical notes. The finish is long, it lingers very well, and while it is sweet, it is very well balanced. This is a great entry level rose for those wanting to get to more dry rose. Till then, I would not buy this one again, but nice work on balancing a sweet wine with basic fruit structure and freshness. This may well be the best QPR for under 15 dollars in Israel. The Dalton Kannan is right behind it.

2017 Yatir Rose – Score: 85
The nose on this wine is nice enough but too tropical with intense pineapple, super sweet strawberry with creme, with some mineral, and spice. Well, another year and another rose from Yatir that is pith and fruit and no acid. Sad, really sad. With more time, it open to show a bit more acid, but that is it, flat and boring, still sad.

2017 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: 87
OK, so the one redeeming fact of this wine is its nose, the rest falls apart quickly. The nose on this wine is lovely, I wish it carried to the mouth, with rich salinely, lovely mineral, and red fruit. The mouth is where things fall apart, yes there is acid, but it is all over the place with far too much sweet fruit and not enough structure and coherence in the mouth. The finish is sweet with mineral and pith, but really what lingers is the sweet fruit, candied quince, peach, guava, and tropical notes with citrus. Sad. Another year of unbalanced rose.

2017 Domaine du Castel Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Malbec, and 20% Cabernet Franc
I tasted this blind at the event and then again at the winery, and the tasting was better at the winery but not overly impressive. The nose is nice, that part is clear, showing nice citrus, strawberry, and ripe plum. The mouth shows acid, with a good fruit structure, but too round and sweet, with a makeup that is missing stuff. The finish is long and round with good pith, nice acid, saline, and citrus.

2017 Domaine Netofa Rose – Score: 89
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache, and 20% Mourvedre. The nose on this wine is lovely but sweet, with rosehip, ripe strawberry, and grapefruit, with cherry and raspberry. The mouth is medium bodied with great acidity and with lovely currant and quince that works great with dry fruit, that is richly saline and mineral but sweeter, than the Netofa Latour. The finish is sweet and yet nicely balance with mineral, slate, and pith. Nice!

2017 Domaine Netofa Latour, Rosado – Score: 91
This and the Recanati Gris de Marselan are the only two Israeli roses that I really liked, and are leaner and not tropical or fruit bombs. This wine is a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Grenache. The nose on the first ever “reserve” rose from Netofa wine is more refined than the baseline Netofa rose, with rosehip again, but now with quince, raspberry, and strawberry creme. The mouth is not the screaming acid bomb that the Domaine rose is, but this is perfectly balanced with good pith and slate, showing more refinement and elegance with more citrus and grapefruit and less of the sweet currant fruit, with lovely slate and floral notes. The finish is green and red with pith and spice. Love it. Bravo!

2017 Tabor Adama Rose – Score: 89 (QPR)
The nose starts off with lovely gooseberry, followed by big, bright, and juicy strawberry and really lovely cherry. The mouth is sweet, yet well balanced with tart fruit, great acid, bright and tart with great acid, with good balance, and lovely pith. Solid!

2017 Psagot Rose – Score: 88
The nose on this wine starts off really nice, with rosehip, cranberry, really ripe strawberry, green notes, and ripe quince and peach. This wine is nice and round, again another ripe Israeli rose, with OK acid, gooseberry and grapefruit round out the palate with tart fruit and acid. Pith and slate linger.

2017 Tulip White Franc – Score: 75
The wine is Bubblegum and sweet fruit, boring – sorry.

2017 Shiran Rose, Conductor – Score: NO
I will say this the wine must have been spoiled or something really wrong. That said, not my cup of tea still, sweet and off.

2017 Teperberg Rose, Impression – Score: 88
Nice nose of sweet notes, with rose, currant, and sour cherry. The mouth is round and has dried/tart stone fruit, with enough acid, showing some peach, and quince, grapefruit galore, nice weight.

2017 Shiloh Rose – Score: 75
Nice nose with good fruit, slate, and grapefruit, with citrus and stone fruit. The mouth is where the wine falls apart, sadly it was flat and dead.

2017 Covenant Blue C Rose – Score: 89
This is the second time I have tasted this wine and it is nice. Rosehip and sweet notes are a theme of the 2017 Israeli roses, no idea why, this wine has them in spades, with mineral, cotton candy, sweet candied fruit, watermelon, but balanced nose. The mouth is well balanced with good fruit, grapefruit, dark cherry, slate, and ripe juicy strawberry. Nice!

2017 Dalton Kna’an (AKA Dalton Estate in the USA) Rose – Score:  89 (QPR WINNER)
Ok, first off the SAME wine is sold under two labels. It is marketed in Israel as Kna’an Rose, but here in the USA, it has kept its old Dalton Estate label. The wine is really fun in its nose, nice, with slate and mineral, good fruit, with quince, and dried cranberry. The mouth is well balanced, really nice, fun, but it is RIPE and sweet, literally, there must be some residual sugar in there, showing great balance, with slate, and nice peach, passion fruit, and graphite. Nice! Good overall body. To me, this is the perfect gateway rose to get people into the rose game!

2017 Kerem Ben Zira Rose – Score: 70
No

2017 Vitkin Israeli Journey Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of Grenache Noir and Carignan. Nice rose and sweet wine, fun with candied grapefruit, bubblegum, with sweet strawberry, and guava. The mouth is tart, really acidic, with tropical fruit, hints of floral notes, and more sweet fruit. The finish is long and sweet, but balanced enough.

2017 Galil Rose – Score: 83
Ripe, sweet, and not as fun, boring flat dead.

2017 Gvaot Rose – Score: 88
Even Gvaot could not keep the tropical notes and guava juice madness out of their rose. This wine is like many of the 2017 Israeli roses, nice enough nose with candied fruit, cranberry, watermelon, and stone fruit. The mouth is round, ripe, and tropical in nature, with some mineral, with good balance, nice stone fruit, and pith.

2017 Recanati Rose – Score: 89
This may well have been the darkest colored rose at the tasting. The nose is classic Recanati rose – Cotton candy, candied fruit, raspberry, and sweet strawberry. That said, the extreme sweet notes and all are a good gateway wine for many, it is tart, showing saline, sweet notes galore, with good acid, and candied strawberry, with hints of saline. Nice!

2017 Flam Rose  – Score: 88
Nice nose, mineral, with slate, fewer sweet notes but still ripe, and ripe strawberry. The mouth is round, ripe, with stone fruit galore, no tropical notes, but very ripe with candied fruit galore, balanced, nice enough, with good acid.

2017 Recanati Gris de Marselan – Score: 91
So far only one of the two Israeli roses I have tasted this year that is not a fruit bomb. Nice nose with good funk, flint madness, with good structure, properly made, nice! The mouth is dripping with great acid, balanced, with tart and juicy fruit, balanced but rich and saline based, with ripping mineral, and grapefruit, and dried and tart peach and hints of guava. Bravo!

2017 Kishor Rose – Score: 88
This wine is a blend of Cabernet Franc and Grenache. The nose on this wine is ripe and tart with lovely notes of strawberry, gooseberry, hints of raspberry and floral notes with rock and herb. The mouth is weightier than most, with good acid, but the wine shows a hole that fills with time, with saline but showed poorly at the tasting. Maybe a bad bottle, but overall a nice enough wine.

2017 Herzberg Rose – Score: NO
I think this along with the Shiran Rose were DOA, but what we had was not enjoyable at all.

2017 Borgo Reale Rose – Score: 86
Last year this wine was really much better, this year it is very akin to the Israeli roses, a fruit bomb, with not enough acid to bring it all together. In the end, nice enough but lacking the acid.

2017 Hayotzer Rose – Score: 75
Oak on rose, with strawberry and spice, and OK acid, but in the end the wine is out of balance with oak, fruit and not enough acid to bring that oak around.

2017 100 Tropez Rose – Score: 89
This wine is nice enough but for the money, not a wine I would buy. The nose on this wine shows lovely strawberry and floral notes galore with raspberry and citrus. Lovely mouth with nice acidity, great flint, a bit ripe nectarines, and candied fruit and good mineral. Nice enough!

2017 Don Ernesto Hagafen Rose – Score: 89 (mevushal)
The wine is only available at the winery. The wine is like past years, very ripe, and this year the acid shows well but overall the sweet to tropical notes do really start to stick out like a sore thumb. Still, a very nice mevushal rose options. (only available at the winery)

—————- Rose wines added in my second post ——————-

2016 Sainte Beatrice Instant B Rose – Score: 84 (I tasted the 2016 and not 2017)
I was supposed to tase the 2017 Instant B, but they sent me the 2016 vintage! Go figure! I only noticed it was the 2016 vintage after I wrote my notes and saw how poor it was. Also, the 2017 vintage of the Instant B is mevushal and this one had no mevushal sign anywhere!
The nose is muted to start but comes out with vigorous movement to show nice dry notes of strawberry creme, with raspberry, and lemon. The mouth on this wine is flat, sadly, not showing the acid punch needed, the fruit is not flabby, but the lack of acid makes the wine feel like it is rose-colored water. The finish is long and has a bit of punch, but overall a disappointment, with nice pith, and grapefruit notes.

2017 Jezreel Rose – Score: 88
This is another rose wine that is using a white wine to add the needed acid punch to a rose. This wine is a blend of 45% Carignan, 40% Syrah, and 15% Sauvignon Blanc. The nose is nice enough with bubblegum notes, watermelon, pink notes, with dark plum, and grapefruit. The mouth on this dark colored rose is actually nice, with good acidity, not an overly ripe mouth, showing nice strawberry, with good acid, pomegranate, and fun overall tart notes. This is not a fun, tart, refreshing wine, as much as it is a big bold, rose wine that is well balanced, with good acidity, pith galore, with nice restraint, and balance. Nice! This is the perfect rose wine for date juice lovers, it is a classical sledgehammer of fruity notes that date juice lovers will pick up and enjoy.

2017 Vina Encina Rosado – Score: 89 (mevushal) (QPR)
This wine is made from 100% Tempranillo fruit. This nose on this wine is popping with candied fruit, cotton candy, nice floral notes of rose, big bright and sweet strawberry, raspberry, and mineral. The mouth on this wine is popping with sweet notes but well balanced with tart fruit, gooseberry, tart pink grapefruit, and great acid, with a middle of sweet cherry/currant lifesaver candy. The finish is long and sweet, but again well balanced, tart with more candied lifesaver notes, pith galore, and quince. Nice.

2017 Ramon Cardova Rosado – Score: 90 (QPR)
This wine is a blend of 80% Garnacha and 20% Viura. This is the second year that Royal has made a rose from Ramon Cardova and once again they are using white fruit along with the red fruit. The nose on this wine is mineral-based with rosehips and rose water, followed by candied cherry. The mouth on this wine is sweet, and the sweetness shows far more in the mouth than in the nose, with watermelon, sweet pomegranate, hints of sweet quince, with candied grapefruit, and red fruit that gives way to good acidity and sweet fruit focus. The finish is long and sweet, with tart fruit, pith galore, and nice mineral, rock, slate. Nice.

2017 Chateau Roubine, La Vie en Rose – Score: 91 (QPR)
This is the second year that Royal has made the La Vie Rose from Chateau Roubine. The nose is sweeter than last year, with lovely white fruit notes of grapefruit, followed by a cacophony of red fruit notes, strawberry, raspberry, and sweet passion fruit notes. The mouth on this rose is sweet, not as sweet as the Spanish roses, but sweeter than I had hoped, and showing far more mineral, but still not as good as the Rothschild rose, with sweet raspberry, gooseberry, and ripe red fruit, that is well balanced with good acid, nice pith, and fun fruit focus. The finish is long, and tart, with good acidity, lovely mineral, slate, and pith galore.

2017 Covenant Wines, Red C, Rose – Score: 88
Lovely nose of rose hip and gooseberry, ripe fruit, with strawberry notes. The mouth on this wine is ripe and sweet in style, with clear leanings toward cherry and plum lifesaver candies, with lemonade and less acid than I was hoping for. The mouth is round and ripe and nice, balanced enough with fun red fruit and lingering notes of red tea and grapefruit.

2017 Camuna Cellars Rose – Score: 90 (tasted this again and raised score)
This wine is made by Eli Silins, one of the wine hands at Covenant Winery, and it is made of 100% Barbera fruit. The wine is as natural as you are going to get in the kosher wine world, though it did have a bit of sulfite added to it somewhere in the process, from what I understood. I will say that this wine is unique, it is not a wine that everyone will love, it has a bit of oxidation, which is common with more Natural wines, and it is a more old world style wine with funk and more dry/tart fruit.

Fun notes of yeasty, earthy aromas, hints of oxidation, with tart grapefruit and quince. The mouth of nice and balanced shows really fun acidity and great fruit focus, but also old school, with more herbal/grassy notes, with lovely yeast, tart cherry, pear, and strawberry. The finish is really fun, earthy, and richly mineral focused, with red fruit galore, unique and fun.

2017 Hajdu Rose – Score: 90
This wine is a blend of Grenache, Sangiovese, and Barbera, The nose on this nice wine shows cherry, strawberry, and rich ripe summer fruit with lovely fruity notes, with ripe melon and sweet quince. The mouth on this wine is rich and full, with fun saline, with good balance, not over the top with good acid, nice complexity, with earthy and classic rose notes of strawberry and pink grapefruit. The finish is long and dry with great mineral, slate, and lingering red fruit.

2017 Herzog Lineage Rose – Score: 88 (mevushal)
This wine is a Saignée of the Herzog Lineage Coreograph field blend. The nose on this wine is unique, showing lovely dry fruit notes, mint, with menthol, pink grapefruit, cherry, and ethereal notes, lovely! Sadly, the mouth for me is not at the same level as the nose, with a slight lack of balance, showing very ripe fruit, pomegranate, guava, really ripe plum, and even pineapple, with orange notes, and acid that exists but not in balance. The finish is long and cooked in nature, more like a confiture than a true fruit focused rose.

—————- Rose wines added in my third post ——————-

2017 Herzog Rose, Pinot Noir, Tasting Room Reserve, Clarksburg – Score: 90
This wine is fun, it has done so much right with things that could go so wrong. Sadly, I have been asked to taste horrible oak driven roses, or acid-free disasters, or dark roses that make me wonder why the word rose is on the bottle.
This wine has so many things that may make me wonder if I was being punished yet again, but thankfully this wine is truly fun, yes it has oak, but in lovely control, followed by a darker than normal color for a rose but hey not everyone loves Gris, finally the wine is well balanced with fruit, and it is not a tropical fruit bomb – bravo!
The nose on this wine shows lovely smoky oak notes, with lemongrass, ripe strawberry, with hints of passion fruit, and lovely summer fruit. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is really fun, it shows a great acid core, followed by more oak, nice salinity, pink grapefruit, that gives way to flint, smoke, and green notes. The finish is long, sweet, with hints of oak, rich vanilla, and lovely tart fruit that lingers long, with flint. Lovely – Bravo! Drink Now.

2017 Chateau Roubine – Score: 89
Well, another French rose and another disappointment in comparison to the Chateau Rothschild. So far nothing in 2017 rose land beats it. Still, this is nice enough, not as good as it better sibling, the Chateau Roubine La Vie, with the nicer bottle shape as well.
The nose is sweet, yeah, this is a BIG theme in the 2017 land of roses and it is NOT fun. This is not Israeli 2017 sweet, it is still French sweet with ripe fruit and nice floral notes, with bright pink sweet grapefruit, rose, sweet guava, and green notes. Tasting this blind, this wine does not taste like it is French, it is far too ripe for that, showing ripe quince, with gooseberry, sweet peach, nectarines, and nice mineral and green notes. The finish is long, well balanced with good acid, bracing pith, and nice sweet peach tea lingering long with orange pith, and herb.

2017 Nadiv Rose, Reshit – Score: 88
This wine is 100% Tempranillo. The nose is clean, almost clinical, with strawberry notes, yet well controlled, with mineral, and clean notes. The mouth on this wine is nice, drier than the Roubine, but sadly it is too uni-dimensional, it has the right balance, the good acid, nice elegance, but it stops there, it needs more complexity, showing a still sweet mouth of cranberry, candied quince, and raspberry. The finish is long, tart, with grapefruit pith, and nice control.

2017 Capcanes Peraj Petita – Score: 86
This wine is made of 100% Grenache. While I like Capcanes wine, I have really yet to enjoy a Rose from Capcanes, and this one does not break that streak, sadly. The wine is far too ripe for me, it is the most alcoholic of the group, showing up at 13.5%, also the acid seems fake, it shows like it was added late and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
The nose on this wine is bright, almost too bright, with really ripe strawberry, juicy fruit, and candied lifesaver, with pink grapefruit. The mouth on this rose is ripe, pushed, with enough balance, but the acid seems out of place, with mounds of pith and not much else. There is a bit of mineral, but the balance is too off for me.

2017 Dalton Alma Rose, Coral – Score: 89 to 90
To me this was the winner of the tasting, a lovely new-world rose, that was well restrained and minerally in style, with great balance and lovely funk. The nose on this wine is really fun, with rich funk, mineral, flint madness, with rosehip, pink grapefruit, strawberry, and heady spice. The mouth on this well-balanced wine is tart, with great balance, showing lovely minerality, nice saline, but still ripe, with tart, yet juicy raspberry, nice lemon, citrus, followed by tart currant, that gives way to rich sweet notes of peach. The finish is long and sweet, yet well balanced with tart red fruit, mineral, slate, and tea. Bravo!

Well, I am one post in and I have another 5 to go. As I stated in the first of my 6 posts on my trip to wine tastings in London, Paris, NYC, and L.A., I am truly thankful that my trips ended well for everyone, the news keeps getting uglier.

As I stated the kosher wine tasting season was upon us, and the first of my posts about the ones I attended was my London post. After a quick train ride to Paris, and a stop at the hotel, it was time for another tasting, the Bokobsa Sieva tasting.

The Bokobsa Tasting, is presented by the company known in France as Sieva, and it happened in Paris (well not exactly Paris, more on the very outskirts of Paris to be exact) on Tuesday, on the stunning grounds of the Pavillon des Princes in the 16th district. I arrived early and after taking a bunch of pictures I just relaxed and waited for the event to start. One of the issues from the tasting in past years was the older vintages of wines poured, along with the food that was cold and quite simple. This year, the food was nicer, they had warm food, and some very well put together dishes. Sadly, the vintages on the Royal wines were still strange, some new 2017 vintages while some wines were 2014 and 2015. However, the Bokobsa wines were all the latest, other than the 2018 Chablis which was not being poured.

One wine two Hecsher/Kosher Supervisions means two labels

One of the biggest shocks I had at the event was the realization that France is in a far worse place, in regards to kosher supervision than Israel and the USA. I have seen many times, where Badatz Edah HaChareidis and the OU would both be on the same bottle of wine, like Or Haganuz wines and others. However, in France, that seemingly is not an option! Understand that there are NOT multiple mashgichim (kosher supervisors) when there are multiple supervisions on a single bottle. Rather, the ONE/Two mashgichim all do the stringencies of one or both of the kosher supervisions. However, in France, this cannot work – I am not kidding! Clarisse showed me two bottles of the same Champagne made by Bokobsa Sieva. The difference between them, was not the overall supervision, as that was one the same, nor was it in any way a different vintage or winery, nope! They were EXACTLY the same wine – EXACTLY! The only difference was the name of the supervision on the back of the bottle! One had the kosher supervision of Paris Beit Din and the other had the kosher supervision of Rabbi Rottenberg.

So, I then asked the head of the supervising Rabbis, who was at the tasting, if the Paris Beit Din accepted to be on the same label with Rabbi Rottenberg, would Rabbi Rottenberg agree? He said no! OMG! I was speechless. ME! What question would you followup to that answer? I asked why? He said because they have different requirements. I said they are the same Mashgichim, so why would you care? In the end, he said that is how it is in France. Sadly, that is the state of affairs and I moved on.

Another fascinating difference between the labels is that the Paris Beit Din version of the wine has a different Cuvee name than the Rabbi Rottenberg version. That, I was told, was just for marketing, so that people would not be as shocked as I am now! Finally, there is also a pregnant lady with a slash through it, denoting that alcohol and pregnancy is not a good idea, the normal disclaimer wines have on their labels. On the Rabbi Rottenberg label, it was all in text, no images of a lady.

The wines

Of the wines that I really liked, there were few. Sadly, there were no interesting wines from Israel. Tabor had a few wines there, more than in London, but none of them moved me from my feelings of Israeli wines. Sadly, the same goes for the rest of the wines there that came from Israel. The Tabor reds were ones that I could at least taste, the others were so off-kilter and ripe that there really was nothing there to describe. There were two OK white wines, the 2019 Matar Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, and the 2018 Yatir White Creek, which was a surprise to me.

Hafner had a few wines I had wanted to taste for quite some time, but sadly, after tasting them, I was unimpressed. The Sauvignon Blanc, which is defined as dry, was maybe dry, but its ripeness put me off. The same goes for the rest of the wines. The sweet wines were nice enough, but they lacked the acid they so deeply needed.

In regard to the French wines, there were a few new and nice wines to enjoy. They were all on the low side of the prices, so there were a few good QPR wines. The best of the “higher-end” French wines, that were not Royal wines, was the 2016 Chateau Bellegrave, Saint-Emilion it was a solid wine indeed! There were a few QPR wines as well, including the 2018 Chateau Terre Blanque, 2015 Bourgueil Les Perrieres, and the 2015 Crozes-Hermitage Marinet.

The Champagnes were quite nice, including the improved Drappier Rose that is more refreshing than when I had it in November. Of course, there were the identical-twin Champagnes with different kosher supervisions and a few others. Sadly, the 2018 Bokobsa Chablis was not there, but 2017 was showing well still, of course.

Overall, the event was lovely, and in my opinion, a solid improvement over the already good event last year. While there were some older vintages being poured, the complexity of getting shows like this together normally means there are some misses. My many thanks to Clarisse and to Lionel Bokobsa for making the event as lovely as it was. Bravo!

I already tasted all the Royal wines, so the wines I concentrated on for this tasting were Bokobsa wines along with wines that are imported by Bokobsa alone. The wine notes follow below – the explanation of my “scores” can be found here:

2017 Hafner Riesling, Austria  – Score: NA
Sweet and round.

2018 Hafner Gruner Veltliner, Austria – Score: 86
The wine was almost dry but there was very little other than the nose to attract my attention.

2019 Matar Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon – Score: 89 to 90
The nose and mouth are lovely, acidic, balanced, orange blossom,  orange notes, with grapefruit and flint. The mouth is medium and nice with straw and orange, lemon curd, and pith galore. Not very complex but solid. Drink now.

2018 Yatir Creek, White – Score: 89
The nose and mouth are aligned and while they are simple enough, there is good acidity and some nice fruit focus. Overall, tart, showing saline, fruit, and well balanced. Drink now

2017 Chateau Haut Corbian, Saint-Estephe – Score: 87
This reminds me of the Bordeaux of old, green, red and not over the top. The nose on this wine is green with loads of mineral, herb, black fruit, and red cherry fruit notes. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is a lightweight with that acidity, showing cherry and currant fruit, with mineral, nice tannin, and not much else. Drink now until 2023.

2016 Chateau Bellegrave, Saint-Emilion – Score: 91+ (QPR)
This is showing much better than last year, with all the stuff I like. The nose on this wine is really lovely, green, red and well balanced, with great bright fruit, showing smoke, tar, and graphite, with loads of dirt and hints of the forest floor. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has great acidity, mouth draping tannin, with red fruit focus of currant, cherry, and plum with great controlled juicy and tart fruit with crazy mineral pith, earth, and lovely smoke, lingering long. Bravo! Drink from 2022 until 2028.

2018 Chateau Terre Blanque, Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux – Score: 90 (QPR)
The nose I this wine is simple but fun with tart and juicy fruit, red all the way. The mouth is simple, not complex with nice acidity, good tannin, cranberry, earth, but it is really nice, showing a focus, great earth, roasted herb, and loads of smoke and tar. The finish is long, very green, earthy, foliage, and lovely fruit with graphite and garrigue, with tart cherry and nice tannin lingering long. Drink until 2024.

2018 Chateau le Caillou, Pomerol – Score: 89
The nose is less interesting than previous vintages with darker fruit, earth, dirt, and rock. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine shows lovely acid as great tannin focus, with green and red fruit, nice earth, and overall enjoyable, but not as interesting as previous vintages. Drink from 2023 until 2026.

2016 Chateau Jeantieu, Grave de Vayres – Score: NA
This wine was not that interesting

2017 Sieva Bokobsa Chinon, Les Rosiers – Score: 87
The wine shows Dirt, earth, and cherry notes on the nose and mouth, sadly there is not much else. Drink now.

2015 Sieva Bokobsa Bourgueil, Les Perrieres – Score: 90 (QPR)
This wine is nice, well balanced, clean and fruity with great acid and tannin, showing black and blue fruit and nice spices. Nice! Drink now!

2018 Sieva Bokobsa Brouilly – Score: NA
Sadly, this wine tastes cooked and simple

2015 Sieva Bokobsa Crozes-Hermitage, Marinet – Score: 90 (QPR)
This wine is showing better than last year. Nice, solid wine, tart who balanced, juicy and bright fruit of strawberry, blackberry, and blue fruit, with great acidity, tannin, and overall nice fruit focus with a good body. Nice. Drink now.

2018 Domaine Lafond Cotes du Rhone, Roc-Epine – Score: 88
The wine is not bad, it is just not as good as the Crozes, but the acid and fruit are nice. Overall, the wine is sweeter than I like, with loads of plum, blackberry, and red fruit. Drink until 2023.

NV Bokobsa Sieva Champagne Heritage, Brut, Cuvee Leon, Premier Cru – Score: 89
NV Bokobsa Sieva Champagne Heritage, Brut, Cuvee Lucien, Premier Cru – Score: 89
As I described above these two wines are exactly the same, I was told they were and I tasted them and indeed they are the same. It is sad, IMHO, to see two wines who differ only in two different Kosher Supervisory role symbols. Otherwise, the Champagne was nice enough. The nose on this wine is quite nice, yeasty with good minerality, showing nice notes of citrus, quince, apple, and stone fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine comes at you with layers of medium-sized mousse, showing nice toast, yeasty notes, peach, and herb. The finish is long, green, herbaceous, with slate, and nice minerality. Nice! Drink now.

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.

2019 Herzog Sauvignon Blanc, Lineage – Score: 91 (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!!!
They finally put it all together with the 2019 vintage and for the price, it is really fun! The nose on this wine is really lovely with aromas of gooseberry, cat piss, and passion fruit, with straw and mineral, and citrus galore, NICE! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is rich and nice with really crazy acidity, lovely honeysuckle, orange blossom, grapefruit, and flint galore. Lovely. The finish is long, green, and lovely with lemongrass, flint, hints of pineapple, lovely! Drink now!

2018 Elvi Wines Herenza White, Alella – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is well 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 wine is a blend of something like 60% Pansa Blanca and 40% Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine is closed, with time it opens to show beautiful tart fruit, really nice mineral, with mango galore, lovely impressive funk, white peach, with loads of hay and mineral, with citrus and mad orange blossom. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is oily and richer in mouthfeel, but sadly, not as acidic as I remember it from last year, still nice and balanced, with tart pink grapefruit, followed by orange fruit, yellow plum, and beautiful orange blossom. The finish is super long, tart, and juicy, super well balanced, showing more acidity on the finish than on the front of the wine, with fun mineral, more funk lingering long, along with flint, and pith. WOW! Drink from 2020 until 2025.

2018 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 91 (Mevushal) (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is well 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!!!
Love the screw tops, we need to embrace screw tops for one-year wines. The nose is classic, with gooseberry, passion fruit, cat pee, and straw with mineral. The mouth on this wine holistic, while the group was nice but lacked this complexity and overall acid structure. The mouth on this wine is crazy fun, really bright, with rich gooseberry, citrus, grapefruit galore, with incredible bright fruit structure, that blends well with the fruit powerful not out of place, with layers of acid, tart ripe tropical fruit, with impressive lemonade and pink grapefruit candy that gives way to tart lemon, fun. The finish is long, green, and crazy tart, with slate, flint, and really fun. Bravo! Drink this year.

2018 Kos Yeshuos California Kid – Score: 91 (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!!!
Ok, so this is the fifth time I have had this wine and it really ready to go. Also, the sweeter side of the wine has moved to a drier side, the orange and nectarines are gone, with more passion fruit, and citrus galore lingering.
This wine is a blend of Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine starts to show like a 100% Sauvignon Blanc, showing crazy gooseberry, fresh-cut grass, cat pee, with herbal notes, and nice peach in the background, lemongrass, and really fun and bright citrus notes, with loads of green notes, with peaches and creme in the background! The mouth on this medium plus bodied wine is rich and acidic, with a lovely acid core, followed by more peach, grapefruit, and more lovely gooseberry, with salinity that is off the charts, now the orange and nectarines are gone, and now what we have is more lemongrass, more saline, and hints of melon. The finish is long, green, tiny hint of orange, and tart. Bravo!!! Drink by 2021.

2018 Pacifica Riesling – Score: 91 (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!!!
This wine has changed a lot since the last time I had it. Second solid showing with lovely notes of sweet fruit, with great bright notes, of sweet guava, sweet peach, apricot, and loads of mango, nice, all well balanced with bright notes, and orange blossom, and hints of petrol. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is well layered, plush and oily, with loads of petrol, lovely sweet notes, lemon/lime sorbet, and great mineral, funk, and good rock. The finish on this lovely wine is super long, with slate, rock, petrol, and sweet fruit that is perfectly balanced, Bravo! The plush and refreshing wine is a true joy! Drink by 2024.

2018 Yaacov Oryah Silent Hunter – Score: 92 to 93 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is LOVELY it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it should have received a score of POOR for QPR, however, it is in the second quintile for quality as well. Therefore, it is dead even. This is based upon the USA pricing, not the Israel pricing.
The play here is that the Semillon “Hunter is a play on words within the play on words, as Hunter Valley, Australia is home to some of the best Semillon in the world) is silent now behind the Chenin Blanc. The wine is a blend of 60% Semillon and 40% Chenin Blanc. The nose on this wine is lovely, and very unique, with elegant funk, rich mineral, showing great smoke, flint, and slate galore. The mouth on this is lovely with more of the mineral, incredible slate, intense saline, lime, lemon Fraiche, fruit focus, backed well with piercing acidity, screaming rock, and lovely layers upon layers of mineral, grapefruit, citrus, pear, and gooseberry, with passion fruit hiding out. The finish is long, with more slate, mineral, acidic, and crazy tart citrus lingering forever! Bravo!! Drink until 2024.

