A Super Tuscan Rising Star: Tenuta di Biserno

We’re massive fans of Italian wines and Tuscany in particular holds a special place in our hearts. Helena Nicklin heads to a lesser known part of the region to get to know a very exciting wine producer…

If you’ve tried the finest wines from Tuscany, chances are that they’ve been touched by the hand of the most famous wine family in the region, if not the country: Famiglia Antinori. All those beautiful names - Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Massetto, Solaia, Tignanello - have been blessed with the Antinori magic and most of them still are. But this is not a story about the famous Tuscan region of Chianti, where wine tourism mechanics move like well-oiled machines. This is about another coastal Tuscany; a part that’s still rugged, still being discovered and gorgeously authentic called the Maremma.

What’s more, it has already formed a reputation for making wines that breaks the rules but in doing so, have created fine wines to rival the very best in the world. We’re talking about the Maremma, which is coastal Tuscany. It’s an area that splits into three sub regions: Upper, Central and South, but it’s the Upper or ‘Alta’ Maremma where the very best wines are being made. Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Massetto – yes, but there’s a new kid on the block steaming through the ranks and it’s made by Lodovico Antinori’s team at Tentua di Biserno in Bibbona.

From Bolgheri to Bibbona

Marchese Lodovico Antinori came across what would become the Biserno Estate (Tenuta di Biserno) back in 1995. Located in the Alta Maremma, just north of Bolgheri in Bibbona, the area boasts wild, sweeping landscapes, pine forests, hilltop castles and stunning views all the way down to the Tyrrheniansea. Most importantly however (for the wine in any case), the combination of this climate, cooled by the sea breeze with the unique soils of the area made the Marchese sit up and pay attention. At the time, he had been looking for land with which he could extend his beloved Ornellaia vineyards, but he soon realised that the terrain was much hillier; much stonier than it was at Ornellaia and so would need to be a separate project with different grapes. In a surprising move that some might say is a sad regret for the family, Ornellaia was sold (a long story for another time), but this now meant that Lodovico could devote time to pursuing a new story in this incredibly exciting, undiscovered terroir on just the other side of the fence.

The Birth of Biserno

In the midst of the vines, the lemon trees and olive groves and with a gorgeous infinity pool, sits the Biserno guest house. Originally destroyed in 1850, it was rebuilt in the 1950s and while not open generally to the public, the eight bedrooms can available for exclusive, prearranged visits, which can include wine tastings, personal tours of the region and cooking classes on request. Tiziana, the in-house chef buys fresh produce daily from the local market and makes food with stunning simplicity with the lightest of touches. It is the vines and the wines however that demand even closer attention.

The Biserno wines

49 acres of vines were planted at Biserno between 2001 and 2005. The clay element of the terroir particularly led Lodovico to plant Bordeaux varietals; Cabernet franc, then some Merlot with, interestingly, a generous dollop of Petit Verdot and a smattering Cabernet Sauvignon. Within these 49, there is a patch of 6 acres, which stands above the rest and is home to the star wine of the Tenuta’s stable: Biserno ‘Lodovico’.

Just like Sassicaia at the very beginning of the Super Tuscan story, Bibbona does not have its own DOC, so all wines, no matter how great, can only be called IGT (Indicazione Geographica Typica). This may change as it did for Sassicaia (Sassicaia was only granted its own DOC in 2013) but to be honest, they may not even want that. A DOC means rules after all – and we all know that Bolgheri didn’t get where it is today by following those! Here’s a look at what Tenuta di Biserno produce and where you can find them:

The Tenuta di Biserno wine range

Rosé - Sof A brand new rosé, named after Lodovico’s 21 year-old daughter Sofia who came back from travels demanding they make a dry pink. It’s made with more or less 50 % Cabernet Franc and 50% Syrah. 2017 is the first vintage and it has a very pretty, vibrant pink colour with a refreshing prickle of CO2. On the palate, bright red fruit settles to soft, strawberry cream and a saline finish.

£24.50 from Corney & Barrow and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux

Red - Insoglio del Cinghiale (The wild boar’s hideout): Always mostly Syrah (it’s the only red Biserno wine with Syrah in it). Made to be released a year after production and meant for immediate drinking. The 2016 has a lovely purple hue and a typical Syrah garrigue character; herbaceous and violet-scented with bramble fruit a touch of smoked meat. There’s a cool, saline seam running through it too, which appears in many of the Biserno wines.

