Provence rosé: This summer’s best buys

By Elizabeth Gabay MW

Elizabeth Gabay MW picks 30 of her favourite Provence rosés from the 2024 vintage, finding plenty of classic character but also a growing number of producers making small experiments.

The main challenges of this year’s rosé tasting appear to have been balancing climate change’s increasingly hotter and drier summers with consumer demand for lower alcohol and white wine.

2024 in Provence included a relatively wet spring, and a rather hot summer, but winemakers seem to agree that it was, overall, a good vintage.

Generally, the quality was good, with scores clumping around 88-89.

Provence seems to be a safe bet, with homogeneous style and consistent quality.

This seems to be the major strength of the region, especially the gap between mid-range and premium seems to be narrowing.

The famous names are good, but the gap is narrowing. There are now many newcomers or lesser-known producers making excellent rosé in similar styles, often at very competitive prices.

Paler than ever

More than ever before, the 2024 rosés were extremely pale, verging on the white with a tinge of pink.

A number of wines showed evidence that they were harvested early to retain fresh acidity, the pale colour, and achieve lower alcohol, but this unripe fruit often resulted in green, acidic wines lacking in charm or character.

The best embraced riper fruit, albeit with a touch more alcohol at around 13.5%, sometimes with a touch more colour, and increasingly including some older vintages.

Oak-aged rosés, once outliers, are now a staple in the range of many, if not most, Provence rosé producers.

But, what was once a singular category of ‘oaked rosé’ is now a range of styles and choices, ranging from almost imperceptible to deep, complex, and age-worthy.

Oak is no longer the main indicator of premium quality rosé, even if many of the very best did spend some time in barrel.

Provence appellations and their hectarage under vine.

---

Adventurous styles emerging

Just being pale pink is no longer the prime consideration when buying rosé, particularly for younger, more adventurous consumers.

Even in Provence, there are plenty of wines for those happy to embrace darker colours and more adventurous styles.

It was exciting to see a growing amount of diversity in winemaking, ranging from reductive fresh and fruity wines to rosés in oak, amphora and eggs as well as different varieties, such as Viognier and Muscat, contributing further to the range of different styles.

These aromatic varieties worked best when carefully handled and not used as a substitute for fruit in more unripe wines.

Terroir conversation

With increased conversation recently about the different terroirs around Provence, the higher quality rosés often stood out for their use of local grape varieties and their regional expression, working with terroir rather than against it.

Bandol again stands out for its structured, concentrated Mourvèdre-heavy rosés, most of which do justify their slightly higher price tags.

The Côtes de Provence sub-appellations (La Londe, Sainte Victoire, Fréjus, Pierrefeu and Notre-Dame-des-Anges) are still good options for slightly higher quality rosé, with Notre-Dame-des-Anges standing out this year.

The Luberon is a good place to look in 2025 for some really excellent value-for-money, especially from slightly fuller-bodied, more concentrated wines than the pale delicacy found elsewhere in Provence this vintage.

With such a large region, the scope for a variety of styles is large. This also highlights a divide in the range of wines being produced.

The majority of rosés conformed to the classic Provence blueprint in various degrees of success: dry, mineral, delicate peach and redcurrant fruit and fresh acidity.

As ‘Provence-style’ is adopted ever more widely across the world, Provençal producers need to do more to emphasise local terroirs, and move away from the lowest common denominator of pale colour.

Château d’Esclans, Les Clans, Côtes de Provence, France 2023

This is quite a powerful rosé that should not be drunk fresh from the fridge; it definitely benefits from decanting when drunk young. Pale pink and strongly oaky with notes of spice and vanilla opening up to notes of pretty bergamot, elegant elderflower and some exotic fruit. On the palate the initial closed oaky character opens to reveal a lovely intensity of ripe exotic fruit and a sweet oaky structure. The complex combination of exotic fruit and a twist of salinity creates a rich and unctuous wine to be drunk now or for ageing.

Points 92