2019 Kos Yeshuos Pinot Gris – Score: 92 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a VERY nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quality score quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
This wine is oaked but not heavy oak, no toast, just barrel heads. This wine underwent a multi-day maceration that gives the wine its unique color, though far from a rose, and not an Orange wine, IMHO. This wine is closed to start, but with time shows a unique nose that is closer to a Roussanne than a simple Pinot Gris. The nose on this wine is tight, with time, it opens to show nuts, walnuts, almonds, marzipan, with some lovely apple, pear, yellow plum, crazy hay/straw, and spices, followed by citrus, ginger, and herbs. The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is layered and has a nice mouthfeel, with clear oak leanings, showing stone fruit, orange, nectarine, citrus, lemon, with waxy notes, wrapped in sweet oak, with a tannin that emerges from under the sweet but well-balanced summer fruit, and sweet baking spices. The finish is long, green, oaky, with a wonderful mouthfeel, well-textured, fruit-focused, with a nice creme and oak backbone, pear and apple core, mineral of saline and rock, with lovely spices, and lovely honeyed notes, with lovely roasted and dried walnuts and almonds on the long sweet mineral nutty finish. Bravo! Enjoy until 2022.

2019 Kos Yeshuos Viognier – Score: 91 to 92 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quality score quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
This wine is oaked but not heavy oak, no toast, just barrel heads. This is a higher ABV and this vintage shows more tropical than last year. The nose on this wine is classically Viognier with peach, mango, guava, with less of crazy peach and honeyed perfume, still, this has a nice oak and honey perfume, with apricot, and creme notes. The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is ripe, well-balanced, with clear marzipan, almond, coming from the fruit, no oxidation, with lovely acidity, nice pith, oak tannin, showing nice grapefruit, mango, tropical notes, lovely sweet cedar, earth, green notes, and candied pear, all wrapped with a lovely mouthfeel, salinity, with cedar, acid, and almond pith on the long finish. Drink by 2022.

2018 Jean-Pierre Bailly Pouilly-Fume, Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 91 to 92 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it should have received a score of POOR for QPR, however, it is in the second quintile for quality as well. Therefore, it is dead even.
The nose and mouth on this wine are more tropical and is a slight step behind the 2017 vintage, which we tasted side-by-side. The nose on this wine shows nicely, but the tropical fruit peeks out with hints of mango, melon while showing nicely with mineral, and chalk, with green apple, and loads of floral notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, layered, rich, and complex, with crazy grapefruit, lovely mineral, slate, and green apple, with Asian pear, but also with a bit too much tropical notes of melon, and hints of pineapple. The finish is long, and green with lemongrass, nice saline, and mineral, but not as much as the 2017 vintage, with stone fruit, more tropical notes, and citrus galore. Bravo!!! Drink until 2022.

2018 Yaacov Oryah Soulmate – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it should have received a score of POOR for QPR, however, it is in the second quintile for quality as well. Therefore, it is dead even. This is based upon the USA pricing, not the Israel pricing.
This wine is a blend of 55% Chardonnay and 45% Chenin Blanc. The name comes from a play on how the two components truly come together to create a wine that is greater than its parts. The nose on this wine is lovely, showing more chard than Chenin, with green apple, yellow apple, and quince from the Chenin, with lovely yellow blossom, and hints of orange. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is fun, showing good acidity now, mineral galore, with lemon/grapefruit notes, followed by lovely fruit focus and fruit structure that is quite precise and professional. The finish is long, green, and mineral-laden, with slate, saline, with green notes of gooseberry, and lime focus. Bravo!! Drink by 2021.

2019 Shirah Gruner Veltliner – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quality score quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
Wow, thank goodness for great wines. Bravo to the brothers, this is a return to the Veltliner of old, a wine that embodies weight but also seriously clean lines and funk. Yay! The difference between steel and terra cotta can be felt, lovely, while the 1/6 Hungarian oak is felt as well! To me, the 2/3 terra cotta fermentation added a bit of the fat to the wine while the 1/6 oak, really beefed the wine up, the steel is that steely acid, super clean lines, that give the wine the backbone it craves.
The nose on this wine is tearing at me from two different directions, it is not a pure steel driven attack of citrus and not much else, no, this is a complex blend of two different approaches, with lovely fat notes of melon, guava, and peach, and lovely citrus, with orange blossom, ginger, green notes, and hay, really a joy! The mouth on this weighty medium-bodied wine is lovely, layered, expressive, complex, and still very refreshing, this is not an oak bomb, like a Viognier or what, with a lovely backbone of steely acidity from lemon/lime citrus, with a great fruit focus of grapefruit, more peach, nectarine, and loads of smoke, really nice. I like the interplay of the fruit, acidity, and flint, that plays and changes with time in the glass and as the wine changes temperatures. Look for white pepper, ginger, cloves, and allspice, with cinnamon as well, with flint, rock, and hay. Impressed. Drink by 2022. Bravo guys!!!

2018 Tzora Shoresh, White – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it should have received a score of POOR for QPR, however, it is in the second quintile for quality as well. Therefore, it is dead even.
This wine is a blend of 90% Sauvignon Blanc and 10% Chardonnay. The nose on this wine has no cat pee, with lovely gooseberry, grapefruit, citrus, apple, and pear. The mouth on this wine medium-bodied is beautiful, elegant, plush, with the nose fruit, followed by screaming acid, mineral, slate, straw, with loam, showing lemongrass, and lemon Fraiche, with nice spice and slate. The finish is long and green, with passion fruit and tart fruit lingering long with mineral and green notes, with gooseberry and grapefruit lingering long. Drink until 2023.

2019 Covenant Sauvignon Blanc, Red C – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quality score quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
The nose on this wine hits you at first with layers upon layers of cat pee, over time that calms and gives way to aromas that are riper than the Yarden Sauvignon Blanc, it has sweeter fruit, tropical in nature with nectarines, guava, mango, and hints of passion fruit that this wine blew past on its way to tropical land, along with orange and hints of blossoms in the far background. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a lovely weight, a great fruit focus, and presence about itself that is really serious in nature, showing an on the point approach, with grapefruit, orange, lemon all in a stronger backbone than the Yarden Sauvignon Blanc, backed by the mango, honeydew fruit weight, wrapped in a pith and slate body, nice. The finish is long, slate and orange linger long with hints of lemongrass, more melon, and citrus galore. Nice! Drink now.

2019 Kos Yeshuos Falanghina – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quality score quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
This may well be the first kosher Falanghina every made in the USA, there were some made in Europe in the past. The nose on this wine is unique and very much akin to a Roussanne and Chenin Blanc, showing green notes, pine, menthol, with waxy notes, showing loads of citrus, with hay, Orange blossom, and ginger. The wine is a very cool acid bomb, none added, all of this is clearly natural, with a clear leaning to lemon/lime, orange notes, with lemongrass, clementines, with great mineral, with the acid overpowering, with chalk and flint, followed by straw. The finish is long, green, crazy tart, with fun notes of almond, honeyed notes of lemon, and more mineral, with citrus acidity still dominating. Drink by 2022

2018 Joseph Mellot Sancerre, La Graveliere – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it should have received a score of POOR for QPR, however, it is in the second quintile for quality as well. Therefore, it is dead even. This wine is crazy expensive here in the USA, in France it is far more reasonably priced.
The nose on this wine is pure heaven, honeysuckle, gooseberry, with crazy loads of orange blossom, passion fruit, and rich saline, lovely! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has lovely weight, showing crazy pith, screaming grapefruit, with citrus and layers of rich slate, spice, nutmeg, and lovely lemon curd, and herbs. The finish is long, green, and mineral-driven, with loads of pith and orange blossoms lingering long Lovely! Drink by 2022.

2017 Les Marronniers Chablis – Score: 91 (Mevushal) (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quality score quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
The nose is lovely, this is the second vintage and really lovely. The nose is not marred with Oak or yeast, all-natural. The nose is tart and lovely, not round, bright and rich, with peach, apricot, and lovely tart and dry quince. The mouth is not round and filled with good tension and fruit focus with great mineral focus and rich salinity that gives way to great acid and layers of lovely green and yellow apples that are layered in lemongrass and foliage and mineral. The finish is long and tart filled with crazy acid, hints of smoke and flint, and loads of mineral and rock. Bravo! Drink until 2023.

2018 Vitkin Gewurztraminer, Collector’s Edition – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quality score quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
This nose on this wine is dry and lovely with pineapple, ripe melon, and green notes and lychee galore, with funk and hints of soap, incredible aromas, white pepper, smoke, flint, and redolence. The mouth on this wine is lovely, with grapefruit, citrus, lovely pith, with apple, pith galore, followed by complexity and bitter notes of melon, yellow Apple, lovely weight, slight tannin, with sweet notes honeysuckle, sweet pineapple, and balance. The finish is long and green and sweet and mineral balanced. Bravo! Drink by 2021.

2019 Shirah Vin Blanc de Bro.Deux – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores a quality score higher than the median for white wines, so that makes it an EVEN QPR score.
This wine is a blend of 50% Sauvignon Blanc Clone 1, 25% Sauvignon Blanc Musque, and 25% Semillon. The nose on this wine shows almost no notes from Semillon and totally is controlled by classic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc notes, crazy cat pee, lovely gooseberry, rich and bright notes of passion fruit, with some hay and straw in the background, green notes, and a bush for the cat to pee on. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a lovely mouthfeel, and while it lacks that upfront and in-your-face acidity that I crave, this wine does not lack from acid, it is just a discussion of acid profile. The acidity is there with loads of gooseberry, tart grapefruit, along with crazy tart Meyer lemon, nectarines, and peach/green apple. The finish is long, green, yet sweet and ripe, with lovely cut grass, lemongrass, and ripe fruit with good acidity lingering long. Bravo!! Drink now.

2019 Goose Bay Pinot Grigio – Score: 90+ (QPR: EVEN)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring it is above the median price for white wines, but the quality score is in the 1st quintile, so the math says the QPR score is EVEN.
The nose on this wine is consistent with what I want from a Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio, AKA the same thing. This wine clocks in at a 13.5% ABV and it shows, with slightly flabby notes of sweetness that comes across as unbalanced, but it is still well hidden behind the facade of tart citrus, lime, orange blossom, honeysuckle, orange, and hay. This wine is fun, refreshing, enjoyable, and while it is fun, it is not very complex, the complexity it does have comes from the salinity and lovely almond pith it has, showing a nice front of acidity, with green apple, nectarines, orange, along with a good weight and an almost oily texture. The finish is long, sweet, with more orange, honeyed notes of honeysuckle, and sweet orange, but well balanced with saline, with sweet and yet tart notes lingering long. Nice! Drink up!

2018 Tzora Judean Hills, White – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice enough it is higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it receives a score of EVEN for QPR.
This wine is a blend of 75% Chardonnay and 25% Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine is vanilla driven, with toast, apple and pear, and nice fresh fruit flavors. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, slightly round, but with be piercing acidity, with a great backbone of mineral, followed lovely fruit structure, with great Asian pear, lovely slate, grapefruit, and rich salinity and precision. Bravo!! Drink until 2021.

2019 Covenant Viognier, Blue C – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice enough it is higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it receives a score of EVEN for QPR.
The nose on this wine is ok, it is sweet with ripe peach cobbler, sweet compote of rose, orange, peach, and apricot, followed by orange blossom and more peach, did I say peach?? The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is less focused than the Sauvignon Blancs from Covenant or Yarden, with good acidity but not much else, though the acidity is incredible, with the neutral oak impacting clearly with both weight and flavor of sweet oak, orange notes, and nectarines behind the wall of peach and apricot, and yeah lots more acid. The finish is long, with oaky notes, orange, orange blossom, and mineral. Drink now!

2019 Yarden Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is above the median quality score and it is below the median price line, so this wine gets a score of GREAT for QPR.
This is one of the few 2019 Israeli Sauvignon Blanc that I want to drink, but not enough to make me buy more! The nose on this wine is clean, it is not overly fruity, it has a backbone of citrus, orange blossom, and rose water, followed by lemongrass, and hints of sweet kiwi. The mouth on this nice weighted medium-bodied wine has a great presence, with fruit focus, showing rich saline, mineral, followed by a great backbone of orange/grapefruit/lemon acidity and pith, wrapped in olives and passion fruit, really nice. The finish is long, green, acidic, with more citrus, slate, pith, and lemon core. Nice! Drink now!

2019 Shirah Riesling – Score: 90 (I am sure that score will improve) (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice enough it is higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it receives a score of EVEN for QPR.
This wine is far too young, truly a shame I opened it, I am sorry to the bottle. Riesling needs time to come into its own when it is done correctly. I can say, this is done correctly, get some, and let it come to you, aromas, and taste-wise.
The nose at this point is all wax, bee’s wax, honeysuckle, honey, with lovely jasmine, citrus galore, with hints of pineapple. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine starts to show some tertiary notes of petrol, it will come, with extremely obvious wax, the wax coats the mouth, with layers of screaming acid from lemon, grapefruit, but all coated with the wax, bitter notes of almond and orange rind, with a lovely refreshingness, with loads of ginger, nectarines, and orange notes, really nice! The finish is long, bitter, waxy, and green, with sweet notes, orange blossom, and more pineapple, and sweet notes. Lovely! Drink until 2024. Right now this wine needs six months to come around, let it lie!!

2019 Domaine De Panquelaine Coteaux Du Giennois Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 90 (Mevushal) (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is above the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands a GREAT QPR score.
The nose on this wine takes a bit of time to open, but once it does it has lovely notes of minerality, nice pith, flinty notes, with yellow plum, floral notes, lemongrass, and citrus. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is nice, really refreshing, elegant in its simplicity, and that is its only con, yes it is nice, even cool with lovely refreshing notes of flint, solid to really good acidity, lemongrass, grapefruit, hints of peach, yellow plum, with lovely deep-rooted grapefruit/lemon, but it does not have the complexity to take it above the score, and it has a bit of a hollow in the middle. The finish is lovely, again refreshing, a bit fatty/round, with more of that yellow to pink grapefruit, with great flint/rock, smoke, and nice acidity that lingers long, with orange blossom. Nice! Drink now.

2018 Koenig Riesling, Alsace – Score: 90  (Mevushal) (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is above the median quality score and it is below the median price line, so this wine gets a score of GREAT for QPR. This is a MUCH better option than the horrible roses we have in 2020.
The wine has opened now, showing nice notes of orange blossom and honeysuckle, with hints of petrol, flint, peach, with mineral, and gooseberry. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is really nice, it shows a heavier mouthful than 2017, along with more floral notes, with a great balance of acid, truly a nice and refreshing wine, even if it lacks complexity, with nice lime, Meyer lemon, and spice. Drink by 2022.

2017 Carmel Kayoumi Riesling – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice enough wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is right on the median price line, but the quality score is above the median line for white wines, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
The nose on this wine is nice, but nowhere near the greatness of the 2014 vintage. At the opening, this wine is a step behind the 2016 vintage of Carmel, but with time it shows better, but still never eclipses the 2014 Carmel Riseling.
The nose shows a little bit of Petrol, not as much as previous vintages, with more green apple, with more tropical notes than previous vintages, showing almost pineapple, and gooseberry. Like stated above the mouth and the wine is slow to open, I think this wine needs more time. The mouth is nice, well balanced, but showing more tropical notes, with guava, light melon notes, with more petrol, great acidity, and nice mineral, with green apple, peach, and notes of smoke and flint. The finish is long, green, tropical, and sweet, with nice acidity lingering long. Drink from 2020 until 2023.

2019 Shirah Vintage Whites – Score: 89 to 90 (QPR: EVEN)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is still sadly expensive at 25 dollars as it clocks in higher than the median price for this wine category, also, it scores above the median, so that makes it an EVEN QPR score.
Of the four white wines in 2019, at least so far, that have been released by Shirah, this is the weakest of them all. The wine is a blend of 80% Grenache Blanc and 20% Viognier – not a conventional blend.
The nose on this wine pulls at me again, but with the Gruner that was a compliment, here not so much. The nose is cool with the classic Grenache notes, but it gets muddled quickly with the absurd viognier notes of peach and intense vanilla, in the end, all I get in Vanilla flavored peach ice cream on a bed of green notes and apples, but disjointed. The mouth is not an improvement, yes, the fruit is controlled on this medium-bodied wine, with more peach, apricot, and hints of Grenache Blanc fruit, with pear and yellow plums, but it is hard to find under all that peach and apricot. While there is acidity, it is more about the almond and orange pith, orange fruit, and more pith that defines the finish. Drink now.

2019 Flam Blanc – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is higher in price than the median and its score is right on the median quality line, which means this has a POOR score for QPR. This is the perfect example of a wine that needs to change. Wineries cannot charge such high prices for a wine that is 3x the price of better wines than it, like the 2018 Chateau Riganes or 1.6x the price of the 2018 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc.
This wine is a blend of 84% Sauvignon Blanc and 16% Chardonnay. The nose on this wine is very redolent with notes of eucalyptus, mint, along with incredible lemon/lime, along with pineapple, and hints of lychee. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is where the wine loses a step, the mouth feels weighty, with a good start, but then it falls apart, with no real complexity and while the mouth shows fruit notes of orange, lychee, lemon/lime, and orange blossom, it lacks the attention-grabbing component it needs, it does show saline, acidity, and loads of almond/orange pith, it feels uni-dimensional. Drink now!

2018 Yatir Creek, White – Score: 89 (QPR: BAD)
While this wine is nice enough it is in the 2nd quintile in pricing – almost at the tip-top,  and its quality score is right on the median line, so it garners a QPR score of BAD. This is the perfect example of a wine that needs to change. It cannot charge such high prices for a wine that is 3x the price of better wines than it, like the 2018 Chateau Riganes or 1.6x the price of the 2018 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc.
The nose and mouth are aligned and while they are simple enough, there is good acidity and some nice fruit focus. Overall, tart, showing saline, fruit, and well balanced. Drink now.

2017 Pascal Bouchard Chablis, le Classique – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is higher in price than the median and its score is right on the median quality line, which means this has a POOR score for QPR. This is the perfect example of a wine that needs to change. Wineries cannot charge such high prices for a wine that is 3x the price of better wines than it, like the 2018 Chateau Riganes or 1.6x the price of the 2018 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc.
While this wine is less elegant than the Premier Cru, obviously, it was still nice enough, with smoke, green notes, green apple, and pear. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is nice enough, but the fruit is less focussed and is not as interesting. Drink soon.

2019 Shiran Semillon – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is higher in price than the median and its score is right on the median quality line, which means this has a POOR score for QPR. This is the perfect example of a wine that needs to change. Wineries cannot charge such high prices for a wine that is 3x the price of better wines than it, like the 2018 Chateau Riganes or 1.6x the price of the 2018 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc.
I had high hopes for this one, and while it showed some life early on, it fell apart very quickly. I cannot “like” a wine that is good for 3 hours, it does not work for me.
The nose is blossom, mineral, slate, citrus, and lemongrass, with funk, and a good mouthfeel, with lovely acidity, for 3 hours. After that it falls apart, it is still around, but now the nose is just lemon, flint, and some floral notes, and not much else. The mouth follows the nose with a bit of pith and sadly the acidity has fallen off. Either way, it is multidimensional and nice enough, if you are a pith or Semillon believer. Drink up!

2019 Five Stones DvsG, White – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is higher in price than the median and its score is right on the median quality line, which means this has a POOR score for QPR. This is the perfect example of a wine that needs to change.
The wine is a blend of 82% Chenin Blanc, and 18% Roussanne. The nose shows nice notes of smoke, earth, funk galore, loads of mineral, with green notes, straw, hay, and yellow plum. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, tastes of smoky notes, green apple, grapefruit, with hints of orange, with great mineral notes, loads of pith, and great fruit focus. Nice! It needs more complexity.

2019 Tabor Roussanne, Adama – Score: 89 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice enough wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is below the median price line, but the quality score is right on the median line for white wines, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
The nose on this Roussanne is more round and less bright than previous vintages, with nectarines, Orange, Orange blossom, and flint. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is nice, nothing special, but well-made, with enough acidity to keep you interested, the fruit profile is lemon, grapefruit, tart gooseberry, and orange/nectarines that make the mouthfeel rounder. The finish is long, tart, and bright, with sweet notes of orange, blossom, and flint lingering long. Drink now.

2018 Route Victor Chardonnay – Score: 89 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice enough wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is below the median price line, but the quality score is right on the median line for white wines, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
The nose on this wine is clean, floral, with green apple, and tart fruit notes, unoaked, and really interesting. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, with great acidity, showing clear residual sugar but it is still quite nice, well balanced, with screaming tart green apple, pear, quince, and tart gooseberry, with grapefruit pith, and lemon. Nice enough. Drink now.

2018 Domaine Netofa, White – 88 (QPR: EVEN)
Sadly, this wine has slipped in the last few months and while it is still a nice enough wine, with my new QPR scoring, it is below the median price line, but the quality score is below the median line for white wines, so that makes it an EVEN QPR score.
At this point, the nose on this wine has moved past the mineral and into pure tropical notes, with apple and quince galore, and lovely fruit and blossom. The mouth on this wine has lost a step, with a clear ripe backbone, and the steely backbone is barely keeping it afloat, nice quince, with what used to be an incredible tension between the ripeness and the tart/dry fruit and minerality. The finish is long and green, with slate, more ripeness than I would desire, and minerality! Drink up!

2019 Tabor Sauvignon Blanc, Adama – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
While this is still a nice enough wine, with my new QPR scoring, it is below the median price line, but the quality score is also below the median line for white wines, so that makes it an EVEN QPR score.
The nose on this is pure cat pee, with loads of gooseberry, passion fruit, and lemon curd, pure happiness. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is nice enough but it lacks the acid needed to bring this all together, thankfully it is not flat or flabby, rather it is still tight, but the mid-palate is lacking, also it lacks almost all complexity has very little to grab your attention, other than its clean lines of fruit that mimics the nose. The finish is long, with pith, green notes, lemongrass, and nice pith. A solid wine with little to offer other than its cleanliness. Drink now!

2019 Twin Suns Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 88 (Mevushal) (QPR: EVEN)
While this is still a nice enough wine, with my new QPR scoring, it is below the median price line, but the quality score is also below the median line for white wines, so that makes it an EVEN QPR score.
The nose on this wine is nice, it is not round, it is well made with peach, apricot, and citrus notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, with a good fruit-focus, showing enough acidity, with tart grapefruit, peach, some tropical notes, but well-balanced with straw, grass, and gooseberry. The finish is long, green, with tropical notes, citrus, lemon, and lime, with slate/chalk, and foliage/herbs. Nice! Drink now.

2019 Barkan Sauvignon Blanc, Classic – Score: 88 (Mevushal) (QPR: GOOD)
This is a wine that is better than the median in regards to price, it is at the 2nd quintile below the price median, but it is below the median for quality, so that gives it a GOOD score for QPR. It is a wine that I would not run after but a perfectly good wine for the price.
This wine starts off smelling and tasting cooked. The nose shows stewed notes of lemon compote and lemongrass. The mouth is even worse, with stewed lemon, quince, apple, and kiwi. Sad and painful. After an hour the nasty aromas blow off and it becomes nice enough. Nothing great, but a nice enough wine. The nose shows notes of gooseberry, lemon, citrus, and hints of kiwi, at 11% ABV this is what I was hoping for. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has more presence than Tabor but less focus and cleanliness, either way, both are boring overall. Still, the Barkan shows enough fruit and mouthfeel to make this wine quite acceptable in a pinch, the acidity and fruit makeup show nicely while having a bit of pith on the finish. Drink now!

2017 Avi Feldstein, White – Score: 88 (QPR: BAD)
While this wine is nice enough it is in the 2nd quintile in pricing – almost at the tip-top,  and its quality score is below on the median line, so it garners a QPR score of BAD. This is the perfect example of a wine that needs to change. The pricing on this wine is crazy, wineries cannot charge such high prices for a wine that is 3x the price of better wines than it, like the 2018 Chateau Riganes or 1.6x the price of the 2018 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc.
This wine is a blend of 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Roussanne. The nose on this wine is flat, boring, with green notes and mineral, and not much else. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice but has little to show, with peach and apricot and hints of grapefruit, with loads of pith, hay, and rock. The finish is long, green, and pith driven, the best part of the wine by far. It came around a bit more with time but for the price, it is a pass.

2018 Chateau de Cor Bugeaud White – Score: 87 (Mevushal) (QPR: EVEN)
While this is still a nice enough wine, with my new QPR scoring, it is below the median price line, but the quality score is also below the median line for white wines, so that makes it an EVEN QPR score.
This is a fun wine, showing tropical fruit, but overall well made and quite fun. The nose on this wine shows ripe fruit, with lovely mango, followed by tart and juicy citrus, with lovely herb, and mineral, with floral notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has enough acidity, followed by tart and juicy fruit, with lovely citrus, orange, grapefruit, and gooseberry galore. It is more round than it is clean. The finish is long, green, passion fruit, with slate, and herb. Drink now!

2019 Shiran Viognier – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This wine’s quality score is below the median for white wines and the price is above the median for white wines, so it gets a BAD score for QPR.
If the 2019 Semillon was a bit of a letdown, the Viognier was off from the start. The nose is pure peach juice, and while I love Viognier, it needs more than just peach to make it go. The mouth on this Viognier is much like the nose, apricot, peach, and loads of pith on the finish. Drink now!

2018 Shiran Triad – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This wine’s quality score is below the median for white wines and the price is above the median for white wines, so it gets a BAD score for QPR.
This is a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 25% Semillon, and 25% Viognier. Another multidimensional wine, and while it shows OK, it really needs acid or something else to liven it up. This one is again dominated by the peach, and the apple (Chardonnay), the Semillon is lost behind the wall of peach and apple, and again loads of pith. Drink now.

2019 Dalton Pinot Gris – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
Yet another boring wine from the 2019 Israel white vintage. The nose on this wine is boring and shows green apple, lemon, and really not much else, with hints of floral notes of orange blossom. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is really very uni-dimensional, with not much to show other than its very sprite-like attack with loads of acid, along with orange, apple, and melon, and lemon/lime mix. There is nothing there but a crazy attack of acidity. The finish is insanely long, with absurd acidity, that does not feel artificial, with flint, and more lemon/lime/orange. Drink now.

2018 O’dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 88 to 89 (Mevushal) (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
The nose on this wine is far more muted, tasting it side-by-side 2017, showing little gooseberry, slate, flint, citrus, and apple, and pear. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, but what it lacks is the layers/complexity of the 17, with much more restraint of tropical fruit than the 17,  with apple, gooseberry, with a slight hint of hollow in the middle, with nice acid all around, with garrigue, grapefruit, and citrus. The finish is medium with green, slate, and fruit. Drink up! This one is not long for this earth.

2018 Herzog Sauvignon Blanc, Lineage – Score: 85 (QPR:EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
The nose on this wine is drier than in previous vintages, with green notes, yellow fruit, peach, lemongrass, and foliage. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, dry, with good green notes, foliage, but not enough acidity, green notes, a bit of passion fruit, with green apple, nutty notes, and smoke. The finish is longer than the 17, with nice floral notes, rose petals, nuts, and tart fruit. Drink up.

2016 Jacques Capsouto Cuvee Eva, Blanc – Score: 85 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
The wine is a blend of 60% Grenache Blanc, 20% Clairette, 15% Roussanne, and 5% Marsanne. Sadly, this wine went off the cliff and is now in DRINK YESTERDAY mode.

2016 Jacques Capsouto Cuvee Albert, Grand Vin, Blanc – Score: 85 (QPR: BAD)
This wine’s quality score is below the median for white wines and the price is above the median for white wines, so it gets a BAD score for QPR.
This wine is in its decline, it is still nice, but drink NOW! This wine is a blend of 65% Roussanne, 30% Clairette, and 5% Marsanne. Sadly, this wine went off the cliff and is now in DRINK YESTERDAY mode.

2019 Domaine De Panquelaine Sancerre – Score: 85 (Mevushal) (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is below the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
This wine is not as fun as the Coteaux Du Giennois. This wine is 100% Sauvignon Blanc like all Sancerre, sadly, this lacks the MOST important aspect of Sancerre, teeth-gnashing acidity, this one barely has any.
The nose on this wine is really lacking, it has a bit of what can only be described as oak, but Sancerre has no oak, followed by lemon and maybe a drop of white peach, but really boring with some minerality. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine follows the nose with a bit of acidity, some peach, and grapefruit, with almond pith and that is about it. This is not evil but really not much there. Drink Now.

2018 Teperberg Famitage, Inspire – Score: 83 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is below the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
The nose is nice, pineapple juice, with citrus, and mineral. The mouth is medium, hollow in the middle, nice acidity in the front, and boring.

2019 Segal Chardonnay, Wild Fermentation – Score: 83 (QPR: EVEN)
The fact that this wine sells for 23 dollars and is called EVEN QPR, explains how absurdly expensive these white wines are priced at. This wine should be a POOR QPR, but the score is below the median for white wines and the price is also below the median, so it gets an EVEN score for QPR.
This wine is another example of what a cheap and uninspiring white wine can taste like. This wine is simply put, a pineapple, apple, peach juice wine. Nothing there, other than some bitterness and hints of grapefruit. Sad. Move On.

Sorry, it has been so long before I have posted here, but I am back and lets start with a few good wines and well, the rest of the 2019 wines white and rose wines that I could find.

QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) is the non-qualitative score I have been giving to wines recently. In my last update to QPR, a week after I posted the QPR revised methodology, I defined the QPR score of WINNER. A QPR score of WINNER is defined as a wine that scores a qualitative score of 91 or more, a score I define as a wine I would buy happily while also being a wine that is cheaper than the respective median wine category.

This week we have a mix of 27 wines 10 whites and 14 roses, and 3 Sparkling wines. One of the whites I have already posted about, a winner of the QPR GREAT score, the 2018 Domaine Netofa, White. The wine is a bit hit and miss and I wanted to update folks about it.

However, the absolute clear QPR WINNER of this week’s post is the FIRST 2019 Rose that gains the QPR WINNER title! Bravo!!! The wine is the 2019 Carmel Rose, Appellation. There were two other Sauvignon Blanc WINNERS, the 2019 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc (being released soon), and the 2019 Hagafen Sauvignon Blanc (Just released). 2019 white wine WINNERS are ALL Sauvignon Blanc and I am stocked!

The 2019 Teperberg Rose, Essence is another wine that got close to WINNER status, yet sadly, it did not, as the price is too high. This is a wine that should sell for less, like so many others from Isarel, yet that is just not the case.

The 2019 Herzog Rose, Pinot Noir, Tasting Room Reserve was a lovely wine for me. The weight and the acidity and the refreshingness of it really made it quite a fun wine indeed!

I continue to stand by my opinion that 2019 is one of the very WORST vintages for white and rose wines in the last 10 years for Israeli wines. I continue to dream of the 2013/2014 vintage for Israeli whites. Some of the very best Israeli whites came from the 2013/2014 vintages. Yes, I have not had as many of the 2019 whites and roses from Israel, as I would normally have had by now, sadly, the current circumstances do not let me do that. There are many roses still in France and Israel that I have not had, but of the ones I have had from Israel so far, I am fine with my statement.

Roses have continued to disappoint. We finally have a QPR WINNER for Rose, from Israel, but the vast majority of them this year have been an absolute letdown. There are now 8 QPR winners in whites (plus two in this post, and one from this post), it is clear as day to me that white wines are the way to go this summer.