£21.50 from Corney & Barrow and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux

Red - Il Pino di Biserno: A step up from Cinghiale and where Cabernet Franc starts to come into its own, with some Petit verdot, a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot – like an inside-out Bordeaux blend. With a deeper colour and more complexity than Insoglio and with a year in oak barrels and 6-8 months in bottle before release, the 2015 had a generous, silky red fruitiness and spice amongst the brambles.

£42.20 - £47.95 depending on vintage from Corney & Barrow and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux

Red - ‘Biserno’

With Biserno, Lodovico put the wheels in motion for the next Tuscan icon wine. 2007 was the first vintage and the blend is predominantly Cabernet sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet franc and Petit verdot. The left banker of Biserno, as it were. You can see the vintage variations throughout the years. We tasted the following vintages:

2007: Animal, meaty and powerful. Lots of garrigue herbs. Not shy!

2008: More refined tannins; silky, with a mineral core.

2009: A warmer vintage, shown by lots of baked fruit, blackcurrant compote. Fleshy texture.

2010: Very cool, wet year creating a very elegant and cool mineral vintage that’s drinking well already. Not typical.

2015: Surprisingly drinkable given its youth. Very strawberry up front, with fine, tight tannins and secondary notes of spice just starting to show.

£95.95 - £102.95 depending on vintage from Corney & Barrow (also available in magnum and double magnum) and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux.

Red - Biserno ‘Lodovico’

The first Lodovico vines were planted in 2012 and every year made a difference.  Helped by Michel Rolland, the Marchese always has the last say on the blend. Lodovico is generally around 95% Cabernet franc with 5% Petit Verdot. The 2013 had quite long skin contact (21-28 days) and was aged for 16 m in mostly new French oak. It showed immediate ripeness of fruit with sweet spiciness, concentration, fleshy and complexity. The production is generally small (5 – 10,000 a year) depending on the vintage and it’s only made in best years. Releases so far are 07, 08, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17.

£220-£240 from Corney & Barrow (2012 also available in magnum) and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux.

By Helena Nicklin

The Capital Hotel, Knightsbridge

Going on forty years strong under the original Levin ownership, the Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge boasts outstanding staff, family heritage, and unwavering loyalty. Given its rich history, the Capital upholds classic British design with modern upgrades here and there. This award winning miniature sized grand hotel possesses all the luxurious advantages of a large establishment yet maintains a warm and intimate atmosphere that allows guests and staff to interact with each other on a personal level.

The Capital has excellent service alongside spectacular location. The wondrous hotel sits elegantly on Basil Street adjacent to the lavish Knightsbridge apartments and just minutes from Knightsbridge Tube Station as well as Harvey Nichols, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Hyde Park, and the designer shops of Sloane Street.

If location isn’t enough, the Capital might be able to entice wine lovers with their very own award winning vineyard, Levin Wines, in the Loire Valley. And, for those who enjoy sweets, they also have a bakery, The London Bakery, which delivers to high-end restaurants and clubs all across London. The Levin’s couldn’t just stick with one hotel, a winery, and a bakery; they also own and operate the Levin Hotel and the Metro Bistro.

So, what we’re saying is, the Levin’s know a thing or two about hosting and can ensure your stay is of the highest quality. From their quaint classic queen room to their spacious two-bedroom suite and all rooms in between, you’ll want to book your stay at the Capital Hotel.

The Capital Hotel is a proud member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a unique collection of luxury hotels across the world that have won countless awards for their food, drink, service and hospitality.

Address: 22-24 Basil Street, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1AT
Telephone: 0800 0482 314
Website

Once & Future Wines with Joel Peterson

Joel Peterson is known affectionately in the wine world as ‘The Godfather of Zin’. He’s the man who gave Zinfandel its iconic status in the US, having co-founded Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma back in 1976. It was from here that the expression ‘no wimpy wines’ was born and Peterson became the poster man for rich, concentrated, figgy Zinfandel wines that packed a huge, alcoholic, tooth-staining punch.

