- Welcome to Provence. It's the French Riviera, the Cote D'Azur, or as us winos simply refer to it, Provence. With miles of colorful landscapes, ancient architecture and stunningly bright blue waters, it's no wonder artist like Renoir, van Gogh and Picasso called Provence home for some time. What's even more impressive? It's the birthplace to the wine that's inspired a work of art of its very own here in the US. I'm talking about rosé. But forget everything you know and may have heard about this style of wine. We're busting every misconception about the delicious pink wine from Marseille all the way to Saint-Tropez. And if this is your first rosé all day, don't worry, I've got you covered too. Welcome to Provence and welcome to "V is for Vino". We started our journey in the second largest city in France, Marseille, about 400 miles south of Paris. It's here in this world famous port town where the story of rosé begins. This is Marseille, or as it was known centuries ago, Massalia. Today it's a rugged, big city meets quaint fishing village. Greek colonists first settled here about 2,600 years ago in the sixth century BC and like colonists do, they brought along with them many things, including you guessed it, vines. This makes Provence the oldest wine region in France. Back then, they were making what they called red wine, but it wasn't the red wine we think of today. Instead, the grapes were pressed quickly with a lot less skin contact, resulting in a pinkish colored wine. And thus, the first rosé was born. That's right. Social media may say otherwise, but turns out rosé was not invented by millennials. Unless you count last millennium's millennials. A few centuries later, stories of the famed pink wine from Massalia had made its way through the ancient world. Around 49 BC, the Romans came and took control of the area surrounding Massalia and named it Provincia Nostra, which simply meant "our provence". They really put a lot of thought into that one. And just like that, Provence was born. The Romans continued to expand all along the southeast coast and of course, brought grapevines with them the whole way. Provence spans along the entire southeast coast of France and has a fair amount of medium sized cities scattered across it. Given their location, most of these cities are incredibly picturesque and geographically diverse. From mountain ranges and hills to sheltered valleys and coastlines. Soils in Provence are nutrient poor and well draining. Limestone in the west and crystalline schist in the east. This may sound bad, but it forces the vines to stress and dig for nutrients in water, which makes for better grapes. Then you have one of the most important elements of Provence, which can't even be seen. The super strong mistral winds that come from the Rhone valley. They prevent disease and grape rot by keeping humidity low and push clouds away so that you're left with a ton of sun. We're talking almost 2,900 hours of sun per year. Because of all this coastline and sunshine, Provence is a huge tourist destination for both foreigners and the French. I'm here in Cassis, one of the most visited towns in the region. It's the classic Provence style village that's a great hub for exploring nearby beaches, Calanque National Park and of course, drinking wine. Wherever you may be in the region though, you're almost certain to find old world villages tucked away in the hills, breathtaking valleys and dozens of beaches each more stunning than the last. Provence can be divided into three main wine regions or AOCs with a few sub regions worth mentioning. To the west, you have Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence and in the central north, you have the Coteaux Varois en Provence. But by far the most well known is the Cotes de Provence, which produces 75% of wine in the region. That's about 130 million bottles per year. Some of the notable sub regions within this area are Cassis, which is famous for its whites and Bandol, which is famous for its reds. These places are definitely anomalies though. 