• A tasting of M & M Importers latest imports

    I was in NYC for a few days and I had the opportunity to have dinner with Dr. Ralph Madeb, president and CEO of M & M Importers, one of M’s in M & M (I just think Ralph secretly loved M&Ms as a child, but hey).

    The current lineup of wines is the following:

    NON-IDS Wines 2013 Eccelenza, Bianco Umbria (tasted in past) 2014 Famiglia Cotarella, Marciliano, Umbria (note below) 2014 Famiglia Cotarella, Montiano, Lazio (note below) 2014 Chateau Leroy-Beauval, Bordeaux Superieur (tasted in past) 2016 Chateau Haut Brisson, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru (tasted in past) 2016 Chateau Tour Saint Christophe, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru (tasted in past) 2018 Valle Reale Botteotto Montepulciano, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (not yet tasted)

    IDS Wines 2015 Chateau Labegorce, Margaux (tasted in past) 2015 Virginie de Valandraud, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru (tasted in past) 2016 Chateau Leydet-Valentin, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru (not yet tasted) 2011 Chateau de Valois, Pomerol (note below) 2018 Jean Luc & Paul Aegerter Pommard, Reserve Personnelle (note below) 2018 Jean Luc & Paul Aegerter Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits, Reserve Personnelle (note below) 2018 Jean Luc & Paul Aegerter Gevrey-Chambertin, Reserve Personnelle (note below) 2016 Château La Tour de By, Heritage Marc Pages, Médoc (note below) 2018 Clos des Lunes Lune D’Argent, Bordeaux (note below) NV Janisson & Fils Champagne Brut Rose (tasted in past) NV Janisson & Fils Champagne Brut Blanc (tasted in past)

    While the IDS portfolio is impressive, I find the Italian wines more impressive, Italy is where I truly believe Kosher wine can shine. Of course, the French wines from IDS and those that M&M have imported are very impressive and really shows the power and potential of France for kosher wines.

    The focus of the tasting were the 2018 Jean Luc & Paul Aegerter wines. They were all very impressive, the wines are super young now and have a long way to go. Still, as much I really liked them, they are a step behind the current kosher star of Burgundy Domaine Lescure. I have put in my order for all three 2018 Jean Luc & Paul Aegerter wines and I hope to watch them evolve. For now, do not waste your money tasting them, store them away and start opening them up 6 years from now. Still, the best wine at the tasting was the 2016 Château La Tour de By, Heritage Marc Pages, it is a rich, racy, and in-your-face Medoc wine that should be a sure buy by all.

    My many thanks to Ralph and his partner for sharing their wines with us, the wine notes follow below:

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

    2018 Clos des Lunes Lune D’Argent, Bordeaux – Score: 91 to 92 This wine is a blend of 70% Semillon and  30% Sauvignon Blanc. The nose on this wine is lovely, with flint, rock, gooseberry, citrus, and green notes, with orange blossom, yellow fruit, and earth. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine comes at you in layers of fruit, with a nice integrated acid, showing green notes, tart with asparagus, yellow plum, dry straw, with mineral, lovely smoke, tart fruit, rock, and grapefruit and lemon/lime. The finish is long, green, with orange notes, and mineral that lingers long forever. Drink by 2023.

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  • Israel’s lost decade for red wine

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  • Blind Tasting in August with a Focus on Beit El Winery

    Just because I haven’t been writing, it certainly doesn’t mean I haven’t been tasting. One of the more prolific episodes occurred near the end of August. A friend who is in the business asked if I would like to come by and blind taste a couple of wines that he was considering bringing into the store. I thought we would taste 3-4 bottles and be in and out in half an hour. That turned into 20 bottles over about 2 hours. I had absolutely no idea going in what the bottles were going to be, who the producers were nor what price range they were in. It was a pure blind tasting. In the end it was split into 4 flights with each flight consisting of a different price range – though again, I knew that only after the fact. All of the wines ended up being Israeli and the producers were both large and small. There were a couple of nice surprises and I inadvertently ended up basically doing a portfolio tasting of Beit El winery without knowing it so that’s one less winery I have to visit any time soon. Out of the 20 wines I tasted, I liked 5-6 of them and was OK with 1 one other – with the rest being passes for me.

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  • RCC Israel # 32 – Elul 5779

    This summer was busy both personally and professionally and while that did not impact my alcohol consumption it certainly impacted my free time – so it’s been a while since I posted – and its been a while since we had an RCC. But hopefully things are calming down a bit and I have more time to write. But I don’t want to let this one sit in the queue while I play catch up so….