Fast forward to now however, and Peterson’s focus has shifted. He sold Ravenswood to Constellation in 2018 and has gone back to his roots, literally, to embark on a much smaller project where we gets to make tiny quantities of fine wine from vines that are often over 100 years old. Gone are the jammy, powerhouse wines made in huge quantities. Say hello to concentrated, yet fresh, lean and perfumed wines where often, only a couple of hundred cases of each are made. This new project is called Once & Future.

“I never want to produce more wine than I can physically make myself,” he tells us at a recent tasting of wines from the just-released 2017 vintage. “Once & Future allows me to get back to what I always wanted Ravenswood to be: a small project with old vines and a keen sense of place.”

Joel looks for forgotten vineyards with old vines with grapes that should have had more of a legacy than the ‘blight’, as he calls it, of Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. From the sandy soils of Oakley Vineyard where 117 year old Mataro (Mourvedre) vines stands on their own roots to 129 year old Zinfandel vines in the famous Tuscan Red Hills Series soils, these Once & Future wines, while a new project for Joel, showcase a real snapshot of Californian viticultural history.

The Once & Future Wine Range

We taste through the range of six wines and it becomes apparent immediately that this is not Ravenswood mark two; these are wines in a totally different league. Grapes that traditionally have made juicy, boozy, inky fruit bombs are graceful, light on their feet and silky, mineral smooth. All are incredibly bright, supple and fresh. Still so young, but incredibly drinkable, it will be exciting to see what happens to this with a few more years of bottle age.

On the table

Coming soon to Hedonism Wines and Harrods.

2017 Once & Future Oakley Road Vineyard Mataro from Contra Costa County. RRP £56

2017 Once & Future Oakley Road Vineyard Zinfandel from Contra Costa County. RRP £48

2017 Once & Future Bedrock Vineyard Zinfandel from Sonoma Valley. RRP £48

2017 Once & Future Teldeschi “Frank’s Block” Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley. RRP £48

2017 Once & Future Sangiacomo Vineyard Merlot from Carneros. RRP £56

2017 Once & Future Palisades Petite Sirah from Napa Valley. RRP £56

By Helena Nicklin

Meeting Jackson & Seddon

Rob Seddon, appeared on BBC 2 in a reality tv show called Second Chance Summer, and has started a wine importing business with organics and Italy being the key factors.

Second Chance Summer was about starting a new life on a farm in Tuscany. Rob loved Italy so much he felt he had to start a business which would allow him to stay in the country as much as possible. Rob started Jackson and Seddon, a UK based importer dealing in organic wines. Organic wine growth in the UK was more than five times greater than non-organic wines in 2017.

The business was started by crowd funding, he has no business partner as the name of the company might suggest. Jackson is the name of his dog. The idea originally came to him nearly five years ago, but it wasn’t until his time last year on the tv show that he decided it was possible to make it happen.

The crowd funding idea came into being as Rob wanted to give people the opportunity to pre-order from small runs of wine of outstanding quality. The funding was a huge success and the target set was easily passed.

The farms he buys wine from a small and don’t produce enough wine to be of interested to any of the big importers, they also have little or no money for marketing making running these small farms and creating such good wines very difficult. Rob sees his business as helping these small mainly family owned businesses to make the best wines they can and in turn he is able to sell them to the UK.

With the small quantity produced, the wines on offer vary, but the quality of the wines does not. Having tasted a few of the wines on offer, I have liked them all. There were two wines I particularly liked and were excellent quality.

Forgiadita - 70% Sangiovese 30% Cab Sav.  Made in hills behind Siena by a called Nicola who studied to be a lawyer, then after 5 years he gave it all up and took over his grandmother farm and started to produce wines. This is his first real vintage of wines, of which he made 6000 bottles.   

Capolino Perlingieri - 100% Fiano from Campania.  This is produced by Alexia who now runs the family estate, which took her and her bother over 10 years to buy back, after it had been given away in a mad Italian ‘workers living on the land’ law many years ago.  All of the berries are hand selected to offer only the best quality of wine.

Given the over all quality of the wines on offer from Jackson and Seddon, I can’t imagine there will be many people letting their subscriptions slip, and I would thorough recommend having a subscription, whether you already know you like Italian wines and which ones, or if you are wanting to discover something different from Italy.

By Colin -Hampden-White

Coravin: The ultimate wine preservation gadget?

