In the pink
Robert Joseph looks beyond the rosés and picks some superb unsung Provençal wines.
(Filed: 31/07/2004)
The region's best wine
Rosé wines are synonymous with long, lazy summer lunches in Provence. As holidaymakers in a café in a Mayle fantasy village or in a restaurant in St Tropez, we lazily order rosé to save the trouble of choosing between local reds and whites whose names ring few familiar bells.
And every time we do so, we allow the lazy producers of that pink wine to go on making it to an often pretty ordinary standard. It tastes fine in France, but it never travels well; like the hand-painted ashtray, the floral shirt and the raclette machine, Rosé de Provence somehow doesn't seem quite as appealing when removed from its own environment.
To be fair, some winemakers take their pink wine very seriously, and none more so than Jean Paul Daumas of Château Sainte Roseline in Les-Arcs-en-Provence, an estate to the south of Draguignan worth visiting in any case for its mesmerising Chagall mosaic and the 14th-century holy relics in its chapel.
To produce good pink wine is just like making a red, but stopping halfway through, before the black grape skins have fully coloured the wine. The efforts that are taken aren't always appreciated, however. "You can produce the best rosé in the world and yet people will ask if you mixed red and white wine," says Daumas. "As soon as a rosé gets out of Provence, it simply doesn't have the same reputation as a proper wine."
Like many of his ambitious neighbours, Daumas is now making a growing proportion of red wine - and gaining a name for doing so. He's not alone - there are some excellent wines to be found in Provence, such as the red Sainte Rosaline and examples of appellations such as Cassis, Bandol, Bellet or Coteaux Varois. And they are all the more satisfying to drink here because they are rarely found in the UK.
If you are staying near the region's western frontier, around the market town of Arles, look out for the appellation of Les-Baux-de-Provence, which takes its name from the nearby 11th-century hilltop village and ruined Château of Les Baux. Come in the early morning or close to dusk on a weekday out of season to avoid the tourist crush and you will be enchanted by its tiny winding streets and unspoilt medieval buildings. The big gastronomic attraction is the hotel and restaurant of L'Ousteau de Baumanière (0033 04 9054 3307), which has been a shrine for anyone wanting to taste Provençal cooking at its best, but you will find plenty of humbler spots offering courtyards where you can enjoy herb-infused lamb and brightly flavoured salads.
Some of the best wines to bear the Les-Baux-de-Provence appellation are made nearby at Mas de la Dame and Mas Ste-Berthe, but Mas de Gourgonnier in Mouries is equally good, as is Les Terres Blanches in nearby St-Rémy-de-Provence, especially if you are interested in tasting and buying good organic wine. The style of Coteaux des Baux-de-Provence varies, depending on the proportions of the different grapes used, but the reds are likely to have a flavour reminiscent of a blend of Côtes du Rhône and Bordeaux. The latter region definitely influences what is arguably Provence's top red, Domaine de Trevallon, from nearby St-Etienne-di-Gres. Other wine villages close by are Egalières and the peaceful Salon de Provence where I'd recommend the Mas du Soleil hotel and its restaurant - (9056 0653)
East from Les Baux is the up-and-coming region of Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence, which owes much of its modern success to the efforts of Georges Brunet, the former manager of Château la Lagune in Bordeaux, who decided to try to make one of France's top reds here in the 1970s. Château Vignelaure, the estate he founded in Rians about 20 miles to the east of Aix-en-Provence, has passed through various hands since but today it is being passionately run by former racehorse trainer David O'Brien and his Australian-born wife Catherine, and it is no exaggeration to say the wines are among the classiest in the region.
The higher altitude here and in some of the other better vineyards makes for reds and whites that are fresher and more delicate than some of the more sun-baked wines produced closer to sea level. Other good Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence estates include Châteaux de Pigoudet, also in Rians, and Fonscolombe, in Le Puy-Sainte-Reparade, which also has fabulous gardens.
If these are newish appellations, Provence has a couple of classics which have been around for years. The hills behind the friendly little port of Bandol were covered in vines when the Greeks and Romans were here and, after the harbour was built in 1754, thousands of casks of wine would be floated out to the sailing boats that would carry them off to the French Antilles. Today, production is far smaller, the only boats here are yachts and this feels much more like a holiday resort than a working port. Bandol's wine comes in all three colours, but the red is by far the most interesting, thanks to the use here of a grape called the Mourvêdre that is rarely found outside these vineyards and Châteauneuf du Pape, where it sometimes forms part of the blend.
My favourite Bandol is Chateau Pibarnon, one of whose rich, dark, spicy-earthy wines impressed the judges at the International Wine Challenge enough for them to create a trophy for it. Nearby Cassis, which confusingly shares its name with the French name for blackcurrant liqueur, can still boast a few working fishing boats, some unspoilt 17th-century buildings - and some of the best, most refreshing, perfumed white wines in Provence. Try a bottle from Clos Val Bruyère or Clos Ste-Magdelaine with a dish of seafood on the terrace of the La Presqu'ile restaurant (4201 0377), nearby at Port Miou.
Finally, to the east of the region, there is the tiny area of Bellet. The limited amount of wine here and the thirst of the local market makes for high prices, but the reds, especially from the Domaine de Fogolar, derive a genuinely distinctive herby flavour from the otherwise-rare Folle Noire and Braquet grapes, while the whites owe their creamy spiciness to the equally unusual Rolle.
Even if you find that you have been bitten by Provence's lazy bug, it shouldn't be too difficult in any good wine shop or restaurant to find these wines or other good Provence efforts, such as examples from the Domaine de Triennes in Nans les Pins and Domaine Rabiega in Draguignan, which respectively belong to a top Burgundy producer and - improbable as it may seem - the Swedish State Wine & Spirit Monopoly.
The region's best wine
Château Sainte Roseline 04 9499 5030 (open daily)
Mas de la Dame 04 9054 3224 (8.30-7pm daily)
Mas Ste-Berthe 04 9054 3901 (9-12am; 2-6pm)
Mas de Gourgonnier 04 9047 5045 (by appt)
Domaine de Trevallon 04 9049 0600 (by appt)
Château de Pigoudet 04 9480 3178 (by appt)
Chateau Fonscolombe 04 4261 8962 (by appt)
Chateau Pibarnon 04 9490 1273 (by appt)
Clos Val Bruyère 04 4273 14 60 (daily except Sunday, 10am-12; 3-6pm)
Ste-Magdelaine 04 4201 7028 (weekdays, 10am-12; 3-7pm)
Domaine de Fogolar 04 9337 8252 (daily except Sunday; 8.30am-12; 2-7pm)
Domaine de Triennes 04 9478 9146 (by appt)
Domaine Rabiega 04 9468 4422 (9am-12; 2-5pm)
Chateau Vignelaure 04 9437 2110 (by appt)
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with pâtes fraîches 
:wink: 