Probably the saddest and maybe controversial wine note in this post is my score of the 2019 Chateau Riganes Blanc. What can I say, I did not love the wine. I LOVED the 2018 vintage! That wine had it all! The 2019 is just not as good and that is life sadly. I was really hoping for a repeat, like the 2019 Goose Bay Sauvignon did.

Finally, Royal has just released THREE newly disgorged Drappier Champagne! In this post I give you the score – it is AWESOME, I hope to taste the other two soon!

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

2019 Hajdu Rose – Score: 90+ (QPR: EVEN)
The 2019 Rose market has been so weak, it is nice to see Jonathan Hajdu and the Shirah brothers picking up the slack with their 2019 Roses, even if the QPR score is not as good as I would have wished for.
The nose on this wine is classic Cali rose notes, bright, sweet, ripe, yet well-balanced notes of blueberry, yes blue fruit, followed, by pomegranate, with raspberry, and sweet plum notes, this sounds riper/sweeter than I like, but it is more tart fruit than it is ripe fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied plus rose is really fun, truly tart, refreshing, with great acidity, along with balanced sweet fruit, of blue fruit, tart strawberry, raspberry, grapefruit, sweet/tart collage of nice plum, strawberry, sweet and tart strawberry, and really tart red peach. The finish is long, sweet, tart, with nice mineral, body, freshness, and refreshing qualities that are truly a lovely summer wine – Bravo!

2019 Shirah Rose – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring even though it is more expensive than the median price for rose wine, it garner’s a quality score that is in the 2nd quintile, so the math says the QPR score is GOOD.
This rose is a blend of Grenache, Nebbiolo, Cabernet Franc, and Aglianico, using the Saignee method. The nose on this wine shows nice notes of peach, sweet and juicy strawberries and creme, along with cranberry, cotton candy, and vanilla, with a touch of heat, and rhubarb. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is well balanced, with good enough acidity, showing little in complexity, but this is not a pure fruit bomb, it has acidity and pith to bring the wine around, with sweet notes of grapefruit and pomelo, with hints of orange, sweet orange pith, and flint. Drink now.

2019 Teperberg Rose, Essence – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring even though it is more expensive than the median price for rose wine, it garner’s a quality score that is in the 2nd quintile, so the math says the QPR score is GOOD.
This is the best of the three roses with Grenache and Barbera. This wine is a blend of 45% Grenache Noir, 35% Mourvedre, and 20% Barbera. The nose on this wine is fruity, it has clear sweet notes of candied strawberry, and lychee, with bright melon, gooseberry, and passion fruit, with hints of white flowers. The mouth on this wine is a REAl winner, lovely acidity, the acid hits you like a ton of bricks up front, though the finish, at this point, is a bit shallow, with clear and lovely notes of strawberries, rhubarb, loads of gooseberry, pink grapefruit, and lovely overall refreshing mouthfeel and a bright and easy-going freshness that has enough complexity for me to make this the best Israeli rose by far, that I have tasted this year. With time, the finish fills out and then you get lovely rocks, slate, saline, and more tart and bright red fruit, with flowers, and crazy lemon/lime lifesavers lingering long on the bright and floral finish. BRAVO!!!

2019 Five Stones Rose, D vs G – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This is a wine that is just good enough, but with my new QPR scoring it is one quintile more expensive than the median rose price and it is not as good as the median score so that is why this wine gets a BAD on the QPR score.
The nose on this wine is fruity, too fruity for me, the fruit needs to be there, but when it is so obvious it feels like overkill, The wine is a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. While I liked the 2019 white D vs G, the rose is not interesting to me.The nose on this wine is fruity, showing clear sweet notes of candied plum, red fruit, and too much heat for me, at 13% ABV. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is flat, not showing a lot, really lacking, there is a nice hit of acidity, but then it falls apart in the middle and disappears at the finish. The mouth is just acid and crazy fruity fruit, with candied and overly ripe strawberry, grapefruit, and melon, bummer. There is some refreshing notes if you like fruity wines to this extent. Drink now!

2019 Herzog Rose, Pinot Noir, Tasting Room Reserve – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is truly a lovely wine but it is a bit more expensive than the Median. With my new QPR scoring, it is one quintile higher in price than the Median, however, it scores in the 2nd quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
I have liked this version of their rose lineup for a long time now, yes it has oak, and yes it is a fuller-bodied wine, but it is also very enjoyable!The nose on this wine is classical in its rose styling, with lovely dark strawberry notes, with lovely red fruit, and peach, with citrus, and sweet cedar. The mouth on this full-bodied rose, yes I wrote that is actually quite fun, the acidity is lovely, maybe their best acid showing in this wine so far, with crazy Kirche cherry, tart grapefruit, plum, and sweet notes of cedar, followed by saline, gooseberry acidity, and very tart pomegranate. The mouthfeel is tart, juicy, with great weight, but yes so very refreshing! The finish is long, tart, with lovely acidity, with sweet watermelon, hints of candied fruit, but really impressive precision with the acidity and refreshingness. Bravo!!! Drink now.

2019 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Rose – Score: 87 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is right on the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
Lovely nose with classic leanings for a Provence rose, showing lovely mineral, rosehip, citrus, gooseberry, classic ripe and juicy strawberry, and red fruit, but I am shocked by the ripeness/sweetness of the fruit on the nose and mouth. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, and while there is a load of pith, it lacks the acidity to make this work, it has crazy pith and hints of tannin, the mouth shows sweet peach, apricot, guava, and strawberry, with lemon, and yet more pith. That is about it, mineral-wise it is loaded, but the lack of acid is really surprising, IMHO. In regards to my refreshing scale, this one is low, now acidity and the pith is more aggressive than it is balancing. Drink now.

2019 Carmel Rose, Appellation – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is RIGHT on the median price line, so this wine SHOULD get a score of GREAT for QPR. However, it is ALSO the ONLY rose from the 2019 vintage, so far, that scored at least a 91, and that has a price that is at or below the median price line, so this wine gets the coveted score of WINNER for QPR. Bravo!!!
This wine is a blend of 65% Marselan and 35% Grenache. The nose on this wine is really fun, truly Provence in style, with loads of mineral, red forest berry, yellow flower, rosehip, citrus galore, and passion fruit. This is a fun and funky wine, I like how the Israeli Rhone varietals, used ina rose style wine, get funky in the right ways, with a lovely core of screaming acid, followed by luscious and tart strawberry, raspberry, currants, loads of rosehip, floral notes, with mineral, dirt, and crazy fun and refreshing acidity,  it may well be the best rose from Israel. The finish is crazy long, refreshing, with saline, slate galore, and pith to round out the attack. On the refreshing scale, this one is off the charts, showing the best so far maybe for 2019! Bravo!!! Drink Now

2019 Binyamina Rose, Grenache Barbera, Reserve – Score: 75 (QPR: NA)
This wine is a blend of 90% Grenache and 10% Barbera. Let us start off by the fact that those two varietals do not belong together, at least not by any territory. In regards to this rose, it is up for debate. The nose on this wine is funky, and no, not like the funky aromas, I mean the aromas are all over the place, with sweet fruit, yet tart, with dark aromas, and also peach-like aromas, there is no clear approach of style here. Like I said, up for debate.
The nose on this wine is sweet, almost like it has some RS, with peach and apricot notes, followed by raspberry, and very ripe and maybe too-ripe strawberry, with floral notes, and almost a peach perfume. Ok, this mouth is not for me, sorry, the nose is maybe debatable, but this is really unbalanced, and the RS is really off-putting, throw on the oak, and goodbye. The mouth on this wine is unbalanced, it is really all over the place like a kindergarten kid hopped up on adrenaline and Adderall. Sure there is some fruit, loads of RS, and much of the nose’s fruit, along with Pineapple, and guava, essentially, not a wine for me, though the acid is OK. Drink now.

2019 Yatir Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
This is a wine that is honestly not even good enough, so with my new QPR scoring it is one quintile more expensive than the median rose price and it is not as good as the median score so that is why this wine gets a BAD on the QPR score.
This wine is a blend of 53% tempranillo and 47% Mourvedre. This wine does not work for me, sorry, first it has sweet, I mean really sweet notes, even if it comes in at 12.5% ABV, this wine is ripe! The nose on this wine is ripe, with over the top and fruit-forward notes of blackberry, raspberry, and mulberry, with nice floral notes. The mouth is OK with the acid, but right after the acid front, the mouth behind it is sweet, unbalanced, with currant, mulberry, and black fruit, that is really not put together. The finish is ripe and it does not work. Drink Now.

2019 1848 Rose, 2nd Generation – Score: 78 (QPR: NA)
This is the 2nd blend of Grenache and Barbera of the tasting and the third from Israel, with the lovely Tepperberg also using that blend. This one is a blend of 85% Grenach and 15% Barbera.The nose on this wine is far more put together than the Binyamina but not nearly as good as the Teperberg. The nose shows notes of mineral, red forest berry, and floral notes, the noes is less expressive than I would have liked. The mouth though is highly expressive and once again, this blend reminds me of a hopped kindergarten child, it is a mess. It has more acidity than the Binyamina and a bit of funk, the acid is really intense, but wow, this is all over the place and no, it is not refreshing. It is a hard pass.

2019 Pacifica Rose – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a nice enough wine, but with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR, though not a wine I would run after. Still, for the heady prices of rose today, this is a solid buy if you like this kind of wine.
This may well be the highest scoring off-dry rose I have ever scored. The nose on this wine is sweet and IMHO it is the PERFECT sleeper agent rose to get people to like roses, it is super bright, well balanced, and respectful to both sides of the fence here.The nose on this wine is ripe, and sweet, with nice pineapple, guava, and red fruit, followed by tart gooseberry, and lovely floral notes. The mouthfeel on this medium to full-bodied wine is lifted by the RS and sweetness, but it has crazy good acidity and the fruit and winemaking style respects the concept of rose, with lovely sweetness, followed by much of the fruit in the nose, along with crazy pineapple again, passion fruit, and intense grapefruit, and pith. The finish is long, sweet, and well done with sweet pomelo, and its citrus pith lingering long. Nice!

2019 Tulip White Franc – Score: 75 (QPR: NA)
I know, this is not an official rose, I get it, blanc de noir, I get it, but it looks rose, so in the rose list it goes, but sadly, rose or white, this wine misses the mark. Look at the 2019 Pacifica, which is off-dry but hits the mark well. This one is semi-sweet/off-dry, who cares, it is just off.This wine is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Sauvignon Blanc. This wine tastes like they tried to pair sweet Cabernet Franc fruit with dry Sauvignon Blanc fruit, and for me, it is once again a crazed kindergarten child running all over the place. No focus and no approach. The nose on this wine shows intense fruity and sweet aromas with pineapple, guava, and gooseberry in the background, followed by flint, and pear. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is indeed all over, with sweet and tart fruit trying to meld together, but all I get is the sweet pear and apple with the pineapple fighting horribly with tart gooseberry and apple. Sorry, this one does not work.

2019 Dalton Rose, Alma Coral – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
The nose on this wine is nice enough with red and white fruit, showing some citrus, with floral notes, and hay. The mouth on this wine is boring, with no acid, a little fruit, and some mineral. Bummer. Drink now.

2019 Jerusalem Hills Rose – Score: NA (Mevushal) (QPR: NA)
This wine is a rose from Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose on this wine is sweet and cooked rosehip, followed by cooked strawberry, sweet cherry, and candied and sweet fruit galore. This wine may win the award for the worst rose from 2019, it is pure evil, there is nothing but cooked cherry compote and residual sugar sweetness. There is some acidity, but the wine is painful.

2019 Hagafen Don Ernesto Beret Rose – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median the price pulls it down to a POOR QPR score.
This wine is a rose of Syrah. The nose on this wine is lovely, showing bright yet ripe fruit, with good strawberry, somewhat dull pear, melon, and jasmine flowers, with compote of rhubarb. The mouth on this medium-bodied rose has a nice weight and enough acidity, but again I wish it had more, with a lovely pith and sweet fruit mouthfeel, that is still refreshing with jasmine, strawberry/raspberry compote, followed by candied grapefruit, and tart melon. The finish is long, sweet, with red fruit, dried flower petals, and rosehip, and sweet red fruit. Nice. Drink Now.

White Wines

2019 Hagafen Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
It was awesome tasting this side-by-side the 2019 O’Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc – they are REALY close, with the O’Dwyers Creek winning by a nose. This is tropical but so well balanced! Another white wine WINNER for the 2019 vintage!
The nose on this lovely Sauvignon Blanc is crazy tropical and almost over the top, but still well controlled, and really fun, with lovely notes of gooseberry, pineapple, intense and aromatic passion fruit, and lovely smoke/slate, wow, fun! The mouth on this wine is equally enjoyable and refreshing, with nice acidity, wish it had a drop more, with nice fruit of passion fruit, grapefruit, tart melon, and rich saline, with gooseberry, and slate/flint. The finish is long, green with lemongrass, ginger, and overall fun and refreshing approach. Nice!!! Drink now.

2019 Hagafen Riesling, Lake County, Robledo Ranch – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is right on the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
The nose on this slightly off-dry Riesling is too young to get those lovely petrol notes. Petrol takes a good year to really evolve in the bottle. The nose on this lovely wine is sweet, but very bright, with bubblegum, watermelon, with tiny hints of mineral and petrol, followed by lovely honeysuckle, lemon, lemongrass, with lovely melon, hints of pineapple, and rich saline. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is screaming for more acidity, but it is still nice, with lovely sweet notes of pineapple, sweet guava, honeysuckle, honeydew melon, and more watermelon in the background, with sweet pomelo, and nice salinity. A nice wine with a good saline/tart citrus finish but a bit simple and uni-dimensional. Drink now until 2023.

2019 Hajdu Vermentino – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is fun, it takes a bit to open, but with time, say an hour, the nose is really fun, showing notes of orange, orange blossom, daffodil, with lovely citrus, ginger, and hints of nectarines. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is really fun, with good acidity, showing a slight miss in the mid-palate, that is covered up by the nice acid profile, with a nice almost oily texture, with orange, pink grapefruit, lime, and sweet yellow apple. The finish is long, really tart and green, with lovely acidity, slate, mineral, and more sweet fruit notes. Very nice! A shockingly good balance for a 14.5% ABV white wine!

2018 Goose Bay Chardonnay – Score: 88 (Mevushal) (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is right on the Median line for price and it has a lower quality score, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
The nose on this wine is clearly showing its oak at this point, with a nice toasty approach, followed by lovely yellow apples, melon, and nice oak spices. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice e enough but it is too simple, it has a nice weight, but the overall package is lacking, with a very simple focus, but nice enough, with more apple, quince, creme brulee, and a bit of the creamy notes one gets from oaked Chardonnay. The finish is sadly short, it is hidden behind the nice acidity of this wine, but that is not enough to make up for the short length. Drink by 2021.

2019 Psagot Viognier, M Series – Score: 83 (Mevushal) (QPR: BAD)
This is a wine that is just not good enough, and with my new QPR scoring it is one quintile more expensive than the median price and it is not as good as the median score so that is why this wine gets a BAD on the QPR score.
This wine has real potential, sadly this was cooked and it feels it. The nose on this wine starts off nice, but within a minute of opening the bottle, it has that slightly extra-fruity note that is not from the fruit. The nose on this wine is a nice Viognier, showing really tart and well-controlled peach, apricot, perfumed jasmine, and loads of yellow flowers and honeysuckle. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, excepting for that ripe fruit that sticks out from this lean and sleek profile, with an annoying spike of ripe honeysuckle, followed by peach, apricot, and honeyed and sweet mango, with nice grapefruit, and an overall sweet mouthfeel. The finish is long, green, in a way, yet sweet, with pomelo and citrus, along with apple, slate, and absurd pith on the long finish. Drink now.

2019 Chateau des Riganes Blanc – Score: 86 (Mevushal) (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
I was hoping for another home run from this chateau, and sadly this vintage lacks the acid of 2018. The nose on this wine is lovely but closed with orange pith, orange notes, apple, and orange blossom, ginger, with mineral in the background. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice but flat, with no acid, what it has instead is a load of pith and mineral, followed by gooseberry, straw, mineral, and more floral notes, with orange, nectarines, and more pith. Drink until 2023.

2019 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 91 (Mevushal) (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is well below the median price line, so this wine SHOULD get a score of GREAT for QPR. However, it is ALSO the another Sauvignon Blanc from the 2019 vintage that scored at least a 91, and that has a price that is at or below the median price line, so this wine gets the coveted score of WINNER for QPR. TWO years in a row for Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc! Bravo!!
The nose is closed and does not show the classic creaming notes, right now the notes are subdued but they are present, with time the wine really opens up, with cat pee, gooseberry, straw, grass, mineral, and Asian pear. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine needs a few minutes and with time it shows a far more restrained version but still quite enjoyable, with intense acidity, followed by loads of pith, straw, cut grass, mineral, dirt, and lovely orange, nectarines, citrus, Asian pear, and lemongrass. The finish is long, green, with passion fruit, more gooseberry, and mineral galore, straw, pith, slate, and flint. Bravo! With time the fruit will come out from under the pith and straw haze. Drink until 2023.

2019 Recanati Yasmin, White – Score: 87 (Mevushal) (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
This wine is a blend of Chardonnay and 40% Sauvignon Blanc. The wine is all over the place with the Chardonnay being so sweet that it takes over and really makes this wine unfun. The mouth and nose are too all over the place. Not fun, but the Sauvignon Blanc is nice and tart with good gooseberry and straw, but the sweet Chardonnay fruit showing apple, pineapple, and nectarines make the wine a bit of a mess. Drink now.

2019 Recanati Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
This wine is overall boring, with no complexity, but it ha enough acid and fruit to make it a bit interesting. The nose is really not interesting, but the mouth has acid, some good fruit of citrus, lemon, orange, and gooseberry, make it a bit interesting. Drink now.

2017 Pascal Bouchard Chablis, Le Classique – Score: 88 (Mevushal) (QPR: BAD)
This is a wine that is good enough, but with my new QPR scoring it is two quintile more expensive than the median price and it is not as good as the median score so that is why this wine gets a BAD on the QPR score.
The nose on this wine is nice enough, showing notes of smoke, green notes, green apple, quince, lemongrass, and pear. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is nice enough, but the fruit is less focussed, though the acid is nice, with orange pith, orange notes, and the mineral of saline and slate, is nice. Drink until 2024.

2018 Domaine Netofa White – Score: 90 to 91 (QPR: GREAT)
I keep trying to figure out this wine and I think I finally understand it – this wine has crazy bottle variation, plain and simple. Some bottles, like the one I am greatly enjoying now, is ROCK solid and an easy 91. Then I can have a bottle that is tropical and lacking all the acidity I love. If you look at the past posts, this is what I have written:
The good version looks like this – it is evolving in a great way, showing even more hay and plum. The nose on this wine shows a lovely nose of straight-up hay, mineral, and fruit, with apple and quince galore, and lovely fruit and blossom. The mouth on this wine is crazy good, with a clear ripe backbone, yet steely tart and bright with crazy saline and herb, with mineral galore, with crazy apple, and rich quince, with an incredible tension between the ripeness and the tart/dry fruit and minerality. The finish is long and green, with slate, more hay, and lovely freshness and minerality! Bravo! Drink by 2021.
The bad version looks like this – at this point, the nose on this wine has moved past the mineral and into pure tropical notes, with apple and quince galore, and lovely fruit and blossom. The mouth on this wine has lost a step, with a clear ripe backbone, and the steely backbone is barely keeping it afloat, nice quince, with what used to be an incredible tension between the ripeness and the tart/dry fruit and minerality. The finish is long and green, with slate, more ripeness than I would desire, and minerality! Drink up!
What can I say, this is hit and miss. When it is a hit the wine is so good, showing great minerality, saline, hay, straw, and yellow plum, with citrus and quince. So, here is wishing you a good one!

Sparkling Wines

NV Drappier Brut Nature – Score: 92 (Mevushal) (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is a Brut nature, and as such, it does not have the added fruit or liquor as other Champagnes have. This shows extremely clearly in the notes. This is a clean, austere, grown-up approach to Champagne while having a downside as well, which is these do NOT last long. This wine has a disgorgement date of June 2020, meaning this wine is crazy fresh. Look at the bottom of the bottle – below one of the labels (back or front) and you will see a date etched into the bottle.
The nose on this wine is EXACTLY that, crazy fresh with lovely green and yellow apple notes, followed by bright citrus, lemongrass, waxy notes, and of course, loads of yeast. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is dry, rich, and super focused, with incredible saline, quince, and yellow grapefruit notes, intense acidity, with loads of graphite, and hints of tannin, with an incredibly focused small bubble mousse, that comes at you in layers and lingers forever. The finish is so long, so tart, with more mineral, dirt, saline, graphite, and quince/apple/citrus lingering long – Bravo!!! Drink until June 2021. You know my feeling about Brut Nature wines, they are NOT for holding, drink them NOW!

2017 Hagafen Rose, Brut – Score: 87 (Mevushal) (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is very inviting with tart cherry, ripe strawberry, with some heat on the nose, loads of rosehip, and rhubarb. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is tart and refreshing but it has no complexity and is uni-dimensional in nature, with tart fruit, rhubarb, fine mousse bubble attack, and nice mineral. The finish is long and fruity, with mineral, hints of tannin, and loads of bubbles and acidity on the long refreshing finish. A very nice quaff. Drink until 2024.

2015 Hagafen Brut Cuvee, Reserve, Prix – Score: 89 (Mevushal) (QPR: POOR)
70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay, late disgorged recently. The nose on this wine has a lovely aroma of baked rhubarb pie, balanced well with citrus, earth, dirt, and lovely smoke, followed by minerals, strawberry, and some oxidized notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied bubbly starts off with a shot of mushroom, oxidized fruit, followed by lovely strawberry, and then some lovely citrus, tart raspberry, baked apple, and pear pie, and some more rhubarb, with a  lovely small bubble, nice focus. Nice. The finish is long, tart, green and red, and loaded with smoke and almonds. Drink now.

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.

As stated there are a few very nice wines, even if they are more expensive than 23 dollars, like the 2019 Teperberg Rose, Essense, the 2019 Herzog Tasting Room Rose, Pinot Noir, and the two aforementioned wines. There are also a few 90 scored wines, but after that, there are 43 of the 55 wines that have scored lower than a 90, which makes them uninteresting to me, as I state here on my scoring process.

So, this will be a wrap for me in regards to rose wines. Again, many did not make it here and my inability to travel makes this year a lighter year in regards to rose wines tasted. Still, since 2019 has been such a massive dud, I am not crying about it.

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

2019 Hajdu Rose – Score: 90+ (QPR: EVEN)
The 2019 Rose market has been so weak, it is nice to see Jonathan Hajdu and the Shirah brothers picking up the slack with their 2019 Roses, even if the QPR score is not as good as I would have wished for.
The nose on this wine is classic Cali rose notes, bright, sweet, ripe, yet well-balanced notes of blueberry, yes blue fruit, followed, by pomegranate, with raspberry, and sweet plum notes, this sounds riper/sweeter than I like, but it is more tart fruit than it is ripe fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied plus rose is really fun, truly tart, refreshing, with great acidity, along with balanced sweet fruit, of blue fruit, tart strawberry, raspberry, grapefruit, sweet/tart collage of nice plum, strawberry, sweet and tart strawberry, and really tart red peach. The finish is long, sweet, tart, with nice mineral, body, freshness, and refreshing qualities that are truly a lovely summer wine – Bravo!

2019 Shirah Rose – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring even though it is more expensive than the median price for rose wine, it garner’s a quality score that is in the 2nd quintile, so the math says the QPR score is GOOD.
This rose is a blend of Grenache, Nebbiolo, Cabernet Franc, and Aglianico, using the Saignee method. The nose on this wine shows nice notes of peach, sweet and juicy strawberries and creme, along with cranberry, cotton candy, and vanilla, with a touch of heat, and rhubarb. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is well balanced, with good enough acidity, showing little in complexity, but this is not a pure fruit bomb, it has acidity and pith to bring the wine around, with sweet notes of grapefruit and pomelo, with hints of orange, sweet orange pith, and flint. Drink now.

2019 Teperberg Rose, Essence – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring even though it is more expensive than the median price for rose wine, it garner’s a quality score that is in the 2nd quintile, so the math says the QPR score is GOOD.
This is the best of the three roses with Grenache and Barbera. This wine is a blend of 45% Grenache Noir, 35% Mourvedre, and 20% Barbera. The nose on this wine is fruity, it has clear sweet notes of candied strawberry, and lychee, with bright melon, gooseberry, and passion fruit, with hints of white flowers. The mouth on this wine is a REAl winner, lovely acidity, the acid hits you like a ton of bricks upfront, though the finish, at this point, is a bit shallow, with clear and lovely notes of strawberries, rhubarb, loads of gooseberry, pink grapefruit, and lovely overall refreshing mouthfeel and a bright and easy-going freshness that has enough complexity for me to make this the best Israeli rose by far, that I have tasted this year. With time, the finish fills out and then you get lovely rocks, slate, saline, and more tart and bright red fruit, with flowers, and crazy lemon/lime lifesavers lingering long on the bright and floral finish. BRAVO!!!

2019 Five Stones Rose, D vs G – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This is a wine that is just good enough, but with my new QPR scoring it is one quintile more expensive than the median rose price and it is not as good as the median score so that is why this wine gets a BAD on the QPR score.
The nose on this wine is fruity, too fruity for me, the fruit needs to be there, but when it is so obvious it feels like overkill, The wine is a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. While I liked the 2019 white D vs G, the rose is not interesting to me.
The nose on this wine is fruity, showing clear sweet notes of candied plum, red fruit, and too much heat for me, at 13% ABV. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is flat, not showing a lot, really lacking, there is a nice hit of acidity, but then it falls apart in the middle and disappears at the finish. The mouth is just acid and crazy fruity fruit, with candied and overly ripe strawberry, grapefruit, and melon, bummer. There are some refreshing notes if you like fruity wines to this extent. Drink now!

2019 Herzog Rose, Pinot Noir, Tasting Room Reserve – Score: 91 (QPR: GOOD)
This is truly a lovely wine but it is a bit more expensive than the Median. With my new QPR scoring, it is one quintile higher in price than the Median, however, it scores in the 2nd quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
I have liked this version of their rose lineup for a long time now, yes it has oak, and yes it is a fuller-bodied wine, but it is also very enjoyable!
The nose on this wine is classical in its rose styling, with lovely dark strawberry notes, with lovely red fruit, and peach, with citrus, and sweet cedar. The mouth on this full-bodied rose, yes I wrote that is actually quite fun, the acidity is lovely, maybe their best acid showing in this wine so far, with crazy Kirche cherry, tart grapefruit, plum, and sweet notes of cedar, followed by saline, gooseberry acidity, and very tart pomegranate. The mouthfeel is tart, juicy, with great weight, but yes so very refreshing! The finish is long, tart, with lovely acidity, with sweet watermelon, hints of candied fruit, but really impressive precision with the acidity and refreshingness. Bravo!!! Drink now.

2019 Chateau Sainte Marguerite Rose – Score: 87 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is right on the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
Lovely nose with classic leanings for a Provence rose, showing lovely mineral, rosehip, citrus, gooseberry, classic ripe and juicy strawberry, and red fruit, but I am shocked by the ripeness/sweetness of the fruit on the nose and mouth. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, and while there is a load of pith, it lacks the acidity to make this work, it has crazy pith and hints of tannin, the mouth shows sweet peach, apricot, guava, and strawberry, with lemon, and yet more pith. That is about it, mineral-wise it is loaded, but the lack of acid is really surprising, IMHO. In regards to my refreshing scale, this one is low, now acidity and the pith is more aggressive than it is balancing. Drink now.

2019 Carmel Rose, Appellation – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is RIGHT on the median price line, so this wine SHOULD get a score of GREAT for QPR. However, it is ALSO the ONLY rose from the 2019 vintage, so far, that scored at least a 91, and that has a price that is at or below the median price line, so this wine gets the coveted score of WINNER for QPR. Bravo!!!
This wine is a blend of 65% Marselan and 35% Grenache. The nose on this wine is really fun, truly Provence in style, with loads of mineral, red forest berry, yellow flower, rosehip, citrus galore, and passion fruit. This is a fun and funky wine, I like how the Israeli Rhone varietals, used ina rose style wine, get funky in the right ways, with a lovely core of screaming acid, followed by luscious and tart strawberry, raspberry, currants, loads of rosehip, floral notes, with mineral, dirt, and crazy fun and refreshing acidity,  it may well be the best rose from Israel. The finish is crazy long, refreshing, with saline, slate galore, and pith to round out the attack. On the refreshing scale, this one is off the charts, showing the best so far maybe for 2019! Bravo!!! Drink Now

2019 Binyamina Rose, Grenache Barbera, Reserve – Score: 75 (QPR: NA)
This wine is a blend of 90% Grenache and 10% Barbera. Let us start off by the fact that those two varietals do not belong together, at least not by any territory. In regards to this rose, it is up for debate. The nose on this wine is funky, and no, not like the funky aromas, I mean the aromas are all over the place, with sweet fruit, yet tart, with dark aromas, and also peach-like aromas, there is no clear approach of style here. Like I said, up for debate.
The nose on this wine is sweet, almost like it has some RS, with peach and apricot notes, followed by raspberry, and very ripe and maybe too-ripe strawberry, with floral notes, and almost a peach perfume. Ok, this mouth is not for me, sorry, the nose is maybe debatable, but this is really unbalanced, and the RS is really off-putting, throw on the oak, and goodbye. The mouth on this wine is unbalanced, it is really all over the place like a kindergarten kid hopped up on adrenaline and Adderall. Sure there is some fruit, loads of RS, and much of the nose’s fruit, along with Pineapple, and guava, essentially, not a wine for me, though the acid is OK. Drink now.

2019 Yatir Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
This is a wine that is honestly not even good enough, so with my new QPR scoring it is one quintile more expensive than the median rose price and it is not as good as the median score so that is why this wine gets a BAD on the QPR score.
This wine is a blend of 53% tempranillo and 47% Mourvedre. This wine does not work for me, sorry, first it has sweet, I mean really sweet notes, even if it comes in at 12.5% ABV, this wine is ripe! The nose on this wine is ripe, with over the top and fruit-forward notes of blackberry, raspberry, and mulberry, with nice floral notes. The mouth is OK with the acid, but right after the acid front, the mouth behind it is sweet, unbalanced, with currant, mulberry, and black fruit, that is really not put together. The finish is ripe and it does not work. Drink Now.

2019 1848 Rose, 2nd Generation – Score: 78 (QPR: NA)
This is the 2nd blend of Grenache and Barbera of the tasting and the third from Israel, with the lovely Tepperberg also using that blend. This one is a blend of 85% Grenach and 15% Barbera.
The nose on this wine is far more put together than the Binyamina but not nearly as good as the Teperberg. The nose shows notes of mineral, red forest berry, and floral notes, the noes is less expressive than I would have liked. The mouth though is highly expressive and once again, this blend reminds me of a hopped kindergarten child, it is a mess. It has more acidity than the Binyamina and a bit of funk, the acid is really intense, but wow, this is all over the place and no, it is not refreshing. It is a hard pass.

