Learn how to decipher the labels of Provence rosé wines – 01/06/2024 – Red or White

You will certainly drink rosé this summer. Rosé wine is in fashion. As I have already demonstrated in the post Rosé wine: the other pink wave, consumption of this type of wine has been growing non-stop since the beginning of the millennium. Many wineries that didn’t produce rosé now do. The vast majority of them are looking for something in the “Provence style”.

Saying that a rosé wine is reminiscent of Provence seems to be the greatest compliment one can give it. But what does this mean? Provence is a region in southern France close to the Mediterranean. In this region, wine production specializes in rosés, although there are also reds and whites. They are light rosés, with delicate aromas of fruits, lavender and herbs from Provence, which have conquered the world with their elegance.

If you want to start exploring it, a good start is to understand what is written on the labels. Here I take Château Roubine as an example, a special wine, brought by World Wine, which is on offer for R$ 220.00. There are cheaper provences, but they will rarely cost less than R$100.00.
See below how to read your labels.

1 – Château Roubine
This is the name of the winery and also the name of the wine. It is common in France for a winery’s main wine to bear only its name.

2 – Cru Classé
Just as on the left bank of Bordeaux, classification in Provence is done in relation to properties, not in relation to the wines (as in the right bank of Bordeaux) and not in relation to a plot of land that may encompass several properties (as in Burgundy, in Champagne and Alsace).

This classification dates back to 1955, when 23 wineries, based on the prestige they already had, managed to have their properties classified as cru classé by the French National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO). A cru is a piece of land and classé means class, superior. Today there are only 18 Provence cru classés, as five of the originals no longer produce wines. Château Roubine is one of the few cru classé that is still a family winery.

3 – Premium
This is the name of the line, a name given by the producer that has nothing to do with the region’s labeling rules.

4- Côtes de Provence
Côtes de Provence is by far the largest of Provence’s three controlled designations of origin (AOC), with 20,300 hectares. In addition, there are the AOCs Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence (4.4 thousand ha) and Coteaux Varois en Provence (3 thousand ha). So, it’s likely that most of the Provence wines you taste will be Côtes de Provence. There, 92% of the wines produced are rosé.

An AOC is a delimited region and also a set of rules that producers must follow if they want to display the AOC name on their labels. The main one is that wines can only be made with grapes from that region. In the case of Côtes de Provence, vineyards can yield a maximum of 5.5 tons per hectare. That’s a pretty low yield. This guarantees quality, as the compounds of interest become more concentrated. However, it increases prices as the number of bottles produced is smaller.

The main red grapes of Côtes de Provence are cinsault, grenache, mouvedre, syrah and the lesser-known tibouren, which is perfect for rosés due to its elegance. Rosés from Côtes de Provence are light pink, light, with aromas of roses and lavender, red fruits, peach, melon, citrus and marshmallow. In the mouth, they are round, with just the right amount of acidity.

Within the Côtes de Provence, there are five micro-regions that have won the right to write their name on the label. This is what they call terroir designation. They are Côtes de Provence Sainte-Victoire, Côtes de Provence Fréjus, Côtes de Provence La Londe, Côtes de Provence Pierrefeu and Côtes de Provence Notre-Dame des Anges. Belonging to one of these designations is a sign of quality, but being just Côtes de Provence is no demerit. There are special wines that do not have a terroir designation, such as Château Roubine.

Note that the vintage does not appear on the main label. In this case, it is on the back label. Always look for it when buying a rosé. Regular rosés have to be very young, one or two years at most. Because they spoil very easily. They lose their freshness. In the case of special labels, such as a cru classé, the wine usually holds longer. Even so, the Château Roubine that is on the market is from 2021, still quite young, and I would drink it now, not wait.

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