Chateau Vignelaure Coteaux d'Aix en Provence Rose 2020
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Winemaker Notes
Salmon color, light and bright. Intense noise on fruits (fruits of the forest, peach, grapefruit). In the mouth, balance, and fineness. Long final on white fruits and spices.
The perfect pairing for Bouillabaisse, risotto with scallops, paella with seafood and stuffed zucchini flowers.
Blend: 40% Grenache, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah
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Wine Enthusiast
Rich in Cabernet Sauvignon, with a touch of white Rolle in the blend, this textured wine comes from an estate that helped pioneer quality rosés. It is ripe in red berry fruits and lifted by juicy acidity. Editors' Choice.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Château Vignelaure Coteaux d'Aix en Provence Rosé delivers excellent rewards on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits compelling aromas and flavors of earth, stone, and dried food. Pair it with stir-fried sand dabs and broccolini. (Tasted: July 3, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From another successful year at this estate, the pale flamingo 2020 Coteaux d'Aix en Provence Rose is a blend of 40% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Rolle (Vermentino). The Cabernet lends a leafy presence on the nose and a certain austerity on the finish, while the Grenache and Syrah provide the flesh to the medium-bodied palate and subtle berry and melon flavors. Rather than expressing itself in a single facet, the Rolle entwines the other elements, binding the wine together into a harmonious whole.
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Château Vignelaure owes its existence to Georges Brunet, one time owner of Bordeaux third growth Château La Lagune who established the estate just north of Aix-en-Provence in the 1960s. Choosing a site of clay, limestone and gravel covering some 60 hectares of beautiful Provençal countryside 350 metres above sea level, he set about planting cabernet sauvignon using cuttings taken from his Bordeaux estate. Despite the difficulties of ripening cabernet fully in this setting, and despite being embraced by protective hills, he made high-quality wines. In 1985 the region as a whole was approved for appellation contrôlée status as Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence.
The estate is now owned by Swedish couple Bengt and Mette Sundstrom, who fell in love with the place while looking for a retirement home in the south of France. These days syrah, grenache, cinsault and carignan have been planted or acquired alongside the vines introduced by Brunet, and white varieties roussanne, rolle (aka vermentino) and semillon have now been planted in a higher part of the vineyard where it was realised that the red varieties were not so suited to the terror. Early vintages of white wines are very promising indeed, and they have recently begun making excellent rosé, but the reputation of the estate rests on the red wines. These are fermented in stainless steel before 12 to 24 months’ maturation in oak (one third of which is new) in underground cellars, before a further 18 months minimum in bottle.
The four years that the wines often spend in the cellars before release is an illustration of director Phillippe Bru and winemaker Sigvard Johnson’s desire not to compromise and to make a wine that reflects the terroir and to age it for release when it is ready rather than make a softer, more approachable wine that would be more approachable when young. As a result they have earned an enviable reputation as one of the best estates in the south of France, let alone Provence.
Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.
A fantastic source of dry rosés from the usual red Rhône varieties, Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence is a coastal, hilly region whose variations in elevations and microclimates make it ideal for viticulture. Red and a small amount of white wines, also made from Rhône grape varieties, are found here as well.