Winemaker Notes
After an early morning manual harvest, the grapes are destemmed and directly pressed. The must goes into temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, which are cooled to slow the fermentation process. After fermentation with indigenous yeasts, the wines are racked into over 120-year-old foudres, where they age on the fine lees for one year under a thin veil of fleurette.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Pale copper with restrained aromas of thyme flowers and wild fennel. On the palate, this restraint opens up to an explosion of ripe stone fruit, bruised peaches and apricots, some raspberry fruit and a hint of rhubarb acidity. Pomegranates and rosehips appear on the mid-palate, with barely there tannic grip and a gentle, almost gravelly acidity. The finish is long, intense, and lightly peachy with a subtle salinity. Very classy, moreish, and delivering classic Provence with an upmarket twist.
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Wine Spectator
This is rosé in a different dimension. Weighty, dark and complex, with concentration to the juicy, dense notes of kumquat, tangerine and melon. Salt, tobacco and toasted sandalwood add savory tones to the round, rich palate, and red tea tannins make for a structured frame. Delicious now, but a few years in the cellar will bring even more complexity. Tibouren and Grenache. Drink now through 2028.
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.