Domaines Ott, Clos Mireille, Provence Rosé

Descrizione

Should there ever be a Rosé wine that could claim to have started it all, this should certainly be the one. However, you get the idea that this wine is about more than fashion and more than just the fame. It is absolutely delicious, and is as finely balanced as any fine wine should be. Flavours of strawberry, citrus and even subtle savoury spice lead to a structure both refreshing and mouth-filling.

One of the many tricky things about categorising Rosé wines is that there are so many myriad ways of making them without one, defined method being able to lay claim to being the authentic Rosé style. Certainly some regions have produced blush, pink coloured wines for many centuries and others may be newer to the practice, but as to what sets the benchmark… possibly Provence? Tavel? Anjou? It’s unfair to state. And though this wine and the Ott family estate have a justifiable claim to be some of the first to successfully lead to a more homogenised style, it is the ambivalence and lack of a single style that gives rise to the greatest potential in Rosé wines’ armoury – there is so much up for grabs and no one can really tell you what is right or wrong!

Yes, there are appellation laws to consider, but the only other guide is the market. Trends and fashions in Rosé wine drinking is now quite a big business. Over the past five years at least it is style of Provence that has called the shots in what is most likely to sell and this particular offering is to be found right at the cutting edge of that fashion-making curve.

Domaines Ott are serious winemakers and aren’t just doing it to join a trend; they partly created the trend by buying post-phylloxera vineyards in the 19th Century and trying to find out as much about the region as possible. So as much as we aren’t really able to say they invented Rosé wines, well, they sort of are probably one of the most important to have played a role.