2019 Pacifica Rose – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a nice enough wine, but with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR, though not a wine I would run after. Still, for the heady prices of rose today, this is a solid buy if you like this kind of wine.
This may well be the highest scoring off-dry rose I have ever scored. The nose on this wine is sweet and IMHO it is the PERFECT sleeper agent rose to get people to like roses, it is super bright, well balanced, and respectful to both sides of the fence here.
The nose on this wine is ripe, and sweet, with nice pineapple, guava, and red fruit, followed by tart gooseberry, and lovely floral notes. The mouthfeel on this medium to full-bodied wine is lifted by the RS and sweetness, but it has crazy good acidity and the fruit and winemaking style respects the concept of rose, with lovely sweetness, followed by much of the fruit in the nose, along with crazy pineapple again, passion fruit, and intense grapefruit, and pith. The finish is long, sweet, and well done with sweet pomelo, and its citrus pith lingering long. Nice!

2019 Tulip White Franc – Score: 75 (QPR: NA)
I know, this is not an official rose, I get it, blanc de noir, I get it, but it looks rose, so in the rose list it goes, but sadly, rose or white, this wine misses the mark. Look at the 2019 Pacifica, which is off-dry but hits the mark well. This one is semi-sweet/off-dry, who cares, it is just off.
This wine is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Sauvignon Blanc. This wine tastes like they tried to pair sweet Cabernet Franc fruit with dry Sauvignon Blanc fruit, and for me, it is once again a crazed kindergarten child running all over the place. No focus and no approach. The nose on this wine shows intense fruity and sweet aromas with pineapple, guava, and gooseberry in the background, followed by flint, and pear. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is indeed all over, with sweet and tart fruit trying to meld together, but all I get is the sweet pear and apple with the pineapple fighting horribly with tart gooseberry and apple. Sorry, this one does not work.

2019 Dalton Rose, Alma Coral – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
The nose on this wine is nice enough with red and white fruit, showing some citrus, with floral notes, and hay. The mouth on this wine is boring, with no acid, a little fruit, and some mineral. Bummer. Drink now.

2019 Jerusalem Hills Rose – Score: NA (Mevushal) (QPR: NA)
This wine is a rose from Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose on this wine is sweet and cooked rosehip, followed by cooked strawberry, sweet cherry, and candied and sweet fruit galore. This wine may win the award for the worst rose from 2019, it is pure evil, there is nothing but cooked cherry compote and residual sugar sweetness. There is some acidity, but the wine is painful.

2019 Hagafen Don Ernesto Beret Rose – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median the price pulls it down to a POOR QPR score.
This wine is a rose of Syrah. The nose on this wine is lovely, showing bright yet ripe fruit, with good strawberry, somewhat dull pear, melon, and jasmine flowers, with a compote of rhubarb. The mouth on this medium-bodied rose has a nice weight and enough acidity, but again I wish it had more, with a lovely pith and sweet fruit mouthfeel, that is still refreshing with jasmine, strawberry/raspberry compote, followed by candied grapefruit, and tart melon. The finish is long, sweet, with red fruit, dried flower petals, and rosehip, and sweet red fruit. Nice. Drink Now.

2019 Domaine Netofa Rosado, Latour – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring even though it is more expensive than the median price for rose wine, it garner’s a quality score that is in the 2nd quintile, so the math says the QPR score is GOOD.
This wine is made from 100% Tempranillo grapes. This wine needs a bit of time to open up, I recommend opening this wine an hour before enjoying.
The nose on this wine shows ripe strawberry and saline, with some green notes, nice pink grapefruit, floral notes, and red fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has some nice weight and good salinity and with lovely ripe strawberry, raspberry, with good rhubarb, with lovely nice green notes, grapefruit acidity, with lovely lemon and slate galore. The finish is green, sweet, and very clean lines, refreshing yet lacking the fruit focus and complexity I expect and the finish is a bit short. Drink now!

2019 Domaine Netofa Rose – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is above the median quality score and it is below the median price line, so this wine gets a score of GREAT for QPR.
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre. Again, I think this Netofa Rose also needs some time to open, please give this wine a solid hour of air before enjoying, yes a strange thing, but the USA version needs that time (I cannot speak for the Israeli version). This wine took a bit of time to grow on me and that is good news, I think, as maybe this wine will not die over the summer as it normally does (I heard u, Ez).
Eben with time, the nose seems muddled but it is really just not there, it can be excited with absurd shaking, but even then it blows off in a second, the nose is this wine’s weakness. The nose shows muted with notes of candied cherry, dried strawberry, dry rosehip, and rhubarb. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is also muted, it is not the fruit bomb, but it is very well made, controlled, with wonderful acidity, clear strawberry, tart grapefruit, green notes, tart cherry, raspberry, and more floral notes, with acidity sourced from the grapefruit/lime tartness. The finish is long, very tart, refreshing, and IMHO fun, still its weakness is its lack of fruit vibrancy and the muted nose. Drink now.

2019 Nadiv Rose – Score: 82 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is in the 2nd worst quintile for quality and it is less expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
This wine is a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Viognier, another of the horses mixed with white wine, sadly, it did not help. Another disaster from the Israeli 2019 rose camp. The nose has rhubarb and dirty socks, and really not much else just muted socks and some fruit. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine has little to no acidity and has barely any refreshing feelings to the wine. Overall, the wine is boring and while I had hoped, it left me wishing for so much more. Drink now if you must.

2019 Ella Valley Rose, EverRose – Score: 70 (Mevushal) (QPR: NA)
This wine is below the median for price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
This wine is a blend of 50% Grenache, 40% Petit Sirah, and 10% Merlot. The nose on this wine is sweet but its true flaw is not obvious on the nose, the nose is almost OK, it has issues with balance, showing ripe grapefruit, but fighting with green notes and strawberry, and clumps of sugar in the background. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is where things go really wrong, this wine is not a dry wine, it has very clear residual sugar and it is muddled with cooked notes and overripe fruit, showing grapefruit, sweet notes, ripe yellow apple, with crazy ripe notes of jasmine and yellow flowers that actually make the wine taste very sweet, with clear over candied guava. The finish is long, sweet, and not very refreshing. There are some who will like this as some like the Tura, I am not one of them.

2019 Ramon Cardova Rosado – Score: 60 (Mevushal) (QPR: NA)
This wine is less expensive than the median price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
This wine is a blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Viura. The nose on this wine starts off and it does not get much better from there. The glass smells strange and the mouth is not much better, it smells like rotten eggs and really not enjoyable. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is really not fun, it tastes like cooked rhubarb and while it has acidity, there is really not much else.

2019 Covenant Rose, Red C – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median the price pulls it down to a POOR QPR score.
The nose on this wine is dry but it is ripe, there is nowhere to hide from the sweet citrus, darker red fruit, and almost candy corn notes. The mouth is dry, but the fruit is sweet, with dark cherry, kirsch in nature, with strawberry, sweet pomelo, and watermelon, and tart notes from the tart raspberry that helps to pick up the rounder mouth. The finish is long, red, and tart with sweet notes, slate lingering long.

2019 Domaine du Castel Rose de Castel – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median the price pulls it down to a POOR QPR score.
Finally a rose I want to smell. The nose on this wine is a mineral joy, pure and lovely with refreshing and bright fruit, tart red and citrus, with mineral, slate, saline, with loads of floral notes like rosehip and yellow flowers, lovely. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine does show some sweet notes, it grows stronger with time, and the acidity falls off, with tart raspberry, pink grapefruit, gooseberry, and yummy sweet and juicy strawberry. The finish is long, tart, and refreshing and it does pass the “I want more” test, with nice slate, floral notes, yellow flowers, and saline, with white tea. To me, this is a wine that is nice enough at opening but not long for this world or even at this time.

2019 Jezreel Valley Winery Natural, Pet Nat Rose – Score: 70 (QPR: NA)
This wine is at the highest quintile in price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
The color is a shocking bright neon pink almost crimson, with light touches around the side, the color really does not normally interest me unless a wine is bricking, but this color is truly attention-grabbing. The wine is made of 100% Carignan. Where the dalton Pet Nat is at least a nice enough wine at a crazy expensive price, this is literally candied cherry and bubble gum wine, with watermelon, and more candied fruit, the structure is all over the place and the fruit is so absurd without the needed acidity. Sad. Again, another wine that is absurdly expensive and not even of good value. Move on.

2019 Flam Rose – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is at the highest quintile in price and it is lower than the median score, so it gets a score of BAD for QPR.
The wine is a blend of 74% Syrah, 16% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Malbec. The nose on this wine shows strawberry and creme, with tart and sweet fruit notes. Again, this is the second time I am having this wine, and it is still not better, still too ripe, it lacks the acidity, much akin to the Gush Etzion, but it is just fruit, and there is little else to grab your attention. Not refreshing enough to pass the “I want more test.

2019 Covenant Rose, Blue C – Score: 80 (QPR: BAD)
This is a wine that started off nice enough but then fell apart and even then it was oxidized, but with my new QPR scoring it is two quintiles more expensive than the median rose price and it is not as good as the median scores so that is why this wine gets a BAD on the QPR score.
The nose on this wine is ripe, with notes of papaya, juicy strawberry, but in the background are notes of oxidation and pomegranate. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ok, the acidity is incredible, actually a bit out of control, the balance is lacking, the sides of the mouth pucker with acidity, the mid-palate is not flabby as much as it is uni-dimensional, with more oxidized notes, showing little of interest just more ripe fruit, ripe strawberries, with grapefruit, and lemon in the background. The finish is medium in length with more ripe fruit, oxidized notes linger long with cooked notes, and little vibrancy. The wine seems to fall apart quickly. It started as a wine with insane and painful acidity, but it turns into a uni-dimensional wine after 20 minutes of being open. Drink NOW!

2019 Bat Shlomo Rose – Score: 90 to 91 (QPR: EVEN)
While this wine is nice enough it is two quintiles higher in price than the median and as such even with a quality score higher than the median it should have received a score of POOR for QPR, however, it is in the second quintile for quality as well. Therefore, it is dead even.
This wine reminds me of the good old days of Bat Shlomo when their rose and white wines were solid to very good, think 2013 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2014 Rose (even the 2015 vintage was not evil, 2016 is where the thing went very awry, I am happy to see a Bat Shlomo I like again).
This wine is 100% pure funk, a nose of funk, fruit, and very nice control, with loads of flint, and really lovely fruit in the background, with orange blossom, and hints of sweet yet bright clementines. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a good body, a solid fruit focus showing some sweet strawberry, tempered well with more mineral, rock, and flint, with lovely grapefruit acidity, lemon, and with clementines and sweet-tart marmalade. The finish is long, tart, yet balanced with sweetness, showing pith, hints of the sweet fruit, and more Orange blossom. Once more, this is a nice wine, but the price is absurdly high for the value. You can get a far better white wine for much less. Drink now!

2019 Tura Rose – Score: 70 (Mevushal) (QPR: NA)
This wine is super expensive and not of any interest to me, so NA.
This is an off-dry rose, IT IS NOT dry! When a wine label says it is dry and it has enough residual sugar that tastes like a would make a dentist take notice, IT IS NOT dry! This is a fruit bomb wine and I have ZERO interest in it. Yes, it made professionally, but it is not my cup of tea, not refreshing and far too sweet to be taken seriously, with little to no acidity to counter that much fruit juice. I know people, my good friend, who likes wine this way, but it is not my cup of tea, and it truly should say it is off-dry on the label. Move on!

2019 Domaine Herzberg Rose, Coteaux de Sitrya – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
Sadly, this wine is not as good as the Median score and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a BAD QPR wine.
Sadly, this rose has no acid and though the fruit is clean and proper, the lack of acid makes a low alcohol wine feel flat and flabby. Drink UP!

2019 Chateau Roubine, Cru Classe, Premium – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD) (Mevushal)
Of the three Cotes de Provence wines that Royal imported, this one wants to be cold, but not fridge cold, this one wants to be more like 56 degrees or so, that way it shows its acidity best. This is the third or fourth time I have had this rose. Overall, the Royal French rose prices have gone up this year, bummer. Also, they made this mevushal this year.
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring, it is sadly expensive, higher than the median, however, it scores in the 2nd quintile, so that makes it a GOOD QPR score.
This wine is a bit better than previous vintages but nowhere near the 2015 vintage which is still the best ever. The nose on this wine is nice with loads of yellow blossoms, hints of jasmine, great mineral, and lovely classic notes of strawberry and cream, with green notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is quite nice, it shows a good fruit focus, and lovely pith and acidity, but it is uni-dimensional in nature, with mineral, grapefruit, hints of orange, and melon in the far background, and green notes in the foreground with tart raspberry. The finish is a bit short as well, again the mouth searing acidity and pith make you almost miss the shortness, with lovely mineral, citrus, slate, and orange/grapefruit notes lingering long. Drink now.

2019 Goose Bay Pinot Noir Rose – Score: 70 (QPR: NA) (Mevushal)
This wine is too ripe for me. The nose is candied fruit, with a color that is too red for me. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has little to no acidity, with tutti-fruity notes, cotton candy, and candied cherry and strawberry. Not my cup of tea.

2019 Shiloh Rose – Score: 75 (QPR: NA) (Mevushal)
This wine is expensive as it is above the median price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
The wine is a blend of 70% Barbera and 30% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is not as much cooked as it is just plain sweet, with sweet and ripe pomegranate and red fruit. The mouth on this wine does taste cooked, almost like cooked strawberry jam, with sweet Asian Pear, and plum, with some acidity, but again, it lacks the “I want more” test. It does show saline and slate on the finish.

2019 Matar Rose – Score: 86 (QPR: POOR)
Sadly, this wine is right on the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands it as a POOR QPR wine.
This wine is a blend of 90% Grenache and 10% Counoise. The nose on this wine is nice showing ripe yet somewhat controlled strawberry and cream, with orange blossom floral notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine starts off nice but dies away quickly, the acidity is there to start but then it disappears, with strawberry, gooseberry, grapefruit, and lemongrass, that gives way to an almost plush mouthfeel. The finish is long, nice red fruit, orange hints, and flint, with almond pith. Drink now.

2019 Jezreel Rose – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is right above the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
This wine is a blend of 40% Carignan, 45% Syrah, and 15% Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine is not complex, simple, with strawberry, floral notes (rosehip), and mineral notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe and sweet in nature, it is not overly sweet, and the acid is balanced, but there is too much sweetness for me, showing strawberry, watermelon, with pomegranate, grapefruit, and slate.

2019 Chateau Roubine Rose, La Vie – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring even though it is more expensive than the median price for rose wine, it garner’s a quality score that is in the 2nd quintile, so the math says the QPR score is GOOD. Overall, the Royal French rose prices have gone up this year, bummer.
This is the third or fourth time I have had this rose and the first time I really had it with no noise around me, still, my score only moved a bit from the previous tastings. The nose is lovely with loads of mineral, pith, showing floral notes of yellow flowers with orange blossom, along with strawberries and cream, and red fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a clear and present focus of acidity, with a lovely attack showing more focus and complexity, showing lovely tart and juicy strawberry, lemon, grapefruit, tart cherry, and crazy mineral. The finish is incredibly long with pith and rock, slate, and tart juicy fruit, and loads of acidity, wow!

2019 Gush Etzion Rose – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is right above the Median line for quality and it is more expensive than the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
The wine is a blend of 49% Mourvedre, 30% Grenache, and 21% Syrah. A classic GSM style Rose. The nose on this wine is tart and bright showing great control, with funk, straw, hay, followed by tart cherry, red fruit, and lovely citrus, and mineral. Sadly, the mouth is where the wine goes wrong, it has no acidity, it is not refreshing or bright, it lacks the “I want more” sentiment, with dry raspberry, rosehip, floral notes, and lemon. The finish is long and funky and if this had more acid it would be a huge winner.

2019 Psagot Rose – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is the very definition of boring, not exciting, and not horrible, QPR wise, I mean. It is just the median price line and the quality line, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
If you like cotton candy in your rose, this is for you. The nose is nice with notes of cotton candy, flint, raspberry, and sweet notes. The mouth is sweet with nice enough acidity, showing sweet strawberry and tart notes. Drink now!

2019 Cantina Giuliano Costa Rosato – Score: 90 to 91 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is in the 2nd quintile of quality scoring and it is RIGHT on the Median price line, so this wine gets a GREAT score for QPR.
This wine is more a Gris than a rose and I really liked it. The nose on this wine is pure funk, mineral, and more funk, with blossom and almost no fruit other than apple. The mouth on this medium-bodied rose is lovely, showing great acidity, focus, no flaws, showing notes of strawberry, tart raspberry, with green apple and spice galore and saline. The finish is long, green, earthy, and flinty, with loads of rock and smoke. Bravo! Drink Now!

2019 Le Rose de Chateau Greysac – Score: 88 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a nice enough wine, but with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR, though not a wine I would run after. Still, for the heady prices of rose today, this is a solid buy if you like this kind of wine.
This wine is not a Saignee it is pressed grapes with a few hours on the lees. The wine is a blend of 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Cabernet Franc, and 14% Merlot. The nose on this wine is ripe, with candied cherry, raspberry, and almost plum-like notes with nice saline, mineral, and citrus. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, it comes at you with good acidity but man the fruit is very present and not really controlled, yes, there is crazy acidity, but the fruit is ripe and feels out of balance even with that acidity, followed by clear plum fruit fighting with grapefruit, orange, and lemon, it is a bit off-kilter. The finish is super long, crazy acidic and tart, wow, with slate and mineral, but man the off-kilter fruit, and the acid fight each other. Drink now!

2019 Dalton Rose – Score: 88 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a nice enough wine, but with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR, though not a wine I would run after. Still, for the heady prices of rose today, this is a solid buy if you like this kind of wine.
This one showed less sweetness than the Psagot, but it is still very fruit-forward. The nose shows nice enough sweet notes with strawberry, raspberry, and sweet fruit, with bubblegum rounding out the notes. The mouth is sweet, too sweet, but balanced, too much bubblegum and sweet candied fruit. Drink now.

2019 Twin Suns Rose, Reserve – Score: 88 to 89 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a nice enough wine, but with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR, though not a wine I would run after. Still, for the heady prices of rose today, this is a solid buy if you like this kind of wine.
This wine is made from Graciano, a Spanish grape that grows in Califonia as well. The nose on this wine is tart, showing a great balance, with nice white blossom, with strawberry and cream, raspberry, nice herb, and loads of tart pear/Asian Pear in the background. The mouth on this lovely medium-bodied rose is a slight step behind last year’s success, showing some control, but it becomes watery too quickly, sweet strawberry, ripe raspberry, and a plush mouthfeel. The finish is long, sweet, ripe, yet balanced enough, with sweet red fruit, tart pear, hints of citrus, and flint. Drink now.

2019 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR. With the heady prices of roses and the really good score, this is a no brainer!
First, note the new label – awesome! Next, this wine is 100% Cabernet Franc, I love it! The 2018 Les Lauriers de Rothschild Rose was a step back from the inaugural 2017 vintage, which was great. Thankfully, the 2019 vintage picks up where 2017 left off and we are all good here, IMHO!
The nose on this wine is rich and redolent, with ripping pink grapefruit, lovely tart strawberry, mineral, dried rhubarb, raspberry, and lovely floral notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine shows a nice weight, with good fruit focus, showing equal fruit focus to the 2017 vintage, with great acidity, nothing like the Greysac rose’s acidity, but that thing is CRAZY. The mouth has a drop of sweet fruit, showing tart passion fruit, a drop of candied strawberry, but that is it, with a lovely mineral core, and really nice tart citrus lingering long. The finish is long and tart, with ripping acid, great balance, lovely mineral, and pith lingering long. Lovely! Drink now!

2019 Tabor Barbera Rose, Adama – Score: 86 (QPR: GOOD)
The wine’s quality score is in line with the Median score and the price is below the median line so this wine gets a GOOD QPR score.
The nose is nice, less sweet than the other Israeli rose, with nice notes of grapefruit and strawberry, sweet notes, with some balance, showing nice pith, good focus, and some mineral.

2019 Herzog Rose, Lineage – Score: 87 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a nice enough wine, but with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR, though not a wine I would run after. Still, for the heady prices of rose today, this is a solid buy if you like this kind of wine.
This may well be the most balanced of the sweet roses, but I am not sure that helps. The nose on this wine is sweet, the mouth is balanced, but the notes are too much for me with candied fruit, little complexity, and uni-dimensional. It is a nice enough of a quaff. Drink now.

2019 Capcanes Peraj Petita Rosat – Score: 60 (QPR: NA)
This wine is less expensive than the median price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
I must be honest, the label really caught my attention! Bravo on that, and yeah, that is where any good news ends, IMHO, in regards to this rose. The nose on the 14.2% ABV wine is exactly what you would expect from a 14.2% ABV rose, sweet, sweet, and ripe, with notes of candied and sweet cherry, pomegranate, floral notes, and not much else.
The mouth on this wine is just sweet, ripe, and has not freshness, it lacks the “I want more” score, and it lacks anything to make me think beyond the sweetness, ripeness, and nice pith that is on the long sweet finish. Drink now.

2019 Borgo Reale Rose – Score: 60 (QPR: NA) (Mevushal)
This wine is less expensive than the median price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
The nose on this wine has nice funk, but that is where the fun ends, the wine is too ripe/cooked with sweet fruit, little control, and no brightness. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is heavy with no litheness or brightness, showing cooked fruit, no joy, and really nowhere to fin happiness. Drink NOW.

2019 Elvi Wines Herenza Rose – Score: 83 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
This wine is a blend of 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah. The nose on this wine starts off with sweet Rhubarb, pomegranate, juicy strawberry, and boysenberry, cotton candy, and some white fruit/melon. The mouth on this wine starts off with some mouthfeel but with time the wine opens and it falls flat, making it very uni-dimensional, with much of the same fruit as on the nose, with not enough acidity to make it all work. The finish is short and really not there, showing sweet candied fruit, and pith, but that is about it. Drink NOW!

2019 Terra di Seta Meshi Rosato – Score: 83 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is below the Median line for quality and it is below the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
This starts off nice but it too falls off the cliff quickly. It starts with good enough acidity, but the amount of alcohol on a Rose should never be 14%. It makes the wine to cloning and fat, and less refreshing than lighter alcohol rose. Nice enough. Drink NOW!

2019 Sainte Beatrice B Rose – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT) (Mevushal)
This is a nice wine, and with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR. With the heady prices of roses and the really good score, this is a great buy and throw in Mevushal, which no one cares about now, given our current circumstances, and it is nice indeed!
This is the third or fourth time I have had this rose and the first time I really had it with no noise around me, still, my score stayed the same. Overall, the Royal French rose prices have gone up this year, bummer.
The nose is nice with near green notes, but hiding in the background is sweet mango notes, strawberry, red fruit, orange, and fruit blossom. The mouth on this medium-bodied rose is close to La Vie’s acidity, showing great balance, loads of pith, with a nice fruit focus showing a mineral backbone and rich salinity with raspberry and tart strawberry, and grapefruit. The finish is a bit short and that gets covered up so well by the incredible lingering fruit, acidity, and crazy graphite/slate and mineral that comes up after the finish falls off. There are a clear tension and grip with this rose, and if you can ignore the short finish the lingering pith, graphite, slate, and orange all wrap up a wonderful rose with a great tart and refreshing experience. Nice! Drink now.

2019 The Butcher’s Daughter South Rose – Score: 75 (Mevushal) (QPR: NA)
This wine is less expensive than the median price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
This reminds me of the rose I had in France from Victor called South Rose as well, but it had a different label.
The wine starts off ok but galls apart in a few minutes showing overly sweet notes of rhubarb and candied strawberry, with candied grapefruit. The mouth is flat with no acid, a bit of pith on the finish. Not very refreshing, too sweet for that. Drink UP

2019 Contessa Annalisa Rose, Veneto IGT – Score: 70 (Mevushal) (QPR: NA)
This wine is less expensive than the median price and one of the lowest in quality, but it is below the drinking score, so it gets an NA score for QPR.
This tastes like cooked grapefruit and strawberry, with a side of rhubarb compote, truly uninspiring, to say the least. Move on! Also, that cork is a BEAST to get out, and it has slight fizziness, totally uninteresting.

2019 Elvi Wines Vina Encina Rosado – Score: 87 (Mevushal) (QPR: GREAT)
This is a riper wine, and with my new QPR scoring it is still is not as expensive as the median and its score is also above the median, so it is a GREAT QPR. With the heady prices of roses and the really good score, this is a great buy and throw in Mevushal, which no one cares about now, given our current circumstances, and it is nice indeed!
The nose is candied fruit with lovely sweet notes, red fruit galore, with nice acidity, gooseberry, and dirt. The mouth is lovely with crazy acidity, dirt, and lovely raspberry, strawberry, pink grapefruit, and nice candied fruit. Nice

2019 Baron Herzog Rose – Score: 83 (Mevushal) (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is barely above the drinking line, qualitatively, but it is in the lowest quintile, price-wise, and it is one level down quality-wise, so it is a GOOD QPR.
The nose on this wine is actually nice, but the mouth is too ripe/sweet for me. Showing watermelon, ripe strawberry, sweet tea, and sweet pomelo.

2019 Recanati Gris de Marselan – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is above the Median line for quality and it is above the median price, so this lands an EVEN QPR score.
With so many disappointing 2019 roses from Israel, and honestly from around the world, this one is one of the more reliable roses out there. Sadly, it took forever for this wine to make it to the USA, it is finally here and many I am sure will be very happy!
The nose on this rose is lovely tart, with impressive fruit, loads of floral notes, white flowers, with Jasmine, citrus, red fruit, and the always present mineral. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is nice, but it too is a step behind the previous vintage, with nice mineral, but the mouth feels hollow with a stunted acid focus, with raspberry, tart and juicy strawberry, slate, and overall the wine is refreshing – just not what I have come to expect – man 2019 in Israel sucks for wine. Drink now.

As I close out the QPR posts for each of the wine categories, I forgot a few of the simple white wines – so here is a post of them. Please look at the past simple white wines post for more on QPR and the simple white wine category. Again, QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) is where kosher wine needs to go. QPR means well-priced wines. Still, people do not get QPR. To me, QPR WINNER is what I describe and explain here. The overall revised QPR methodology is described here (and linked from the WINNER post as well).

One more reminder, “Simple” white wines is a wine that will not age more than seven or so years. So, please no hate mail! There are many WINNERS here, enjoy! I also threw in a few roses with one WINNER, but it is a 2019 Rose, and 2020 roses are about to be released, so drink up those 2019 roses already. I also tasted a few reds, with the 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild getting a slightly higher score.

The clear WINNER of this tasting is the 2019 Chateau Lacaussade, Vieilles Vignes, Saint-Martin. That along with the 2018 Koenig Riesling, which I like more now than I did a year ago. Also, the 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild. The 2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild, Montagne Saint-Emilion was a winner in my previous post, I just slightly raised the score on it.

