You flooded our inboxes with requests, so we made it happen: A second chance at the rare, mind-melting 1990 Bandol Rouge from the 475-year-old cellars of Château Vannières. This smoking red is pure insanity, and that’s coming from someone who’s intimately familiar with the blue bloods of Bandol. I’ve had ’88-’90 Domaine Tempier and Château Pradeaux, and they’re objectively great wines, but after savoring Vannières’ haunting and wonderfully complex creation for $125, I nearly forgot they existed.
Aside from drawing immediate comparison to the finest labels of Bordeaux and Barolo (with a nod to Burgundian elegance), what truly shook my core was its impossible youthfulness—I’ve had 10-year-old wines that tasted far more advanced than this, let alone those with 20 and 30 years of age! Ultimately, this is a mature red masterpiece freighted with soulful intensity and profoundly brooding depth that deserves recognition at the peak of France’s elite wine hierarchy. Even if you’re unfamiliar with Mourvèdre or Bandol, I implore every single one of you to try at least one bottle, as it’ll open your palate to an entirely new dimension of wine. And for those who are deeply familiar, buy up to six bottles because they have enough fuel in the tank to last through 2035. NOTE: Vannières’ liaison told us this is the final tranche of 1990!
With a mountainous backdrop forming a natural amphitheater, quaint hilltop villages, and the glistening sea always on the horizon, Provence is among Europe’s most breathtaking regions. But if you’re looking to pinpoint Mourvèdre at its most intense, glorious, and age-worthy, all eyes are glued to the tiny, Mediterranean-adjacent appellation of Bandol where titans like Tempier, Pradeaux, Pibarnon, and Vannières reside.
In decades past, Bandol represented the Provençal equivalent of the greatest Barolo or Left Bank Bordeaux; it was the epitome of dark, deeply complex red wine that demanded many patient years in barrel and bottle before revealing its true glory. There was no “drink now” Bandol or “modern” Bandol—there was only Bandol, the singularly brooding expression of Provence’s most unforgiving terroir.
Today’s 1990 library release from Château Vannières, which was first built in 1547, perfectly fits the bill “decades past.” This is the epitome of authentic, old-school Bandol Rouge: low yields, long vinification, 35-day punch-down regimen, and nearly two years of maturation in large foudres and barrels. After it was bottled, it spent nearly three decades resting in their dark, cool, ancient cellars. This small parcel just arrived stateside.
Like the 50+-year-old Remoissenet Burgundies we’ve offered in the past, this specific parcel of 1990 was hand-selected by Vannières’ owners, the Boisseaux family, in the Spring of 2020. After quality-checking each bottle, the winners were topped off with the same wine and re-corked. So, there’s no need to pull out your ah-so or Durand and extract the cork with surgical precision—it pops out with ease.
While you can certainly let this wine open up and evolve in your glass over an evening, would you believe me if I said this 32-year-old wine could also take a proper decant? It’s just that youthful! The nose slowly releases subtle yet powerful aromas of dried black cherry, black raspberry, and crème de cassis, but as the minutes pass by, licorice, crushed black rock, green olive, charred violet, vintage horse saddle, smoke, tar, garrigue, and faint hints of exotic spice gracefully emerge. The full-bodied palate is brooding, meaty, and dark-fruited with an intense push-pull of savoriness and minerality. But it’s all balanced by matured tannins and a prominent burst of acidity that lingers on the finish. The wine is an exceptional and profoundly stirring take on the classy, mature French reds of decades past. Please, again, I must implore you not to miss out! Enjoy now and over the next 10-15+ years—it won’t be fading any time soon!
