Bandol Rosé 2024

La Bastide Blanche is located in Sainte-Anne-du-Castellet, in the heart of the Bandol appellation, at the foot of the Sainte-Baume massif and around seven kilometres from the Mediterranean. The plots, facing south and south-east, lie on clay-limestone soils dotted with gravelly patches and limestone scree. The warm, bright Mediterranean climate is tempered by sea breezes, while the well-drained restanques (terraces) give Mourvèdre, Bandol's king grape, ideal conditions to reach full ripeness.

The vines, thirty years old on average and farmed organically and biodynamically, are harvested by hand. The Mourvèdre is pressed directly, while the Grenache and Cinsault undergo skin maceration that enriches the aromatic palette. Malolactic fermentation is deliberately blocked to preserve the wine's freshness and acidity. No oak ageing is involved: the rosé is aged in tank to keep all the purity of its fruit.

This wine reveals notes of grapefruit, citron, bitter orange, nectarine, apricot, bay leaf, garrigue and gunflint. The deep salmon colour heralds a nose dominated by citrus, typical of young Mourvèdre, which aeration enriches with stone fruit. The palate is dense and concentrated, carried by Mourvèdre's noble bitterness, before a persistent, saline and spicy finish.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.