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

ROSE Wines (DRINK them now – if you must)

2019 Rubis Roc Rose – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 50% Cinsault and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a weighty and food-required style rose than a refreshing rose. The nose of this wine is fresh and alive, with meaty notes, showing red and blue fruit notes, with nice citrus, with good attack and herbs. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is solid, a drop less acid than I would like, but still very good with hot peppers, green notes, blue fruit, raspberry, dried lime/lemon, with mineral, and nice spice. The finish is long, green, and enjoyable, with good structure and nice minerality, nice! Drink now. (tasted Oct 2020)

2019 Yaacov Oryah Pretty as the Moon Rose– Score: 89+ (QPR: POOR)
This rose is a blend of 45% Syrah, 40% Grenache, and 15% Petite Sirah. The nose on this wine is divine – a lovely nose of floral violet, loads of rosehip, followed by a bit of nice funk, dried and tart cranberry, along with loads of mineral, this smells like what I want from a Provence wine, with dried/tart red fruit, a bit of reductive oxidation, and green notes as well. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice but the acidity is where the wine fails, it has acidity, but the wine’s profile, which has nice fruity and refreshing characteristics lacks the punch of bright acidity to bring it all together, still, showing mineral, and lovely red fruit, with tart strawberry, lovely green/tart apple, quince, watermelon, hints of passion fruit, and loads of mineral. The finish is long, complex enough, with slate, graphite, more flowers, and lovely freshness, WOW! Bravo! Drink now! (tasted Oct 2020)

2020 J. Folk Rose in a Can – Score: 83 (QPR: EVEN)
I think I am increasing the score here because the can and the presentation are so nice. To be honest, once you taste the wine, it stops being interesting. There is no nose of the wine – when you try it from the can, which of course I had to do. That ruins the nose for me, as to me, the nose is a preamble to the wine. So, while many will find wine in a can to be cool, which I do, the idea of “enjoying” wine from a can is 100% ILLOGICAL to me. Also, getting the QPR score here is a bit difficult as a can is not a bottle, but pricing a 12 pack and then dividing by three gets me a bottle price.
So, now on to a glass and a real idea of the wine. As you pour this wine it has slight fizz/bubbles, which annoys me in the glass and the mouth. The nose on this wine is its best part, which is crazy to hide in a can, with notes of sweet strawberry, plum, watermelon, and cherry. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is where things go badly, there is no acid, none, in its stead is loads of pith and that is about it. The pith tries to act like acidity but it fails, with the pith fading quickly as fast as the bubbles fade, telling me the can is saving this wine from dying at the time of opening. There are some citrus and lemon in the background and red fruit from the nose. Drink now! (tasted Oct 2020)

Simple white wines

2019 Chateau de Santenay, Mercurey, Les Bois de Lalier – Score: 92 (QPR: POOR)
I love the evolution this wine undergoes over a few hours and yes, this wine is ready to enjoy, but it is not at its peak and it can indeed enjoy a year or two of sleep. Still, one of the TRUE joys of wine drinking is watching a wine evolve, which is why I hate decanting, aeration, or any of the many ways to speed up father Time.
This wine starts closed, but with 30 minutes, it opens to a true classic Burgundy. Still, if you had me guess I would have said a Four Gates Chard, maybe 2002, 2004, or 2017. Still, the wine is lovely and as time evolves it starts to show what makes its special – Burgundy!
The nose starts with classic notes of white Burgundy, with peach, saline, green apple, and classic oaky notes. With time, that changes to show what lies ahead, with lovely yellow pear, orange apple, nectarine, lemon blossom, rich salinity, and lovely loam and oak. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is asking for thought, it is layered, ripe, yet balanced, showing great acidity and mouth-draping with an utter elegance that is incredible, the oak, sweet fruit, green apple, peel, with rich orange rind, tangerine notes, followed by roasted nuts, toast, brioche, and sweet oaky goodness that wraps the mouth with a richness and weight and brings to thought many of the great chards of the past. The finish is long, green, sweet, and joyous, with sweet orange, more floral notes, sweet oak, almond, nuts, citrus zest, and rich mineral, yellow plum, hay, but it is the piercing acidity, rich salinity, lovely fruit, and incredible yet well-balanced oak/Brioche, with nutty notes that make this wine quite impressive.
While this wine does fall off a bit the next day, by losing its acidity, it still keeps its unctuous and rich mouthfeel, without loads of oak. While I feel uneasy, the wine is solid, and while the acidity is not the same as when it was opened it is still a lovely wine. Drink until 2025. (tasted Nov 2020)

2019 Chateau Lacaussade, Vieilles Vignes, Saint-Martin– Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
This is a wine I want more of. Still, the 2017 vintage fell off the cliff so hard and so swiftly, I am very afraid of stocking up on this wine, maybe a few. Still, a very fun wine at this point.
The nose on this wine is really fun, the funk is slow to come out, but with time it arrives, along with waxy notes, citrus, almonds, toast, some oak, and gooseberry. The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is really fun, showing a lovely fruit focus, with an almost waxy/oily mouthfeel, showing good weight, along with fun pith, smoke, a bit of brioche, but the fruit is central here, with lemon/lime, kumquat, melon, passionfruit, and orange zest. The finish is long, with great acidity, tart fruit, a bit more oak, but with a verve and electricity and an almost concentrated fruit approach, that is refreshing and enjoyable, this wine is fun. Bravo! Drink until – I am afraid to say, but let’s try 2023 to be safe. (tasted Dec 2020)

2018 Koenig Riesling, Alsace (M) – Score: 91  (QPR: WINNER)
This wine has evolved beautifully from a year ago, once more Rieslings need time to evolve and this one is no exception. The nose on this wine still has the riper notes of but it shows more orange blossom and honeysuckle, but now the petrol is in full bloom, along with flint,  mineral, and gooseberry. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, it shows a heavier mouthful than 2017, along with more floral notes, with a great balance of acid, petrol, showing lemon/lime curd, more tart passion fruit and gooseberry, tart pear, and mineral galore. The finish is long, tart, clean, with lovely mineral, slate, and enough funk to keep me very happy. Bravo! Drink until 2023. (tasted Nov 2020)

2018 Yatir Creek White – Score: 90 (QPR: POOR)
This wine’s QPR score is POOR because while it has a good quality score the price is so absurd that it does not work. Also, the bottle may be absurdly heavy, but at least they figured out the truth, you do not need anything more than a DIAM cork for a 50 dollar wine! LOL!
This wine is a blend of 69% Viognier and 31% Chenin Blanc. The nose on this wine is quite nice, with mineral, loads of floral notes, jasmine, followed by peach heaven, straw, and loads of stone fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ruined, IMHO, by the oak, the oak adds the spice, but it covers over the fruit, and all you get is oak, peach, and nice acidity, with loads of spice and not much else, and that is sad. The wine is still refreshing, but at this price, it makes no sense, given the better options. The finish is long, and oaky, with loads of yellow fruit, peach, apricot, yellow apple, and floral notes, with slate, rock, and did I say oak?? Drink until 2023. (tasted Nov 2020)

2019 Gush Etzion Sauvignon Blanc – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine was not as good when I had it earlier this year. The wine is showing better now. The wine starts slowly but with time it turns to a very tropical and tart approach, with nice gooseberry, guava, tart lychee, and flint. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is very akin to the 2019 Hagafen Sauvignon Blanc, but it loses the acidity I crave quickly, with still nice balance, showing loads of tropical fruit, melon, with a slight hollow in the middle, but the finish is long and lingers well with pith, smoke, flint, more gooseberry, lemon/lime, and almond notes. Drink now. (tasted Dec 2020)

2019 Gush Etzion Chardonnay, Special Reserve – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is an example of a Chardonnay that used less oak than the classic ABC, it still uses oak, just not so much that it becomes a smoke/toast bomb. The wine’s usage of oak is a bit more elegant.
The nose on this wine shows nice sweet oak, yellow and green apple, melon, brioche, sweet peach, and iodide. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a balanced approach, with nice sweet quince, apple, pear, peach, and sweet oak, with hints of butterscotch, and a nice enough approach, the main issue is the hollow in the middle and the shortness of the finish. The finish is short, with not enough acidity and mouthfeel to bring this wine around. Drink until 2022.(tasted Dec 2020)

2019 Shiran Chardonnay, unoaked – Score: 89 (QPR: BAD)
The nose of this wine is quite interesting, it has almost complex, with highs and lows, showing peach, nectarines, lemon meringue, and green apple. The mouth is lacking the acidity it needs to bring this all together, nice enough, with nothing to grab you, rounded, with more peach, apricot, quince, apple, and spices. With time the acid comes out but it stills lacks the complexity to grab you. Drink Now. (tasted Oct 2020)

2017 Tzuba Chardonnay – Score: 87 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is oaky, I get that, that is fine, it is controlled with lovely smoke, almost with notes from my favorite Chardonnay oak barrels, with good creaminess, smoke, and tart lemon/citrus notes. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is nice, rich, and layered, I wish it had a bit more acidity, showing green and yellow baked apples, the lack of acid sticks out, the toast and creme brulee are nice, with good almonds, almond paste, and bitterness, but the acid needed would have brought all of this together. The finish is oaky, tannic, and toasty, with vanilla galore, baked goods, and bitter almond paste lingering long. Drink by 2022. (tasted Nov 2020)

2019 Jezreel Gewurztraminer – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine like so much of the 2019 vintage in Israel lacks acid which is shocking given what Gewurztraminer should be like. The nose on this wine is far better than the mouth with pineapple, guava, lovely orange blossom, really nice jasmine, and good citrus. Sadly, the mouth lacks almost any acidity, with good-enough fruit, and some slate on the finish. Another victim of the 2019 vintage. Drink now if you must. (tasted Dec 2020)

2019 Mademoiselle Blanc – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 55% Sauvignon Blanc and 45% Chardonnay. The nose is sweet and with very little going on, with spice, apple, lemon, and not much else. The mouth on this wine is uni-dimensional, cantaloupe, citrus, and no acid, boring, so sad. Drink Now. (tasted Oct 2020)

2019 Domaine du Castel, Blanc du Castel, C, Chardonnay – Score: 85 (QPR: BAD)
I normally like this wine, but this is just another victim of Israel’s HORRIBLE disaster of vintage – the 2019 vintage. This wine has the white pepper and violet that lives behind a blanket of French oak, but there is also elegance in the over perfume, sadly, the wine lacks brightness or balance. The mouth is unidimensional – plain and simple with oak, more oak, and spices, again, no acid, and the fruit is dominated by the oak. Sad, the finish is long, backed by nice tannins, Drink until 2023. (tasted Nov 2020)

2019 Domaine Netofa, White – Score: 85 (QPR: EVEN)
Sadly, this wine is another victim of the horrible 2019 vintage, that is Israel 2020. The nose on this wine is straw, quince, earth, and floral notes of violet, very muted, but nice. The real issue is in the mouth. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is flat, hollow, and flat, it starts with a bit of quince, some acidity, and then this massive gaping hole opens up and all you have is air, followed by yellow apple, tart green apple, a drop of citrus, maybe lime, and something sweet, like honeydew, and honeysuckle, and that is it. The finish is short, with not much to add to the party. sadly, the wine does not improve much with air, and after a few hours, it is even worse. Another sad victim of Israel’ s2019 vintage. Drink now, if you must. (tasted Oct 2020)

2019 Dalton Unoaked Chardonnay – Score: 82 (QPR: EVEN)
Another 100% Unoaked Chardonnay from the Galilee. The nose on this wine is very much in-line with the Shiran, tropical, with sweet notes, guava, and herbs. The mouth on this wine is flat and boring – yet another example of 2019 from Israel, a total waste of time. Sad. (tasted Oct 2020)

2018 Or Haganuz Chardonnay, Unfiltered, Special Edition – Score: 81 (QPR: BAD)
To be honest, I was worried this would be an oak-monster, sadly, this is just a boring wine, maybe an oak-monster would have been more interesting. The nose shows some nice oak and creme brulee, but beyond the creamy and pie flavors, this wine is very much boring. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a nice weight to it, the mouth is viscous, but it is boring, with no acid to talk about, loads of apple, peach, and pear, with melon baked pie, but flat as a pancake. The spices are nice on the medium finish. Drink by 2022. (tasted Nov 2020)

2019 Gush Etzion Gewurztraminer – Score: 80 (QPR: BAD)
This wine starts and ends poorly, the nose, the mouth, it is a flower and medicinal shop shows no elegance of any sort, and is overall quite unenjoyable. Beyond the medicinal notes, the overwhelming orange/jasmine notes in the mouth along with the Pomelo rind are not enjoyable at all. Sad, move on! (tasted Dec 2020)

Simple Reds

2017 Les Lauriers de Rothschild, Montagne Saint-Emilion (M) – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The wine is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. This may be the first red Lauriers wine that I like. The nose on this wine is violet, night flowers, with a rich perfume of red fruit, berries, forest floor, intense roasted herbs, foliage galore, and earth. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a slight hole in the middle to start and the green notes are intense, with time, that fills in, with lovely layers of fruit and tannin, showing good extraction, smoke, tobacco, toast, and loads of roasted herb, followed by cranberry, hints of pomegranate, dark cherry, more foliage, and more green notes. The finish is long, green, herbal, with smoke, toast, lovely smoking tobacco, and nice graphite, with mineral notes, and herbs. Bravo! Drink from 2022 until 2028 (Or now with 1 hour of decanting). (tasted Dec 2020)

2016 Tzafona Cabernet Sauvignon (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
I was expecting this to be a mess, I was shocked to find it is not a mess, but not great either, and sadly, the mouth is worse than the nose. Still, this is a nice enough wine that would not be an affront to those you enjoy it with.
The nose on this wine is quite acceptable, with green notes, earth, a bit of smoke/toast, with some notes of candied plum. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe and candied/cooked with loads of oak, vanilla, smoke, cherry, cranberry, plum, and blackberry, with mild tannin, liqueur, and earth, and more oak. The finish is long, green, ripe, sweet, and oaky, with vanilla, smoke, and sweet fruit. Drink soon. (tasted Dec 2020)

2020 Sforno Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserva (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is ripe, yeah I get that, no date juice, more balanced than the Malbec/Syrah, I still think the Mevushal is hurting this wine, but then again, this wine is not going to blow anyone’s socks off with or without Mevushal. The nose is ripe, with floral notes of rosehip, smoke, a bit of earth, and tart fruit. The mouth on this medium0bodied wine is balanced, ripe, with blackberry, smoke, dirt, raspberry, and dark cherry, with green notes, and a bit of that cheap feeling you get in spades in the Malbec/Syrah, and less cooked notes. The finish is long, ripe, green, and nice, with enough acidity, and vanilla, with floral hints and some more fruit. Drink now. (tasted Dec 2020)

2020 Sforno Red Blend, Gran Reserva – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
OK, this wine is not boiled and it has all of the same issues that the Malbec/Syrah has, essentially an underwhelming wine, with little to get your attention, and loads of ripe fruit. The nose on this wine is ripe, no date juice here, but ripe, unbalanced, with more of those tinny green notes, that does not go well with the overripe fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, clawingly so, with a nicer mouthfeel and a nicer tannin structure, but the wine is a mess, with ripe blackberry, plum, cranberry, boysenberry, and earth. The finish is long, green, ripe, floral, and smoky. Drink by 2023. (tasted Dec 2020)

2020 Sforno Malbec/Syrah, Reserva (M) – Score: 85 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah and 50% Malbec. This wine uses a classic Argentinian approach of getting ripe fruit and hoping it will work. Sadly, it does not, either the Mevushal is hurting it or the absurdly ripe fruit does, but there is no balance here. The nose is ripe blackberry, plum liqueur, blue fruit, and dirt. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, plush, and overall boring, it has that cooked and cheap feeling, with green notes behind all that fruit, showing no finesse. The finish is fine, nothing there, just more ripe fruit, soft tannin, and earth. Drink now. (tasted Dec 2020)

2016 Capcanes Carignan, La flor del flor de Primavera Samso – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
I opened the wine and I was like, wow, this wine has evolved, nice, that lasted 7 minutes! Within minutes the true nature of this wine came out and yeah, no thanks!
The nose on this wine is beyond ripe, it is unbalanced, date-like, and not enjoyable. The nose on this wine is dates, prunes, sweet oak, roasted animal, sweet spices, cherry liqueur, and earth/loam. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is pure date juice and pure pain, the sweetness overpowers the entire mouth, with overripe blueberry, dark cherry, prune, date, and dark plum, with oak, smoke, toast, and earth. The tannin is the nice part but otherwise, a total mess. The finish is long, black, red, and ripe, with some acidity, more tannin, rich milk chocolate, coffee, sweet spices, and far too much sweet/ripe notes to make sense of it. Sad. Another lost vintage from Capcanes. Drink by 2027, if you like this kind of wine. (tasted Dec 2020)

To start – I really must state something in advance. I am sorry that I missed the chance to properly remember the 10th Yahrzeit of Daniel Rogov’s passing, which occurred on September 7th, 2011 (it may have been the 6th but Israel time and all).

I wrote two of my posts about the man, you can read them here and as such, I will simply say that I miss him as do most of the kosher wine drinking public. So much has changed in the past 10 years, since his passing, and I wonder what kosher wine would be like today if he was still with us. So much of the world is open to the kosher wine world, which was not the case 10 years ago. I wonder if Rogov would have embraced the opening. I wonder if he would have liked or disliked the fact that Israel is producing and importing loads of kosher wine from France and Italy, specially made for the Israeli kosher wine buying community.

I think, in the end, he would have loved all that is changing and we are all worse off by his lack of presence in our lives today. So I raised a glass of 2011 Yarden Blanc de Blanc in his memory and may we all be blessed for having known such a man!

QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Wines

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

Thankfully, no matter how garbage and pain I subject myself to, we are still blessed with quite a few wonderful QPR wines out there. This post includes superstars like Herzog Wines’s new 2019 Herzog Eagle’ Landing Pinot Noir, and a few others. It goes to show that when wineries reasonably price superior wines, even 46 dollar wines can be a QPR winner! Sadly, the Eagle’s Landing Pinot Noir is the most superior wine on this list. There are other nice wines to come but for now – this QPR wine list, overall, was not as good as previous lists.

We have an OK list of QPR WINNERS:

1. 2019 Herzog Eagle’ Landing Pinot Noir
2. 2017 Netofa Dor
3. 2019 Chateau Genlaire Grand Vin de Bordeaux
4. 2019 Elvi Vina Encina Blanco
5. 2019 Pacifica Riesling, Evan’s Collection
6. 2020 Domaine Guillerault Fargette Sancerre

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

1. 2020 Domaine Joost de Villebois Pouilly Fume
2. 2019 Domaine du Castel Grand Vin
3. 2019 Nana Chenin Blanc
4. 2019 Nana Cassiopeia
5. 2015 Mad Aleph Blaufrankisch
6. 2019 Aura di Valerie Zaffiro Super Tuscan
7. 2020 Vitkin Israeli Journey, Red
8. 2020 Domaine du Castel La Vie Blanc de Castel
9. 2019 Herzog Malbec, Lineage, Clarksburg – GREAT Value for a varietal I am not a huge fan of
10. 2020 Herzog Variations Be-leaf
11. 2018 Binyamina Sapphire, The Chosen
12. 2020 Tabor Sauvignon Blanc
13. 2020 Bodegas Faustino VI Rioja
14. 2020 Yatir Darom Rose
15. 2020 Recanati Marselan Rose
16. 2020 Arroyo del Imperio Chardonnay

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

1. 2020 Herzog Sauvignon Blanc, Acacia Barrel Series – very unique but expensive
2. N.V. Herzog Methode Champenoise, Special Reserve – Nice but expensive
3. 2020 Herzog Chardonnay, Chalk Hill, Special Edition – Nice but expensive
4. 2019 Castellare di Castellina Chianti Classico – very unique but expensive
5. 2020 Matar Chardonnay
6. 2019 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera – Still too ripe for me
7. 2019 Weinstock Cabernet Sauvignon, Cellar Select
8. 2020 Psagot Sinai, White
9. N.V. Drappier Rose de Saignee, Champagne
10. 2018 Les Lauriers de Rothschild
11. 2020 Pacifica Rattlesnake Hills Viognier
12. N.V. Vera Wang Party Prosecco, Brut
13. 2019 Or Haganuz Elima
14. 2019 Binyamina Chardonnay, Moshava

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

1. 2018 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Lot 70 – Lovely wine but expensive for the quality
2. 2019 Hagafen Family Vineyard Red Blend – Lovely wine but expensive for the quality
3. 2020 Binyamina Moshava Rose
4. 2019 Yatir Creek White
5. 2019 Domaine du Castel La Vie, Rouge du Castel
6. 2017 Barons Edmond & Benjamin de Rothschild
7. 2018 Domaine du Castel M du Castel
8. 2020 Padre Bendicho Rose
9. 2020 Carmel Private Collection Rose
10. 2020 Yatir Darom White
11. 2019 Nana Chardonnay
12. 2019 Segal Marawi Native
13. 2019 Mia Luce Blanc
14. 2019 Nana Tethys
15. 2018 Odem Mountain 1060 Cabernet Franc
16. 2018 Odem Mountain 1060 Red Wine
17. 2017 Odem Mountain Alfasi, Special Reserve
18. 2019 Mia Luce Syrah and Stems
19. 2019 Mia Luce C.S.M.
20. 2017 Tabor Merlot, Adama
21. 2017 Tabor Cabernet Sauvignon 1/11,000, Limited Edition
22. 2019 Chateau de Parsac
23. 2019 Gurra di Mare Tirsat
24. 2017 Tulip Espero
25. 2019 Psagot Merlot
26. 2019 Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon
27. 2018 Jezreel Icon
28. 2019 Psagot Edom
29. 2017 The Cave
30. 2018 Carmel Mediterranean
31. 2020 Yatir Mount Amasa Rose
32. 2020 Flam Camellia
33. 2020 Netofa Latour, White

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

The real WINNER here, from the entire list, is the lovely 2019 Herzog Eagle’s Landing Pinot Noir, another STUNNING Pinot Noir from Herzog – BRAVO!

There were other high-scoring wines in this overall list, nice wines from Covenant and others, but the prices of those wines put them at a disadvantage in comparison to others in their wine categories, and as such, they have poor to bad QPR wine scores.

In the end, IMHO, the overall list has less quality than the previous QPR list but there are a few nice wines here indeed.

The other WINNERS were the incredible 2019 Elvi Vina Encina Blanco, a lovely Macabeo for 13 dollars! Just lovely! The 2019 Pacifica Riesling, Evan’s Collection, is not as good as previous vintages – but another solid wine that many will enjoy. Finally, we have a Sancerre that I can get up and cheer about and that is the 2020 Domaine Guillerault Fargette Sancerre. It is here in the USA and it is nice!

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

Of these GOOD to GREAT wines – the most interesting of the list, for me, is the 2020 Domaine Joost de Villebois Pouilly Fume. No, it is not as good as the lovely 2019 Jean Pierre Bailly Pouilly Fume, still, it is a Mevushal wine that is reasonably priced, so it gets a solid QPR score. The 2019 Nana Chenin Blanc is nice, but for the price, it is not worth it, and it is DRINK NOW!

The 2019 Domaine du Castel Grand Vin, is nice, yes, but it is too ripe for me and the price is too much for the quality it is, so yeah, nice wine for those that like this style. The 2019 Nana Cassiopeia, is a wine that I found I could taste and at a decent enough price, so yeah, good going.

The 2015 Mad Aleph Blaufrankisch has so many stories revolving around it, that all I can say is, drink it if you like the style. I found it OK, but I do not need to buy any more.

The 2019 Aura di Valerie Zaffiro Super Tuscan is nice enough, but really, why did you need to put those words on the bottle? A Super Tuscon is a term used to describe red wines from Tuscany that may include non-indigenous grapes, particularly Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. The creation of super Tuscan wines resulted from the frustration winemakers had towards a slow bureaucracy in changing Italy’s wine law during the 1970s (from WineFolly). Why would you place those words on a wine bottle??

The 2019 Herzog Malbec, Lineage is a solid example of what reasonably priced wine from California can taste like! Finally, the newly released 2020 Herzog Variations Be-leaf – handily beats all other no-added sulfite options!

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

There are a few EVEN QPR scoring wines that I want to talk about. The 2020 Herzog Sauvignon Blanc, Acacia Barrel Series is very cool but the price is a bit too steep for the wine’s quality. The 2019 Castellare di Castellina Chianti Classico, is also nice, but for the price I can buy almost 3 Terra Di Seta Chianti Classico. So, yes it is different in style but not at 3x the value. Finally, the 2019 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera is still a ripe fruit bomb wine and I continue to miss the good old days of Capcanes.

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

I wanted to highlight the 2018 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Lot 70. It is a nice wine, but again, for the quality, the price is too high, so the QPR score is low. The same can be said for the 2019 Hagafen Family Vineyard Red Blend. It is a nice wine, just too expensive for the quality.

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

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

2019 Herzog Eagle’ Landing Pinot Noir, Edna Valley, CA – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose starts a bit warm but with air that blows off and turns classically inclined. The nose on this lovely wine shows notes of Cherry cola, lovely smoke, dirt, forest floor, and nice rosehip. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine starts a bit underwhelming, yes it is nice, but it shows a bit hollow, with intense spice, cloves, good acidity, soft tannin, strawberry, dark cherry cola, nice menthol, good acidity, a bit hollow, with sweet spices, and good loam. The finish is long, and here the tannin kicks in with more acid, orange pith, smoke, garrigue, and lovely toast. Nice.
With time, and I mean a FULL day, the wine fully opens, the wine was not ready for primetime. The nose did not change, and that was never the issue, still beautifully aromatic and varietally true. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine has finally come around, it now shows lovely oak, sweet dill, sweet vanilla, dark cherry cola, perfectly balanced mouthfeel, refreshing and balanced, with great fruit focus, searing tannin, lovely acid, sweet but balanced cherry, raspberry, strawberry, and loam, with forest floor, and rich menthol, dirt, and sweet spices. The finish is super long, tannic, acidic, and spicy, with good balance, more sweet fruit, loam, dark coffee beans, and lovely sweet tobacco. Drink from 2024 until 2034. BRAVO! (tasted August 2021)

2017 Netofa Dor, Galilee – Score: 91+ (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine starts ripe, and it stays that way but it becomes more elegant with time, this wine needs time, I would decant at this point if you must have it now. Otherwise, I would wait a couple of years and let the wine come to you! After many hours the nose on this wine shows notes of charcoal, roasted meat, deep anise, dark chocolate, smoke, and nice roasted herbs, with dark red and black fruit. The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is layered, rich, with deep minerality, with nice raspberry, dark strawberry, blueberry, lovely saline, with a plush mouthfeel (that is slow to come), with mouth-draping tannin, and good fruit focus. The finish is long, green, and smoky, with dark coffee beans, roasted herbs, rich charcoal, graphite, saline, and nice smoke. Nice! Drink from 2023 until 2027. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Chateau Genlaire Grand Vin de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superieur (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This is a fun wine and much better than the 2018 vintage. The nose on this wine is well balanced, with good smoke, dirt, fruit, blackberry, hints of blueberry, raspberry, and dark currants, with a perfumed smoky aroma, nice! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely with smoke, dirt, earth, good mouthfeel, lovely acid, nice mouth-coating tannin, with blackberry, dark cherry, good fruit-structure, earth, dirt, loam, and lovely unction. The finish is long, refreshing, tart, balanced, and well-made, with good acid, smoke, graphite, green notes, foliage, sweet tobacco, and sweet basil. Bravo!!! Drink by 2025. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Elvi Vina Encina Blanco, La Mancha (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this Macabeo is lovely, dirty, stinky, funky, and mineral heaven, everything I want!! The nose on this wine is pure heaven, like the line from Field of Dreams, except the response is not Iowa, it is YES! The nose starts very funkily, a bit too funky, even for me, thankfully, a few minutes later, it turns lovely, with notes of funk, dirt, mineral, slate, smoke, flint, lemon, wax, tarragon, honeydew melon, walnut, and more citrus. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, the acid slaps you upside the head to start, followed by rich minerality, saline, flint, peach, tart grapefruit, biting quince, gooseberry, and screaming kafir lime and leaves – just lovely!! The finish is super long, tart, acidic, with more saline, slate, smoke, and rock, with tarragon, green notes galore, and smoke on the long finish. Drink now. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Pacifica Riesling, Evan’s Collection, Washington State (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
Like all Rieslings, this one is still too young, but if you give it time, the Petrol notes I crave will come to you, I think we are 8 months out from those notes, and they will build with time. The nose on this wine is lovely, showing rich honeysuckle, honeyed sweet melon, honeydew melon, rich saline, nice flint, mineral, citrus, white flowers, and piercing brightness. The mouth on this almost full-bodied wine is by far their best, this is the 3rd vintage and the best, with crazy acidity, the driest they have ever made this lovely wine, with sweet notes, some residual sugar, perfectly balanced, with honeydew melon, key lime pie, orange notes, rich saline, Asian pear, ginger, smoke, and loads of sweet orange pith on a super long finish. Drink now if you must, but better drink from 2022 until 2025. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Domaine Guillerault Fargette Sancerre, Sancerre – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
OK, finally, we have a wine I crave and at a good enough price to get to the next level. The nose on this wine is pure heaven, it is flint, dirt, smoke, salt, saline, and gooseberry, with yellow plum, honeysuckle, and chamomile. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a nice weight, with good acidity, great minerality, with rich Meyer lemon, gooseberry, smoke, flint, lime, quince, chive, and rich thyme. The finish is super long. dirty, green, smoky, and lasting, with more smoke, flint, saline, scraping minerality, and lovely foliage lingering long. Bravo!!! Drink until 2023. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Domaine du Castel Grand Vin, Judean Hills – Score: 91 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, and 15% Petit Verdot. This wine starts with too much oak influence, but give the wine some time and it will reward you. It took a day for the oak to recede, so either decant this wine for a few hours or follow the tasting window below. 
The nose on this wine is quite lovely after the big oak notes blow off. The nose shows notes of plum, black fruit, green notes, roasted herb, black tea, roasted meat, red cherry, rhubarb, and red pomegranate. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is ripe but well-controlled, with nice red and blue fruit, blackberry, blueberry, dark cherry, nice mouth-draping tannin, good structure, and green notes that bring it all together. The finish is long, green, ripe, smoky, earthy, with good roasted herb, Cuban tobacco, and nice leather. Drink from 2023 until 2026. Yes, it is a strange short window, but the other best option is to decant the wine for 4 hours and enjoy. (tasted September 2021)

2019 Nana Chenin Blanc, Negev – Score: 91 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a correct Chenin Blanc that is in drink-now mode. The price is high but very good still. The nose on this wine is classically inclined, with clean notes of straw, clay, spice, yellow plum yellow flower, and green notes galore. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is clean, correct, with bracing acidity, refreshing, correct, and focused, with nice saline, slate, green apple, ripe quince, almost oily, great texture, ripe peach, lovely sweet gooseberry, and yellow grapefruit. The finish is long, sweet, balanced, tart, and green, with more slate, saline, peach, and sweet gooseberry. Lovely! Drink now! (tasted August 2021)

2020 Domaine Joost de Villebois Pouilly Fume, Pouilly Fume (M) – Score: 90+ (QPR: GREAT)
This is the best Domaine Joost de Villebois Pouilly Fume, made by Royal, so far. The nose on this lovely Sauvignon Blanc, is what I like, mineral, smoke, flint, toast, and great fruit, all wrapped in bright fruit, and more mineral. Lovely! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has tension, attack, great acidity, lovely mineral, smoke, with peach, apricot, green apple, nectarines, passion fruit, gooseberry, orange blossom, and lovely acidity, with a backbone of mineral, slate, saline, and rock – wow!! The finish is never-ending, it keeps going, WOW, I like this, with intense minerality, smoke, flint, rock, slate, and green notes, followed by acidity, grapefruit, lemon/lime, and lemongrass. BRAVO!!! Drink now! (tasted July 2021)

2019 Nana Cassiopeia, Negev – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 85% Syrah, 12% Petite Sirah, and 3% Petit Verdot. This wine starts like so many Israeli wines, painful and over-the-top fruit, oak, and tannin. The nose on this wine starts hot with sweet and overripe notes of blackberry, blue fruit, smoke, and cured meat. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is over the top, with overripe blackberry, boysenberry, tart black currant, jammy blueberry, licorice, black pepper, with loads of tannin and more smoked animal. The finish is long, black, ripe, smoky, with little finesse, just too much of everything. Though, and this is why I always taste wines for more than a day, this one does move for the better! I can honestly say, this is the first Israeli wine in a very long time that did not get worse, it improved and I drank it two days later. With time, the wine improves to show nice notes of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, sweet tobacco, sweet oak, nice mouth-draping tannin, and good control, with sweet vanilla, nice spice, smoke, and roasted animal. A nice wine I would drink indeed. Nice! Drink until 2026. (tasted September 2021)

2020 Domaine du Castel La Vie Blanc de Castel, Judean Hills – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 90% Sauvignon Blanc & 10% Chardonnay. The nose on this wine is nice, with gooseberry, dry straw, grass, cats pee, and hints of passion fruit, with some quince, and dry fruit. This is a nice wine nose as it is lighter alcohol at 11.5% ABV. The mouth is where the issues show, the acidity drops off the cliff, but give the wine some air, after 10 minutes the wine was great, so let it come to you, showing lovely acidity, a great mouthfeel, with more gooseberry, saline, and green notes. The finish is long, tart, and green, with more gooseberry, lovely pink grapefruit, and good slate, nice! Drink now. (tasted July 2021C

2019 Herzog Malbec, Lineage, Clarksburg, California (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This is a very good wine, both in quality and in price, a GREAT QPR. The nose on this wine is pure boysenberry, dark cherry, blackberry, and rich smoke, with good spice, loam, and hints of green notes. The mouth on this medium-plus bodied wine is riper than I like to start, but with time it calms down and becomes just what you would expect for a mid-level Malbec, balanced, with good acidity, spice, smoke, and a nice dense mouthfeel, with ripe boysenberry, more sweet blue fruit, strawberry, and candied currants. The finish is long, ripe, with leather, sweet spices, cloves, milk chocolate, and more spices. Drink by 2023. (tasted July 2021)

2020 Herzog Variations Be-leaf, Paso Robles, CA (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
I liked the 2019 vintage and this vintage is better, it is still not a winner, but a solid wine for the value, for those looking for a no-sulfite added wine. The nose on this Cabernet Sauvignon shows notes of sweet fruit, black and red fruit, with hints of blueberry, followed by ripe strawberry, and cherry jam. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is balanced, with good acidity, nice raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, and flower petal compote, with a good fruit focus, nice tannin structure, and a nice refreshing mouthfeel. The finish is long, ripe, tannic, acidic, with more ripe fruit, with acidity to balance, green notes, flower petals, and dirt. Drink until 2024. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Vitkin Israeli Journey, Red, Israel – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 55% Carignan, 25% Syrah, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Marselan, & 5% Grenache. The nose on this wine is fun, with intense salt, saline, olives, sweet chocolate, cedar, followed by graphite, red fruit, and roasted herbs. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is well balanced, why can’t more Israeli wines be like this? With good fruit structure and focus, red fruit of raspberry, cranberry, currants, nice roasted herb, tart strawberry, all wrapped in nice tannin making for a very nice and refreshing wine. The finish is long, green, tart, and tasty, with coffee, garrigue, foliage, and roasted mint. Nice! Drink by 2023. (tasted August 2021)

