Mention the initials DRC to anyone knowledgeable about great French wines, and they will assume you’re referring to the elite estate Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. This is one of the most famous wineries in the world, producing some of the most expensive wines in Burgandy. The brand’s 2021 top estate vintage sells for more than $20,000 per bottle, making it one of the most counterfeited bottles in the world.

However, in the world of kosher wines, DRC increasingly refers to the 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 his one-hectare location just a stone’s throw from the world-famous Petrus estate. Christophe shared family lore with me, saying that his grandfather was gifted vines from Petrus, which he planted on his property, making this wine possibly the closest a kosher wine consumer can get to tasting wines from Petrus.

Christophe and Julia Bardeau (J.  Polonetsky)

Christophe developed his expertise by making wines at his family property and nearby Pomerol Estates. He produced his first kosher wine in 2005, earning a 95 score from the late critic Daniel Rogov, who declared Domain Roses Camille “the best kosher Bordeaux wine ever made.” In the ensuing years, Christophe produced kosher and non-kosher wines, but as of 2020, all his wines are kosher, including a soon-to-be-released wine called Domain Roses Louise. He named his wines for family members: “Camille” for one of his nieces and the same for the upcoming “Louise.” The word “Roses” (not to be confused with “Rosés”) honors his grandmother’s favorite flowers.

The clay soils in Pomerol are unique, giving many of the region’s 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 sensual and retain their acidity. Frequent harvesting of immature grape clusters further improves flavor concentration, coupled with labor-intensive manual harvesting, with each grape cluster hand-sorted on a table. Fermentation in temperature-controlled concrete vats allows for slower and better-regulated results.

Although these wines need substantial time to age and develop, they blew me away with their 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 Christophe 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. All now kosher! The latter wines provide great value – far more affordable than the $200-plus price tags of the flagship Domain Roses Camille.

The visit to meet Christophe and his wife Julia and their Fench distributor Ben Sitruk was my favorite stop 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. In addition, many of these other wineries are hard to access. We were lucky to be on a first-ever trip organized by kosher wine connoisseur Zev Steinberg of “Wine with Zev,” who will replicate this tour for other serious wine geeks in the upcoming months. Zev 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 the otherwise great tour of Bordeaux were local kosher dining options to match the elite wines we tasted.

The one kosher restaurant was quite fine, and there’s a kosher grocery market, but unless you make special arrangements, there’s not much more. You can imagine the excitement in our group when Christophe told us he would soon provide an upscale kosher dining experience at his winery! When he does, add Bordeaux to your bucket list for a great kosher food and wine experience!

In the USA, a number of the Domaine Roses Camille wines are available at select retailers in a few major cities and online via Andrew Breskin at Liquid Kosher, a wine club and online retailer offering some of the finest kosher boutique wines. DRC is one of only a few solely Kosher wineries in Europe and the only one in Bordeaux. But double-check for the kosher indication on bottles with vintages before 2020, as earlier bottles may not be kosher.