    Before I get to the wine, the food this outing MUST be highlighted. For the second time in its history RCC occurred outside of the holy city of Jerusalem and in the city of Yafo. This time we were hosted this time by Bracha in her apartment where she served some truly unique dishes – and really everything was excellently prepared. The MOST unique dish was QUAIL. Sourced from a farm that produces quail eggs, by a shochet who is interested in starting commercial production, this was a real treat as most of simply do not get a chance to ever taste these tiny birds. That dish was excellent but the quail itself was outshone by the corn puree with lamb bacon dust which was just next-level. While that was the most unique dish, it was not the best dish of the evening which for me was the Szechuan pepper lamb which had been battered and deep fried until crispy – wow! I mean all of the dishes were excellent As I have mentioned before, if you are ever looking for a chef to prepare food for an event in Israel – or travel with you on vacation and prepare food for you while you are touring- Bracha Arnold does it right. You can follow her exploits on her Instagram account. And now, on to the wine

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  • 2019 Jerusalem Wine Festival at the Israel Museum

    Wow. A year has passed and you can pretty much read last year’s description of this festival and know exactly what you are in for. I’m not going to re-write that post in full but I will summarize, rant and give the highlights – all in short order.

    Excellent weather? Check. Nice venue? Check. Kosher food options? Check (nothing great there – but at least you can soak up the alcohol if you wanted). Good music and overall vibe? Check. Sounds great, right? Well not really. What was missing? WINERIES! It seemed like there were even less than last year and many of them were pouring only the absolute lowest end stuff (I’ll get to the exceptions later) – or worse, pulling that “under the table” crap. (End summary – begin rant) Honestly – I don’t get it. Either you want the public to taste your wines – or you don’t. I don’t beg for wine – I drink plenty. I do not need anyone to to do me a favor by giving me the supreme honor of tasting another overpriced, over-oaked, over-hyped masterpiece. Oh – you say your wine actually lives up to it’s hype and price tag? Then why aren’t you sharing that wine…. If there is no significant ROI from a marketing perspective, then don’t come. I would rather that then this crap. Perhaps then with the dwindling wineries, the organizers will realize that something has to change. This year, the price of a ticket rose to NIS 95 – which puts it in line with Sommelier – but Sommlier is MASSIVE in comparison. I mean, this is a joke. I got there at 7:15 – by 8:10 I had tasted through all of the whites. By 9:30 I was done (and my ride out wasn’t scheduled until 11pm!!!!!) Compare that to Sommelier where it could take 2 days to thoroughly get through ALL of the booths and wines. On the plus side (for me at least) I guess perhaps people realized this is NOT a value. The place was relatively empty. Maybe people got finally wised up and realized that there are other better cheaper alternatives to what is being presented here – from a wine perspective. That is this festival’s only hope. Because in Israel, the only way vendors change is when they feel it in their wallets. (End rant.)

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  • RCC Israel # 31 – Tamuz 5779

    RCC Israel Tamuz 5779 marked the first time we moved out of our comfort zone and experimented with using a new chef (Bracha is traveling this summer and Uri had a baby boy last week). The chef in question – Avi Katz. Avi works as a chef professionally most recently at the David Citadel Hotel. After 3+ years of running this RCC, I have to say trying something new made me nervous. But – to my great relief and everyone’s delight the food was excellent. Avi did an around the world theme; from South America – a Peruvian Sea Bass ceviche over avocado with orange miso (incredible) and lime. We moved to Africa for a Moroccan Roasted Cauliflower Soup with basil, mint. crispy lamb bacon & fried leeks – beautiful depth of flavor. For the main course we moved to North America with a Mexican Asado Barbacoa which is a short rib cooked in banana leaf, served with ratatouille confit biyaldi (basically it is prepared ornately in slices rather than as a standard stew) – I have had this preparation before and enjoyed it, but here Avi really extracted a great flavor and texture out of the meat. Really exceeded my expectations. For dessert, we moved to Australia for a Pavlova with fresh figs, an espresso cream and white chocolate. This was seriously like crack. Everyone got an and individual portion and then 2 large plates were brought out for seconds (and thirds) . Usually pavlova has berries and perhaps a citrus curd. Here the profile really lent itself to the wonderful newly released Netofa 2012 LBV. TO wrap it up, the food was well prepared, beautifully presented and super tasty. Avi can be reached at Avikatz15@gmail.com – and is available for booking private events and the like. And now on to the wines….