2015 Mad Aleph Blaufrankisch, Neusiedlersee-Hügelland – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This grape is unique, it is the parent grape of Gamay, and in ways, that shows, but it also is akin to Zin, IMHO, and Syrah. A bit too ripe for me, but if you like your wine that way, enjoy, and at a GREAT price. The nose on this wine shows white and black pepper, with both very bright and ripe fruit, followed by Star anise, allspice, rich cinnamon, and cloves. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is rich and ripe but controlled, with incredible acidity, mouth-draping tannin, bramble, blackberry, dark cherry, blackcurrants, nice saline, good fruit focus, and nice structure. Another GREAT example of what wines can be made, kosher, for a reasonable price, outside of the USA. The finish is long, green ripe, balanced, with crazy acidity, tannin, tobacco, intense black pepper, and more anise. A nice simple wine that is a bit too ripe for my interests, but I am sure many will find this interesting. Drink until 2023. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Aura di Valerie Zaffiro Super Tuscan, Toscano Rosso – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
Another great example of what a good European ripe wine can taste like! The nose on this wine is dense, ripe, but well-controlled, with lovely floral notes, ripe black and blue fruit, ripe plum, cloves, violet, rosehip, baking spices, and lovely smoke. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is balanced, not quite elegant, not quite at that next level, but very nice, with good fruit focus, showing Bing cherry, candied plum, boysenberry, candied blackberry, hazelnut, and green notes in the background. The finish is long, dense, brooding, but balanced, with lovely salinity, minerality, charcoal, great acidity, dense fruit, and sweet cedar. Drink until 2030. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Recanati Gris de Marselan Rose, Shimshon – Score: 89+ (QPR: GREAT)
Another lovely rose, this is 100% Marselan, or so they say, and it is quite nice, better than 2019. The nose on this wine is far more in line with a Gris-style rose, mineral, dirt, saline, tart red fruit, and not much else on the nose. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is fun, it is balanced, tart, with great acid, mineral, saline, tart raspberry, cranberry, lemongrass, lime shavings, gooseberry, pink grapefruit, refreshing, fun, and good focus. The finish is long, green, tart, flint, smoke, and good overall structure. It does not last long do drink now. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Arroyo del Imperio Chardonnay, Valle Central (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: GREAT)
When I opened this wine to start it was flat, undrinkable wine. Then the next day the wine was fun. So, maybe this one needs a bit of time or maybe an hour, I did not taste it right after – but who knows. The notes I am writing here are for the wine once it came around. The nose on this wine is nice, showing peach, pear, green and yellow apple, with nice vanilla, and orange blossom. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, it feels fuller than it is, with good acidity, nice fruit, peach, apple, vanilla, orange, and good orange pith. The finish is long, spicy, green, and acidic, with good minerality, and sweet spices! A nice Quaff. Drink by 2023. (tasted August 2021)

2018 Binyamina Sapphire, The Chosen, Galilee – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is a blend of 75% Cabernet Franc & 25% Shiraz. This is the first Binyamina red wine that I have liked in a very long time. The nose on this wine starts nicely and continues to improve, showing lovely green notes, ripe blue and red fruit, with nice smoke, cranberry, bramble, black cherry, and plum. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, not overly extracted, nice ripeness, controlled fruit, smoke, good plum, boysenberry, plum, green notes, bramble, and lovely mouth-draping tannin. The finish is long, green, with good acidity, mouthfeel, sweet tobacco, and good blue and red fruit. Nice! Drink by 2024. (tasted September 2021)

2020 Tabor Sauvignon Blanc, Adama, Galilee – Score: 89 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose on this wine is not ripe but it is also not crazy tart, showing bright notes of gooseberry, passion fruit, but also rounder notes of vanilla, orange blossom, and sweeter fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, tart, still, a bit rounder than I had hoped, with good acidity, nice passion fruit, gooseberry, saline, good grapefruit, lemongrass, and nice orange peel. The finish is long, green, tart, and nice, with good acidity, saline, slate, and nice fruit, nice! Drink now (tasted July 2021)

2020 Bodegas Faustino VI Rioja, Rioja – Score: 89 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose on this wine is nice, well-balanced, classic in nature, nothing to talk much about, a simple enjoyable Rioja, with cherry, cranberry, oak, and sweet notes. My bottle had bubbles, not fun, but swirl the glass and the bubbles will dissipate. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is simple, dark cherry, sweet oak, nice acidity, good earth, a bit too ripe for me, dark currants, and sweet fruit lingers. Drink until 2023. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Herzog Sauvignon Blanc, Acacia Barrel Series, Lake County, CA (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is closed to start, but with time it opens to show classic Sauvignon Blanc notes, of gooseberry, wet grass, passion fruit, slightly sweet fruit, with sweet spices, lemon blossom, and citrus. The mouth on this medium-plus-bodied wine shows nice weight, and a lovely mouthfeel, with great acidity, nice fruit-focus, and a sensation of sweet cedar, with lovely vanilla, core acidity, grapefruit, citrus, Meyer lemon/lime, passion fruit, and lovely peach. The finish is super long, green, herbal, spicy, and lovely minerality. BRAVO!!! Drink now. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Castellare di Castellina Chianti Classico, Chianti Clasicco – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is slow to open so give it time. This wine is a blend of Sangiovese and Canaiolo. The wine is not as dense and plush as other Chianti Classico wines but it has more minerality and loam than those as well, a very interesting comparison for sure. The nose on this wine shows lovely notes of plum dark cherry, roasted herb, intense mineral, dark red berry, roasted meat, dense clay, charcoal, and smoke. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lighter than other Chianti Classico, with lovely gripping tannin, nice acidity, nice elegance, with lovely red Bing cherry, dark currants, plum, rich loam, earth, clay, and lovely charcoal. The finish is long, green, with dense foliage, more tart and ripe red fruit, nice mineral, charcoal, tar, garrigue, scraping mineral, and lovely dark tobacco. Drink from 2022 until 2027. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Matar Chardonnay, Galilee – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine may say Chardonnay but its profile is far more of a Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine is pure SB, with notes of gooseberry, yellow flower, passion fruit, The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has a nice weight, I wanted more acidity, still the pith, gooseberry, tart quince, green apple, and cat pee, smoke, flint, and hints of apple. passion fruit and nice saline help bring the wine around. The finish is long, with orange pith, tart fruit, and nice minerality. Drink now. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Capcanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera, Montsant – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Carignan, and 25% Grenache. The nose on this wine is waxy, meaty, earthy, smoky, and not overpowering with fruit, showing blue and black fruit, with green notes, and earth. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is rich, layered, and smoky, with waxy notes, screaming tannin, nice acidity, ripe blackberry, juicy boysenberry, rich saline, mouth drying-tannin, with good balance, nice structure, and a nice fruit attack, though it is a bit uni-dimensional. The finish is green, sweet, balanced, and long, with good smoke, salami, tobacco, leather, and sweet milk chocolate. Drink until 2030 (tasted August 2021)

N.V. Herzog Methode Champenoise, Special Reserve, Russian River, CA (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
This is the first-ever Herzog Winery Methode Champenoise, they have had other sparkling wines, but this is the real deal! It is made from 100% Chardonnay. The nose on this wine is lovely, showing notes of green and yellow apple, sweet fruit notes, with nice smoke/toast, freshly baked pear tart, and minerals. The mouth on this wine is nice, but it lacks that acidic punch I expect from Champagne, with nice apple, pear, crisp but not as refreshing as I want, with elegance and good weight. The finish is long, green with ginger, saline, smoke/toast, and nice herbal notes. Drink by 2023 (tasted August 2021)

2020 Herzog Chardonnay, Chalk Hill, Special Edition, Sonoma, Califonia (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
I get the idea, less oak, less butterscotch, less dill, ABC, but this still misses the mark, it lacks the acidity to make this work. The nose on this wine is where things start going bad, it is deeply muted, with dull apple, sweet oak, smoke, toast, sweet peach, nectarines, and a bit of quince. The hope was for deeper fruit and less oak, the mouth on this medium-bodied wine has less oak, but it still controls the overall profile, with sweet apple, sweet quince, sweet peach, melon, mineral, butterscotch, and freshly baked Asian pear pie. The finish is long, but what is missing is acid, the wine feels flatter than it is, a real shot of acid would have helped a lot, it is there and it is slow to come out, but while it is balanced, it lacks the punch. Drink until 2024. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Weinstock Cabernet Sauvignon, Cellar Select, Paso Robles, CA (M) – Score: 89 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is ripe, too much for me, with blackberry, blueberry, smoke, rich oak, and hints of red fruit. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, and not for me, more blueberry, blackberry, cassis, sweet oak, smoke, and graphite. The finish is long, ripe, smoky, and nice enough with graphite. Drink by 2025. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Psagot Sinai, White, Judean Hills (M) – Score: 89 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 34% Chardonnay, 28% Sauvignon Blanc, 22% Gewürztraminer, 16% Viognier. This is a simple enough wine, more of a gimmick wine than one I would want to drink. The nose on this wine is all about the gimmick, throwing all the varietals together gets you a mix of notes that work together enough, but not in a way that makes you fall in love, with notes of peach, melon, jasmine, rose, pineapple, green apple, sweet spice, and green notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ok, the Gewurztraminer dominates the mouth with peach, spice, apricot, pineapple, lychee, ginger, and cloves, with green notes, and a good enough body. The finish is long, spicy, green, and fruity, with a nice saline finish. Drink now. (tasted July 2021)

N.V. Drappier Rose de Saignee, Champagne (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
This Champagne has a disgorgement date of 6/21. The nose on this wine is nice with notes of raspberry, strawberry, quince, red melon, and slate. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine feels missing, there is some acidity, but not enough, the finish feels short, the mousse is lovely, the red fruit and berries are nice, but overall it feels lacking. The finish is short or not even there, what lingers is the red berries and mousse, with some flint. Drink by 2023. (tasted September 2021)

2018 Les Lauriers de Rothschild, Montagne Saint-Emillon (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 80% Merlot & 20% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is ripe, like many of the 2018 Merlot-based wines from Bordeaux, though the Cabernet Franc does help, thankfully. The nose shows notes of ripe strawberry, dark brooding fruit, green notes, asparagus, but then comes the dark and dense fruit, with minerality, and nice smoke. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine has some balance, but wow is this wine ripe, it lacks the refreshing balance I crave, the dark blackcurrant, blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry, are balanced with some green notes, smoke, and nice minerality, the tannin is dense, and the sweet oak is not overpowering. The finish is long, ripe, and smoky, with green notes, tobacco, bell pepper, garrigue, and leather. Drink from 2024 until 2028. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Pacifica Rattlesnake Hills Viognier, Washington (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is nice, it has good minerality, honeydew, peach, and nice smoke, but not a lot to grab you. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is the same, not enough fun notes to grab your attention, there is just enough acidity, but it feels hollow with peach, apricot, melon, tart lemon, and more smoke. The finish is long, green, with gooseberry, smoke, and tart fruit. Drink now. (tasted September 2021)

N.V. Vera Wang Party Prosecco, Brut, Prosecco (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this sparkling prosecco is not as dry as I had hoped or heard. The nose shows ripe peach, apricot, red apple, hints of orange, orange blossom, and green hints. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has ok weight, a lovely mousse attack, with medium-sized bubbles, good acidity, but the fruit is where the wine lets you down, with sweet mango, melon, apricot, and peach, too sweet for my taste. The finish is long, sweet, and ok. Drink now. (tasted July 2021)

2019 Binyamina Chardonnay, Moshava, Galilee (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
The wine is balanced, not over the top, it is OK. The nose on this wine has sweet vanilla, green apple, and not much else. The mouth of this wine shows bracing acidity, vanilla, green apple, quince, melon, and some citrus. The finish is long, well made, and balanced. Drink now. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Or Haganuz Elima, Galilee – Score: 85 (QPR: EVEN)
I miss the 2016 Elima that was a wine that was balanced and nice, ever since then the wines have been borderline date-juice wines and this one is no different. This wine is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon & 25% Cabernet Franc. This is the 2nd wine I know that adds no sulfites, the better of the two is the 2020 Herzog Be-Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose on this wine is ripe, too ripe, with blackberry, blueberry, smoke, and candied red fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, too ripe, candied, and date-like, with nice acidity, but the fruit is overwhelming and nothing is refreshing here, with candied boysenberry, sweet oak, date, sweet oak, crazy searing tannin, smoke, and graphite. The finish is long, ripe, candied, and not for me. Drink by 2024. (tasted August 2021)

2018 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Lot 70, Napa Valley, CA – Score: 92 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this dense Cabernet Sauvignon is rich and layered with good fruit, anise, smoke, sweet oak, black and red fruit, earth, loam, and good balance. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is dense, layered, concentrated, and extracted, with good control, a nice mouth-draping tannin structure, with dense but controlled blackberry, raspberry, dark cherry, rich saline, mineral, charcoal, and green foliage. The finish is long, dense, rich, spicy, smoky, and ripe, with good fruit, green notes, cloves, cinnamon, milk chocolate, sweet tobacco, leather, and more sweet spices lingering long. Nice! Drink from 2025 until 2032. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Hagafen Family Vineyard Red Blend, Napa Valley, CA (M) – Score: 91 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is oaky, with intense sweet milk chocolate, AKA OAK Monster, with nice black and red fruit, black pepper, licorice, and smoke. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is dense, layered, concentrated, and almost balanced, with a bit too much ripe fruit, intense oak, intense dense tannin, rich extraction, rich blackberry, tart raspberry, dense blackberry, with a lovely fruit focus and structure, roasted herbs, and a nice blanket of spices. The finish is long, spicy, balanced, with ripe fruit, too much oak, sweet milk chocolate, dense tannin, sweet tobacco, leather, scraping mineral, charcoal, and rich saline. Nice! Drink from 2025 until 2030. (tasted August 2021)

2018 Domaine du Castel M du Castel, Negev – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
Look, I get it, people like Muscat, I do not. I liked Dry Muscat, but this one is not a wine I crave. The nose on this wine smells medicinal, like cooked cough medicine, followed by intense floral notes of orange blossom, honeysuckle, and rosewater, brown sugar, Caramel, sweet peach, pineapple, and rich smoke. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is layered, but still medicinal, lacking acidity, with rich honeysuckle melon, honeyed notes of peach, apricot, sweet and liquor orange, with orange pith, and sweet spices, cloves, cinnamon, and orange zest. Drink until 2025. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Gurra di Mare Tirsat, Terre Siciliane – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 50% Chardonnay & 50% Viognier. The nose on this wine is heavenly, with beautiful notes of Viognier, ripe peach, apricot, honeysuckle, honeyed notes of yellow apple, brioche, sweet spices from the 6 months in oak, and nice sweet vanilla. The mouth is a bit slow to open, with time it opens to sweet apple, peach, sweet oak, butterscotch, sweet and plush mouthfeel, sadly it lacks the acidity to make this work, it has some but I crave more with sweet notes of almonds, macadamia nuts, and ripe white plums. The finish is long, sweet, and spicy, with sweet cinnamon, cloves, oak, vanilla, apple brioche, and nice smoke. Drink until 2026. (tasted August 2021)

2017 Barons Edmond & Benjamin De Rothschild, Haut-Medoc (M) – Score: 86 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is too green for me. The nose on this wine is green notes, asparagus, green beans, some red fruit, and dirt, boring. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is also too green, with great acidity, more of the green fruit, some raspberry, cherry, and not much else, with some tannin, and more dirt. The finish is long, green, too green, with smoke, and nice dirt. Drink until 2028. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Psagot Edom, Judean Hills – Score: 86 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 37% Merlot, 32 Petit Verdot, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is the best Psagot I have had in a long time, I am shocked! All it took was a bit of control with the fruit and acidity! Sadly, after a day the wine turned into a classic Israeli fruit bomb, and all control was lost. If you want to try this wine, do it NOW!
The nose on this wine is balanced, with good tart fruit, smoke, green notes, garrigue, waxy notes, smoke, tart red fruit, and good loam. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is almost balanced, it is still a bit too ripe, a bit less alcohol would have helped, with dark plum, blackberry, boysenberry, strawberry, violet, lavender, and good tannin. The finish is long, green, tart, and nice, with just enough oak, leather, and sweet spices. Drink until 2023. (tasted August 2021)

2017 Tabor Cabernet Sauvignon 1/11,000, Limited Edition, Galilee (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is far more controlled than the other 2017 Israeli wines I have had so far, it is still ripe, and almost smells like a Cab, but overall, it lacks any finesse or style. The nose on this wine is ripe, with nice roasted herbs, sweet cedar, black and red fruit, hints of brooding fruit, and nice smoke. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, layered, but not as controlled as much as I would have hoped for, with blackberry, candied raspberry, plum, roasted herb, mint, oregano, and nice dirt. The finish is long, green, red, and ripe, with sweet tobacco, garrigue, and graphite. Drink until 2026. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Domaine du Castel La Vie, Rouge du Castel, Judean Hills – Score: 83 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is ripe, too ripe for me, with sweet notes of boysenberry, sweet and candied raspberry, cranberry, and hints of smoke, with undeniably ripe and date-like fruit. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is classic date juice, showing too much ripe fruit, with no balance, the fruit is ripe, concentrated, and dense, with candied boysenberry, raspberry, cranberry, date, and loam. The finish is long, sweet, ripe, candied, and not my thing. Drink now. (tasted July 2021)

2019 Psagot Merlot, Judean Hills – Score: 83 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is ripe, ripe, black, and heavy, with rich fruit, milk chocolate, tobacco, and garrigue. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is overripe, pushed, and extreme, with black fruit, green notes, and no balance. Drink by 2024 (tasted August 2021)

2019 Nana Chardonnay, Negev – Score: 82 (QPR: POOR)
WOW, OK, this is painful, think of oak juice followed by candied sweet dill, dense apple, and ripe melon, nowhere near as good as the Chenin Blanc. The nose on this wine is too much for me, sweet oak, sweet dill, candied fruit, overpowering oaky notes, sweet melon, sweet candied apple, candied quince, just over the top. The mouth is not much better, it is medium to full-bodied, with too much oak, too much fruit, the acidity is correct, but the balance is off, with sweet fruit, apple, white peach, yellow apple, melon, almost guava, too much. The finish is long, still overly oaked, with smoke, toast, brioche, and buttered notes. Drink until 2024. (tasted August 2021)

2017 Tabor Merlot, Adama, Galilee – Score: 82 (QPR: POOR)
I remember the good old days when the Merlot Adama was heavenly, think the 2010 vintage, what a lovely wine! The nose on this wine is ripe, ripe, overripe with blueberry, blackberry, plum, and hints of figs. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, with nice charcoal, too much oak, blackberry, blackcurrant, plum, smoke, but it is too ripe, not refreshing, and sadly not for me. Drink until 2026. (tasted August 2021)

2017 Tulip Espero, Red, Galilee – Score: 82 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 55% Syrah, 30% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Franc. Another painful Israeli wine, big, brooding, hot, and unbalanced. The nose on this wine is too hot, with black and red fruit, sweet oak, milk chocolate, and nice green notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, extracted, brooding blackberry, boysenberry, smoky, and earthy notes, garrigue, loads of sweet oak, candied strawberry, and licorice. The finish is long, brooding, green, and smoky. Drink until 2024. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon, Judean Hills – Score: 82 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is ripe, hot, and overall OK, it lacks anything to grab you other than dense fruit. The mouth on this wine is a sledgehammer, it is so hot, unbalanced, and big alcohol wine, burning hot, with nice enough tannin, blackberry, dark plum, cassis, but the fruit is over the top, unbalanced and too ripe. The finish is long, black, dense, and hot. Drink until 2024. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Mia Luce Blanc, Galilee – Score: 87 (QPR: BAD)
Another disaster from the 2019 vintage in Israel. This wine is a blend of 93% French Colombard and 7% Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine is flat, much like the mouth of this wine, with little to offer outside of a bit of funk, grapefruit, and honeysuckle. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is there, but while it has some acidity, it needs some fruit and life, it has a hole in the middle, with green notes of foliage, too much oak for such a light wine, sweet dill, green apple, quince, and not much else. The finish is long, with intense kafir lime and lemon, but that is about it. Drink now. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Flam Camellia, Judean Hills – Score: 87 (QPR: BAD)
This wine has a nice nose of sweet apple, vanilla, toast, caramel, Asian Pear, and sweet peach compote. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ok, the acidity is there, but it is just a bit boring, it lacks the attention to grab you, with a bit too much oak, sweet yellow apple, toffee, creme brulee, and spices, cloves, some citrus, but mostly oak, apple, Asian Pear, and lots of Toffee. The finish is long, spicy, oaky, and butterscotch lingers long with sweet vanilla, cloves, and oak. Drink by 2024. (tasted September 2021)

2018 Carmel Mediterranean, Galilee – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 48% Syrah, 22% Carignan, 13% Marselan, 9% Tannat, & 8% Petite Sirah. The nose on this wine is OK, it is not as over the top as other Israeli wines, with not enough acid or style, sadly. The nose on this medium to full-bodied wine is ripe, with black and blue fruit, red hints, green notes, and tobacco. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is ripe, not horrible, a bit more balanced than others with blackberry, boysenberry, blackcurrants, green notes, intense violet, lavender, with a bit of acid, but more would have helped a lot, the tannin is ok, and the fruit is overpowering. The finish is long, red, with black notes, more violets, and green notes. Drink until 2026. (tasted August 2021)

2020 Netofa Latour, White, Galilee – Score: 86 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is nice what it is badly missing is acidity, and without acidity, it is less impressive. The nose on this wine is nice, with good notes of apple, peach, apricot, straw, and nice smoke/flint. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine has good weight but it feels hollow without the needed acidity, sweet apple, yellow plum, straw, almost oily, with good spices, cloves, sweet oak, and good pith. The finish is long, spicy, and green, with sweet fruit, sweet oak, flint, more yellow apple, quince, and more spices. Drink until 2024. (tasted September 2021)

2019 Yatir Creek White, Judean Hills – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 54% Chenin Blanc & 46% Viognier. Sadly, this is nowhere near the quality of the 2018 vintage. The nose on this wine is the best part with notes of bright peach, tart apricot, lovely straw, earth, hints of pineapple, and good tangerine. The mouth on this wine is flat, with no acidity, there is a nice mouthfeel, good weight, but there is no balance, just fruit and pith and not much else. The finish is long, green ripe, sweet, with pith and mineral bring some of it together, but without the acid, I cannot get this wine. Drink now. (tasted July 2021)

2020 Padre Bendicho Rose, Yecla (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine smells classically cooked and while it has some redeeming qualities – they were sadly cooked out. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is the best part of the wine, but it too is muted poorly by the cooked fruit and mulled wine notes, with cooked apple, peach, strawberry, and pear, with the minerality that could not be cooked, nice acid, saline, and slate – a real shame, I would have liked to have tasted this uncooked. (tasted August 2021)

2018 Odem Mountain 1060 Red Wine, Galilee (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Franc. The nose on this wine is far more controlled than the Cabernet Franc, with notes of candied plum, raspberry, black fruit, anise, and loads of oak. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is dense but a bit more controlled than the Cabernet Franc, still this wine has too much oak, too much ripe fruit, and no control, a wine with no game plan, showing overripe plum, raspberry, blackberry, dirt, and garrigue. The finish is long, painful, overripe, with more dirt, and green notes, tobacco, and leather. Drink until 2026 (tasted August 2021)

2019 Mia Luce Syrah and Stems, Shimshon – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
The nose on this wine is a bit balanced with sweet notes of blue and black fruit, anise, smoke, green notes of pepper, charcoal, and root beer. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, more than what shows in the nose, with notes of blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, sweet oak, and brooding fruit in the background, that is balanced with good acid, not too much oak, and an overall game plan. The finish is long, sweet, ripe, with green notes, nice acid, mouth-coating tannin, and smoke. There is a bit of a hollow and overall no real finesse, it shows better around other Israeli wines but otherwise, nothing I crave here. Drink until 2025. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Mia Luce C.S.M., Shimshon – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 35% Carignan, 35% Syrah, and 30% Mourvedre. This is another wine from Mia Luce and Kobe that hits the mark from a style perspective, but the wine itself is not that interesting. The nose on this wine is correct with notes of red and blue fruit, charcoal, salt, anise, cinnamon, smoked meat, and sweet spices. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is nice, it has some brooding fruit in the background but the main issue is the hollow middle, with notes of candied cranberry, raspberry, plum, boysenberry, smoke, sweet oak, draping tannin, and green notes. The finish is long, green, sweet, and candied, with more candied boysenberry, root beer, and candied anise. Drink until 2025. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Chateau de Parsac, Montagne Saint-Emilion (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: BAD)
The 2019 vintage is much like the 2018 – boring, green, and tinny, not an interesting wine and one I can be fine without any time soon. White pepper, green bell pepper, cherry, raspberry, not much else. Drink until 2024. (tasted August 2021)

2019 Nana Tethys, Negev – Score: 83 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Syrah, 3% Petit Verdot, and 2% Petite Sirah. A classic Israeli red wine, no approach, no balance, no control, just overripe fruit, oak, and no finesse. The nose on this wine is ripe, with loads of ripe fruit, no balance, heat, black and blue fruit, mounds of oak, vanilla, sweet dill, and smoke. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is uncontrolled, with no plan, searing tannin, ok acidity, too much oak, and overripe blackberry, plum, cassis, overripe boysenberry, and smoke. The finish is long, dark, brooding, jam-like, with sweet tobacco, and more toast. Drink until 2025. (tasted August 2021)

2017 Odem Mountain Alfasi, Special Reserve, Galilee – Score: 82 (QPR: BAD)
The wine is a blend of 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, & 17% Syrah. This wine is also another classic Israeli wine, with lots of pain and no joy. The wine is s brute of fruit, oak, tannin, and no game plan. While some will like this style, I have no need, plus the fruit is overripe and date-like. Pass. Drink by 2027 (tasted August 2021)

2018 Jezreel Icon, Sharon – Score: 82 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 50% Syrah & 50% Carignan. The nose on this full-bodied wine is dense, ripe, and over the top, and it does not stop, with heat, and too much alcohol, in the end, it lacks the terroir to make it work at this alcohol. The nose on this full-bodied wine is powerful, layered, and over the top, with too much alcohol, attack, heat, unbalanced, with rich blackberry, dark plum, overripe currants, with sweet milk chocolate, sweet tobacco, sweet dill, too much sweet, not enough balance. Some folks will like the sledgehammer wine, but I do not! Drink until 2028. (tasted August 2021)

2018 Odem Mountain 1060 Cabernet Franc, Galilee – Score: 82 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is painful, with classic date juice notes of candied and cooked dates, prune, there is not a single note of cabernet Franc on this wine, other than over the top red fruit. The nose on this wine is overripe and almost cooked, with prune, and candied blackberry liquor, no control, no finesse. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is over the top and very much in the date-juice land, with candied blackberry, plum, searing tannin, a bit of acid, just too much fruit, too much pain, next! Drink until 2026. (tasted August 2021)

2017 The Cave, Galilee – Score: 80 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 7% Petit Verdot. The nose on this wine is ripe, almost date-like ripe, with brooding juicy fruit and nothing else. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, lifeless, and not there, such a shame. Drink until 2026 (tasted August 2021)

2020 Yatir Mount Amasa Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 80 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 81% Grenache, 12% Tempranillo, 7% Mourvedre. The nose on this wine is ok, with strawberry, watermelon, red berries, melon, and rhubarb. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is flat, boring, and not fun, sad, there is nothing there that grabs you. Drink now. (tasted September 2021)

2020 Yatir Darom White, Negev – Score: 76 (QPR: NA)
This is a KosherWine.com Exclusive. After the rose, I had high hopes for this Sauvignon Blanc wine – wow, what a huge letdown. This wine is not for me! The nose is flat, the mouth is flat, no acid, no balance, just a face without any content, move on! (tasted August 2021)

2019 Segal Marawi Native, Judean Hills – Score: 75 (QPR: NA)
This wine is yet another example of what goes wrong when u ignore acid. This is undrinkable, the lack of acid makes for a flat profile, no joy here, move on! (tasted August 2021)

2020 Binyamina Moshava Rose, Galilee (M) – Score: 70 (QPR: NA)
Another useless wine that I did not need to taste. The nose on this wine is boring, at best, with dried fruit, candied peach, strawberry, apricot, and pomegranate. The mouth on this wine is flat, no acidity to be found, with too much-candied fruit, too little to be interesting, and nothing refreshing, it feels tired, old, and dead. Move on (tasted July 2021)

2020 Carmel Private Collection Rose, Shimshon (M) – Score: 50 (QPR: NA)
This wine has all the issues I dislike in rose, cooked fruit, no acid, and flat as a pancake. Nothing is refreshing here, it is a wine that can be summed up in one word, PASS (tasted August 2021)

This is my second QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) WINNER Hit and Miss post of 2022 and while this started in January as a poor showing, I had two more wines in February that made the overall post much better. We started with one QPR WINNER and that grew to three WINNER by February. Still, the star of the show was the first QPR WINNER, the 2016 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Assai, Gran Selezione, Chianti Classico!

This post is filled with many more examples of what people are raving about from Israel, the 2018 red vintage, and all I can say is, yes they are not date juice! They are not uncontrolled madness, they are OK, they lack acidity and mostly they are copy and paste of each other with different fruit. Still, an improvement over other vintages. Essentially, much like the 2016 vintage, another highly vaunted vintage, which I described to my buddy EA as: “milk chocolate, either blue or black fruit, loads of cedar and tobacco – copy and paste wines”.

I wish it was better, even when God forces a winery to make good wine by keeping the temperatures at bay, they still make mediocre stuff. Such is life! Thankfully, we are blessed with Terra di Seta, aka TDS, which won my first ever winery of the year in 2019 and a winery that I have been touting for many years now! The newly released 2016 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Assai, Gran Selezione, is a stunning wine and maybe their best Assai so far!

The next two QPR WINNER are the 2019 Herzog Winery Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, and the 2020 Chateau Signac Pliocene, Cotes du Rhone. I must say, the 2019 Herzog is shockingly ripe but the level of acidity it has really helped to tamp down the fruit and with time they all work together to make a harmonious wine. Still, it is ripe to start so leave this wine alone for many years. The 2020 Chateau Signac Pliocene, on the other hand, is lovely and ready to go. It is NOT as ripe as the 2018 vintage, but it is nice and very enjoyable for the next few years.

Finally, there is a repeat tasting of the 2019 Pavillon du Vieux Chantre, Puisseguin Saint-Emilion. As I stated in the Moises Taieb post, I needed to taste a few wines a second time and I am happy I did. The 2019 Pavillon du Vieux Chantre showed beautifully and just as I expected it to, after having tasted all the previous vintages. Thankfully, this wine is available in the USA in an easy-to-find location, from Andrew Breskin and Liquid Kosher.

