A sommelier’s guide to rosé
When it comes to rosé, there’s only one place to find a true expert, Provence, and who better than a locally born sommelier? Aurélie Deharbe, who manages a 400-strong wine list at Terre Blanche, shares her guide to everyone’s favourite summer wine…
“When you’re a sommelier, you know that Bordeaux is very famous for its big reds and Burgundy is famous for nice pinot noir and chardonnay and Provence is famous for rosé,” explains Aurélie Deharbe, head sommelier at Terra Blanche Hotel Spa Golf Resort. “We have amazing weather, we have nice soil and we have lots of nice grapes.”
To make a good rosé, the process, says Aurelie, has to start early in the day, picking the grapes when they’re still cold in the morning. “You have to start the harvest very early, before 9am,” she says. “If it’s too hot [when you pick], the grape will be too sweet, which is not good for the colour, and not good for the taste.”
The grapes used are a mixture. “We use cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, mourvedre, you can even put some white grape into the blend, and then there is one very famous grape in Provence that’s only found in Provence, tibouren.
“At Terre Blanche we’re very lucky because we’re right in the middle of rosé country,” continues Aurélie, whose sommelier role not only sees her take charge of Terre Blanche’s 400-strong cellar, but also their Michelin-starred La Faventia. “We have Château d’Esclans (home of Whispering Angel), very famous, we have Château Roubine – I really love that one because they use a lot of tibouren, which for me makes typical rosé – and we also have Domaine de la Courtade (on Porquerolles Island), Château Sainte Roseline, and Château La Martinette.”
Rosé always conjures up images of summer. “When we think about rosé, we think about barbecue, beach, boats,” adds Aurélie. “And it’s funny because before it was always lots of Champagne selling in places like Cannes and St Tropez (also in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region) but now that’s turned to rosé.”
Why not include a private tour of Provence’s rosé heartlands as part of a curated experience at Terre Blanche, home to a world-class golf academy and two 18-hole courses?