📍 Provence

Provence is a wine region in south-east France, between Marseille and Nice. Its vineyards stretch for about 200 km across the Var, the Bouches-du-Rhône and part of the Alpes-Maritimes. There are over 2,700 hours of sunshine a year, the average temperature is about 15 °C, and the dry, cold mistral blows from the north.

It is one of the oldest wine regions in France. According to the Provence Wine Council (CIVP), the vine was brought here by the Phocaeans, who founded Marseille about 2,600 years ago. The Romans came in 200 BC, and in the Middle Ages wine was made by abbeys: Saint-Victor in Marseille, the monastery on the Lérins Islands, Le Thoronet. From 1880 the region suffered from phylloxera, but it recovered, and at the start of the twentieth century cooperatives appeared in many villages.

Provence is the only wine region where rosé makes up over 90% of the wine, and it produces about 40% of all French rosé AOP wines. The main appellations are Côtes de Provence (since 1977), Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence (1985) and Coteaux Varois en Provence (1993). Côtes de Provence covers 84 communes; the main grapes for reds and rosés are Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah and Tibouren, and for whites Vermentino, known here as Rolle. Next to them lie the separate appellations of Bandol and Cassis.

Why it matters to you. In Provence, rosé is not made by mixing red with white: the grapes are pressed as soon as they arrive, or the juice is left with the skins for 2 to 20 hours. The name on the label, Côtes de Provence, Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence or Coteaux Varois en Provence, shows the area. Rosé does not have to come only from the latest vintage: with time it gains notes of spice and ripe fruit. It is served chilled, with an aperitif, fish, vegetables or aioli.