Head to any restaurant that’s rather proud of its wine list and chances are you’ll spot a quirky looking gadget by the side of the bar. This is Coravin: a needle-based wine preservation system that allows you to pour a glass of wine without pulling the cork. Pretty nifty, no? Coravin has revolutionised the way we taste wine in bars and restaurants as establishments can now offer a tasting sample of something really rather expensive and special without worrying about wasting the rest of the bottle. For consumers, this works well; it may allow them to taste a Screaming Eagle Cabernet without having to splash several thousand pounds on a full bottle. That tasting sample may still be £100 for 25ml, but at least it’s a little more attainable…

How does Coravin work?

The Coravin was invented by Greg Lambrecht: a surgeon from the US with a true passion for wine. Like most wine lovers, Greg found tasting many different bottles a pure joy, but hated having to wait for dinner parties full of people to pop the corks and not waste the bottles. One day, he brought his experience with spinal tap and chemotherapy needles to the table. He developed a device that allowed a thin needle to pierce a cork and displace the wine with inert argon gas while it was being poured. The addition of argon gas meant that the wine left in the bottle would not oxidise, but the genius bit was working out that the cork would reseal itself immediately (or after a few seconds if very cold).

When to use Coravin at home

“A Coravin is a wine bar in your house. You are only limited by the amount of different bottles you have. Why not have a great wine on a wednesday!” - Greg Lambrecht

The first cry from wine drinkers when presented with this funky little gadget tends to be ‘but we drink the whole bottle!’ I confess, this was me until I realised that we could taste six (or more) different wines in one night. It’s also the perfect way to check whether a wine you have been laying down is ready to drink. Just pour yourself a sip and put it back if its not ready. The latest version, model 11, also comes with a little shower attachment to aerate your wine.

“Faster, easier more fun than opening a bottle…”

The models

Coravin model 1 is the original, analogue version that comes in white. You can upgrade your colour and feel with the model 2 elite, choosing from rose gold, steel blue or even, bright red amongst others. If you really want to go to town, then the model 11 is for you. Fully automated and rechargeable, you can hook it up to bluetooth. It has an LED display that lets you know when to charge it or replace the capsule. You can also sync it up to the Coravin Moments app (iphone only currently), to match wine to music, food or anything else.

What about Screw Caps?

Believe it or not, there is now a screw cap attachment for the Coravin. It looks like quite like a regular screw cap, but with a silicon seal that reseals itself after the needle has pierced it. You do need to quickly replace the first screw cap with this, so a small amount of oxygen gets into the bottle then, but the wine can still last for several weeks if kept cool and on its side. Each Coravin screw cap can be reused up to 100 times.

Our verdict? It’s a wondrous thing and a great conversation piece at a dinner party. No wine lover should be without one.

See more at coravin.com

Buy Coravin Elite 2 here on Amazon. RRP £257.66

Buy Coravin Model 11 here from Wanderlust wine. RRP £845

By Helena Nicklin

Affordable, Brilliant Bordeaux

When Bordeaux is mentioned in conversation about wine, the striking price may be the first thought of many, closely chased by how lovely to drink those wines will be, but not really an opportunity for everyday drinking. On the whole, people also think of red wine when they think of Bordeaux, and maybe Sauternes, and certainly this latter would be expensive.

This is far from the reality. Outside the traditionally expensive appellations there is a plethora of wines – red, white and even sparkling – that are not expensive and can be found readily in our shops and on line. The marvellous thing about these wines is that, as well as being very affordable, they represent fabulous value for money, giving great quality and are a pleasure to drink.

These wines don’t always stick to the well-known blends of the left and right banks. Malbec and Carménère can more frequently be found and in white wines, we may see Sauvignon Gris as well as the traditional Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

Unlike many of the classed growth wines, that need a good few years to mature before the tannins calm down or the flavours come through a wall of acidity, these more affordable wines are ready to drink from their release and will last well, if stored properly.

Here are a few of my recent favourites white wines; they would be perfect all year around, not just for summer drinking:

Calvet Crémant 2014, Bordeaux £12.49 Ocado

 Sparkling doesn’t have to be Champagne, Prosecco or, dare I say it, English. There are many sparkling wines made all over France in the form of Crémant, including Bordeaux. This one from Calvet is light and bright with lots of orchard fruits with touches of honey and lemon zest. Perfect not only for summer but as an all-round sparkling wine at under thirteen pounds.

