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:
- 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
- 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. - 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.
- 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:
- 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
- 2021 Hajdu Rose – is the best of the Cali roses (that I have tasted so far)
- 2021 Hajdu Rose – nicest of the riper roses (that I have tasted so far)
- 2021 Matar Rose – is the best of the Israeli roses (that I have tasted so far)
- 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%)