Château d'Esclans

Whispering Angel Côtes de Provence Rosé Blend

9.0

Minerality, crispness, mostly dry…a profile I love. I was pleasantly surprised by this find at Fred Meyer!
— 16 days ago

Château de Pibarnon (Comte de Saint Victor)

Bandol Mourvedre Blend 1998

Richard Portes

9.1

17+ Still plenty of fruit! A little brown at rim, but otherwise little sign that it’s 26 years old, except that tannins all gone and a lot of deposit. — a month ago

Domaine Tempier

Cuvée La Tourtine Bandol Mourvedre Blend 2020

Vanessa

9.2

Domaine Tempier is a BELOVED and legendary family-run estate, producing top quality benchmark wines from Bandol AOC in the Provence region, on the Mediterranean coast of France.

We first learned about the Tempiers when reading Kermit Lynch’s book “Adventures on the Wine Route” which offered a warm, intimate introduction to this family among others featured in the book.

As an aside “Adventures on the Wine Route” is a wonderful, in-depth look into key regions and producers of France. There’s nearly an entire chapter on Domaine Tempier in Bandol alone.

This particular wine is named after the organically-farmed vineyard from which it came – “La Tourtine” – and has 80% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache, 10% Cinsault, where grapes are picked by hand and the soils are still tilled by horse.

It aged in oak foudres (large oak vessels) for 18 to 20 months, leaving nary a note of new oak, but rather depth, texture and complexity from the very delicate breaths this wine took over that time aging before bottle.

It’s delicious – marked by classic meaty, leather notes, next to ripe cassis, earth, clove, anise, garrigue, not to mention texture, mouthfeel, and warmth.

This is the kind of wine we love in the fall, when braised meats and stews are on the dinner table. Or next to a roaring winter’s fire. Then again it pairs well with a summer barbeque and everything in between, too. It’s a seasonally- and culinarily-diverse wine to say the least!

What’s your go-to Bandol rouge? We’d love to hear it. — 2 months ago

with Deked1

Deked1, Paul and 17 others liked this

Jay Kline

@Vanessa I adore Tempier. Personally, I personally think Pradeaux make slightly more accessible Bandol Rouge in their youth

Vanessa

@Paul J Yes!! 🙌🏻 Cheers to sipping these beautiful wines while reading and exploring with Kermit Lynch! 🥂🥂

Vanessa

@Jay Kline I think you’re spot on 🎯 that La Tourtine could go forever… this wine is clearly young and has so much runway ahead of it yet. And we love Pradeaux, too! 🍷🍷