Winemaker Notes
Blend: 90% Mourvedre, 10% Grenache
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This has a singed juniper hint out front, followed by bay, olive and leather hints that pervade the core of lightly steeped cherry and raspberry fruit. Everything knits nicely through the medium-weight finish. Approachable, but will develop more nuance with a bit of cellaring. Drink now through 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the most charming, fun to drink wines in the vintage is the 2013 Bandol Rouge from Chateau de Pibarnon. Leaning towards the medium-bodied, textured, rounded end of the spectrum, it gives up lots of fruit (cassis, black raspberry), garrigue and licorice in a character-filled, balanced, highly drinkable style. Given its overall balance, it will have 10-15 years of longevity.
Full of ripe fruit, and robust, earthy goodness, Mourvèdre is actually of Spanish provenance, where it still goes by the name Monastrell or Mataro. It is better associated however, with the Red Blends of the Rhône, namely Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Mourvèdre shines on its own in Bandol and is popular both as a single varietal wine in blends in the New World regions of Australia, California and Washington. Somm Secret—While Mourvèdre has been in California for many years, it didn’t gain momentum until the 1980s when a group of California winemakers inspired by the wines of the Rhône Valley finally began to renew a focus on it.
Provence’s leader in concentrated and age-worthy red wines, Bandol is home to the dense, deep and earthy Mourvèdre grape. Like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Bandol produces characterful reds that, while approachable in their youth, are typically designed for the cellar.
Given its coastal, Provencal situation, Bandol also naturally produces an assortment of charming, aromatic rosés made of Mourvèdre, Grenache and Cinsault.