This Champagne Wine Family Is Making A Top Provence Rosé Wine

A stunning, impressive woman drove up to an enchanting Provençal estate surrounded by wild herbs, lavender and Mediterranean trees. As she stepped out of her vehicle, the sun illuminated her golden hair and her eyes sparkled like gems as she energetically made her way inside the gorgeous limestone château that was perfectly accented with cream-colored wrought-iron balconies. She could not wait to show her winemaker the new babies she brought for the cellar…. three Italian egg-shaped sandstone vessels that would bring their fantastic Provence rosé wine to a much higher level of excellence.

But this wasn’t just any impressive woman; this was Madame Nathalie Vranken, co-owner and CEO of Champagne Pommery, and in 2006, she and her husband purchased a wine estate in Provence, France, Château La Gordonne. It is an estate that goes back to 1654 and has ideal soils (made up of clay, schist and limestone, deemed as the “Golden Triangle” of terroir) to express minerality in Provence rosé wines. Among the 815 acres of vineyards lies a section of around 80 acres of old vines which makes up their ‘La Chapelle Gordonne’ rosé which is a wine that gives the delicacy and beauty one expects from Provence yet it has a depth and complexity that makes it a top selection among its peers.

Nathalie Vranken is never content to sit back and accept that she is already making wonderful wines; she’ll go to any length to constantly improve. For example, in 2009, she led the way to manually harvest at night, preserving pristine aromas and flavors and retaining fresh acidity. But she was ready to make another giant leap in quality that focused on expressing their fantastic soils -those egg-shaped sandstone vessels were the key, and she knew her very talented young cellar master, Julien Fort, was up for the task. He was always driven to push the boundaries of traditional winemaking to unlock a wine’s most remarkable qualities.

Expressing Greater Sense of Place

At first, the plan was to make one rosé bottling from the top selection of around 80 acres of the old vines, which would only be around 8 acres, and age the rosé wine in the eggs. Julien says that the shape of the egg helps to rotate the wine while it still has the residual yeast left over from fermentation, helping to bring out more of the sense of place, aka terroir, and giving it a bit more texture. There is a slight exchange of oxygen as the sandstone has pores, just like a barrel. Yet, there is no residual oak aroma, only a pure expression of the grapes and their soils that is enhanced by a small amount of oxidative aging for around six to eight months. This new rosé top selection is called ‘Le Cirque des Grives.’

Nathalie Vranken and Julien had their expectations surpassed when they tried this new rosé bottling of the old vines in the egg vessels. They decided to take their 80-year-old Vermentino white grapes, known locally as the Rolle grape, and were ecstatic with the incredible results. And so another exquisite wine was born with the name ‘Semaphore.’

So, Madame Vranken would give her cellar master a seemingly impossible task: to make a red wine from Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Mourvèdre and 25% Grenache, the first three being very tannic grapes. The caveat is that the red wine must have the overall delicate beauty of their rosé wines yet still keep the richness and complexity expected of a high-caliber red wine.

Keeping the Power and the Magic

Julien was thrilled to be given the challenge and quickly started experimenting with his team. The idea was to figure out how they could extract all the pure essence from these red grapes and still have that overall graceful quality to the texture that dances across the palate. Finally, they arrived at the perfect, although extremely laborious, method of hand-picking each grape berry off the grape bunches after they had been brought to the cellar and placing the individual grape berries without any juice into the eggs.

“They look like caviar,” remarked Julien when it came to him describing how they look when they are first within the sandstone vessels. Then, through rotating, the slight impact starts to ferment the grapes slowly, and that is their extraction, more like an infusion, one of the gentlest extractions one could do when making a red wine. The result is phenomenal as it is a red wine filled with depth, richness and complexity. Still, it has a wispy overall sensation that fits its place of birth, an enchanting estate in one of the most magical wine regions in the world. The red is named “Les Planètes”.

Today, they have 30 egg-shaped sandstone vessels in their cellar and later this year, all three wines—the rosé, white and red—will be released as “The Trilogy.”

Champagne Pommery has always had strong women at the helm with Madame Pommery taking over in 1858 to Madame Vranken, making it one of the most innovative Champagne houses, and now, bringing that innovation to an estate in Provence that is 370 years old, and she is doing it with her daughters Maïlys and Pauline. All these women are turning how people think about Provence rosé on its head as it is rare to go to such measures to pick out particular plots and give tons of resources to express such an isolated sense of place, as simply the words “Provence rosé” will sell out all the wines before the summer is finished.

But that isn’t enough for the Vranken women as they want to show the world that Provence is so much more. They have a historic property ideal for showcasing the hidden wealth within the area’s soils.

2023 Château La Gordonne ‘Vérité du Terroir’ Rosé, Côtes de Provence, Provence, France: 50% of Grenache, 20% Vermentino (Rolle), 20% Cinsault, 5% Mourvèdre and 5% Tibouren coming from vines between 20 to 30 years old. A quick note about the Tibouren black-skinned grape as it is native to the Provence area, and although an unknown variety, the Vranken family is committed to keeping this historical grape that goes back to the 6th century. Delicate, pale pink color with lemon zest and river stones on the nose with juicy white peach flavors with mouthwatering acidity.

2023 Château La Gordonne ‘La Chapelle Gordonne’ Rosé, Côtes de Provence, Provence, France: 50% of Grenache, 20% Vermentino (Rolle), 20% Cinsault, 5% Mourvèdre and 5% Tibouren coming from vines between 40 to 45 years old. Refreshing nose of seaspray and oyster shell with lemon curd flavors and hints of grapefruit laced with an intense minerality.

2021 Château La Gordonne ‘La Cirque des Grives’ Rosé, Côtes de Provence, Provence, France: 50% Grenache and 50% Cinsault. From the top selection of the old vines and aged in sandstone egg-shaped vessels. Saline minerality with crushed violets and wild strawberries with citrus blossom and warm raspberries that has a lingering finish.

2022 Château La Gordonne ‘Semaphore’ Blanc, Côtes de Provence, Provence, France: 100% Vermentino (Rolle) from 80-year-old vines aged in sandstone egg-shaped vessels. Complex nose of fennel fronds, saffron strands, honeycomb with golden apple flavors, and a delectable creamy palate with long, expressive aromas.

2021 Château La Gordonne ‘Les Planètes’ Rouge, Côtes de Provence, Provence, France: 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Syrah, 25% Mourvèdre and 25% Grenache with individual berries fermented in sandstone egg-shaped vessels. Multifaceted layers of fruit with crunchy redcurrants, fresh black raspberry and brambly wild berries that has an underlying note of crushed rocks with a supple body and succulent fruit that has complex layers of tobacco leaf and garrigue that nimbly soars on the palate with a penetrating, flavorful finish.