Châteaux de Cérons Blanc, Graves 2015 £18.95 Lea and Sandeman

 This is the most expensive of the whites I have tried recently, but still represents fabulous value and is still much less expensive than the classed growth white wines. With aromas of honey and honeysuckle, white flowers mixed with fresh pears and a touch of apricot, this is a wine to have with food. It is mostly Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc but has 10% Sauvignon Gris which adds to the complexity and brings the other two varieties into balance.

Châteaux Sainte-Marie 2017 Entre-deux-Mers £10.95 Great Western Wine

 This wine is very pale in colour, and very clean on the palate. Its subtle aromas include pears and apricot. There is a small amount (8%) of Muscadet included in the blend with the remainder being 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 22% Semillon. It has refreshing flavours and mouth feel without the acidity being too high in any way. A great value white Bordeaux that will mix with most foods.

Châteaux Le Coin 2015 £10.99 Laithwaites

 An unusual white for Bordeaux compromised of 100% Sauvignon Gris. It is full bodied and certainly a wine that matches well with most foods. I tried it with a rich smoked salmon and it worked beautifully, but I would imagine it would also go really well with a roast chicken. The texture is creamy in the mouth and very satisfying. The flavours are expansive and include lots of lemon as well as lychee, pears and touches of honey. An absolute bargain of which I’ll be drinking more in the future.

There are also some fabulous value red wines. Here are a few that will satisfy a regular red Bordeaux drinker, but not destroy their wallet. All have good density and concentration of fruit with balanced acidity and a juicy mouth feel.

For utmost value versus flavour, I would choose these reds:

Definition Medoc Claret from Majestic at £11.99.

This wine has a rich aroma and balanced palate. A little more rustic than some of the others, but I think that stylistic quality gives the wine plenty of interest, and certainly doesn’t let you down on flavour.

Three others I recently thought were particularly good value were these:

Château Blaignan 2012 £10.88 at Marks and Spencer

Château de Colombe Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux 2016 £13.99 from Laithwaites

Château Lauriol 2014 Francs Côtes de Bordeaux £13.95 Lea and Sandeman.

­By Colin Hampden-White

Sassicaia: The first Super Tuscan

Running parallel to the Tuscan coast in the Maremma and beginning just below Livorno, you’ll find Bolgheri D.O.C: one of the newest - and arguably most exciting - appellations in the whole of Italy. Though formed as recently as 1994, Bolgheri D.O.C has already achieve legendary status in the world of fine wine and it’s all because of one curious, fearless man and a particular wine he created that broke all the rules: Sassicaia.

A love story that started it all

The story truly began after World War One, when Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, a Piedmontese agronomist who’d fought as part of the cavalry, enrolled in the faculty of Agriculture in Pisa. He brought with him to Tuscany his beloved horse and it was through his involvement with the local thoroughbred community that he met Clarice della Gherardesca, whom he married in 1930. The two moved to Rome to breed race horses, but returned to her home town of Bolgheri after the second World War. Mario busied himself helping to reorganise the property his wife had inherited, which had become neglected during the war. The name of the property was Tenuta San Guido.

From grain to grapes

As an agronomist, Mario Incisa helped the property thrive with fruit, vegetables and other agricultural products including incredible tulips that even turned the heads of the Dutch. Eventually, it was the turn of grapes. Now, growing up in a noble family, Mario Incisa had tasted a lot of wine from Bordeaux, which he loved. It was therefore only a matter of time before he turned his attentions to winemaking. Wine was already being made in the region with the local Sangiovese grapes, mostly down in the drained marshlands by the sea, but it wasn’t producing fine quality or enough quantity - a key factor in production at the time. This was not the wine Mario Incisa wanted to make; he wanted to create a fine Bordeaux - only at home, in Tuscany and to hell with what teh rules said in the D.O.C. wine guidelines for the area. He set about studying what made the wines of Bordeaux so good. Was it the grapes? The soil? The climate? Or was it something else entirely? So, off he went to stay with family friends at Mouton Rothschild (as you do when you’re a nobleman) to find his magic formula.

