2023 Domaine Mas Ensoleille Rosé Mediterranee Provence

It’s the stuff travel nightmares are made of. 

When our flight touched down in Avignon, we reached for our trusty iPhone, only to discover it had gone straight from airplane mode to paperweight mode—100% dead.

Thank goodness for that, because if not for this unexpectedly fortuitous technical difficulty we might never have stumbled across the salmon-hued rosé of our dreams: a marvelously crisp, thirst-quenching, bargain-priced Provençal stunner.

Complex but uncomplicated, light as a breeze and clean as a pearl, the Domaine Mas Ensoleille is your go-to summer companion for lawn mowing, poolside lounging, and porch-pounding. It’s what real people drink in the real Provence—not the sugar-coated, lavender-laden fantasy peddled by Hollywood and tourist shops. 

Back to our iPhone odyssey: Imagine our shock when we learned that the closest Apple store was all the way in Aix-en-Provence—over an hour southeast by car. The Apple store employees were diplomatically vague on how long retooling the phone might take, so we headed across the street for lunch, and that was when our luck started to change.

The restaurant we wandered into happened to boast a MICHELIN star and a boisterously loud and teeming déjeuner crowd. The beleaguered bartender poured us this Domaine Mas Ensoleille, then disappeared.

Here was luscious, juicy deliverance, with mouthwatering acidity balanced by a supple, silky texture. The bottling was locally made, sourced from sun-drenched Grenache and Syrah vines surrounded by oaks and garrigue, and cleansed by a constant Provençal breeze. 

When we arrived home, a box from the broker with a sample bottle was waiting, along with six or seven other rosés—but the Domaine Mas Ensoleille was our favorite.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Sweetness
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 12.50%
• Enjoy right away
• Now – 2026
• % Cinsault% Grenache% Syrah
• Serving temperature – 42°
• Screw cap