90% of wine made in the Cote de Provence is good old fashioned rosé. With the way rosé has taken off over the past few years, you'd think I'd have a good handle on it. But the truth is that before this trip, I too found myself repeating all the old rosé tropes. Rosé should be cheap. Rosé should be drunk young. Rosé's all the same and so on. It wasn't until I met a man who goes by Jean-François, that my perception of rosé was entirely changed. Leonardo DiCaprio, Elton John, Beyonce, Vince? Okay, maybe I don't quite fit the bill, but Saint-Tropez is the hottest spot when it comes to actual celebrities. You've got luxury villas, a hundred million dollar yachts, tons of clubs, five star hotels. Name anything expensive and you'll find it here. Now while I tend to prefer more mom and pop style joints, I dare say one could get used to a few days each year visiting this Mediterranean paradise. This is where I met the man who's a bit of a celebrity himself in the wine world. Jean-François comes from one of the oldest and most famous wine making families in the area, Domaines Ott. And he absolutely transformed the way I think about rosé. Needless to say, he's the perfect guide for my Provence journey. You know what? I defer to the man who made the wine. I think that would probably be a smarter idea. All right, so it's I think 6:00 AM my time. I'm jet lagged, so I think that's a good a time as any to start drinking. - Cheers, cheers. - [Vince] Oh, yeah. - [JF] Is it good for breakfast or? - Actually if there was a breakfast wine, I think rosé would be it. - [JF] Yeah. Why not? - Did you grow up here? - Yeah. - What makes Provence so special? What makes this area just so special? Yeah. - [JF] No, for sure the weather. The sea, the food, the wine. People are nice. South of France, people are nice. They are friendly, yeah. Ah, proof. - I'm glad to see avocados are as big a hit here as they are in America. Okay, so this is ceviche. So fish cooked in the lime juice, cooked in the citrus juice. And then this is a salmon. This is like a par cooked almost, a little bit cooked. There is something about Provence food that is very, very special. There's this paradox of, you know, the French eat very well, they drink very well and they're still very lean. And I think that's part of it, is you eat very, very fresh. - Yeah. - Yep. - And you know, when it's hot like today, you just don't want to eat something really, yeah. - Well, bon appetit. Cheers. - Merci. Bon appetit. - Looking forward to the week. Okay, so Domaines Ott. You don't pronounce it, but it's actually Domaines. It's plural, there are three estates within Domaines Ott. Why are there three different estates? Most wineries, they'll have one grand estate. - The story started in 1912 in Chateau de Selle, then Clos Mireille, and then in 1956 with Chateau Romassan. I think any producer would have blend the three estates together and make only one rosé. Because rosé is simple in people's mind. I really want to have three different rosé that come from different terrain with a different expression. And if you taste the three rosé from each estate side by side, you will-- - You will see that. - Yeah, of course. Obviously. That's also a way for us to explain that rosé is exactly the same as a red wine that comes from a terrain place and a white wine that come from a place. - And it makes sense, why wouldn't there be, right? They're just grapes at the end of the day, they're still grapes. - Exactly. - Well, there is no region in the world I think other than Provence that is dedicated to rosé. Period. They're all after thoughts, a lot of time. It's the afterthought of, okay, we're gonna bleed off some of the red or we'll make a rosé, but it's a rosé that's part of our portfolio and we're really focused on the reds or the whites. Provence is dedicated to rosé. - Oh, absolutely yeah. - Which is why it is justly known as the home of rosé, the best rosé in the planet, because everybody here, that's their focus. - Yeah. I mean, we've been working on rosé wine for a long time now. - [Vince] Wow. You have a lot of skill, sir. When we talk about rosé with food, you mentioned that you like this with food a little more. Why did you say that? - Most of the time people think that rosé is an aperitif wine. And I think with this type of food, like the spicy one, or maybe grilled fish without anything, I mean, there is nothing on it. It's really the fish and only the fish. - Well like you said, clean dish, clean wine. - Exactly. - And the other thing is that rosé is, I so disagree with people who say rosé is an aperitif wine or rosé is not a food pairing wine. Between the acidity and the cleanliness and the fact that it's got maybe a little more weight than some white wines and less weight than reds, it's a really nice in between. For instance, this is a meaty fish. It's perfect for that. Rosé can't pair with food? Nonsense. Rosé is a great pair with those in between dishes like meaty fish, hearty salads like tomato salad and even mildly spicy foods. So no, rosé is not just an aperitif wine. - So how is the fish? - Oh my gosh. This is clean. There's almost a sweetness to the fish just naturally. Really, really stunning. What's happening right now? - What's happening? - This is a small dessert that we have. - What is rosé? Well, let's get a few things out of the way about what rosé is not. There's no such thing as pink grapes, so