Last week we had the pleasure of visiting Provence. We were on the search for new and delicious Rosés. During our travels we also visited some of the most famous wineries like Château D’Esclans. Keep a look out for our next Blog Post about this lovely experience...
Our highlight of the trip was the Just Rosé Festival in Sanary-sur-Mer. This pink exclusive festival features over 70 wineries. Sanary-sur-Mer is located in the Bandol Appellation next to Toulon about one hour away from St.Tropez. The weather was a perfect, 23 degrees Celsius with sunshine. The exhibition was located in the old port of the little village and the wines mainly came from the Côtes de Provence and Bandol region. It was wonderful to meet the producers in person and have the opportunity to taste so many new Rosé Wines & Bubbles.
We started the day with a delicious pizza baguette Provencial style to set a good foundation for all the tasting ahead J. The overall quality of the offered Rosés was outstanding. One highlight was the amount of Bandol wineries at the festival. Typically, the Bandol Rosé has a fuller body. A great example for a Bandol Rosé is the Domaines Ott - Château Romassan. This is due to the Mourvedre grape that is the dominant variety for Bandol. In the Côtes de Provence appellation usually Grenache plays the leading role.
We had great conversations with the different wineries and locals and learned a lot about the details of this area. One winery shared their story of a catastrophic last year where fire destroyed a lot of their grapes. We heard a similar story from another winemaker, where also fire destroyed a lot of their harvest. They explained that they had to wash the grapes the fire didn’t destroy by hand from smoke residue.
We also met a young motivated wine maker from Bandol and are already working on importing his wines to enrich the CL assortment. He told us about the tough work he has while harvesting his wine on steep hills facing the ocean of the Bandol. This region also has bigger stones in the terrain that make it harder to work the grounds. These shared stories really make you appreciate the hard work, love and dedication that wineries go through to making the wine.
In the early afternoon a thunderstorm popped up and gave us time to make a little break that we used to refuel and to clean our palates. As soon as the rain cleared, we continued our discovery mission through the little streets of Sanary’s old town to check out some hidden stands and taste their wines as well.
We tasted so many delicious Rosés during our trip! All produced with love in the beautiful region of the Provence. We found some secret pearls and are currently working on importing them to share them with you! One discovery from the festival will be on stock next week: Château Roubine
Just Rosé is definitely worth a visit!
Cheers,
Julian
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