Chateau Margui

July 1, 2022 6

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Strange Bedfellows

Today’s pairing is one I approached with some trepidation. I was confident that the wine was going to be good (okay, excellent), and I knew the recipe well enough to be happy with it. But together? I just wasn’t sure. I certainly didn’t expect a full-on tug-of-war, but I had no idea it was going to turn out be one of my favorite pairings in recent... [...]

March 1, 2021 8

A Look at Rosé Diversity in a CIVP Masterclass with Elizabeth Gabay MW

I am not usually out of bed and in front of my computer, Zoom-ing with strangers (mostly) who are drinking rosé before the sun rises, but these days are different. On Thursday, February 25th, the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence (CIVP) held a masterclass on Vins de Provence at 11:00 a.m. in France. Unfortunately,... [...]

March 29, 2020 10

WINE PARIS 2020 FROM THE VIEW OF A PROVENCE WINE WRITER

It’s a sobering thought that Wine Paris was the last major international wine trade event in 2020. Over two months ago. Virtually every producer with whom I spoke said that the next stop was to be Prowein, scheduled... [...]

May 28, 2017 12

The Force is with Château Margüi as it joins George Lucas’s Skywalker Vineyards

Rumors, swirling around the verdant green hills of Coteaux Varois en Provence for months, are confirmed: Skywalker Vineyards has acquired the sumptuous Château Margüi, located in Châteauvert in the center of the Var. There, accolade-collecting wines have been produced since 2004 under the meticulous care of Marie-Christine Baylet-Guillanton and Philippe Guillanton who bought

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April 9, 2017 7

Diary of a Master of Wine in Provence
Côtes de Provence, Prowein, and Coteaux Varois

One region, one new vintage, two countries, three colours, three appellations, three departments, four fairs… Round one of my official tasting season is over, and now is time for a brief retrospective pause to think about them and the rosés tasted. Concentrating on research for my rosé book means that I often didn’t have time to taste all the reds and whites I want to – that is something to look forward to this autumn.

The one region is Provence with three of the four tasting events being for Côtes de Provence, Coteaux Varois and Coteaux d’Aix who together make up 95% of the region’s production, and held, respectively in the departments of Alpes Maritimes, Var and Bouches du Rhône. The fourth event at Prowein, in Germany, was for the three regions together. The two countries were France and Germany.

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March 12, 2017 8

MILLÉSIME BIO 2017: CONVERSATIONS WITH ORGANIC AND BIODYNAMIC WINEMAKERS

“We don’t have fancy booths. We are natural. Authentic, like our wines,” observed one of the exhibitors at last month’s Millésime Bio Wine Fair in

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May 3, 2016 0

Coteaux Varois en Provence Sponsors Salon du Millésime 2015

Picture, if you will, a garden flanked by soaring Italian cyprus, a graceful five-star inn built atop a Roman villa, and a vineyard conserving 88 Provençal grape varieties, all on the premises of an 11th-century Benedictine Abbey, classified as an historical monument. Cover it with [...]

August 24, 2015 15

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE ROSÉS

It's been a long hot summer, at least where I've been hanging my hat. I was in Provence for the hottest July on record, returned to New England where heat and humidity dominated many summer days, ditto for my visits to New York--in August what else would I expect?-- and [...]

September 22, 2014 7

CHÂTEAU MARGÜI:
FROM PRIME D’ARRACHAGE
TO STELLAR BIODYNAMIC WINE

Vineyards covered the land around what is now Château Margüi for as many as two thousand years…until, sometime in the 1970s, when the vines were pulled up –“grubbed up,” as it’s often called—and “sold” to the French government as part of a plan—referred to as “prime d’arrachage”—to control the amount of wine produced in the country. [...]

October 14, 2013 38

THE CURIOUS CASE OF MIRAVAL’S GRAPES

Back in the spring, readers may recall all the hoopla over the release of Brad and Angelina’s first rosé from their newly acquired chateau in Provence. The Modern Trobadors hopped on the crowded band wagon with a post about the celebrity status [...]