it's not made from those, nor roses nor strawberries. And it's also not made by mixing red and white wine together. At least not usually. There's actually three different ways to make rosé. Maceration, saignée or blending. Maceration is the most common, so let's start there. This can also be called skin contact, limited maceration or intentional rosé, because the grapes grown for this method are grown exclusively to be a rosé wine. This also affects when the grapes are picked. Red grapes that are destined to be rosé are usually picked earlier than red grapes destined to be red wine. So you can retain higher acidity and brighter fruit flavors. The first thing to know is that all grape juice is clear, even if the grape is red. If there's color in a wine, it comes solely from contact with the grape skin. In the maceration method, step one is taking the red grapes, destemming them and pressing them. At this point, the juice is allowed to sit and macerate with the skins of the red grapes for anywhere from two to 48 hours, depending how dark and how much extraction we want from the skins. The longer they sit, the deeper the color. Keep in mind, red wines are also made using this exact same process, but the maceration last weeks or months instead of just hours. But with rosé, after a few hours of maceration are up, the juice is removed from the skins, the skins get discarded. Now we have a pink wine which can finish fermenting by allowing the yeast to eat all of the sugar and make a bone dry wine. The wine is stabilized and voila, you have rosé. Well sure, some sweet rosés do exist. Almost all rosé wine is made dry to bone dry. A few exceptions include pink wines produced in bulk like pink Moscato and white Zinfandel. Pink yes, but not a true rosé. There's a slight variation of this method called direct press, in which the red grapes are pressed and rather than let them sit for a few hours, the skins are discarded immediately. The breaking of the skins provides just a hint of skin contact and make a super light rosé. Direct press wines will be more citrus forward than red fruit forward because the skins are what gives wine more red fruit character. There are also two other methods, less common, but still worth talking about. Saignée, or the bleeding method started as a way not to make rosés, but instead concentrate red wines. Winemakers bleed off some of the juice of a red wine at the start of the maceration. You end up with a higher skin to juice ratio and a more concentrated red wine. But winemakers can also take the bled juice, bottle it off and sell it as rosé. You'll see this method done in regions that produce high quality red wines, Bordeaux or Napa, for instance. Because the grapes were intended for red wines and thus picked later, these rosé styles are richer and fruitier and to be honest, the quality kind of tends to vary. The last method is blending finished red wine and white wine together. Remember how I blatantly said that's not how rosé is made? Well, there's an exception to every rule. In most European places, it's actually illegal to make a rosé wine by blending red and white wine, except for one very famous example, Champagne. And the only reason this is allowed in Champagne, this method better preserves the bubbles keeping 'em fresh. And there you have it, rosé production in a nutshell. Now before we get to the final product, let's take one more step back to where the process really begins, the vineyard. Our first of the three Domaines Ott Estates was Chateau de Selle, which has a whole lot of history behind it. This is the first property that your family owned, correct? - Absolutely. Yep. So at the beginning, my grandfather, he was a student. He just graduated from agronomical studies and he wanted to make wine in France, he didn't know exactly where. In 1896, so just after the phylloxera crisis, everything in France was infested. He came here in south of France, replanting the vineyard. At this point, he decided to find an estate for himself and he found Chateau de Selle. He took time because he wanted to make rosé. Don't ask me why. Nobody was making rosé at this time. - Oh, it wasn't like a popular thing, rosé when he started? - No. - What year was this? - Between 1910 and 1920. - Okay. So about a hundred years ago. And so now you're the third generation? - Fourth. Yeah. - Fourth generation. So we are walking on, this is rocks. - Yeah. - So when you talked about how hard it is to plant here, I assume this is part of the reason why. - Yeah. But you know, if we take the stone out, the clay soil will be too compact just after rain. So again, it's a good balance between clay and stones. - And this is also, and I did not know this. There is a Cru