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Tasting notes
The world's most expensive rosé and big brother of Whispering Angel is the usual very pale salmon colour. Old-vine Grenache and Rolle (Vermentino) picked early in the day and fermented in old and new 500-litre Demi-muids in which the wine was aged for 10 months with twice-weekly stirring. Light but sophisticated nose with quite a bit of Vermentino citrus aroma. Really quite. Burgundian texture with a little grip on the end but no obvious oakiness. Very sappy and does taste as though the light graininess calls for food. A bit serious for serving as an aperitif, although doubtless many a half-finished bottle is left on the deck of an oligarch's yacht. I'm a little aware of the alcohol but I'm enjoying the spread of delicate herbal flavours and just the merest suggestion of bitterness on the end. The acidity is certainly adequate but far from overwhelming. Pretty smart but definitely overpriced. (JR)
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
Light, bright orange. Smoke- and mineral-accented red berries, citrus fruits, vanilla and rose pastille on the highly expressive and expansive nose. Juicy and seamless on the palate, offering deeply concentrated, velvety raspberry liqueur, tangerine and vanilla bean flavors that show superb clarity and powerful thrust. Rich yet almost shockingly lithe in character, delivering strong, mineral-driven finishing cut and a lingering suggestion of candied flowers. This wine really transcends the category of pink wine and it resembles a serious white Burgundy, perhaps a Meursault, in terms of body and texture.
The 70% Grenache for the 2016 Cotes de Provence Rose Garrus comes from the estate's oldest vines. It's barrel fermented with 30% Vermentino, resulting in a toasty, honeyed wine reminiscent of pink grapefruit. It's medium to full-bodied, round and ripe feeling, then finishes long, with echoes of pencil shavings, citrus and melon. It's a paradigm-shifting rosé, but one that resembles an excellent barrel-fermented white wine as much as anything else. I tasted a 2014 at the estate, which left me unconvinced about the cuvée's aging potential.