Winemaker Notes
2017 gave highly expressive wines, with bright aromatics and freshness, yet built with the dry extract and glycerol necessary for age-able wines. The winter of 2017 in Provence was mild, with rains in March and April resupplying the water tables, ensuring the good growth of the vine. After May, the weather was much warmer and drier than usual, which favored vineyards like Cibonne's with clay soils and old vines, which did not suffer from hydric stress. A powerful mistral helped maintain the overall good health of the vineyards.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This 15ha property overlooking Toulon harbour has been part of the Roux family’s ancestry for almost 230 years. It wasn’t until 1930 that André Roux decided to dedicate the land exclusively to vines, especially the ancient variety Tibouren – not widely planted outside Provence, this is an intensely aromatic black grape with a thin skin, which is notoriously difficult to grow. The family still champions Tibouren, which makes up 90% of its vineyards, and some plots are more than 50 years old. Elizabeth Gabay MW: Orange. Lots of new oak on the nose. New oak on the palate gives richness and oomph. Oranges, dried apricots, long saline mineral acidity balancing new oak. Joanna Simon: Orangey. Deep and complex nose of spice, dried peach and oak. Concentrated, complex, richly textured palate with spicy, dried-flower notes and baking bread; breadth, length and graceful mineral-fresh notes. Rod Smith MW: Oaky and slightly spicy aromas: plenty of honeyed, rich straw, baked fruit underneath. Complex, delicious and deeply flavoured with baked citrus, honey and apricot. Good balance and lovely phenolic grip on the finish. Certainly approachable now, but no hurry to drink.
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Wine & Spirits
Based on tibouren, with 10 percent grenache, the vines more than 60 years old, this was picked on the riper side, then fermented with ambient yeasts in 2,600-liter foudres. While those foudres are temperature controlled, the wine still tastes like it’s from another time: Dried strawberry, caramel, roasted fennel and mushroom are some of the flavors; there’s also dried orange, Fino Sherry and smoky tea. Tremendously savory and complex, it’s worth enjoying this all on its own, cellar-temperature, over the course of a few days.
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.