Not for summer thirst quenching from the large area, but a fine selection for your meals as they were intended.
We are adding our first Provence Rosé wine for the Vinifera Boutique Cellar just as the summer is ending. Usually when it comes to Rosé, the pink wines from the South of France remain, people drink them on holiday and take a few bottles back home. Yet when they arrive home somehow these taste different. In Provence Rosé is a such a common everyday drink, that most of the Rosé wine drunk is of low to medium quality, but is nevertheless refreshing and enhances the holiday experience.
However wines of great culinary value also exist in the South of France. This is one of the foremost Rosé production regions in the world, with many interesting grape varieties (Cinsault, Grenache, Tibouren, Syrah and Mourvèdre – always a balanced mix), having shades from light pink to orange. The top wines have refined tastes and can have further complexity from Oak barrels.
Chateau de Jasson – La Londe
The first one of these wines is Chateau de Jasson from La Londe in AOC Cotes de Provence (please see VB Cellar). The area around La Londe has some top producer names, of which the most famous name is one of the Domaine Ott. Chateau de Jasson is present in many of the Paris top restaurants and wine shops, such as the Bristol. It has a good value for money, considering the quality both on its own as well as with food pairing. The Cuvée Eleonore is a refreshing yet refined wine, of which the name has been carefully selected to reflect the importance of the ‘Eleonore’s of France to the UK. (Please see more details on the wine description page). For the readers who prefer ratings, this shows that the Cuvée Eleonre also has performed well in both the Rosé class as well as overall in the wines sector. Some recommendations include tasting notes: “lots of fruit, white fruit and sweet”, “pleasing well made rosé with citrus fruit and mandarin” or “nose of peach, abricot, red fruit, grapefruit – the mouth adds volume and fat to complement” (Grapes used Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, Tibouren)
Sainte Roseline – Les Arcs sur Argens
Please also look out for our other rosé, Sainte Rosline Cru Classé Cuvée Prieure. Officially there are 14 Cru Classé wines in their classification of 1955 (or one of the Cru Classé vineyards in the south claimed only 12 now), which have their classification similar to the Bordeaux 1855 classification. Sainte Rosline is a magnificent wine from one of these top producers, of which some of the wine connoisseurs bluntly state this one as the best. They have a range of three wines. Their most ordinary Rosé wine is the ‘Lampe de Meduse” which comes in an original creative style bottle used in the south. This is still a good quality rosé with a fine taste, widely sold all around the Provence area from near its home above Saint Tropez to the west towards Aix en Provence. However if you ask most ‘cavistes’ (wine shop owners) in the south, they might say that a ‘grand vin’ (great wine) of the Rosé includes a few producers and ‘cuvées’ of the Cotes de Provence. They point out that this description could be applied starting at the Chapelle and –Cuvée Prieure, both aged in oak barrels and therefore significantly more complex in their taste. Yet the Cuvée Prieure is much cheaper than some of the ‘grand rosé’ wines, therefore this is a type of entry price level for a great wine. This wine should please the modern wine drinker with Mourvèdre and Syrah being used and ages more than the average Cotes de Provence Rosé – 3 years. These wines are more difficult to find even in Provence as they are more expensive and not the type of wines to drink throughout the hot summers day, but instead with a great meal or as a culinary experience of wine tasting.
The most astounding factor of the Cuvée Prieure is its colour, with beautiful reflections of light pinks shades. Cuvée Prieure has been selected for sale in our store this Autumn.
We do not regard these wines as strictly summer wines, rather replacements for white wine with food, or simply as an aperitif.
