Château Cavalier

Cuvée Marafiance Rosé 2024

Le Château Cavalier, qui appartient au groupe Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus, est devenu l’un des meilleurs domaines de Provence au cours des dernières années. Des vins typiques de la région qui se distinguent par des vendanges précoces et une fraîcheur spécifique y voient le jour.

When we came to do the final tastings for our Best In Show selection this year, the Co-Chairs were offered an intriguing choice between two Provence rosé wines of very different styles. The success of Provence rosé has been built on pale pink wine of gentleness and tenderness: soft, creamy palates which both soothe but tease via an understated fruitiness – and which always invite the next sip. One of our Best In Show contenders was a wine of this sort. The other, though, was clearly a wine based on earlier picked and perhaps slightly higher-yielding fruit, with 2.5% less alcohol and correspondingly higher acidity – but which nonetheless contrived to suggest beguiling and understated charm thanks to the fact that its blend included both 30 per cent of Rolle (Vermentino) and 10 per cent of Sémillon in addition to Grenache, Syrah and Cabernet. This was that wine – and it prevailed. It’s pale, of course, with just a hint of salmon, and aromatically suggests quiet strawberry and redcurrant. On the palate it’s fresh, lively and lifted, acid-supported in this instance – but not so much as to call into question the gentle, moreish charm of its origins.