Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
An engaging freshness with vibrant red fruits. Succulent, precise and pure palate with a slightly tart finish but the minerality shines through and the gently silky texture is charming. Enjoy now.
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Tasting Panel
Celery salt, lilac and under-ripe melon is juicier on the palate with watermelon and orange rind touched by a flora-actually has a hint of pleasing tannin.
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James Suckling
A beautiful rosé with light strawberry, peach and lemon rind character with hints of salt. Medium body, lemon and candied watermelon character. Delicious finish. Attractive acidity and fruit contrast. Drink now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Time to rock with this new, lightly oaked cuvée from Esclans, a fresh, bright, full wine with forward fruit. Despite its alcohol, the wine has a light touch with a hint of pepper and rounded red fruits making it ideal for food. The wine will be best to drink from late 2016.
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Wine Spectator
This has a creamy edge, with strawberry and white raspberry fruit. A stony spine supports the blood orange and rose water notes that streak throughout. Shows lovely range and tension for a rosé. Drink now. 7,000 cases made.
Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.
Cotes de Provence is an extensive but valuable appellation that includes vineyards bordering the main Provencal appellations. Its sites vary from subalpine hills, which receive the cooling effects of the mountains to the north, to the coastal St-Tropez, a region mainly influenced by the warm Mediterranean sunshine.
Here the focus is on quality rosé, as it defines four fifths of the region’s wines. Following in the rosé footsteps, a lot of new effort is going into the region’s red production as well. A new generation has turned its focus on high quality Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Carignan. Cotes de Provence white wines, which represent a miniscule part of the region as far as volume, are nonetheless worthy of consideration and can include any combination of Clairette, Semillon, Ugni Blanc and Vermentino.