Côtes de Provence Les Clans Château d'Esclans 2020

Lot presentation

Côtes de Provence Les Clans Château d'Esclans 2020

The wine

Les Clans is a premium rosé, akin to a prestigious Blanc de Bourgogne, and made from Grenache vines that are 50 to 80 years old with just a few Rolle vines planted on clay-limestone hills. The grapes are hand-harvested in small baskets and immediately pressed. The juice is chilled to around seven to eight degrees to conserve the flavours and aromas. The juice ferments in temperature-controlled demi-muids (600L barrels) where the wine matures for 11 months on a thin layer of fine lees.
This sophisticated wine-making process creates a Provence rosé with hints of oak underlined by delicate aromas of toast, raspberry, white peach and citrus. The lees are stirred frequently during maturation, yielding an abundant and generous palate, accentuated by exotic fruits and spices and balanced by a refreshing minerality that lingers pleasantly until the final notes. A prestigious rosé that pairs exceptionally well with poultry or oven-baked fish.

About the Producer Château d'Esclans

Château d'Esclans? It's known for creating the most expensive rosé in the world, the famous Garrus cuvée. Situated in Var in the South of France, 74 hectares of this extensive 267-hectare estate is used to produce Provence rosés. The main varieties that go into its blends are Grenache, Vermentino, Cinsault, Merlot, and Mourvèdre along with a few others. The vines are up to 90 years old and so they sometimes produce highly concentrated raisins. These luxury rosés are the wish of Sacha Lichine who acquired the estate in 2006. The former owner of Château Prieuré-Lichine located in Margaux creates these rosés with hints of woodiness like he would for some fine white wines, bottles to be conserved and uncorked in a year or two rather than the year following the harvest. And there are currently five rosés in the Rosés de Provence range. The property is by no means young with its history going back many centuries and its cellars dating back to the 12th century.

Detailed characteristics