Côtes de Provence celebrates this year 40 years as an appellation. And there is reason to celebrate. Rosé wines from Provence have had incredible success in recent years. The world does not seem to be able to get enough of Provence rosé. As part of the celebration, a design competition was organized in June in […]
I was a bit shocked the other day when I saw a video clip with Etienne Portalis from Château Pradeaux, one of the well-known wine estates in Bandol. Bandol has always, for me, been the great red wine of Provence. A structured, high-quality red wine, surrounded by a sea of (not always very exciting) rosé […]
Rosé wine has become amazingly popular in recent years. The consumption of rosé increases more than other wines. France is the world’s largest rosé producer. Provence is the region in France that is most famous for its rosé wines and it is also the largest producer with 42% of all rosé. BKWine Magazine’s Henrik Stadler […]
50 kilometres north of Nice is a small town called Villars-sur-Var. We are quite far away from the wine regions. Closer to Nice is the appellation Bellet and further west is the Côtes de Provence. But Villars-sur-Var also has vineyards. One of the few wine growers here is Roch Sassi. His small domain of 4 […]
Portugal is the world’s largest cork producer but now competition is coming from Provence. Well, France will never have the volumes they have in Portugal. Portugal is still by far the world’s biggest cork producer. But this year 800,000 bottles will to be sealed with wine corks from cork oaks growing in the Massif des […]
A string of Cotes du Rhone-Villages villages Cotes du Rhone is France’s second largest appellation contrôlée (after AOC / AOP Bordeaux) and spreads its 42,000 hectares on both sides of the river Rhone. Obviously, the quality varies enormously in such a large area and there are also significant price differences. Cheapest are the wines from […]
Château de Palayson is a beautiful wine estate not far away from the coast on the French Riviera in Provence. The owners, the American couple Alan and Christine Rudd, went against the stream when they bought Château de Palayson. They wanted to make high quality red wine. In Britt’s latest article on Forbes she gives […]
Really. How great can a rosé be? Well, there are people who produce rosé wine that have great ambition. And who know how to charge for it. Chateau d’Esclan in Provence is one of those, perhaps even the leader of the pack in the current flood of rosé wine. In the second of two articles […]
It seems the conquest of the world for rosé wines is unstoppable. From having been a little appreciated cheap (and often nasty) wine rosé is now – literally – on everyone’s lips. Even the most serious of wine writers assures us that rose is, or can be, great. In the first of two articles on […]
Searching for a vineyard to buy? Are you longing for a life among vines and steel tanks, tractors, regulations and bureaucracy? Then we know exactly where you should start looking. At least if you see yourself making wine in Provence, the Rhone Valley or Languedoc. The newly created company WINE Objectives offer vineyards for sale […]
There are many things to discover in the southern Rhône Valley. It is a region that has the irresistible Provencal charm, but also many other things that makes it worth a trip. For instance the wines! Today it is not only Châteauneuf-du-Pape that makes wines at the top of the quality pyramid. You can find […]
Uncorked: Under this heading we collect various wines that we have tasted, and liked, recently. It can be wines that we have had during dinner at home, at wine tastings, press lunches, visits to vineyards, or other occasions. We describe the wines just with a few short sentences, tasting notes that we hope will give […]
Côte and Coteaux, we see these words everywhere: Côtes du Rhône, Coteaux du Languedoc, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Beaune, etc. It is an old French tradition to call wine regions located along rivers or slopes like this. Often the prefixes indicate a larger wine area (though not always, Côte Rôtie is a good example). […]
Rosé – the Provence speciality: People drink rosé in the summer, preferably well chilled and sitting on a shaded terrace overlooking the Mediterranean. What is in your glass is really not that important. This is the stereotype view of rosé wine but not always true anymore for rosé wines can now be excellent food wines […]
There are plenty of restaurants around the old harbour in Marseilles that serve bouillabaisse. This is not one of them. (Or maybe they do have it after all…) Paul & Kopa is basically a pizzeria, but with a twist, or perhaps one should say not only. It is nicely decorated, real table cloths on the […]
