Château Margüi Côteaux Varois En Provence Rosé 2018

Elegance, purity, and complex flavors, which one rarely experiences in other rosé wines, set Château Margüi’s 2018 Côteaux Varois Rosé above the rest. For starters, the 2018 Château Margüi Côteaux Varois offers a captivating salmon-pink color to dazzle the eye, while a pretty set of aromatics entices the nose with citrus, white peach, and faint touches of lavender and wild herbs. In the mouth, the wine’s clean, crisp fruit, juicy acidity, and pinpoint minerality provide complexity and balance that superbly complement the floral aspects of the wine. The 2018 Côteaux Varois offers great near-term drinking pleasure; however, the best in this wine has yet to come. Unlike most rosé wines whose life span ends with the fading warmth of summer, the 2018 Château Margüi Côteaux Varois is a wine for all seasons, flavorful and complex enough to flesh out in bottle and drink beautifully for several more years. For optimum enjoyment we suggest affording this prestigious Provençal rosé a moderate chill (40°-45° F) and a couple of minutes in the glass to collect itself before imbibing. Enjoy!

Château Margüi’s 2018 Côteaux Varois Rosé rises to the delights of the gourmet kitchen. Sure, it makes a great aperitif, too, but so do many lesser rosé wines, so why not pair Château Margüi’s 2018 Côteaux Varois with some exquisite fare where it can enhance the food and the experience? In an ideal world, the first glass of the 2018 Côteaux Varois makes an ideal companion to tapas, butternut squash soup, a classic Provençal tomato tart or the finest sushi and sashimi one can find. With the second glass, consider serving traditional Provençal bouillabaisse, roast chicken with rosemary and wild herbs, vegetable lasagna, lobster ravioli, or gnocchi stuffed with braised veal, porcini mushrooms, and a hint of Pecorino cheese. As a finale, ratatouille or a lightly dressed mixed green salad with apple, pear, walnuts and goat cheese provides a healthy and refreshing partner to the last remaining drops Château Margüi’s 2018 Côteaux Varois En Provence Rosé. Bon Appétit!

Provence has the ability to capture the heart as well as the palate. It is for me and many others, including the proprietors of Château Margüi, the most beautiful and glorious wine country of France. As Renoir and the Impressionists found a way to capture the brilliant light of Provence and paint it on canvas, Philippe Guillanton and his wife discovered how to pour the beauty and luminosity of Provence into each glass of Château Margüi wine.

Philippe Guillanton worked as an agent for Yahoo, where he essentially opened Europe to the internet icon. In the process, he made a small fortune. As Philippe tells it, he wanted a home where his wife Maria could create a beautiful formal garden. While searching, the couple came upon Château Margüi, an old manor house on a picturesque wooded hilltop near the village of Châteauvert in the Côteaux Varois, deep in the heart of Provence. The region is famous for its spectacular hills, cliffs and grottos as well as the scintillating wind known as the mistral that illuminates the land and scours the countryside clean. Côteaux Varois also serves as a renowned paradise for hikers and climbers, and of course great wine. Long a haven for artists and artisans, Châteauvert is an idyllic little village that prides itself on being a completely “green” village: everything in the village is organic, including Château Margüi.

The purchase of Château Margüi is the classic little old lady story: the manor was inhabited by an elderly lady who could no longer care for the property and realized she must sell it. The estate was completely run down, the vineyards and olive groves had been abandoned, and the house was grand but falling apart. Perfect!

The Guillantons bought the property and immediately began restoration. Philippe’s first success was with white wine, which is something of an anomaly in Provence. Very little white wine is made in Provence, with white wines comprising less than 10% of the region’s total production. However, Philippe’s white wine was more than a cut above and was an instant success. It quickly became sought by the top restaurants and wine shops on the French Riviera. He soon found himself making deliveries to the restaurants of Alain Ducasse and others in Nice and St. Tropez. His next successes came in the form of an ethereal Rosé and full-bodied, yet elegant, Rouge.

The production is all certified organic at Château Margüi. Philippe moved beyond organic to even stricter biodynamic methods of viticulture, which means the already small 5,000 case production at this great estate is not likely to grow. In addition to fashioning fine red, white, and rosé wines, Château Margüi produces a first class Extra Virgin olive oil from its own olives.

In 2017, Star Wars director George Lucas and Skywalker Vineyards purchased from Philippe Guillanton Château Margüi, which is close to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s Miraval estate. They have further renovated the château and plan to turn this ancient estate that dates from Roman times into a secluded hideaway for the rich and famous. Happily, they retained Philippe during the transition period and remain committed to organic viticulture and the production of award-winning wines at the estate.