Friends in high places

Back in Italy after studying Bordeaux in depth, he realised that the position of his vineyards needed to be more inland, slightly higher up and on stony soil, like much of the left bank of Bordeaux. He found the perfect spot in the hills of Castiglioncello di Bolgheri: a family lookout, surrounded by forest and with a stunning view over area. He planted his first vines here at 400m above sea level, facing east and 15km away from the sandy soils by the Tyrrhenian sea. More interested in creating his own ‘Bordeaux’ than playing by the rules, Mario Incisa planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and named his vineyard ‘Sassicaia’, meaning ‘area of many stones’.

Kick-starting the Italian wine renaissance

The first vintage of Sassicaia was officially bottled in 1945, but it was not much like how it tastes today. Mario Incisa experimented for a few more years before deciding he needed help from a proper oenologist, so he looked to their cousins, the Antinori family, and spoke to their oenologist Giacomo Tachis. Together, Mario Incisa and Giacomo agreed they should make fine wines from Bordelais red grapes on this terroir and Giacomo helped to introduce modern processes he’d learned on Bordeaux to fine tune the winemaking. The rest happened impressively quickly. 1968 was Giacomo’s first vintage - and Sassicaia’s first commercial vintage - was 1968. Ten years later, Decanter Magazine held a blind tasting competition for ‘Great Clarets’ where the 1972 Sassicaia beat 33 wines from 11 countries to win its first international award. Heads were starting to turn towards this ‘table wine’ from Tuscany. Sassicaia’s fate was sealed with the 1985 vintage (85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc), thanks to a stunning 100 point review from Robert Parker, who said of the wine that it frequently reminded him of a 1986 Mouton Rothschild, of all wines. Giacomo continued to work with Sassicaia, completing his final vintage in 2007. He died in 2016 and will forever be known as the man who kick started the Italian wine renaissance. Bolgheri got its own DOC status in 1983 but more recently in 2013, Sassicaia was awarded its own: DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia.

Tenuta San Guido and Sassicaia today

Today, Tenuta San Guido is run by Mario’s son, Marchese Nicoló Incisa della Rocchetta. Sassicaia is still their flagship wine, but the family wanted to produce something to that could be drunk while they waited for it to mature. Two more wines were born: Le Difese and Guidalberto.

WINES

Le Difese

‘Le difese’ are the tusks of the wild boar. This wine is their entry level label, made for immediate drinking within two or three years. The 2016 (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Sangiovese) is very red and black fruit forward, with lots of cassis and just enough structure and freshness to make this over deliver for the price.

£19.50 from Armit Wines

Guidalberto

Named after the Clarice’s father, Guidalberto was produced after the amazing 1985 vintage to cover market demand. Not a second wine, Guidalberto has its own identity and style, using some Merlot in the blend. The 2016 (60% Cabernet Sauvignon 40% Merlot) has a darker, blue black colour with sweet, cinnamon oak on the nose and tightly woven bramble fruit on the palate, with delicate tannins.

Find the 2015 at Hedonism wines for £29.90

Sassicaia

We tasted the 2015 vintage (85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc), which had an intense, cedar and spice nose with generous blackcurrant and bramble fruit on the palate. While this wine is so you, it has an incredible drinkability already thank to is cool minearlity and super fine tannic structure.

£148.60 from Armit Wines

By Helena Nicklin

Originally written for Winerist Magazine in October 2018

Meet the Godfathers of Provençal rosé: Domaines Ott

If you’re a wine drinker, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have noticed a surge in the amount of rosé wine on our shelves over the past few years. What has also changed however, is who is doing the drinking. Gone are the days of a female only audience who like a sweet style in hot pink because it’s pretty, it’s girly and it’s summertime. Real men now drink pink - and all year round, it turns out. In a sea of pale and dark rosé wines, some sweet, some dry, where no one seems to know what they’re getting, there’s one key region that’s leading the way for its consistency, quality and charm: Provence, France.

Provençal rosé is famously pale and dry, with a creamy weight and complexity that belies its powder pink looks. It’s a style you can rely on and one that goes with everything from media launches and film premieres on the beach in Cannes, to intricate food matches at the finest dining establishments in mid-winter. Provençal pinks are not just wine; they are a lifestyle, one that once back home in Blighty, has us heading to the nearest wine shop to seek out the names that will bring summer back into our lives again: Mirabeau, Chêne Bleu, Aix, Whispering Angel and of course, the grandfather of them all, Domaines Ott. But it wasn’t always this way.