The rest are OK, QPR score-wise, with only one wine garnering a score of GREAT, which is the 2017 Ma’ayan Asis Blend, these are relabeled wines from Tom Winery. The Tzora was nice but overpriced for what it gives.

I also tasted three 2019 Pinot Noirs and the clear winner, of those three, was the 2019 Goose Bay Pinot Noir, Small Batch. It is a lovely wine and one to enjoy over the next couple of years.

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

2016 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico, Assai, Gran Selezione, Chianti Classico – Score: 93.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This vintage of Assai is its best and this wine is 100% Glorious, rich, elegant, focused, balanced, fruity, but tart, refreshing and concentrated – WOW! BRAVO!!! The nose on this wine is pure heaven, it is soy sauce, funk, forest floor, mushroom, fruity, red and black fruit, tar, smoke, violet, very floral, wild herbs, and rich mineral. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is ripe, concentrated, but well-controlled, with ripe plum, dark strawberry, candied raspberry compote, with menthol, licorice, baking spices, all wrapped in dense sweet oak and elegant draping tannins, just incredible! The finish is long, dense, dark, rich, layered, concentrated, yet perfectly balanced, with screaming acidity, rich espresso coffee, mushrooms, almost truffle, forest floor, mineral, charcoal, graphite, and star anise. WOW!!! Drink from 2026 until 2033. BRAVO!!! (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

2017 Tabor Cabernet Sauvignon, Single Vineyard, Judaica Vineyard, Galilee – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is ripe but controlled with sweet oak, red and black fruit, dense loam, hints of blue fruit, smoke, and roasted meat. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe but controlled, with nice acidity, good focus, with roasted herbs, blueberry, blackberry, dark raspberry, nice menthol, nice mouth-draping tannin, roasted herb, mint, charcoal, graphite, and nice garrigue. The finish is long, dark, balanced, fruity, but tart, refreshing, with good acidity, smoke, dark chocolate, sweet tobacco, more loam, and graphite. Nice!! Drink by 2025. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2018 Yatir Forest, Judean Hills – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is not ripe, one of the first in a long time from Yatir, with blackberry, plum, smoke, dirt, tart cherry, blue fruit, and nice roasted meat. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is balanced but ripe, with blackberry, blueberry, dark and brooding blackcurrant, tight mouth-draping tannin, candied plum, graphite, and foliage. The finish is long, ripe, dark, smoky, earthy, and brooding, with more tannin, nice acidity, smoke, roasted herb, sweet tobacco, milk chocolate, and sweet oak. Drink until 2025. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

2018 Vitkin Carignan, Judean Hills – Score: 90.5 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose on this wine is nice, well-controlled, not ripe at all, fruity with notes of blue and red fruit, rich loam, mineral, roasted duck, rich earth, and nice smoke. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is ripe, dense, and layered, with good extraction, nice blueberry, dark raspberry, dark currants, blackcurrants, graphite, rich charcoal, smoke, tar, and lovely loam. The finish is long, smoky, dirty, fruity, with nice acidity, nice mouth-draping tannin, good fruit-focus, nice dark roasted espresso coffee, charcoal, tar, and smoke. Nice! Drink by 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2018 Netofa Tel Qasser Moursyr, Galilee – Score: 89 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is nice enough, with blue and red fruit, nice floral notes, violet, jasmine, good minerality, smoke, and green notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ok, but not a wine that pulls me, with nice boysenberry, mouth-draping tannin, sweet raspberry, dark cherry, good saline, smoke, earth, sweet tea, Lapsang tea, and root beer. The finish is a bit short, tart, fruity, with sweet notes of jasmine, tea, more blue fruit, earth, graphite, and smoke. Drink by 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.50%)

2019 La Garenne Cuvee Terroir, Bordeaux – Score: 86 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is another green, tinny Bordeaux, with a simple profile, showing green notes, foliage, stems, herbs, jalapeno, and some fruit. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is not horrible, but it is too tinny, and green, with more jalapeno, bell pepper, cucumber, foliage, blackberry, raspberry, nice tannin, and herbs. The finish is long, tart, green, with nice black and red fruit, good earth, loam, graphite, and more green notes. Drink by 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.50%)

2018 Galil Mountain Winery Yiron, Galilee – Score: 81 (QPR: BAD)
This wine is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, & 7% Petit Verdot. With all the hype of the 2018 vintage, I had hoped for the wines of old, the ones we used to be able to drink, sadly, nothing has changed here. Sure, it is not pure date juice, but it is so over the top, and teetering on it that I cannot honestly write much here outside of ripe. The nose on this wine is ripe, unbalanced, and fruity, with candied black fruit, hints of red fruit, milk chocolate, and not much else. The mouth on this full-throttle oak monster is ripe and unbalanced blackberry, plum, cassis, smoke, tannin, and loads of vanilla. The finish is long, ripe, fruity, with more milk chocolate, sweet tobacco, and yeah – ripe! Drink until 2025. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.50%)

2018 Galil Mountain Winery Meron, Galilee – Score: 82 (QPR: BAD)
Another 2018 hype wine and another wine that is unchanged from previous vintages. This wine is a blend of 85% Syrah, 10% Petit Verdot, & 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose on this wine is ripe, unbalanced, and not even there, it is mostly just fruit without a basic idea of what it is, a true identity crisis for this wine. There are hints of blue fruit, some floral notes, and otherwise, just a clear message that I am fruity is all we get. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is far clearer, in regards to what kind of wine it is, the wine is unbalanced, ripe, with boysenberry, blackberry, white pepper, no acid to be found, just fruit and more fruit, with sweet oak, tannin, and not much else. The finish is a bit short, ripe, round, and boring. Drink by 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.50%)

2019 Tzora Shoresh, Red, Judean Hills – Score: 91 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Syrah, 20% Merlot, & 20% Petit Verdot. The nose on this wine is nice, balanced, bright, yet fruity, earthy, smoky, dirty, black and red fruit, hints of blue, with sweet tobacco, iron, pencil shavings, and forest floor. The mouth on this big, bold, full-bodied wine is balanced, showing lovely acidity, dark blackberry, cassis, plum, boysenberry, sweet cedar, sweet dill, butterscotch, blackcurrant, dense and concentrated, layered, with mouth-draping tannin, lovely minerality, graphite, dirt, smoke, and more metal shavings. The finish is long, tart, earthy, with graphite, ripe fruit, lovely acidity, dark chocolate-covered coffee beans, and more mineral lingering long. NICE! Drink from 2023 until 2030. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.50%)

2018 Golan Heights Winery Yarden Pinot Noir, Galilee – Score: 84 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this wine is candied raspberry, fig, cherry liqueur, with sweet oak, smoke, and ripe notes. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, unbalanced, an oak monster, with no acid, nothing but fruit, oak, tannin, smoke, and more cherry liqueur. The finish is flat, boring, and move on. Drink by 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2019 Pacifica Pinot Noir, Evan’s Collection, Columbia Gorge, OR – Score: 84 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is dirty, earthy, with red fruit, violet, jasmine, loads of smoke, toast, forest floor, and mineral. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is where things go astray, it is a bit hollow, perfectly balanced, with great acidity, dark cherry, raspberry, loads of toast, wet floorboards, loam, and smoke. The finish is long, dirty, smoky, with nice tannin, more red fruit, tannin galore, vanilla, black pepper, oak, and toast. Drink until 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2019 Goose Bay Pinot Noir, Small Batch, South Island (M) – Score: 90.5 (QPR: GOOD)
This is the best Pinot I have tasted today and it is no surprise as Goose Bay continues to deliver quality wines at a reasonable price. The nose on this wine has the most profound oak influence, but this will blow off with time, what is great is that the nose is equally bright with fruit, toast, loam, earth, and mineral while having hints of violets behind the oak blanket. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is quite fun, layered, toasty, oaky, but super balanced, with great acidity, green notes, foliage, menthol, mint, dark kirsch cherry, cherry cola, raspberry, smoke, and elegant draping tannin that coats the mouth and lingers forever. The finish is long, green dark, toasty, and lovely elegant while also being fruity, really fun! Drink until 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.80%)

2019 Zion Merlot, Capital, Galilee – Score: 75 (QPR: NA)
The nose on this wine is ripe, round, and not very interesting, with ripe black and red fruit, bell pepper, and not much else. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is ripe, unbalanced, with no acidity, no freshness, it is sweet and ripe fruit, blackberry, candied liqueur plum, and green notes. The finish is long, ripe, unbalanced, with tannin, and not much else. Drink now. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2019 Covenant Israel Blue C, Red, Galilee – Score: 83 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this red wine blend is ripe, loads of fruit, not enough brightness, sweet cedar, sweet thyme, candied black fruit, and smoke. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, layered, but sadly unbalanced, almost no acid to speak of, not refreshing, more of a sledgehammer with no direction, blackberry, boysenberry, raspberry, candied plum, almost prunes, more smoke, and abrasive tannin. The finish is long, tannic, ripe, almost date juice, with over-the-top fruit, sweet oak, sweet tobacco, and roasted meat. Drink by 2026. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.90%)

2017 Ma’ayan Field Blend, Shomron – Score: 89 (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is a blend of 40% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Franc, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 13% Syrah. The nose on this wine is ripe that is clear from the start and it could have really used a bit more acidity, but overall, it is a nice enough wine, just not as refreshing as it could have been with the added tartaric acid. The nose starts with blueberry, dirt, loam, dark fruit, currants, smoke, nice balancing green notes, foliage, menthol, and mint. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is dense, ripe, layered, showing control with green notes, nice waxy component, foliage, dark currants, sweet cedar, really nice menthol/mint/garrigue that enhances the wine, with blueberry, raspberry, and lovely loam. The finish is long, green, dirty, with graphite, smoke, sweet smoking tobacco, and roasted notes. Nice! Drink by 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2017 Ma’ayan Asis Blend, Shomron – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
Where the 2017 Field blend could have used more brightness and acidity, the Field blend is perfectly acidified, it feels added, but that is 100% fine. The nose on this wine is bright, with green notes, foliage, Brussel sprouts, plum, raspberry, sweet cedar, toast, iron, milk chocolate, and tobacco. The mouth on this medium-plus-bodied wine is nicely balanced, with good acidity, fruit, layers, smoke, tart raspberry, tart, and ripe plum, tart and ripe blueberry, sweet cedar, rich loam, saline, and butterscotch. The finish is long, green, smoky, fruity, but balanced, with good saline, graphite, mineral, loam, milk chocolate, and ripe fruit. Nice! Drink until 2025. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.50%)

2017 Ma’ayan Cabernet Sauvignon, Shomron – Score: 83 (QPR: POOR)
The nose on this ripe wine is, well, ripe, intensely so, with sweet and ripe notes, milk chocolate, sweet plum, dark fruit, and sweet cedar. The mouth on this full-bodied is ripe, with a decent amount of acidity, which does help cut the ripeness, but it is still unbalanced and it loses the freshness, with plum, dark brooding blackberry, smoke, and blackcurrant. The finish is long, but it lacks the picture, it has a focus, but not in the way I want. Drink until 2024. (tasted January 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2019 Pavillon du Vieux Chantre, Puisseguin Saint-Emilion – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is so very different than what I had in Paris, I am so happy I checked again before posting, Also, this wine is very akin to the 2018 vintage, the only main difference is the balance, the 2018 vintage was riper while the 2019 vintage has more minerality and acidity, nice! The nose on this wine is lovely, green notes, rich saline, floral notes of lavender, rich smoke, bell pepper, anise, iron, black pepper, charcoal, red and black fruit, and rich loam, very nice! The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is lovely, plush, ripe, yet balanced with intense acidity, lovely minerality, blackberry, raspberry, tart cherry, rich loam, mouth-searing tannin, green notes, graphite, rich mineral, more smoke, soy sauce, and garrigue. The finish is long, green, and ripe, but impressively balanced, with more acid, saline, graphite, charcoal, green notes rock, nice coffee, and loam lingering long. BRAVO!! Drink until 2030. (tasted February 2022) (in Paris, France & San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2018 Tulip Espero, Red, Galilee – Score: 76 (QPR: NA)
This wine is a blend of 55% Syrah, 30% Merlot, & 15% Cabernet Franc. Another overripe, over the top Israeli wine, this is not only ripe and unbalanced, but it also is flat, with no acidity, and no focus, hard pass. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2020 Vitkin Pinot Noir, Judean Hills – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is nice enough but while it is well-balanced it has nothing to grab your attention, it has good acidity, varietally correct, but that is about it, a simple quaff. The nose on this wine has smoke, earth, dark cherry, raspberry, rose petals, and toast. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is well-balanced, with red fruit, cherry, a bit of tannin, oak, and good acidity to tie it together. The finish is long, green, red, fruity, with more oak, tannin, mineral, and sweet spices. Drink until 2024. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2019 Hagafen Cabernet Franc, Napa Valley, CA (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose on this wine is candied fruit liqueur, sweet oak, sweet dill, over the top, candied plum, and more candied red fruit. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, showing too much oak, loads of sweet dill, intense tannin, nice extraction, with dark candied plum, dark raspberry, sweet notes of strawberry jam, nice acidity, but overall, really ripe, intense, and jammy. The finish is long, ripe, red, with more extraction, oak, milk chocolate, tobacco, sweet mint, roasted herbs, and sweet spices. Drink until 2026. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.50%)

2020 Chateau Signac Pliocene, Cotes du Rhone – Score: 91.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah. The nose on this wine is a bit stunted, for now, with notes of roasted meat, blueberry, blackberry, smoke, spice, and mulberry. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is what I like to taste, rich acidity, lovely tannin structure, lovely boysenberry, raspberry, plum, mulberry, and sweet spices, wrapped in sweet oak, tannin, nice mineral, and great fruit structure. Nice!!! This is not a freight train that will overwhelm you, this is a well-balanced wine that will work with all parts of a meal, outside of a cote du boeuf. The finish is long, balanced, tart, ripe, with lovely menthol, intense graphite, charcoal, sweet tobacco, and rich loam/tar, really fun!! Drink until 2025. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2019 Binyamina Diamond, Galilee (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 20% Shiraz, & 10% Petit Verdot. The nose on this wine is ripe, with loads of oak, smoke, sweet blue and black fruit, with raspberry, plum, and graphite. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, but there is some acid to help calm it down, ripe boysenberry, blackberry, ripe cassis jam, raspberry, plum, graphite, green notes, loads of sweet dill, oak, and some dirt. The finish is long, ripe, sweet, with earth, graphite, more oak, tobacco, menthol, rich milk chocolate, and some roasted herbs. Drink by 2026. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.50%)

2019 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, Special Reserve, Alexander Valley, CA (M) – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose on this wine, to start, is ripe, scary to start, with lovely pencil shaving, graphite, menthol, dark chocolate, sweet oak, ripe plum, blackberry, green notes, foliage, and nice earth. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is ripe, a bit scary to start, but the acidity is impressive, the wine is dense, layered, richly extracted, showing blackberry, dense smoke, sweet oak, dark plum, blackberry, tart raspberry, mouth-draping, and elegant tannin, with a refreshing attack of fruit and acidity, dense tannin, lovely loam, earth, and smoke, with mineral, and roasted herbs. The finish is long, green, ripe, and salty, with green olives, saline, dense, fruity, ripe, and layered, really impressive, with minerality, graphite, pencil shavings, and dense fruit. BRAVO! Drink from 2027 until 2033. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

I started tasting some of these wines in January and February of this year and at the start, some of them were nice to GREAT. Since then it has been downhill for almost all of the options. As you peruse this list you will see there is a SINGLE QPR WINNER, JUST ONE! That is worse than last year when we had two WINNER roses!

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 went into overdrive with options and thankfully this year it is slowing down! Some lovely roses are not on this list and while they will not be QPR WINNER they are quite nice. I will be posting those wines when I post my Paris wine tastings. Still, IMHO, who cares, as I have stated a few times, why are we looking at 35-dollar or more roses when we have better scoring whites!

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 risen a fair amount from last year, some are at 40 to 45 dollars – for a rose! So far, it is around 29 bucks – that is NUTS!

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 on 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 29 dollars (that is 7 dollars more than last year – like I said crazy inflation) – 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 one Israeli rose, that I have tasted so far, that I would drink, but I would not buy!

The French roses are OK, but nothing to scream about. I still remember fondly the 2015 Chateau Roubine, I tasted it with Pierre and others in Israel, what a wine! I bought lots of that wine in 2016. Last year, I bought no roses, other than for tastings.

The weather in the USA is now getting hot and that unfortunately does not allow me to ship wines from the usual suspects, like kosherwine.com or onlinekosherwine.com. So, while I have tasted many roses, I wish I could order more and get up to date, but sadly, the shipping options are truly slim for now.

So, if you know all about rose and how it is made, skip all the information and go to the wines to enjoy for this year, of the wines I have tasted so far. If you do not know much about rose wine, read on. In a nutshell, 2021 roses are a waste of time. Please spend your money on white wines instead. They exist for a better price, and value, and garner better scores. IF YOU MUST have a rose wine stick to the few that I state below in my Best roses section, right above the wine scores.

Kosher Rose pricing

I want to bring up a topic I have been hammering on in my past posts, price! Yeah, I hear you, Avi Davidowitz, of KosherWineUnfiltered, please quiet down, gloating does not suit you – (smiley face inserted here). The prices of Rose wines have gotten out of control. They are now median priced at 29 dollars with some crazy outliers like 45 or 50 dollars, for a rose! The worst offenders are from Israel followed by the U.S.A. Interestingly, Europe is not the high-priced leader, though that will change once the new Roubines arrive, they are still in the barrel in France.

QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) has become nonexistent, essentially here in the USA, for the kosher rose market. Finally, I am sorry, but I feel that wineries were either hampered in some way with the 2021 rose vintage, or honestly, they just threw in the towel, The 2021 vintage is as bad or worse than the 2020 vintage, and the 2020 roses were the worst one in the last 10 years, AGAIN. The roses of 2021 feel commodity at best, they feel rushed, with no real care, rhyme, or reason. They feel like we have peaked. They are nowhere near the 2015 vintage that put Chateau Roubine on the map for kosher wine drinkers. This year’s crop of roses feel half-hearted pure cash cows, and really without love behind them, AGAIN. I get it that running a winery is a tough business, and you need cash flow, and the best cash flow product out there is Rose and Sauvignon Blanc wines. At least there are some GREAT or WINNER Sauvignon Blanc wines from 2021. In Rose, for 2021, so far there is just one.

As always, I will be chastised for my opinions, and my pronouncements, and I am fine with that. This is a wake-up post, last year there were one or two good roses, but at this point of the season, there was almost nothing worth buying as well. In the end, I will repeat this statement many times, I would rather buy, the Gilgal Brut, 2019 Chateau Lacaussade, 2021 Hagafen Riesling, Dry, 2020 Ramon Cardova Albarino, 2021 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc, 2020 O’dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc, 2019 Pacifica Riesling, and many more. There are far better options, cheaper and more refreshing, and more flexible in the world of white wine! PLEASE!!!

I was thinking about going with the title: 2021 kosher Roses suck hard – who cares? Because that is how I feel. This vintage is a massive letdown, AGAIN, worse than 2020, prices are even HIGHER, quality has hit rock bottom, and overall professionalism, IMHO, has gone along with the quality. Wineries have been getting away with less and less quality for years, raising prices, and this is the worst I have seen in the rose market overall. So, yeah, who cares?

Wine Color

What is a rose wine? Well, simply said, a rose is a wine that can best be defined as the wine world’s chameleon. Where white wine is a pretty simple concept – take white grapes, squeeze them, and you get clear to green-colored juice. Yes, the white grape juice is clear – well so is red grape juice, but more on that in a bit.

White wine is not about color – almost all color in a white wine comes from some oak influence of some sort. So, an unoaked Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris can sometimes look almost clear, depending on the region and how the wine was handled. Now oaked Chardonnay, of course, is what most people use as an example of dark white wine. As the Wine Folly linked above states, different wine regions oak their Chardonnay differently, and as such, they are sold with different hues from the start. With age, the wine changes color and the light gold moves to darker gold shades.

The only real exception to the stated rule above – that white grape juice without the influence of oak is somewhere in the clear to the green color spectrum, is – orange wines. We have spoken about orange wines – mostly thanks to Yaacov Oryah. Outside of Yaacov’s work there really is no orange wine in the kosher world to speak about. Orange wine is made exactly like red wine, which means that the clear grape juice is left to sit on the yellowish to dark yellow grape skins (depending upon what varietal is used to make the orange wine). Another name for them is skin macerated white wines or extended skin macerated white wines.

Red wine juice – straight from the grape comes out the same color as white grapes. You see the juice from grapes is mostly clear to greenish in color. The red wine color comes from macerating the juice on the grape skins. The longer the juice sits on the grape skins (wine must) the redder in color the wine becomes until it reaches its maximum red color potential.

The only real exception to the rule of a grape’s juice color is the Teinturier varieties. The grapes are called Teinturier, a French language term meaning to dye or stain. The list of grapes whose juice is red-colored is long – but the list of kosher wine options that is a wine made from these grapes – is the Herzog Alicante Bouschet. The Gamay de Bouze is not a normal Gamay grape, it is one of those grape mutations that are very red.

Rose wines are the in-between story – hence the chameleon term I used above.

Rose Wine

Rose wine is made in one of three ways. I will list the most dominant manners and leave the last one for last.

Limited Maceration:

This is the first step of the first two options and the only difference is what you do with the rest of the juice after you remove it? You see, as we stated above, the color of the juice from red grapes is clear to green, and for one to get the lovely red hues we all love from red wine, it requires the juice to lie on the grape skins – AKA maceration.

The rose hue depends on how long the juice macerates. I have heard winemakers say 20 minutes gives them the color they like, and some say almost half a day or longer. The longer the juice macerates the darker the color. While the wine is macerating, the skins are contributing color by leaching phenolics – such as anthocyanins and tannins, and flavor components. The other important characteristic that the skins leach into the rose is – antioxidants that protect the wine from degrading. Sadly, because rose wines macerate for such a short time, the color and flavor components are less stable and as such, they lack shelf life – a VERY IMPORTANT fact we will talk about later. Either way, drinking rose wine early – like within the year – is a great approach for enjoying rose wine at its best!

Now once you remove the liquid, after letting it macerate for the desired length of time, the skins that are left are thrown out or placed in the field to feed organic material into the vines. This is a very expensive approach indeed because the grapes are being thrown away, instead of doing the Saignée process which is described in option #2. This approach is mostly used in regions where rose wine is as important as red wines, like Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. Mind you, the grapes used in this method are most often picked early, as they are solely used for making the rose.

Many producers, especially those in Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon, take a more traditional approach when making rosé wine. Grapes are grown and selected exclusively for rosé production, as stated above, and then often crushed as whole clusters, and then gently pressed until the juice reaches a desirable pale color.

Most think that Saignee wines would have a higher alcohol level, as the fruit used to make that wine is picked later, but actually, that is not always correct, as winemakers can water back the rose juice and get what they want, at least here in the USA. When you taste the wine, look for the acid, is the acid natural or out of place?

Saignée:

The second approach for how Rose wine is made, is essentially the same as maceration – the only difference is that they do not remove all the juice. In the second method for making Rose wine, the Rose is the afterthought – in DRASTIC contrast to the first approach, where the rose is primary.

Now, many winemakers may take affront to this statement, and one did actually, but that is my opinion. When the juice is removed to fortify the red wine, the rose wine, again IMHO, is an afterthought. That DOES NOT mean, that the winemaker does not take the rose wine seriously. Any decent winemaker that makes wine, should be doing it with 100% focus. My point is that if the rose was important to you, you would pull the fruit earlier, but hey that is my opinion, and yeah, I am not a winemaker.

So in places like California and Rhone in France, winemakers will pick the grapes when they reach their appropriate phenolics. Then to concentrate the wine, the winemaker will bleed some of the juice – hence the term Saignée in French which means bleed. By removing this juice, after the juice has been macerated long enough, the resulting wine is further intensified, because there is less juice lying on the same amount of grape skin surface.

The interesting thing here is that the grapes used to make this kind of rose are normally one with higher Brix, as the grapes are destined for red wine. So, when you bleed the juice out of the must, what is being pulled out is juice at a higher alcohol level than Rose wines made using the first method (as explained above). So what do you do when you have a wine that is too high in alcohol so early in the game – well that is simple you water it down! Now remember this wine is already low on phenolics and color, so if you know that your rose will be high in alcohol when all is said and done, you have lots of options here. You can leave the juice to macerate for longer, yes the juice you finally pull out may well be darker than you desire. However, you will be watering it down, so it is all a question of numbers, and winemakers who make these kinds of wines, are used to it and know how to handle it.

Now you ask what is wrong with the high alcohol rose? Well, a rose is normally meant to be light and fruity wine, and personally, watered back roses are less so, but I have also enjoyed a few Saignee wines in the past.

Blending Method:

Finally, what do you get when you mix some white wine with some red wine – a rose by George a rose! This last method is the least common method for creating still rose wines. That said, it is very common in the world of Champagne and sparkling wines. Next time you enjoy sparkling rose wine, you can almost be sure that it is a blend of Chardonnay (white wine) and either Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier (red wine).

As stated before, in the still rose wine market, there is very little of this kind of rose wine being made.

State of kosher rose wines

Types of Rose made:

1. Red Rose wines: There are truly a few examples of this, but they have been made and they are not rose wines. They are billed as a rose at times, but to me, they are essentially a light red wine, much like a Gamay
2. Sweet/Ripe Rose wines: Sweet wines are created because either the winemaker could not get the wine to finish primary fermentation or because they stopped it. Sweet rose wines sometimes lack balance because they lack the screaming acid needed to make it all work. This year, the vast majority of the kosher roses were ripe, sweet, or unbalanced messes.
   That said, sweeter rose wines are the gateway wines to get people to try drier wines. The best of the sweet/ripe rose this year if that is even a statement that makes sense, would be the 2021 Hajdu Rose.
3. Dry rose wines: Dry is not a subjective concept it is measurable in a lab and can be tasted as well. That said, what we as humans can perceive does seem to be subjective. Some of us will think a Sauvignon Blanc is sweet unless it is a Sancerre – you know who you are EP! Dr. Vinny was asked this question here, and essentially we can start perceiving sweetness at 0.5% residual sugar, but as the Doc says, sometimes a bone-dry wine can be perceived as sweet because of its ripeness and/or lack of acidity to balance it. To me, that was where the Chateau Roubine was this year, dry, but not complex in any way.
4. Dark rose wines: Color in any rose or red wine is defined by the amount of maceration the wine goes through, as described above. Some people like that salmon color and some like that darker rose color. There are so many colors in the rose spectrum, and no, the darker roses are not based on what grape is used in the making of the wine, unless it is based on a Teinturier grape – which I have yet to see.

So where does that leave us? To recap IMHO, rose wine is meant to be light, refreshing, tart, and low in alcohol. It can have a varying rose hue, from Gris (gray in French – light color) to Salmon, to rose, and up to dark red. Yes, there have been wineries that tried making heavier rose wines, that were essentially red wines, whom I will not mention and they have all been epic disasters. If you want a red wine – make a Gamay and leave me alone! Rose is about summer, tart, and refreshing wine.

White and Rose wine education

Royal Wines has done a great job of bringing in white and roses wines, but I must stress – we need more education! Any wine distributor today can sell a Cabernet Sauvignon in its sleep! Why? Because the kosher wine-drinking public is programmed to drink big bold red wines! Nothing light and lithe, only sledgehammers! Now, who am I to disagree with what someone likes – if you like a particular wine great! What I would like to see is people finding a way to expand their palate – by doing so they will learn more about wines and maybe they will see why they like and dislike a wine more – education is the answer! Now to those who say – why bother, if they like it let them enjoy it? To that answer I say – sure, when u were three years old you liked mud, and you liked spreading it all over your sister’s new white dress! Should we have let you enjoy it forever?? Of course not!

Now your reply will be, come on we are talking about wine – not about personal growth and their humanity! Of course, but like everything in this world – we should want to strive and learn more about what makes us happy and why! Are you still eating mac&cheese for dinner? What about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch? I have nothing against, P&J – I like them, but I have grown out of them which is the point here!

If you like a Monet painting – you owe it to yourself to learn why? What grabs you when you see 100+-year-old paint on a canvas? So what he painted a haystack – good for him? What makes you want to stare at it for hours? The answer is inside of you – and you need to learn the answer. I hope we can all find the answers to what makes us tick, why we all love some things, and why we hate other things. That is called human evolution – it makes us what we are – human! Anyway, I am off my soapbox now, but I hope we can agree that growth is good – no matter the subject.

I beg distributors and wineries to get out and teach! Get out and go to wine stores and pour wines – pour wine to anyone that wants to taste or even to those that do not! Education is the foundation of this industry – and without it, we are doomed to stasis – something that terrifies me!

The temperature to enjoy Rose

Please do yourself a favor and enjoy rose wine at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Meaning if you leave a bottle of wine in your refrigerator and pull it out after half a day of fridge time or more, it will probably be at the refrigerator’s frigid temperature of 37 or so degrees Farenight – which is HORRIBLE for a rose. Rose at room temperature of 70 or so degrees is also not fun. It needs to be a bit cold, but not over the top. Please do not think that it needs to be iced down in an ice bucket either, that is for sparkling wines.

Drink the rose at the beginning of the meal

Rose is NOT a long-term drinking animal. It is not meant to be enjoyed for more than a meal. Why? Because as we explained above once it is fully oxygenated, it will go bad – quickly. The tart fruit notes and the acid will dissipate faster than air leaves a punctured tire. It is simply the life of Rose, drink it very young and fast. Never stock up on Rose, there is no purpose in that! Go to the store and buy a rose and drink it, if they have none, then no worries drink something else.

White and Rose wine drinking in the kosher wine world

The good news is that white wine is selling better than it ever has. There is a large number of very good, solid, white wines from California and Europe, with a few Israeli wines as well, that are reasonably priced and very enjoyable. Of course, there are also higher-end white wines that are even more fascinating, but overall the good news is that white wine consumption and availability have been on the rise in the kosher wine market, just not where I live, LOL! I still cannot pour white wine on my table, though in the end, who cares, I will enjoy it and the guests can drink more red wine, win-win.

The very sad state of affairs with the 2021 roses

So where are we in 2021 with kosher Rose wines? We are still selling old vintages and that has to stop. There are MANY brick and mortar and online wine shops, even in the hallowed grounds of NYC, that still have Rose wines on their shelves, from the 2018 and 2019 vintages. Why is that a problem? As stated above, Rose wines are NOT meant for aging. Rose wines should NEVER be sold after their drink by date, which is the summer after the wine’s vintage. So, 2021 wines should be sold out by the summer of 2022 – simple! Sadly, I still see 2019 wines being sold all around! There is simply too much older rose lying around and too many new 2021 Rose wines coming in. The outcome is that someone is going to eat a lot of rose wines, or they will push them on to the unsuspecting public, who do not understand roses at all.

