Continuing with my posts on my most recent tasting trip to Paris with David Raccah of Kosherwinemusings.com, after our trip to IDS, we quickly made our way to the next tasting of the day, with Christophe Bardeau of Domaine Roses Camille and Ben Sitruk of WineSymphony.fr, who is the distributor of all of Christophe’s output. This tasting was really to catch me up on the most recent top-end wines, as David had already tasted all or most of these in California – so I do appreciate everyone’s indulgence in catching me up. I am also sure David didn’t mind, as it gave him an opportunity to taste the Pomerol wines after retasting the Le Gay a day earlier.
Drinking with Christophe is always a trip. It is almost unique in the kosher wine world to have a winemaker who so intimately knows the vineyards from which the wine is made. I would guess that perhaps outside of the Cohen Family of Elvi, and Benyo at Four Gates, no other kosher winemaker is involved from start to finish in growing and harvesting the grapes and then making the wine. There may be others, but that’s who comes to mind. More than that, the vineyards have been in Christophe’s family for quite some time, and, as such, he simply grew up amongst the vines. He uses no lab to test ripeness, brix or pH levels. He simply bites into a grape in the vineyards and gauges whether or not it is time to pick. It’s fascinating. On top of that, he is a mensch and really easy to talk to with no pretentiousness at all – despite having literally a perfect record in terms of never having made a bad kosher wine. I don’t know anyone else who can boast this – I mean everyone has a miss here and there – or almost everyone. Part of the reason for this is that, due to the small production, literally everything is in Christophe’s control – from when to pick, to when to release the wine. As such we are now tasting wines from the 2016-2018 vintages, while the rest of the wine world is trying to wrap their heads around the penetrable 22’s. That is not to say that the 2018’s from Roses Camille and Roses Louise are ready. Far from it – as you will see below. But it does give him much greater control, and he simply will not release a wine until he feels it is ready.
As I mentioned, we tasted these wines the day after the Royal tasting, where we had tasted the Le Gay. At the time, David warned me that I was going to have a tough time as really, we have NEVER had this many kosher Pomerol wines on the market at once that we can judge against each other – and the competition would be close (remember – I gave the Le Gay a 95 – so I was excited!) But, we’ll give it a go.
2016 Château Marquisat de Binet, Cuvee Abel, Montagne Saint-Emilion – 14.5% abv – It has been a while since we had new release of this wine, but the wait has paid off! A reminder, Marquisat de Binet wines are made by Christophe but are not a part of the Domain Roses Camille family, owned by friend of his in Saint Emilion. Even though the wine contains no Cabernet Franc (90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon), the nose presents as classic Saint-Emilion with earth, mushroom, toasted herb, and some anise. In the mouth, you get real depth with black currant, blackberry, earth, mushroom, rosemary, and sage with more mineral than the nose lets on. The tannin is also rich and mouth coating with really nice acidity. The finish is long and mineral driven with more wet earth, toasted herb, and smoke. Beautiful stuff – with potential to grow. 92
2018 Echo de Roses Camille, Pomerol – 14.5% abv – So now, the fun started, and I got into Pomerol mode. On the nose, you get raspberry, herb, mineral, and mocha, with some floral notes off in the background. In the mouth, both the acid and the minerality are off the charts, and it hits you with a one-two punch that says Good Morning! Then you start unpacking the rest of the very deep complex wine, with tons of ripe red fruit – raspberry, red cherry, plum, with nice earth, bramble, herb, and more mineral. The tannin just coats your mouth, and the acid has you puckering. This is the most impressive Echo I can remember. The finish does not disappoint – mineral driven, with more red fruit, those mocha notes, more herb, smokey earth, some lead, tobacco, and a bit of umami. In a word – wow! For 2018 only 2400 bottles were made and that’s a pity. Buy what you can. This one is a QPR king – as it’s a 94.5!
2018 Domaine Roses Camille, Pomerol – 14.5% abv –On the nose, you get tons of savory notes of smoke, roasted meat, charcoal, earth, and then some floral notes like violet, followed by rich ripe black fruit and some anise. In the mouth, the wine is rich and layered. If I were back in high-school and I was describing a girl, I would call this wine “thick,” and it would be a compliment. There is rich black fruit – blackberry, blackcurrant, black plum, black cherry, a nice hit of saline, and wonderful earth – with crazy mineral and again, off the charts acid – like the Echo but darker and amped up a notch. The finish is mineral driven and really has beautiful umami notes with more saline, really nice mushroom, toasted herb, mint and some lead. The wine is truly outstanding. 95
2017 Domaine Roses Camille, Pomerol – 14% abv – Both Ben and Christophe admitted, it was a mistake to serve the 2018 first. When I re-read my notes, the descriptors are very much in line with the 2018 – violet, earth, some roasted meat and smoke, and the fruit is a bit lighter – more red and blue than black. But it is less dense and smells leaner. In the mouth, while leaner, the wine is still very nice and a bit brighter – though again less dense and less complex – with raspberry, cherry, nice smokey earth, some herb, and a hint of mineral. The acid keeps the fruit in check and the tannin is nice and mouth coating. The finish is long with red fruit, mineral, smoke, lead, roasted herb, and some mint. While not as complex as the ’18, it still a great bottle, from what I remember as a difficult vintage. 92.5
2018 Domaine Roses Louise, Pomerol – 14.5% abv – I have been hearing about the Domaine Rose Louise for years now and have even tasted a barrel sample here and there, and each time I have been impressed – so I was super psyched to see this wine finally released. For the Louise plot, the earth is more sand than clay. There are about 300 meters between Camille and Louise – and while Camille is 80 years old, Louis is just over 100 years old. Now, on to the notes – fair warning though, during the tasting, this wine stayed closed. I mean impenetrably closed. I tried, swirling, shaking, waiting – I barely got anything. I asked if we could take the bottle back with us and, luckily, Christophe and Ben obliged. It took another day and half, but the wine finally started showing itself. On the nose, you get herb, rich ripe red and black fruit, smoke, espresso, bramble, and earth. The mouth was almost painful at the tasting with tannin that just enveloped the wine – but, like the nose, the mouth eventually opened up. Still very tannic, but you get really nice raspberry, black currant, and blackberry, with herb and earth and some black plum – with minerality, some graphite, and nice herb. The mouth really comes at you in waves. The acid is in perfect balance with the rich profile – and did I already mention the tannin – I think I did. The finish is really long with black and red fruit, herb, tar, tobacco, espresso, chocolate, and rich earth. Really a beautiful wine! It just edges out the Camille (and the Le Gay) – but just by a hair – though if I could have spent even more time with it, it might have developed even more. Right now it’s a 95+.
My sincere thanks to Ben Sitruk of WineSymphony.fr for arranging this tasting. (In Israel, these wines are sold through Shmuel Gottlieb of Geshem.) And of course, many thanks to Christophe Bardeau for sharing these wines and so much of his time with us.
