What?
Juice 2019 Côtes de Provence, Estérelle, Château du Rouët, Provence, FRA
Grape 46% Grenache/Garnacha, 21% Tibouren, 19% Cinsault, 14% Syrah/Shiraz
Farming Vegan
Tasting Note This wine is pale salmon in colour with aromas of ripe citrus and white blossom. On the palate, there is a good balance of fruit and acidity with flavours of berries and citrus.
Who?
Château du Rouët is now run by the fifth generation of the Savatier family, who have owned it since 1840. The Château was originally known for selling pinewood and cork from their surrounding forest. Vines were planted in 1927, to act as a firebreak to protect the forest, and the first bottled wine of Château du Rouët appeared in 1945. Today, brothers, Martin and Matthieu Savatier run the Château, with Martin looking after the vineyards and Matthieu making the wines.
Why?
The Château own 70 hectares of vines which grow on distinctive red, volcanic rock soil at an altitude of 560 metres. The south-facing vineyards benefit from warm, sunny days and are cooled by the Mistral and sea breezes which add elegance and freshness to the wines. The aforementioned volcanic soils further add a wonderful mineral core to the wine. We think this is just a bloody great example of Côtes de Provence Rosé. We aren’t generally big fans of Rosé but as the saying goes if ‘we were in Rome’ we’d be drinking this juice poolside or ‘sur la plage’ like it was going out of fashion.
With?
Poolside food, cuisine ‘sur la plage’ mixed seafood platter, or even the eponymous Provençal classic, Salad Niçoise. The fresh, salty, light and bright flavours composing the dish are essentially a plated up version of the wine. Summertime on a plate much like the wine is summertime in a bottle. If you’re feeling lazy then why not just slap up a plate of smoked salmon topped with a little red onion, capers, a healthy squeeze of lemon juice served with some dark rye bread and crème fraiche.
