I mentioned my occasional blogging to someone the other day & she asked if I only wrote about rosé wines.  I explained that I wrote about other things & realized that I almost never seem to write about rosés.  I’m going to try & correct that over the next few months. 

Last night I tried an excellent example of rosé from Provence, which is currently the most popular region for rosé.  The wine was the 2020 Elodie Cuvée Florale.  Interestingly enough, this wine is made by Maison Raymond, which is primarily a Bordeaux producer.

Provence rosé generally has a very light color, somewhere between light pink & onion skin.  This one is light, but closer to pink.  It is made with a blend of 66% Cinsault, 31% Grenache, 2% Carignan, & 1% Ugni Blanc.  All the grapes are certified organic.

The wine opens with intense peach & peach flower aromas.  It’s quiet inviting. The label is covered in flowers & it makes sense because this is a floral wine.

On the palate, the promise of peach is fulfilled with intense peach notes along with a hint of ripe apricot & nectarine.  There is also a creamy note.  This is a wine that comes at you with layers of flavor.

As the wine opens, it shows baked peach cobbler notes.  That might sound sweet, but it isn’t.  The wine only has 1 gram per liter of residual sugar.  Th ewine just has ripe fruit. After the wine sat in the glass for about an hour it showed come confection on the finish.  Again, it wasn’t sweet, but it had a pleasant, candied note.

At 14% alcohol, this packs more of a punch than would have been expected a few years ago from Provence.  Here the acid, the structure, & the intense flavors are enough to keep the alcohol from being out of balance.  There is more of a broad mouth feel on the palate than on some of the thinner, less satisfying wines coming out of Provence these days.

This is a step up from most current rosé in Provence & from previous vintages of this wine.  I don’t know if that is due to the growing season in 2020, or increased comfort with the region from winemaker Elodie Gilles, or a combination of the two.  Either way, this wine has improved & I think it can stand with the best in the region. You don’t have to think seriously about your rosé, but this is obviously a serious rosé.

While this is the kind of wine that can be enjoyed almost any time, I think it is a perfect brunch wine.  I recently had a New Orleans style eggs Benedict that had crab cake & a spicy remoulade on top.  This wine would have been perfect with it.  The ripe fruit would have cut the heat a bit without overpowering the crab cake & the acid would have cut through the breading of the crab cake.  I have to try to make that at home so I can check out the pairing.

If you want to give it a try yourself, you can find it here.