Sorry this post is so late – but I have been travelling for work, wine, and family on and off since May – and then of course there were the holidays. I hope to catch up quickly now with at least the May France posts coming out in quick succession. As always, when I do these tastings in France, I do them together with my buddy David Raccah of Kosher Wine Musings who really does all of the work in terms of setting things up with everyone (he is a French speaker after all). Thanks buddy!

This trip to France was a three-parter for me – first was three days of work, then a few days in Paris with my wife Michal – and then four days of tasting with David. Altogether it was almost two weeks – which is a long time for me. David only got to France in the early afternoon Monday, which meant we started the hotel tastings that day and that’s it. Our first day outside of the hotel was Tuesday, and we started as we often do visiting Menachem Israelievitch of Royal to taste through the new whites and rosés of the season. As always, I have stress, there is no one who is producing in quantity with the consistency and quality of Royal. Period. This year is no different.

In total we tasted 31 wines. Of the rosés, while obviously there were some favorites, they were all wines I would drink happily. On the whites there were maybe two out of fourteen that I would likely pass on – but even there, the lowest score was an 87. Some of the whites are absolute QPR superstars IMHO, and one is a must have. The reds were the only weak spot – and these are the lower end – not really meant to be the stars of the show. There was really only one wine there (Trijet) that worked for me. It’s very hard to follow a vintage like 2022 – but it does look like these are rough vintages – time will tell.

Here are the notes: