Rogov Obit

Figures after the years we spoke, emailed, and even once enjoyed a coffee, he an espresso with a cigarette chaser, his nom de plume would share my own.

After seeing you had the courtesy of writing your own epitaph, I WILL call you Mr Rogov, and add at the end of this post the beloved and rarely used smilie for you to read wherever you are,



now I wait and ponder what wine Mr Rogov had this Friday night

One big

Vale Rogov.

I wrote to Daniel on Wednesday morning. Unread. Empty words in an electronic void.

It was a measure of his unconditional kindness and the warmth of his humanity that I feel a profound loss and grief which is disproportionate to the nature of our relationship.

It is with the greatest respect that I can say that over the past six or seven years on his forums I found him to be . . of obviously new world origin, with an endearing old world charm and sophistication combined with a refreshingly disarming sense of humour and an ineluctable sense of integrity.

It is with great sorrow that I open a bottle of his beloved Brunello and say farewell.


Bill.

"If all the professors here were like him, Harvard would be a much better place."
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1972/ ... fs-resume/
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1972/ ... ned-vitae/

It was a measure of his unconditional kindness and the warmth of his humanity that I feel a profound loss and grief which is disproportionate to the nature of our relationship.
Bill.

Bill
I fully agree with that emotion - and share that feeling that it takes a special person to invoke such feelings from contact solely by written word.
regards
Ian

Also the compeling intigue of balance to the point of perfection. My own uncomfortableness with a 100 pt wine. But he in his gentlemanly way of attempting balance. Which many have mentioned. Haven't yet had wine from way back to the beginning but can picture The layers . The age. The depth. On and on. H

I wish I could have posted sooner but I have been tending to a family emergency. Most of what I would like to say has been said already - I will really miss Daniel as I really learned almost everything I know about wine from this forum and though I am far from being an expert of any sort it has helped me to make smart purchases and enjoy great wines. Daniel will especially be missed by us kosher consumers - though his scores of course were the opinion of one person it gave us a way to rate the wines as they were released - to know when to stay away from the $60 bottle that is no better, or actually worse, than many $20 bottles, or to stock up on a cheaper wine when that vintage is significantly better than usual. In the future, without a critic who is extremely familiar with kosher and Israeli wines, we will have a tough time knowing when something is worth it's price and we all know that in the kosher market especially there are more and more "special" releases with exorbitant price tags that are not even worth buying at half the price. Daniel was able to be that judge for us and he helped us in identifying the best wines and what their true value was regardless of the exclusivity and high price tags.

Though I never met Daniel and knew nothing about his personal life I considered him to be a friend and I think he felt the same way about us forumites. Through our weekly postings of the weekend wines and all our TNRs, wine storage questions etc. we share a big part of our lives on this forum and Daniel was involved in virtually every thread. It always amazed me how accessible Daniel was, almost always responding asap to the point where he apologized if his response was delayed by a day or two. In addition to all the knowledge he shared with us, his personality - his sense of humor and his "curmudgeonness" especially, will be sorely missed by us all. Though I know he cannot be replaced, I hope that we can fulfill his wish to keep this forum alive and informative.

Goodbye Daniel - I am going to miss you. My condolences to the family.

Best,
Isaac Cohen

I have just heard the very afflictive news and I truly painfully feel the loss.
I have only discovered the forum very recently. Not enough time for me to fully appreciate all of Daniel 's qualities and thorough understanding of the so vast and beautiful world of wine. Having read some of his posts and the readers' comments, I know I could have learned a lot from him and I am so sad he has left us so soon.
I am sure he'll find the best kosher wines where he is now.
Nicolas
Domaine Roses Camille

I was so sad to read this news. Farewell to a man of dignity whom I got to know through the Sunday chats. R.I.P. Rogov

Oh, my gosh. Boruch Daeyn Emmes. May his neshoma have an aliah.

Dearest Daniel (David), it was an enormous pleasure to have known you and especially to meet you in person. Those few hours we spent together in Tel Aviv 5 years ago will definitely be written in the book of highlights of my life when time comes to it. Hope not for a long time. If not for any other reason than at least for the reason that I can tell the stories of our meeting to many who would find it awesome. I hope you are reading this from the place of peace and place of where pain is no longer. You did not believe in religious life style and now I hope you will have the chance to tell G-d himself everything you think about what he has done down below so far. Oh my, he might be in trouble now. In any rate I hope this finds you in the state of rest.
May his memory be a blessing, he was a wonderful man, and truly a mentch.

What was his Hebrew name? Is there somebody to say Kaddish for him?

Another terribly sad passing. A great contributor to the world of food and wine who will be sorely missed by all who had the rare pleasure to embrace this wonderful human being's charm, wit, intellect, humour, foresights and most incredible wealth of knowledge. "Genius" is not an easy word to hand out in these situations, but I always thought Rogov had this in spades. A great man who I got to know quite well in our regular chat sessions organised through WLDG.

Cheers Daniel, may you rest in peace.