Côtes de Provence is the only French appellation dedicated purely to high quality, fine pink wines and it owes its name and success to one man with a vision: Marcel Ott. Marcel and his wife moved Provence from Alsace in 1896 after a grand wine tour of the country. The vine louse that destroyed many of Europe’s vines at the time had wreaked havoc in Provence, but Marcel fell in love with the area. Land was cheap, so they stayed and planted vines again, only this time, with different grapes: Sémillon and Vermentino for white wines and Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah for the pinks and reds. The estate built a reputation quite quickly for fine, textural white wines. There were pink wines in the region then, but much darker and sweeter than those we know now. Wanting something a little different, something more weighty and dry, a bit like the Alsace wines he was used to, Marcel pioneered a new style of pale, dry rosé. He sold it alongside his famous whites as a serious pink, where it quickly developed its own reputation as a boutique wine available only to those in the know. The question of moving again came up again - they were practically giving away land in North Africa – but Marcel’s wife put her foot down. She wasn’t going anywhere. The Ott’s stayed and the appellation as we now know it, began to flourish.

This pale and dry style of pink, with its trademark creaminess and weight from lees stirring and skin contact, was not the only thing Marcel and his family did for the region and its wines. They were responsible for the creation of the whole Côtes de Provence appellation. That’s some legacy! And not only this, but if you’ve ever noticed how a lot of Provençal pinks have unusual shaped bottles, that was The Ott family too: René Ott pioneered the first ‘skittle’ bottle shape in 1926, which many châteaux in the area have since emulated, though they are never allowed to be exactly the same as Ott.

Try a taste of the original Provence

Domaines Ott owns three estates: Clos Mireille and Château de Selle in the Côtes de Provence appellation and Château Romassan in Bandol AOC, each making distinctive wines in their own styles.

Château de Selle in Taradeau, near Draguignan, was the first estate that Marcel bought in 1912 and produces pink and red wines. Clos Mireille came next in 1936 and was originally famous for its ‘blanc de blancs’ white wines until it started also producing rosé in 2006. The terroir at Mireille is extraordinary for its microclimate and location right by the sea. Airborne salt from the settles on the skins of the grapes and the soil, which help to give it their characteristic saline tang.

Château Romassan is the newest estate acquired in 1956 and is located within the Bandol AOC area. Mourvedre is the key grape in this appellation, which Jean-Francois Ott describes deliciously as ‘the bad boy of wine grapes: meaty, gamey, a bit crazy. A party animal!’ Rosé from here is a little beefier, a little more structured and the reds pack a might punch.

Want to taste the wines? Head to Château de Selle where you can try them all – and totally for free. When I asked them why they don’t charge for tastings, I was told: “We say to our staff, ‘don’t worry about selling. Pour, let them taste. They’ll buy some anyway!’” They buy so much in fact that each visitor is limited to twelve bottles of each.

What to eat with Ott wines?

There’s a real confidence in the product at Ott. They know their wines are good and trust me, they really are. The pinks and whites are not just about summer sipping immediately after their release either; they can age. We tried a 2014 rosé which had developed an incredible texture and licorice spice. These are gastronomic wines that are incredibly versatile with food and work all year round. I personally love the pinks at Christmas when red feels to heavy at lunchtime as they’re awesome with turkey and all the trimmings. Other matches for the whites and rosés we tried include tagines and ceviche, but they can also take mild curry sauces, ground coriander, sushi and roast chicken. The reds are powerful, so great with stews and steaks. The Bandol also makes a fabulous, slightly surprising match for dark chocolate cake and red fruit salads.

So, with or without food, at Christmas or by the beach, picnic or fine dining, pink from Provence is a style you can rely on and once you’ve tried Ott, you’ll n’Ott go back.

Where to find Ott wines:

Clos Mireille Rosé 2017 RRP £37 from Oddbins or £33.95 from Slurp.co.uk

Clos Mireille Blanc de Blancs 2011 £29.95 from Fortnum & Mason

Château Romassan Rosé, Bandol 2016 £35 (£31.50 mix 6 price)

Château de Selle ‘Coeur de Grain’ Rosé 2017 £310 for 12 at Millesima

This piece was originally written for Savile Row Style Magazine in July 2018

By Helena Nicklin