Winemaker Notes
Bright pink color. Complex aromas of white flowers, raspberry, pomegranate, strawberry and light menthol. Fresh, vibrant, long & complex.
Pair roasted and or spicy chicken, duck, goose, fish soup, white meat, seafood, fish, Asian cuisine, and garlic dishes.
Blend: 60% Grenache, 15% Clairette, 10% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 5% Bourboulenc
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A powerful core of black cherry and plum flavors reverberates throughout this profoundly ripe, stately wine that's anchored in minerality and freshness. A Grenache-based blend of both red and white regional grapes, it's a deeply extracted, garnet-hued rosé that truly straddles the lines between red and white winemaking. Framed with tea tannins, it's a satisfying year-round sip that will hold well into 2024.
Editors' Choice -
Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the smaller production 2021 Tavel La Reine De Bois comes from more pebbly soils (the base Tavel is more sandy soils), and while it's not as powerful as some of the past vintages, it nevertheless has remarkable purity, precision, and elegance, with beautiful notes of framboise, honeyed flowers, spice, and crushed stone. Rosé doesn't get much better in my opinion, and this is Tavel at its more elegant and seamless.
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James Suckling
Brimming with stone-fruit aromas with a touch of mango, this is a rich but very clean and crisp dry white from the Southern Rhone. Good concentration and a touch of positive tannin help it carry the generous body and 14.5% alcohol.
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.
The only all-rosé appellation in the Rhone, a Tavel comes in many hues from light salmon to bright pink and is said to be the only rosé that can actually age—and improve. The rosé wines of Tavel have a great historic reputation, having been favored by King Louis XIV in the 18th century, as well as famous authors, Balzac and Mistral.
Tavel are always dry but the high percentage of the fruity Grenache (30-60% of the blend by law) and even Cinsault, give charming aromas and flavors that make them feel "almost sweet." A great Tavel rosé will have a bouquet suggestive of rose petals, apricot, strawberry and red currant. The palate may be fleshy, round and layered but is always fresh and balanced.