2023 Château Pradeaux Bandol Rosé

Staff Reviews

KM

Keith Mabry

Keith Mabry

K&L Buyer

Pradeaux is old school. The reds are big mouthfilling wines that have thick texture, leathery notes, tobacco, spices and savory roasted fruit flavors. These wines age at a snail's pace and make for some compelling drinking when they hit a decade of age. So too are the roses from Pradeaux. This new 2023 is as full-bodied a rose as you can imagine. It telegraphs its weight with its darker color in the glass. This is not light airy Provencal wine. This is serious stuff with flavors of grapefruit rind, cherry and crushed rocks. The palate is textured and the finish long, very long. I have been fortunate enough to try a handful of aged versions and they are sublime with their length and complexity. I can see this 2023 joining the canon of best in class for Bandol Rose. This is a rose for the ages!

Notes

There is the appellation of Bandol with its plethora of producers, some good, some mediocre; and then there is Château Pradeaux, the unique, inimitable, standard bearer for this ancient wine-growing district. Pradeaux is situated on the outskirts of the town of St. Cyr Sur Mer, which lies directly on the Mediterranean between Toulon and Marseilles. The estate is owned by the Portalis family, which has owned this property since before the French Revolution. The domaine is currently under the direction of Cyrille Portalis, who continues to maintain the great traditions of this estate. Although the majority of the vineyards are planted to Mourvèdre, the Château Pradeaux Bandol Rosé is composed of Cinsault and Grenache as well as Mourvèdre. After a short maceration on the skins, in order to extract a light color, the juice is fermented at low temperatures to retain freshness, fruit and bouquet. After being aged in stainless steel, the wine is normally bottled in the spring of the year following harvest. It is one of the richest of the rosés of France; dry but full-bodied with a floral bouquet. It is a very limited production wine, as most of the production at Château Pradeaux is used to make the formidable Bandol Rouge.