Placeholder Image

Château Guilhem Tournier, Bandol Rosé “La Malissonne”

Provence, France 2015 (750mL)
$29.00
/
Your cart is empty.
  • In stock, ready to ship
  • Inventory on the way
Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Château Guilhem Tournier, Bandol Rosé “La Malissonne”

The first thing I’d like to do today is bring rosé indoors. We’ve spent an entire summer talking about picnics and poolsides, but, as I’ve noted before, some of my favorite rosé occasions are in the fall—Thanksgiving chief among those.
With great Bandol rosé especially, I’m not as dogmatic as those who insist on drinking rosé as young as possible. Many more-serious rosés are a little raw when just-released, and some improve tremendously with a little time in bottle. This 2015 Bandol, from an ambitious young vigneron named Guilhem Tournier, looks to the giants of the appellation—Domaine Tempier, Château de Pibarnon, Terrebrune—for inspiration, using the Mourvèdre grape as the wine’s backbone and delivering depth and fragrance to rival the “Big Three.” There’s mineral savor, tangy fruit, and yes, a touch of the “autumnal” in this quite-serious rosé, and I will likely appreciate its versatility on my own Thanksgiving table, among other occasions. It’s a rosé for all seasons, from a new name to know in the increasingly pricey confines of Bandol.
The clay and limestone soils of Bandol, combined with its Mediterranean climate, has proved magical for the Mourvèdre variety, the backbone of the region’s best red wines—and rosés. Farming about 6 hectares of terraced vines within eyeshot of the sea, Tournier incorporates considerably more Mourvèdre (90%) into his rosé than Tempier/Pibarnon/Terrebrune. Although many Provençal producers re-planted to higher-yielding varieties post-phylloxera, Tournier has been a Mourvèdre specialist since his first vintage in 2005. His vineyards are certified organic, with tilling done by horse and only natural fertilizers employed. This is a ‘direct-to-press’ rosé, meaning grapes were harvested specifically for rosé production (as opposed to the wine being ‘bled off’ from a red-wine fermentation).

The 2015 “Cuvée la Malissonne” clearly has the structure of its more-famous contemporaries, and has had the chance to broaden into a perfumed, complex wine. In the glass, it’s a classic Bandol salmon-pink with hints of copper at the rim, with aromas of pink lady apple, wild strawberry, cranberry, blood orange peel, dried lavender, Provençal herbs, and crushed stones. This is a crash course in ‘garrigue,’ the fragrant scrub-brush that grows alongside the vines in Provence and lends its personality to the wines. There’s good depth on the mid-palate, enough, in fact, that I could see drinking it with something as meaty as a Provence-style rack of lamb. Its sweet spot, at this time of year, would be freshly caught Pacific salmon or the aforementioned Thanksgiving turkey; as a warm-up, try it with the tangy, tomato-y, traditional recipe attached. There will be plenty of opportunities to plug it into the mix in the coming months. Enjoy!
Placeholder Image
Country
France
Region
Provence
Sub-Region
FranceBandol AOC
Soil
Clay & Limestone w/ Sand
Farming
Organic
Blend
90% Mourvèdre, 8% Cinsault, 2% Grenache
Alcohol
13.0
TEMP.
45-50
Glassware
All-Purpose Whites
Drinking
Now
Pairing
Provençal Chicken

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

Others We Love