I simply can't believe what I'm reading here. It's so sad to believe to be true! For the last month, I was away from the forum as our newborn daughter appeared to light and shifted priorities of my few spare time. Paradoxically, how during this short time, a new life circle has started and with a great sorrow another has come to its end.
Even though I'm not here since a long time, nor did we ever met, I'm proud to say that I also owe Daniel a lot. He imparted his great knowledge, enthusiasm and spirit in great many of us. A mentor and a true gentleman...This is all happened so sudden and left so much emptiness... Like stars, many go unnoticed, but some become supernovas and light up the skies, which is how Daniel left us, leaving his light in our hearts.
יהי זכרונו לברכה - May He Be Remembered For Blessing

Best,
Alex

I have only met Rogov once, a few years ago at a cafe on Basel Street in Tel Aviv. I was a member of the old forum and mentioned I was visiting my parents in Israel. He quickly send me a PM suggesting a face to face meeting. We had a few coffees, he smoked countless cigarettes, we spoke about our upbringings and after a wonderful hour of stories, jokes and laughs, we left to go our separate ways. Since then, he and I only corresponded by PM, but there is already a void in me and I will miss him. I will miss his insight on food and wine, I will miss his opinions on anything and everything (and I say this with the greatest friendship and not an ounce of criticism lest it be taken as such) and I will greatly miss his personality.

Rest in Peace my friend.

I was reading this news in Haaretz on my very last flight from Israel. After 7 years, it was time for me to leave these lands. Sadly, for Rogov too. If I ever return to visit, the place will not be the same. I will not be opening the pages of Haaretz to read the latest review which will guide me to a fabulous dinner. So sad. Reading Rogov was part of my weekend routine. Pozdrav i zbogom, V.

Rogov was my wine mentor and a good friend and I will miss him dearly. I meet him about 10 years ago for the first time and we became good friends. He later inspired me and encouraged me to write about wine, which I did until I moved a few years ago to one of his favorite cities in the Europe.

I was fortunate enough to have the chance to say good bye to him over a good lunch in Dixie (we drank coke not wine ), it was at the end of August, we shared some great memories and a fantastic dessert:-) he was weak, new that the there is not much time left, but still enjoyed life with a smile

I was sad to see that he left us so fast...but happy that he did not suffer for long.

Rogov I miss you!!

Yariv

Let me add my belated shock and sorrow over Daniel's Rogov's passing...I hope he has found peace in the OLAM HABAH ,and while we only conversed in his wine forumns,my biggest regret is that I had hoped to one day meet him in person --I would have offered to buy him lunch and enjoy a wine with the meal when I next go to Israel--ALAS that cannot happen now ..and I will miss his informatve cooments about wine in this forumn and in his Haaretz columns.. to his family and loved ones ,my deepest condolences...to the art of wine critiqing --you have lost a great one... To the Israeli wine industry --you have lost a great advocate who got attention for your better efforts in a world market of very crowded offerings to wine aficionados ,as well as an educator-advocate to the growing domestic market wine consumers in Israel...So many will miss him...

A slightly belated reply from me as I have had my own medical problems over the last few days but which are now sorted for the time being.

There was a 2 column acknowledgement of Rogov's passing in the London Jewish Chronicle of today. http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/5 ... s-own-obit

I met Rogov in Tel Aviv in 2006, usual place, outside the Arcaffe branch in north Tel Aviv at which he told me about all those restaurants that were suing him for bad reviews. In its heyday the Forum on the former Stratsplace hosted website was brilliant.... there were some really funny threads on that and served as a standard reference point as a guide to both Israeli and kosher wines and to good restaurants in Israel, both kosher and non-kosher. Almost singlehandedly he propelled the quality and variety of Israeli wines to the world's attention.

Does anyone know the links to the old website ? Has it vanished forever, into the black hole of cyberspace ?

[Jenise]

Trevor, I recall when Daniel brought his forum here that he was working with someone to preserve content from Strat's, in particular his Ramblings, because there was some kind of deadline looming a few months out at which time it would all go away. I don't recall learning what became of that, but I hope someone does.

Does anyone know the links to the old website ? Has it vanished forever, into the black hole of cyberspace ?

Ah, they done torn down that old place (which I'm sure Rogov spent way more than a couple of hours maintaining), along with his greatest, unfinished, unpublished work.

To be honest start's place was great for many of us growing up or continuing education in the wine world. But once published or commented on, its main purpose was the notes. To that point Daniel always said, the notes were meant to go in some database and be available, but that never happened really.

Instead, the notes are really in his books, unless you were looking for non-israel or kosher wines, then the notes are not very public. There is the way back machine site - but for reasons I do not know they did not save the forum. I may get in trouble for saying this, but I do have the data, just not publicly available. If others were interested in it, I have no issue with sharing it. Now I am probably going to be in trouble:

David

To be honest start's place was great for many of us growing up or continuing education in the wine world. But once published or commented on, its main purpose was the notes. To that point Daniel always said, the notes were meant to go in some database and be available, but that never happened really.
David

Gee, David, as one of the mainstays of the old forum, that really makes me feel special. Stratsplace had a lot of good writers besides Rogov, whose thoughts are now lost forever. Thanks goodness the notes are safe, but we all (not just Rogov) lost a piece of our past and writing when no one bothered to save the site.

If it's all about notes, then you guys really don't have a reason to keep this forum going, to be quite honest.

I have to agree with Chaim, one of the wonderful aspects of the Strat's Place forum in its prime was that it was a place for high level discussion of anything and everything, no matter how peripherally or remotely connected to wine. There were erudite discussions on wine and music where I learned far more about music than about wine, ethical and philosophical issues stemming from a tasting note request from a 'controversial' wine region, etc etc. It was fun, it was educational, and it was a place to broaden one's mind and uplift one's spirit, no matter the viewpoint you brought to the discussion. On its best days it reminded me of what an academic faculty discussion club should be like, but very rarely is. And that was an achievement that Rogov z"l should have been proud of.

Wiping the old Strat place forum server was a big mistake. By now it's content could probably fit on a $10 USB stick.