Winemaker Notes
The vineyard's oldest vines give its luminous color to this rose. Wide range of quince, grilled walnut and spicy aromas. Full-bodied, persistent and fresh on the palate.
Tibouren 90%, Grenache 10%
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Made from Cibonne’s oldest tibouren vines, more than 60 years old and farmed organically, this is dense and ripe in 2019. It tastes of cherries and dulce de leche, coffee and marmalade; it’s also stony, with a salinity to match the rocketing acidity. Cuvée Spéciale is often the estate’s longest-lived rosé; this needs time in the cellar and a crown roast of pork when it emerges again.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From the estate's oldest vines (planted in the mid-1950s), the 2019 Cotes de Provence Rose Cuvee Speciale des Vignettes is otherwise similar to the Cuvee Tradition, being a 90-10 blend of Tibouren and Grenache, aged in old foudres. It's a touch more onion-skin than salmon in hue, with pronounced aromas of spiced walnuts. Medium-bodied, it has a plump, fleshy feel on the palate that's nicely balanced by a bright beam of fresh, citrusy acids. It finishes mouthwatering and slightly nutty, with terrific length.
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.