2015 Chateau Revelette Coteaux d’Aix en Provence Rose

An Existential Game of Boules: “Who’s Better Off?”

If you come to Aix-en-Provence this summer, take one of our favorite drives in the world, 20 minutes into the mountainous backcountry to the tiny village of Jouques. Just one thing: If you do as we suggest, be prepared to ask yourself an existential question or two.

After an hour at the café watching the octogenarians play an animated game of boules, take a moment to ponder the rat race you left behind.

For those brave enough to pose such questions, now let’s raise the ante. Before you make the trip to Jouques, send us an email and let us arrange a private visit at Château Revelette, the magical estate that has stolen the heart of sommeliers from Côte d’Azur to the Upper East Side. As you weave your way down the dusty driveway at Revelette, smell the lavender, the thyme, and the rosemary, and watch the peacock spread its colorful tail. Let winemaker Peter Fischer pour you a Riedel glass full of the finest rosé in the Côteaux d’Aix.

Then consider: Who’s better off? Is it your neighbor in the pinstripe Armani suit who leaves Greenwich at 6 a.m., hoping to make it to Wall Street by 8? Or might it be the thin guy with the scraggly beard back in Jouques, with the hastily rolled Gitane dangling from his lips, who sips HIS glass of Revelette rosé before measuring the next toss of the heavy metal ball?

Some say that Provence rosé is little more than a simple quaffer, a refreshing prelude before cracking open a bottle of Meursault or Sancerre. For the most part, that’s true. But not in the case of Peter Fischer’s mind-boggling, salmon-hued 2015.

What makes Fischer’s blend of briefly macerated Grenache, Syrah, and Clairette so irresistible? First there’s the German winegrower who over the last 30 years has transformed his family’s property into an organically farmed oasis of rare beauty. Then there’s the unique microclimate; bracketed by the limestone crags at over 1,000 feet in elevation, it’s far cooler at Revelette than most of Provence.

The result? The call to harvest in 2015 came almost two weeks later than estates just 15 kilometers to the south, allowing grapes to reach perfect phenolic maturity while still harboring plenty of “Nordic” acidity. After a short maceration to leach out color and a bit of tannin, Fischer did as he’s always done, vinifying his rosé more like a Great White than a pink wine quaffer, making for a mouthwatering 2015 of great elegance and complexity.

The 2015 Château Revelette Côteaux d’Aix en Provence Rosé is a bit deeper in color than previous years, a testament to the fabulous maturity offered to almost every region of France in 2015. Salmon-pink. Mouthwatering aromas of wild strawberry, apricot pit, white flowers, and anise. Juicy, unusually rich, and finely layered on the attack, with a gorgeous core of crushed raspberry and orchard fruits, finishing with stinging salinity and minerality. This is a magnificent effort from the brilliant Fischer, by our scorecards the finest and most complex since 2005.

$16/bottle for the finest rosé in Provence … and an existential game of boulesin the backcountry.

• ABV 13.00%
• Enjoy right away
• % Red Blend