I got a lot of feedback after my last post, much of it prompting me to write more and not less during this difficult time. One reason I was presented was “Live life or the terrorists win.” That reason alone wasn’t really enough for me. Ultimately it can be used to justify about anything you want to do. But the second reason really did speak to me – that is, reading about wine brings joy to some, and in this bleak time, any potential joy one can bring is appreciated. And so, I decided to catch up on a few posts and start writing regularly again. This first post deal with burgundy, and as we are just a day away from Thanksgiving, it seems an appropriate place to start.  

The truth is this particular post has been a long time coming. Over the last year and a half, I have participated in a number of tastings that have given me the opportunity to review or retaste most kosher higher end burgundies currently on the market. This includes the three new highly anticipated releases from Domaine de Montille.  Well, they would have been new if I had this post ready on time. I will give notes on 2020 releases. The 2021 releases are scheduled for later this year.

We have entered the golden age of kosher burgundy production. There are now three major kosher producers making wines in burgundy on a regular basis and a few other niche players as well. Really IMHO, this renaissance is squarely due the folks as Taieb. To me they were without a doubt THE trailblazers – not in one-off productions, but rather in trying to get semi-regular releases of relatively high-quality burgundy wines. Since the start of the last decade, Taieb has led the way with the D’Ardhuy (2010-2015) and Lescure (2014-2017) releases and now the JP Marchand releases (2017-present). IDS joined with its Aegerter releases starting in 2018 and Royal with its Le Hardi releases in 2020. On top of that, we have some smaller players who have started releasing – some wildly successful and some less so. So we can now have over 10 quality releases in a single year as opposed to one every five years, which was the case in the 90’s and 00’s. And so we have what to celebrate in the kosher world – and something to celebrate is nice especially given what is going on in the wider Jewish world right now.

So let’s start out with the wines I really OWE a review to – Domaine de Montille. I will say though that these wines are super exciting; This is the most prestigious Domaine to have done a kosher run. For a nice write up of the winery, you can visit my friend David Raccah’s post and also see his reviews of the wines as well. So I am not going to revisit information that is readily out there even for the kosher consumer. Instead, I am just going to give my reviews of each of the three released wines. I tasted these wines with a group and then took a small amount home with me and retasted over the course of an additional three days to see how they developed.