A vineyard in Provence that also traces its roots to Bordeaux recently organised a tasting with wines back to 1970: Chateau Vignelaure in Coteaux d’Aix en Provence. Here the first cabernet sauvignon was planted in the mid-1960s. And this grape is the hallmark of the estate. We have met the owners, the Danish/Swedish couple Mette […]
We taste wines back to 1970 from one of the most famous Provence estates A vineyard in Provence that also traces its roots to Bordeaux recently organised a tasting with wines back to 1970: Chateau Vignelaure in Coteaux d’Aix en Provence. Britt tastes the wines and meets the new owners. Château Vignelaure is not your […]
Since quite a few year it has been forbidden to use the expression “methode champenoise” on sparkling wines made with a second fermentation in the bottle. In the future we may instead see “methode provencale”. Provence is enjoying the popularity of rosé wines but researchers have now developed a “new” method to make bubbly that […]
Terroir de Pierrefeu (the country of the stones on fire?) is an area in western Provence not far from the big city of Toulon. For the second time they will organise a “balade gourmande”, or gastronomic excursion to the vineyards and the countryside, a trip that will be accompanied by delicacies prepared by four different […]
In the old city in Antibes you find this newly opened restaurant. It is small, nicely and traditionally decorated and the welcome is warm. It is mainly the Mediterranean kitchen that is on the menu of course (mussels, fish, vegetables…) and the kitchen’s ambition seems to be to be well ahead of the average local […]
Interview with Volker Paul Weindel, winemaker and owner since 1996 of Domaine la Tour des Videaux in Pierrefeu de Provence close to Massif des Maures. We are in the vineyards in winter before the vines have been pruned. This year they have had a lot of rain. The vineyard is in organic farming (culture biologique). […]
The appellation Côtes des Ventoux changes name and becomes AOC Ventoux, a wine region in the western part of Provence. There are some 150 winemakers making primarily red wine (75%), almost a quarter rosé and a little white. There are many “côte” appellations in France – Côte de Bourg, Côte Chalonnaise etc. Perhaps more would […]
Chateau Vignelaure is one of the best known wine producers in Provence. It was recently sold to a Swedish-Danish couple, Bengt Sundström and Mette Rode Sundström. The seller was the Irish couple Catherine and David O’Brian. The property will now be run by the French oenologist Philippe Bru with winemaking experience not only from France […]
Provence in a few lines: – Provence is the biggest producer of rosé wine. 42% of all French AOC rosé wine come from Provence – Annual production is 140 million bottles: 84% rosé, 13% red, and 3% white – Total vineyard plantings: 27,300 ha in the departements Var, Bouches-du-Rhône and Alpes-Maritimes.
Triennes is a property that has attracted quite a lot of attention lately although it carries the quite modest appellation of Vin de Pays du Var. But you should not be fooled by the humble origin – the wines are excellent and interesting and we would be surprised if they were not. The winery was […]
A small Provence restaurant in Paris with a definite southern feeling. Very good cooking that is nicely presented on the plates. The grille tuna was excellent and very succulent and the crumble d’agneau (!) very tasty with just the right cover of crumbles. At lunch time you can get two courses for 14.10 euro. The […]
Valerie and Philippe Riboud bought the beautiful Château Roubine with the adjoining 75 hectares of vineyard in 1994. Neither of them had much experience of wine growing at that time. Valerie had been working in the hotel and restaurant sector and Philippe was a sportsman (six Olympic medals in fencing!). So they had to learn […]
An extensive selection from all of France with a predominance of the new stars from Southern France, but surprisingly few wines from Provence (!). Also (mainly) a wine bar and restaurant. Vin sur Vin, 18 bis rue Biscarra, Nice, tel 04 93 92 93 20.
Behind Bandol and Cassis, almost in the mountains, you find this producer where the vines grow on red clay soil mixed with limestone. It is managed with great care by Raimond de Villeneuve. He took over this family estate in 1995 and rapidly changed it to bio-dynamic production. His wines are powerful, full-bodied, with lots […]
A very interesting and ambitious producer who is not relying on bland rosés to make its reputation. A good range of wines with particularly interesting whites. And actually a good rosé made from Tibouren grapes. Prices around €10 depending on the cuvee. More info on their site www.chateau-roubine.com or on www.rivieralink.com (Swedish only). Call them […]
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