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  • 3 Wines from HaRoeh Winery

    HaRoeh Winery is located on Moshav Kfar HaRoeh and is a stones through from both Vitkin and Recanati wineries just north of Netanya. It is run by winemaker Ehud Kave and is sort of at this point a large garagiste or ultra-boutique winery. The winery was started in 2010 an produced a single barrel of Merlot with fruit sourced from Dalton, upping to 2 barrels in 2011. Neither of those releases had any sulphites added to the wine which made them relatively short lived products. From the 2012 vintage, sulphites have been added, but the winery still only uses wild yeast and makes no adjustments/corrections to the wine. With the 2012 vintage production doubled again to about 4 barrels and in addition to the 2 barrels of Merlot, a barrel of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignion were added. In 2013 production was upped again to 6 barrels and Syrah was added and so on things have progressed until today where the winery has the current lineup:

    Merlot – Petite Sirah,Upper Galilee ,2017 – NIS 79Cabernet – Merlot ,Dishon & Dalton, 2016 – NIS 89 Chardonnay(unoaked), Esh Kodesh, 2018 – NIS 99Marselan ,Dalton ,2016 – NIS 140Petit Verdot – Petite Sirah ,Kfar Shamay & Dalton, 2016 – NIS 120Petite Sirah ,Kfar Shamay, 2017 – NIS 140

    Of the above I was provided samples to taste of the Chardonnay, Merlot-Petite Syrah, and Single Vineyard Marselan. Notes will follow below.

    Ultimately, the biggest problem boutique wineries have is creating value with such small scale. In years where you have excellent vintages in France and Spain – you can get absolutely top tier wine from all but the classed french growths and ultra-premium Napa Cabs for the same price or less than what many boutique wines cost. It becomes VERY hard to justify their purchase in all but he rarest of circumstance.

    (One way the wineries try to provide value is by creating wine-clubs where members sign up in advance for subscriptions. Wines, usually of the winery’s choice, are then provided at regular intervals at reduced prices. This gives the winery the ability for guaranteed cash flow in exchange for reduced profit. While this can be OK, because the consumer has no control of which wines are received, you sometimes get stuck with wine that is simply not to your taste.)

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  • 2 New French Whites + A Closer Look At Some of the 2016 Bordeaux Releases from Royal

    This past week I had the privilege of attending a tasting given by Menachem Israelievitch of Royal Wine Corp. Menachem is the winemaker responsible for all of Royal’s French releases since the 2014 vintage – and until then served as assistant to his predecessor Pierre Miodownick. The man is super humble giving most of the credit to the incredible fruit and estates and winemakers he works with – but really, it takes a tremendous amount of skill to be able to manage this massive operation and produce SOOO many quality wines. I over the course of my KFWE tour I tasted (and enjoyed) all of the 2016 red releases repeatedly – but never really had time to sit down with any of them for a dedicated amount of time. So when I heard that Menachem was doing this tasting I was super excited. What I didn’t know is that 2 new French whites that he had told me about at KFWE were already bottled and would also be on deck for this tasting – these being tasted in their finished form for the first time by anyone but Menachem himself. What a treat!

    The whites in question are made from neighboring appellations by the same producer – Domaine de Panquelaine which is part of the Vignerons Indépendants de France trade association which helps promote small independent producers. The appellations in question are Coteaux du Giennois and Sancerre. Sancerre needs no introduction, many kosher sancerres have been produced with the 2012 Roger Moreux Chavignol being my all time favorite Sauvignon Blanc. Coteaux du Giennois on the other hand was new to me . I don’t remember another kosher production. The appellation was only recognized in 1998. Much like it’s more famous and older Loire Valley neighbors, Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, Coteaux du Giennois is also made of 100% Sauvignon Blanc. SO tasting these neighboring appellations by the same producer would be interesting in it’s own right. Both of these are very nice – and mevushal. Having said that, I always wonder if the wines would have been even better had they not been made mevushal. Of course Mencahem has had success with making these small producer whites like the Les Marronniers Chablis mevushal. That wine is a QPR star and holds up nicely. The 2016 is drinking incredibly right now, so you never know.

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  • RCC Israel # 30 – Sivan 5779

    After a 2 month hiatus, we finally held another RCC Israel – and we came back with a vengeance. Not only was this one of our better lineups on paper – when it came time to drink, there were very few disappointments. On top of that, from a food perspective, Uri put out his best solo meal ever. Both inventive and tasty. unfortunately, as Uri’s wonderful wife Jordana is VERY pregnant, this is likely the last time he will be cooking/hosting for a while…. we’ll need to figure that out in the coming weeks, but what way to finish! Excellent through and through. Each component tasty on it’s own and complementing the dish as a whole. Using the goose skin as a crumble (goose gribenes!), the champagne foam, the lime infused sugar, the multilayered Foie Parfait, the multilayered skirt steak dish – all incredible. Kudos man! Pics and descriptions of the food below. But now, on to the wine (note, while the food was awesome – the only downside was the wonderful aromas coming out of the kitchen made it all but impossible to really get a sense of the nose for each wine – I mean you really can’t compete with things cooked in duck fat and roasted lamb etc…. so my apologies for not including those notes) :

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  • Four solid red wines from Bordeaux, Italy, and California, with two QPR

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