The saying goes that if you want to find a good Rosé in Provence, all you have to do is walk to the next winery. To some extent, that’s true. Everybody’s favorite, pink wine, took off in Provence in the late 1990s creating one of the fastest growing trends in wine & spirits history.
In fact Rosé got so popular in the region, it now accounts for more than 90% of all the wine made there, a staggering number. And while there’s great Rosé wherever you go in Provence, to find my favorites, the smooth, dry, higher elevation Rosé, you have to go to the hills of Aix-en-Provence.
In the “city of a thousand fountains”, wineries such as Bieler Père et Fils have the advantage of nearly 300 meters in altitude, something much of the region can’t benefit from. At these heights, the cooler, windier nights keep the grapes in perfect balance.
The father-son duo of Charles and Philippe Bieler have been working together making wine for nearly 25 years. Philippe, the elder of the two, worked for 30 years at Chateau Routas, turning the small Provence winery into an international super star. His son Charles grew up watching his dad and then eventually working with him.
Their goal each year is to find the delicate balance between floral, herbal, wild red fruits, stone fruit and acid and to create the perfect harmonious blend. They make the Sabine Rosé each year as a blend of their best fruit sourced from within the sub-region. They’ve been working with the same growers now since their inception, a key ingredient into the continued excellence the father son pair has enjoyed.