The Great Winter Wine

If I say to you Provence, what do you think of?

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A painting of Mont Sainte Victoire by Paul Cézanne or of Arles by Vincent Van Gogh? A travel diary by an expatriate American who discovers themself in a rural village near Roussion or Avignon or Aix-en-Provence? A morning idyll with vistas of lavender fields? A déjeuner with glasses of local rosé in the hilltop village of Les Baux-de-Provence? A languorous afternoon on a beach of the Côte d'Azur? Yes, all of those summery images may say Provence to us, but Provence is also the region of the greatest of all winter wines. The Provence of our images is also the Provence of Bandol Rouge, a brooding, occasionally ferocious and seriously ageworthy wine which is the antithesis of playful and flirtatious Provençal rosé.

Bandol Rouge is grown in small quantities in the limestone hills near the village of Bandol, east of Marseille and west of Toulon in the south of France. The wine is primarily made with a grape called mourvèdre, which yields small quantities of dark, tannic juice from small, sweet, black berries. The best Bandol estates use far more mourvèdre in their wines than the region’s regulated minimum of fifty percent tells them to. Mourvèdre is what makes Bandol Rouge ferocious when young. Mourvèdre is also what allows Bandol Rouge to evolve into its cultivated beauty.

Mourvèdre came to France from Spain, where it is called monastrell. The grape origins may be in the Levante, which is the far east region of Ibera along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The majority of the world’s vines of the variety are still in Spain, where it is one of the country’s most planted red wine grapes. Whether you call the variety monastrell or mourvèdre, the grape needs a hot, dry climate because its vines ripen late in the growing season. In the hotter climates of southern Spain, monastrell develops early, with a soft, quaffable quality. In the Bandol district of the region of Provence, the variety finds its ideal terroir. Monastrell from Spain can be lovely and delicious, but it doesn’t have the complex nature of mourvèdre from Bandol.

Spice to the Bouquet

The wine made by Bandol’s mourvèdre vines begins life as a tough creature, with gamey aromas you may love or loathe. The winegrowers of the appellation add grenache and cinsault to soften their mourvèdre, which asks for years of aging to resolve its tannins and reveal its layered aromas and flavors of leather and tar. An estate called Chateau Pradeaux is the standard-bearer for the appellation. Its flagship Bandol Rouge is composed of no less than 95% old vines mourvèdre, with grenache adding spice to the bouquet and leavening its structure. The Chateau ages its Bandol Rouge for over four years in large wood barrels.

Chateau Pradeaux also bottles a Bandol Rouge called Le Lys, which is made from 85% young vines mourvèdre, along with grenache and cinsault, and aged for two years in large oak casks. Le Lys has the characteristic Bandol Rouge qualities of leather and tar, and the wine is serious and layered, but it’s friendlier and juicier than the Chateau’s flagship bottling. It’s a perfect way to begin discovering Bandol Rouge. 

But if you’d rather dream about summer than dwell in winter, Château Pradeaux makes a gorgeous Bandol Rosé composed of cinsault and mourvèdre. It may be the richest of all of the seemingly infinite rosés of Provence, with a round, full body and a floral bouquet. It evokes the perfume of lavender fields, the surf of the Côte d'Azur, and the taste of all of those paintings by Cezanne and Van Gogh.