Jules Polonetsky
Mention the initials DRC to anyone knowledgeable about great French wines, and they will assume you are referring to the elite estate Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, one of the world’s most famous wineries producing perhaps some of the most expensive wines in Burgundy.
The 2021 top vintage from this estate sells for more than $20,000 per bottle, making it one of the most counterfeited bottles in the world.
In the world of kosher wines, however, DRC increasingly refers to the increasingly celebrated Domaine Roses Camille, run by winemaker
Christophe Bardeau in the Pomerol region of Bordeaux’s right bank. As a garagiste winery making premium wine from a smaller property, Bardeau puts extreme care into the production of wines from a one-hectare location a stone’s throw from the world-famous Petrus estate. In fact, the family lore shared with me by Bardeau is that his grandfather was gifted vines from Petrus and planted them on his property, so this wine may be the closest a kosher wine consumer can get to tasting wines from Petrus.
Bardeau developed his expertise in making wines at his family property and at nearby Pomerol estates. He first produced a kosher wine in 2005, earning a 95 from the late critic Daniel Rogov, who declared Domain Roses Camille the best kosher Bordeaux wine ever. In following years, Bardeau continued to produce kosher and non-kosher wines, but as of 2020, all the wines he makes are kosher, including a soon-to-be-released wine called Domain Roses Louise. Camille is the name of Bardeau’s niece and Roses was because they were one of his grandmother’s favorite flowers. Now his second niece will have a wine named after her.
At Bardeau’s vineyards, there is the frequent harvesting of immature grape clusters to improve the concentration at harvest. The harvest is manual, with each cluster hand sorted on a table. Fermentation takes place in concrete vats and under
temperature control.
The clay soils in Pomerol are unique. The types of clay found in Pomerol are what give many of the wines their sensuous, rich and opulent character. A vein of unique blue clay soil runs from Petrus through Domaine Roses Camille, providing early ripening that allows these primarily merlot wines to be both sensuous and retain their acidity.
Although these wines need time to age and develop, I was blown away by the deep intensity, velvety smoothness, layers of flavors and long finish of the Domain Roses Camille 2017 and the soon-to-be-released Domain Roses Louise 2018 during a recent tasting at the winery.
Other wines made by Bardeau at his nearby properties include Clos Lavaud, Lalande de Pomerol, Chateau Moulin de la Clide, St. Emilion, Echo de Roses Camille, Pomerol and Marquisat de Binet, Cuvee Abel, which are now all kosher. This group is great value and far more affordable than the more than $200 price tags of the flagship wines.
This visit to meet Bardeau and his wife Julia, along with their French distributor Ben Sitruk of kosher Wine Symphony, was my favorite visit on a whirlwind tour of top Bordeaux wineries. I highly recommend a Bordeaux visit, but caution that other than DRC, none of the top wineries have any of their kosher bottles available for tasting and many are hard
to access.
We were lucky to be on a trip organized by kosher wine connoisseur Zev Steinberg, who will now replicate this tour for other serious wine geeks. Steinberg even sourced the wines from the distributors of each winery, bringing along kosher bottles so we could taste them with winemakers.
The only thing lacking for a great tour of Bordeaux is kosher dining options to match the elite wines tasted. The one kosher restaurant is fine, and there is a grocery market, but that’s about it. You can imagine the excitement in our group when we heard Bardeau tell us that he will soon provide a kosher dining experience at his winery. When this happens, add Bordeaux to your bucket list of places to visit for both great kosher food and wine.
In the United States, many of the DRC wines are available online via Andrew Breskin at LiquidKosher.com, a wine club and online retail site for some of the finest kosher wines and at select retailers in a few major cities. DRC is the only Bordeaux winery making only kosher wines and one of only a few in all of Europe. But check for the kosher supervision on bottles from earlier than 2020, as earlier vintages have kosher and non-kosher bottles available in the market.
Jules Polonetsky is a Wine and Spirits Education Trust Level 3 Certified wine expert who writes for the Wine and Whiskey Globe when not occupied with his day job as CEO of a tech policy think tank. He is a former consumer affairs commissioner of the City of New York.