I BEG the manufacturers to work with the stores and merchants to eat the older wines, one way or the other, and get them OFF the shelves. Please DO NOT attempt to put them on sale, they are not wines that should be pushed to consumers, as it only ends up hurting the wineries and the companies selling them. Please remove them and figure out how to handle the loss. No one will be drinking Rose wines for Rosh Hashanah.

One part that is better than last year is that many of the rose wines are here already, even earlier than last year. I wish they would have all arrived already, and some have, but with the world we live in, it is still better than last year. Please dump the old roses and move on!

Best rose so far in 2022

Well, let’s hold up here for a second. as stated above, I have not tasted all the roses out there yet. I am surprised by how many of the 2021 roses are already here but sadly the temps for shipping are not cooperating.

If there are two ideas you get from this post that would be great. ONE: Drink only 2021 roses now. TWO: Drink refreshing roses. A rose that feels heavy, unbalanced, and one that does not make you reach for more, is not a rose I would recommend. These recommendations are not including the roses I had in Paris, but I will post those wines after this.

So with that said, here are the best options, if you must have a rose, again IMHO these are NOT worth buying – other than maybe the Matar Rose, but so far are the best options here in the USA, as of this post:

1. 2021 Chateau Roubine La Vie en Rose – is the best of the European roses (that I have tasted so far) – but not a great one, IMHO
2. 2021 Hajdu Rose – is the best of the Cali roses (that I have tasted so far)
3. 2021 Hajdu Rose – nicest of the riper roses (that I have tasted so far)
4. 2021 Matar Rose – is the best of the Israeli roses (that I have tasted so far)
5. Best overall and ONLY QPR WINNER Rose – 2021 Matar Rose (so far)

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 Matar Rose, Galilee – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 85% Grenache and 15% Counoise. The nose of this wine is Provence in style, stemming from the fact that the wine’s fruit is styled after a Provence Rose, with lovely notes of strawberry and crème, flint, orange blossom, citrus, mineral, and melon. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely, first is the gripping acidity, followed by lovely strawberry, raspberry, tart melon, celery, grapefruit, tart lemon, and lovely mineral. The finish is long, tart, and green, with slate, mineral, and lovely acidity lingering long. Nice!!! Drink now. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11%)

2021 Hagafen Don Ernesto Beret Rose, Napa Valley, CA (M) – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose on this Syrah-based rose is nice with sweet fruit, watermelon, melon, sweet red fruit, dry strawberry, and rosehip, nice! The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lovely with screaming acidity, nice mouthfeel, very refreshing, sweet melon, gooseberry, pomelo, ripe strawberry, tart passion fruit, and nice saline. The finish is long, tart, sweet, well balanced, and nice! Drink now! (tasted May 2022) (in Napa Valley, CA)

2021 Hajdu Rose, California – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is nice, candied, ripe, but nice, with dark red fruit, citrus, floral notes, and smoke. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is quite nice, it will work for those that like sweeter wines to enjoy, with candied plum, dark cherry, grapefruit, Tutti frutti, cotton candy, and nice acidity. The finish is long, ripe, candied, but balanced, with slate, more candied fruit, orange, nectarines, and orange Kool-Aid. Drink now (tasted March 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)

2021 Tabor Barbera Rose, Adama, Galilee – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is quite nice, with orange blossom, raspberry, plum, citrus, and gooseberry. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has nice acidity, good saline, and nice flint, with gooseberry, mango, lemon/lime, and nice floral notes. Nicely refreshing. The finish is long, tart, and refreshing, with saline, and minerality. Nice! Drink now! (tasted April 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2021 Recanati Rose, Galilee – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 70% Syrah & 30% Petite Sirah. The nose of this wine is ripe, with notes of pomegranate, rose, orange blossom, and strawberry. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is well balanced with good acidity, nice tart fruit, strawberry, raspberry, peach, candied grapefruit, and tart cherry. The finish is long, tart, and red, with good acidity, saline, tart ripe fruit, and a long lingering sense of cherry and candied raspberry. Nice! Drink now! (tasted April 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11.5%)

2021 Psagot Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 89.5 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is ripe, it shows candied fruit, candied plum, pomegranate, rhubarb, orange blossom, lychee, and guava. The mouth of this medium-plus-bodied wine shows weight, nice enough acidity, and ripe fruit, with hints of RS, pineapple, lychee, strawberry, candied plum, guava, citrus, pith, and tart fruit. The finish is long, tart, ripe, and balanced, but the ripe fruit is throwing me. This may be a good gateway rose for those who like ripe/sweet roses to try a dry but ripe rose. Drink now. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.50%)

2021 Covenant Rose, California – Score: 89 (QPR: BAD)
The nose of this wine shows raspberry, strawberry, saline, sweet orange blossom, and jasmine. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, tart strawberry, raspberry, orange blossom, tart green, and red fruit, with lemon, grapefruit, and nice mineral. The finish is long, tart, yet ripe, but with enough pith and slate – drink now! (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)

2021 Eola Hills Wine Cellars Pinot Noir Rose, Willamette Valley – Score: 89 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is fun, it is not overpowering, it is elegant and while it has more ripeness than I wish, it has incredible acidity to balance it all out.
The nose of this wine is not expressive, yellow floral notes, red fruit, and some rock are not the best nose around.
The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has nice acidity, is enjoyable, well-balanced, strawberry, raspberry, peach, grapefruit, and quite refreshing. The finish is long, ripe, and green, with good saline, rock, and slate. Drink now! (tasted March 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)

2021 Yaffo Rose, Israel – Score: 89 (QPR: GOOD)
This wine is a blend of 75% Merlot & 25% Grenache. This is a fine rose to help those who want to transition to more dry wines. The nose of this wine is ripe, it has bubblegum, cotton candy, strawberry, and some orange blossom. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine shows RS, with sweet notes, ripe fruit, good acidity, pink grapefruit, more cotton candy, tart plum, Orangina, and orange rind. The finish is long, and sweet, with ripe orange and raspberry. Drink now! (tasted April 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Recanati Gris de Marselan, Galilee – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is closed to start, but after 30 minutes it opens nicely. The nose of this wine is classically inclined with lemon blossom, orange, nectarines, strawberry, and red berries. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is where things go wrong, it is nice, it shows some acidity upfront, but it is hollow and feels a bit flat, with lemon, grapefruit, gooseberry, and strawberry. The finish is short with pith, saline, and more citrus. Drink now. (tasted April 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11.5%)

2021 Teperberg Rose, Essence, Samson – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 55% Grenache, 40% Mourvedre, & 5% Barbera. The wine is nice enough but once again, more acid please, why are we so stingy on acid??? The nose is lovely, with orange blossom, flint, mineral, raspberry, cherry, citrus, and smoke. Sadly, the mouth is nice but is lacking, the mouth of this medium-bodied wine has better fruit than many other Israeli roses in 2021, however, the acidity is missing, raspberry, cherry, slate, pomelo, and gooseberry, with enough refreshing notes but overall I want more. Drink now. (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11.5%)

2021 Herzog Rose, Lineage, Clarksburg, CA (M) – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is candied fruit, candied rose petal, candied plum and other red fruit, orange blossom, orange notes, and some raspberry. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine has good enough acidity, but it is riper than I like with candied plum, pomegranate, citrus, guava, rosehip, and pear. The finish is long, tart enough, with more ripe red fruit, slate, and rhubarb. Drink now. (tasted February 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2021 Flam Rose, Israel – Score: 87 (QPR: POOR)
The nose of this wine is ripe, not quite candied, but ripe, with citrus, ripe red fruit, and orange blossom notes. The mouth of this wine is ripe, without enough acidity to make it work, it has a hole in the middle, showing strawberry, candied raspberry, pink bubblegum, watermelon, and orange juice. The finish is long with some acidity, pith, and not much else. Drink now. (tasted March 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Chateau Roubine La Vie en Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: 86 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is nice, showing orange blossom, orange marmalade, strawberry and crème, and smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine once again has some refreshing aspects but lacks the acidity, and fruit expression, with strawberry, raspberry, pomelo, orange, and a slightly short finish with nice flint. Drink now! (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 1848 2nd Generation Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 85 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is nice enough, it has a good bite and is a bit refreshing but it is hollow and empty at the end with the nice starting acidity trying to hold on. The nose of this wine is flat with some orange blossoms and red fruit. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine starts nicely, with good acidity, but then falls off a cliff with raspberry, grapefruit, orange pith, and orange notes. Drink now. (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2021 Sainte Beatrice Rose, Cotes de Provence (M) – Score: 84 (QPR: POOR)
Look, this wine is lacking in the acid I wish for, but while the acid is missing what is not lacking is refreshment, still, acid is needed. The nose of this wine is a bit flat, with some smoke, flint, rock, and almost no fruit, and no presence. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is where things are missing, the mouth is lacking acidity, and it has a nice fruit pith with nice red fruit, and grapefruit, but not much else. (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Chateau Roubine R De Roubine Rose, Provence (M) – Score: 83 (QPR: POOR)
The nose of this wine is almost flat while the mouth is a bit expressive with good pith and fruit but again it is missing acidity. Raspberry, strawberry, and flint, with loads of pith and not much else, drink now! (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Tulip Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 83 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon & 40% Sauvignon Blanc. This is one of a few roses that are more a blend of red and white wine than a pure Gris or rose. The nose on this wine is boring and smells and tastes like a dumbed-down Sauvignon Blanc, which is a shame. Not evil, but boring, with no real red fruit notes, some passion fruit, grapefruit, and that is it. (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Carmel Mediterranean 2 Vats Rose, Israel – Score: 82 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 52% Tempranillo, 26% Marselan, % 22% Malbec. I will keep this short, the wine is flat and boring, it has pith, no acidity, red fruit, and some slate, overall average. (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11.5%)

2021 Yatir Darom Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 81 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 34% Grenache, 33% Zinfandel, and 33% Red Muscat. Yes, you read that correctly, Red Muscat, unless they have Red Muscat of Madère growing in Israel, they meant Black Muscat, just saying. Also, this wine is a mess and they used the “Red Muscat” to cover up how much of a mess it is. The nose and mouth only have one thing going for it, Muscat flavors, which are floral, rose, candied cherry, plum, and Lychee. The mouth on this light to medium-bodied wine is the same gimmick, with really just Muscat notes, some acidity, but otherwise hollow. Drink now. (tasted April 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11.5%)

2021 Gush Etzion Rose, Israel – Score: 78 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 48% Grenache, 43% Mourvedre, & 9% Pinot Gris. This wine is not as good as the Sauvignon Blanc, sadly it is flat. The nose on this Gris-like Rose is correct, with mineral, flint, strawberry, peach, and citrus. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is where things go wrong, sadly, there is no acidity, with an OK mouth, some raspberry, strawberry, flint, and orange, and not much else, also it feels a bit short. Move on! (tasted March 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11.5%)

2021 Tura Mountain Vista Rose, Judean Hills (M) – Score: 78 (QPR: NA)
This wine is a blend of 62% Merlot & 38% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is flat, boring, and ripe, with RS, bubblegum, watermelon, and some red fruit. Next! (tasted May 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.6%)

2021 Shiloh Rose, Judean Hills (M) – Score: 72 (QPR: NA)
This wine is a blend of 65% Cabernet Franc, 25% Grenache, & 10% Barbera. The nose of this wine is flat, much like the mouth, with hints of candied fruit, and some flowers. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is flat, boring, cooked, and showing too much heat, candied fruit, and pith to make this work at all. PASS. (tasted March 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

I hope you all had a wonderful Jewish Holiday season! We are now back to the grind and I have a bunch of wines that need to be posted. 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 one Israeli WINNER and it is from the 2021 vintage.

We have a nice list of QPR WINNERS:

1. 2021 Shirah Rose, Central Coast, CA (A nice solid rose)
2. 2021 Covenant Israel Rose, Blue C, Israel (lovely color and great acidity)
3. 2018 Allegory Pinot Noir, Duvarita Vineyard, Santa Barbara, CA (Another nice Pinot from Cali)
4. 2020 Chateau Montviel, Pomerol (Perennial winner)
5. N.V. Drappier Carte d’Or, Champagne (Best of the 4 Drappier Champagne)
6. N.V. Drappier Brut Nature, Zero Dosage, Champagne (Lovely but drink now!)
7. 2020 Chateau Piada, Sauternes (Not their best but solid)
8. N.V. Drappier Rose de Saignee, Champagne (Nice brut rose, hard to find outside of Yarden)

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

1. 2021 Shirah Bro.Deux, Blanc, Santa Ynez Valley, CA (A nice wine just missing a bit)
2. 2021 Yatir Mount Amasa Rose, Judean Hills (Not bad)
3. 2021 Or de la Castinelle Rose, Cotes de Provence (Another solid vintage for this new rose)
4. 2021 Vitkin Israeli Journey, Red, Israel (Simple but nice)
5. 2021 Laufer Tokaji Late Harvest, Tokaji – Simple but balanced
6. 2018 Allegory Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford (too ripe for me but good)
7. 2019 Vitkin Grenache Blanc, Galilee (A step back on this vintage sadly)
8. 2018 Ma’ayan Cabernet Franc, Shomron (A lovely wine just too Israeli for me)

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

1. 2019 Shirah Nebbiolo, Paso Robles, CA (A bit too ripe for my tastes)
2. 2021 Flam Camellia, Judean Hills (Less interesting than previous vintages)
3. 2018 Allegory Meritage, Paso Robles, CA (weakest of the Allegory wines)
4. 2021 Laufer Tokaji Ice Wine, Tokaji (Not enough acidity to make it work)

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

1. 2021 Jezreel Valley Rose, Sharon (Not very good)
2. 2020 Yatir Darom, Red, Israel (Just trying too hard with so little)
3. N.V. Drappier Rose, Brut Nature, Champagne (Not a good idea IMHO)

Wine sets that I tasted

This tasting includes three sets of wines.

1. Shirah Rose and white wines
2. Allegory and Ma’ayan wines (from The Cellar wine store in Lakewood)
3. Four newly disgorged Drappier Champagne
4. The rest of the assorted wines I tasted over the last 1+ months. I tasted more but I am waiting to post them later.

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

The largest WINNER group of the sets of wines I had came from the Drappier Champagnes. Three of them were dead on and the fourth, the brut nature rose, is just a bad idea, IMHO.

The other two sets are all made by the Weiss brothers from Shirah wines. The Shirah Wines are made under the Shirah brand and the Allegory wines are Cali wines made for the Cellar wine store in Lakewood.

The Shirah Rose and the Allegory Pinot Noir, two wines made by the Weiss brothers are solid to lovely wines.

Covenant keeps popping out lovely wines and the 2021 Israeli Rose is another example of what care brings you!

The other two wines are the 2020 Piada and Montviel, two more WINNERS for Royal Wines. The Montviel is sheer joy and the highest-scoring wine of this post while the Piada, while nice enough, is a step back from previous vintages.

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

This group is not a group of wines I would buy and some are not even wines I would drink if given the chance. They are Ok wines but there are far better options out there. The one that did surprise me was the 2018 Ma’ayan Cabernet Franc, Shomron. It is a wine that was close and nice but still too Israeli for me.

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 2021 Laufer Tokaji Ice Wine. It should have been a better wine but the wine is a mess, it is all over the place and lacks acidity, sad.

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

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

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

Roundup

Overall another nice list of QPR WINNERS. I can always look at these kinds of lists and say there are only 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:

2020 Chateau Montviel, Pomerol – Score: 93 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. The nose of this wine is incredible, this is what I dream about when I smell wine, dirt, earth, smoke, loam, elegance, fruit, and mushroom, yum!!! The mouth of this full-bodied wine is balanced and soft, it comes at you in layers, showing raspberry, plum, rich loam, earth, sweet spices, and forest floor, all wrapped in a silky and elegant plush mouthfeel, with lovely acidity. It is a silky seductress. The finish is long, green, herbal, dirty, loam, and more forest floor that really comes out, with sweet tobacco, dry meat, and lovely green notes. Bravo!!! Drink from 2025 until 2034. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.5%)

N.V. Drappier Carte d’Or, Champagne (M) – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine was disgorged on 7/22. The nose of this wine is yeasty, with lovely baked goods, freshly baked apple and kumquat pie, ripe quince, lemon curd, pear, honeysuckle, and pleasant minerality. This has to be the best version of this wine they have made kosher, IMHO. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe, balanced, elegant, but persuasive, with lovely layers of small bubble mousse, some nice tannin, citrus, lemongrass, dried apricot, melon, more minerality, slate, and lovely baked pie with yeasty notes commanding your attention. Lovely! Drink until 2024. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2020 Chateau Piada, Sauternes – Score: 92 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is ripe, a bit riper than previous vintages, with lovely funk, ripe pineapple, ripe and juicy guava, mango, and many other tropical fruits, chamomile, sweet honeysuckle, honeyed notes, with some balance of nice tart citrus fruit. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is balanced, the mouth shows much more balance and elegance than the nose, with a lovely plush and oily mouthfeel, with the aforementioned funk, sweet honeyed melon, honeyed guava, and mango, sweet peach, tart and balancing grapefruit, tart yellow plum, and nice minerality, even a bit of saline, nice! The finish is long, mineral, sweet, and not ripe, with hints of pith, graphite, saline, more funk, and honeysuckle lingering long. Nice! Drink from 2028 until 2040. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.5%)

N.V. Drappier Brut Nature, Zero Dosage, Champagne (M) – Score: 91.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This is a Blanc de Noir, made from Pinot Noir, with zero dosage, and a label of Brut Nature. This wine was disgorged on 7/22. The nose of this wine is tart, clean, and green, yet fruity, there is no red fruit here, just peach, apricot, intense yeasty notes, lovely baked goods, followed by minerality, slate, honeysuckle, and notes of wax and marzipan. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice but it is not long for this world, like most brut nature wines it is good for maybe 8 months, max, so drink up! The bubbles are already starting to fade, but when it is first opened, here in late September, the mouth shows an attack of lovely small bubble mousse, baked goods, tart yeasty notes, nice tannin, waxy notes, marzipan, lemongrass, grapefruit, lemon pith, and brioche. The finish is long, and tart, with great acidity, slate, mineral, and fruit focus, but the mousse is fading in the mouth, enjoy soon! Drink up!! (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

N.V. Drappier Rose de Saignee, Champagne (M) – Score: 91.5 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine has a disgorgement date of 7/22. The nose of the sparkling rose is quite lovely, showing notes of rich yeast, mineral, great rhubarb, raspberry, dried currants, anise, rosehip, and more red berries. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is quite enjoyable, with end-to-end small mousse bubbles, ripe red apples, tangy raspberries, rhubarb, dried rose petals, and lovely orange peel. Elegant and luxurious. The finish is long, tangy, and beguiling, with light tannin, lovely baked rhubarb pie, and lovely slate/graphite, bravo! Drink until 2024. (tasted October 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2018 Allegory Pinot Noir, Duvarita Vineyard, Santa Barbara, CA – Score: 91.5 (QPR: WINNER)
The nose of this wine is lovely, ripe fruit, balanced, red, and hints of black fruit, sweet oak, vanilla, rosehip, heather, loam, minerality, and roasted meat. The mouth of this medium to full-bodied wine is balanced, and nice, with good fruit focus, plus acidity, with a nice plush mouthfeel, first green notes come at you with mint, basil, and garrigue, followed by tart sour cherry, raspberry, hints of blackberry, sweet spice, sweet oak, heather, loam, and charcoal. The finish is long, green, herbal, charcoal, mineral, and loamy, with dry tobacco, and more mint. The sweet and sour cherries with rosehip linger long. Drink by 2025. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.1%)

2021 Covenant Israel Rose, Blue C, Israel – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine takes a bit of time to open, do yourself a favor for the next month or so, and maybe open it an hour before you enjoy it. Heck decanting a rose like this would be fun! Once the wine is open, the nose of this wine is nicely balanced, with good bright fruit, nice strawberry, ripe raspberry, ginger, white pepper, green notes, honeysuckle, and peach. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is balanced, tart, fruity, and refreshing, with good fruit focus, a nice weighty mouthfeel, ripe strawberry, raspberry, nice saline, minerality, and quince. Bravo! The finish is long, tart, and refreshing, with good salinity, mineral, slate, and lovely fruit focus. Nice! Drink now! (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 10.7%)

2021 Shirah Rose, Central Coast, CA – Score: 91 (QPR: WINNER)
This wine is a blend of Nebbiolo, Grenache, and Pinot Meunier. The nose of this wine is a bit flat with the Nebbiolo taking over, I crave a Grenache rose nose, flinty, ethereal, fleeting but ever present, here the nose is just lacking, maybe the Pinot Meunier is not a rose wine, who knows.
With time the nose opens to classic strawberry and creme, saline, and orange blossom. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is nice, with screaming acidity, the ph here is off the charts (I mean under the floorboards), clearly real, this is not chemically altered, but wow, it is intense even for me, with intense acidity, balancing good fruit focus of cranberry, plum, rhubarb, watermelon, and grapefruit, nice! The finish is long, tart, green, refreshing, shocking, yet really lovely wine with nice flint, rock, and sweet fruit, balanced by intense acidity, and fruit. Bravo! Drink now. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Or de la Castinelle Rose, Cotes de Provence – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
I really was hoping for another winning vintage from this winery, it is close but it is not a QPR WINNER. The nose of this lovely wine is ripe, well balanced, and very grenache in style, showing nice minerality, notes of orange blossom, orange marmalade, strawberries, and crème, with saline, and green notes. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine shows a nice weight, but what is missing is the intense acidity, it has enough, but it lacks that real refreshment, with a nice fruit focus of grapefruit, strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry, rich orange, almost nectarines, some minerality, and lovely green notes. The finish is super long, with more nectarines, orange juice, orange blossom, and pith. Drink now. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Shirah Bro.Deux, Blanc, Santa Ynez Valley, CA – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is slow to open so give it time. The nose of this wine is nice enough, very tropical and new world in style, akin to a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, with ripe gooseberry, cat pee, and guava, but also a bit riper with more weight, orange blossom, rose water, and mineral. Enjoy this wine a bit colder than other whites. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is ripe, with a drop too little in acidity, a nice round mouthfeel, and refreshing with orange notes, gooseberry, guava, honeysuckle, honeydew, and smoke. The finish is long, tart, and ripe, with weight, flint, and a nice finish. Drink now. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13.1%)

2021 Yatir Mount Amasa Rose, Judean Hills – Score: 89 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 70% Grenache & 30% Mourvedre. The nose of this wine is classic in nature with the Provence-style blend showing strawberry & creme, peach, honeysuckle, and rosehip, with too much bitter pith notes. The mouth of this wine is nice, with good acidity, and nice fruit, but the bitterness is off-putting with some minerality, loads of pith, strawberry, raspberry, peach, green notes, and smoke. The finish is long, bitter, green, and fruity. Drink now. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)

2019 Vitkin Grenache Blanc, Galilee – Score: 90.5 (QPR: GOOD)
These wines need a year to come together, the 18 is screaming great now. The nose of this wine is less ripe and less bright than previous vintages, while I like this wine, it feels a bit less full and a bit more hollow, with lovely white blossom, honeysuckle, honeyed fruit, and melon. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine lacks the draping mouthfeel of the past, this one is more tart, acidic, and focused, lither, with ripe melon, citrus, green apple, salinity, nice enough minerality, pear, tart yellow grapefruit, some straw with slate. The finish is long and green, with more saline, honeysuckle, and enough acidity on the finish. Drink until 2024. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2021 Laufer Tokaji Late Harvest, Tokaji – Score: 90 (QPR: GOOD)
The nose of this wine is nice enough, it does not blow you away, but it has nice honeysuckle, ripe mango, peach, and honeyed lychee. The mouth of this medium-plus bodied wine is nice, the acidity is good, it is balanced, with a nice weight, an almost oily texture, with sweet notes, but it lacks the punch to really handle desert, with honeyed notes, lychee, mango, honeysuckle, and sweet peach. The finish is long, sweet, and balanced. Drink until 2026. (tasted October 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 11%)

2021 Vitkin Israeli Journey, Red, Israel – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
This wine is a blend of 55% Carignan, 25% Grenache, 10% Cabernet Franc, & 10% Syrah. The nose of this wine is nice, juicy, and controlled, with red and blue fruit, and nice hints of floral notes, but the nose is dominated by the fruit. This medium-bodied wine’s mouth is refreshing, focused, and enjoyable, with good acidity, balance, soft tannin, smoke, ripe and juicy boysenberry, raspberry, strawberry, nice smoke, good loam, nicely sweet and ripe fruit, wrapped in tannin and lovely acidity. Nice! The finish is long, ripe, balanced, and fruity. Nice! Drink by 2024 (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 13%)

2018 Allegory Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford, Rutherford, Napa Valley, CA – Score: 90 (QPR: GREAT)
The nose of this wine is more controlled than the Meritage with nice red and black fruit, nice bright fruit, herbal, spicy, with mint, green notes, licorice, anise, and lovely fruit. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is clean, balanced, and ripe, with loads of sweet oak, sweet dill, sweet spices, blackberry, raspberry, plum, and rich smoke, with a plush mouthfeel, nice sweet tannin, and sweet spices. The finish is long, ripe, sweet, tart, and a bit round, with good herbal notes, mint, sweet spices, milk chocolate, and sweet tobacco. Drink by 2026. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.8%)

2018 Ma’ayan Cabernet Franc, Shomron – Score: 89.5 (QPR: GOOD)
This wine opens to a heavy sweet attack of Israeli fruit, if you let this rest opened, for a few hours, or a good decant, the wine loses its baby fat and shows a more accessible wine. The nose of this wine, once fully aired, shows nice Cab Franc fruit, and green notes, still showing spikes of brooding fruit, waxy notes, lanolin, and heather. The mouth of this full-bodied wine will work well for those that like big fruity wines, this is a wine that I could drink, just not quite a wine I would buy showing a bit too much fruitiness without a place to put it, with a weighty and plush mouth, good blackberry, the plum is a bit too ripe, nice cranberry, dark brooding fruit still throws me, but overall, the fruit, sweet oak, and mouthfeel work for those that like it.| The finish is long, dark, green, herbal, fruity, and smoky. Drink until 2025. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.5%)

2019 Shirah Nebbiolo, Paso Robles, CA – Score: 90 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is ripe, very much like a Nebbiolo, ripe to start, it calms over time, showing this wine has time, the issue I have is that there is too much milk chocolate and sweet oak on the nose, it feels more pushed than I would have liked classic Cali issues. Showing notes of milk chocolate, dark cherry, plum, and more sweet oak. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, rich layered, and extracted, with loads of oak, sweet dill, gun powder, cigar smoke, sweet blackberry, plum, nice acidity, intense tannin, scraping mineral, and more smoke. The finish is long, with too much oak influence for me, with more vanilla, sweet dill, hickory, allspice, sweet notes, caramel, hazelnut, and milk chocolate. Drink from 2024 until 2028. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14.7%)

2021 Flam Camellia, Judean Hills – Score: 88 (QPR: EVEN)
The nose of this wine is the best part with lovely caramel, butterscotch, sweet oak, yellow apple, quince, melon, Asian Pear, and sweet baking spices. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is lacking a bit of acidity, when you taste it the wine is fine, but with food, the wine shows lacking, with a fair amount of sweet dill, sweet oak, oak tannin, smoke, baked Asian Pear, butterscotch candy, sweet apple, and loads of toast. The finish is long, sweet, toasty, and oaky, with green notes, too much vanilla, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. Drink by 2025. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)

2018 Allegory Meritage, Paso Robles, CA – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc, 17% Merlot, & 16% Malbec. The nose of this wine is ripe, somewhat balanced, and hot, with blue, red, and black fruit, smoke, toast, loam, ginger, and roasted meat, and ripe. The mouth of this full-bodied wine is ripe, and to me, it lacks the acidity to bring this around, with blackberry, plum, raspberry, boysenberry, and sweet oak, with a nice mouthfeel, and some earth. Ripe, and tannic but not much else. The finish is long, dark, brooding, ripe, and toasty, with sweet baking spices, cloves, vanilla, and nutmeg, with juicy fruit, yet not enough acidity to bring it around. Drink until 2025. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 15%)

2021 Laufer Tokaji Ice Wine, Tokaji – Score: 87 (QPR: EVEN)
This wine is a classic example of an overworked wine, one that shines to those that like big red wines, it is the sweet wine for over-the-top red wine lovers, I think you know where this note is going. The nose of this wine is nice, showing some brightness, but mostly ripe, with almost tropical notes, big, bold, and over the top, with sweet sugar that hits you hard, almost like the wine was chaptalized with plain old sugar, the residual sugar is so over the top, followed by honeyed, bruised and overripe stone fruit. The mouth of this wine is where it loses me for good, this is so unbalanced, I cannot come to drink it, the wine is an extreme exaggeration of dessert wine, with not enough acidity to make it work, it feels clawing, flat, and flabby,  almost like a drunk toddler, with candied and honeyed peach, apricot, honey, hints of ginger, and overall sugary, in a rich and dense and cloying (yes repeated) mouthfeel. The finish is long, cloying, and too much for me. I am sure some will like this, but I pass. Drink by 2029. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

N.V. Drappier Rose, Brut Nature, Champagne (M) – Score: 88 (QPR: POOR)
I always worry about Brut Nature, and this wine was disgorged on July 2022, only a few months ago. The wine opens nicely enough but the acidity is lacking and while the fruit is there the mousse is lacking and the overall refreshment of it is lacking. The nose of this wine show strawberry, raspberry, intense yeast, mineral, slate, rosehip, lime, citrus, and smoke. The mouth of this medium-bodied wine is not long for this world, the bubbles ran out shortly after opening, with notes of tannin, sweet cherry, strawberry, raspberry, more floral notes, lemon/lime, a nice mousse when it is there, and drying graphite. Drink up!!! (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12%)

2021 Jezreel Valley Rose, Sharon – Score: 84 (QPR: POOR)
This wine is a blend of 60% Syrah, 30% Carignan, & 10% Gewurztraminer, This is another Israeli rose/white wine blend that uses Gewurztraminer in all the wrong ways. It is such a lovely grape but in this blend and others, it pulls all the interest to it and makes the wine unbalanced and uninteresting. The nose of this wine is ripe, and again, the Gewurztraminer takes over, with banana and pineapple notes, followed by some red fruit. Still, it is fully overshadowed by the Gewurztraminer. The mouth of this wine is ripe and has nice acidity, but again, the Gewurztraminer is too fruity, there is no red fruit, it is behind the wall of pineapple and mango, followed by some green notes. The finish is long, green, and ripe, and too much pineapple to make this wine fun. Drink now if you must. (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 12.5%)

2020 Yatir Darom, Red, Israel – Score: 78 (QPR: N.A.)
This wine is a blend of 61% Shiraz, 20% Zinfandel, 12% Marselan, & 7% Grenache. The wine is another vapid, empty, ripe wine with no soul, it shows a bit of life in the nose but the mouth is soulless, it has no acidity, it has no balance, and it is all about showing with red fruit, but cooked in style, with a ripeness that does not fit the wine’s profile, again, showing off without the assets to back it up. Drink now if you must! (tasted September 2022) (in San Jose, CA) (ABV = 14%)