Classé, right? - Yeah. - Of Provence. They were trying to find ways to make Provence more distinct and in the fifties, they came up with the Cru Classé, similar to maybe what Bordeaux or Burgundy had. - And the Clos Mireille and Chateau de Selle were Crus Classé with 23 other estates in the area. But it was also a way for the producers that was focusing on quality of the wines from Provence to be recognized by the government and also the consumers. - [Vince] Like all red and white wines, not all rosés are created equal. These Cru Classé rosés represent the best of the best and are definitely worth seeking out. So no, not all rosés are the same. - So we taste Chateau de Selle 2020. - 2020. This bottle is a very interesting shape. Tell me about the bottle shape. - My great-grandfather and his son, they said, okay, in Champagne, they have their own shape of bottle. In Burgundy, they have one, in Bordeaux they have one, we need to have one for Provence wine. - We need our own. - Exactly. So he designed this bottle. It's like a Greek amphora. And also, it's a good way for us to be recognized by other people. - It is very distinctive. - So he designed it, he found a supplier able to make it, to produce it. And he went to his colleagues around here saying, okay guys, if you want, we can all use this bottle for our wines from Provence. And the bottle was a little bit more expensive than a classical bottle shape. So they said no. I guess he got a little bit upset about that. So he said okay, if you don't want it, I'm gonna keep it for me. And since then, it's our bottle. - It's iconic. - So Chateau de Selle. - Merci. So first thing off the bat, beautiful, fragrant, semi-aromatic nose, peaches, grapefruit, melon. - Really, what's important for us when we start the harvest is to make sure that the balance is good between the fruit taste, sugar, obviously. 'Cause we don't want the alcohol to be too high. The balance between the acidity and the sugar that at the end, give you a really sharp taste without any bitter taste at the end. - No, clean, still round while being fresh. About the color, very, very pale. How long do you macerate with the skins? - We don't macerate at all. - None? - No. - Direct press? - Yeah. - So you get the grapes in, press it and the color extraction comes from that very quick amount of time? - [JF] Exactly. - Now what makes Chateau de Selle, this wine, different from a flavor profile than the other two estates that we're gonna go to later? - [JF] The place for sure. Here we are 300 meters high altitude. It's always a little bit windy, it's dry. The soil is tough. At the end, it gives you the finesse, the minerality. - Beautiful wine. I mean, it gets me so excited to try the other estates, essentially. It just makes me want more, honestly. - Cheers. - Cheers. - Hey, Vino fans. I want to talk to you about signing up for Vino VIP. And since I don't wanna bother you with a ton of commercials while you're trying to watch the show, I'm gonna put all the cliche marketing angles into just this one. Here we go. I know we come off as a big production, but the reality is the entire operation is myself and a few other part-time employees. We're not affiliated with a studio or TV channel. We really wanna keep the show going, but literally can't do it without your help. So please, if the show has entertained you, helped you learn or pass a wine exam, if I've answered your DMs and questions, or if the show has just brought you value in any way, support the small business that provided it and join Vino VIP, which is our very own membership program. If you enjoy the show, joining Vino VIP is a must anyway. Membership starts at just $5 a month and here's some of the benefits. Early access to all our videos, including new episodes of the show. Every quarter I host a virtual tasting and Q&A just for VIP members. Every month we raffle off wine glasses and prizes. And once a year, we even have a big winner who gets a personalized tasting, where I send wine and food to your house and host a tasting for you and your friends. Plus, if you're a gold member or platinum member, you get your name in the credits of an episode. Kind of like this. I never want charge for individual episodes or worse yet, be unable to make the show at all. But that's why we need support from those of you who can. It's only $5 a month, which is less than a Starbucks coffee. So it's really in reach. Everybody assumes that their support won't make a difference, but I promise you, it does. Look at all this pretty members only content you're missing out on. Behind the scenes videos, episode commentaries, and full length interviews that can be seen nowhere else but our members only section. The first month is free, you literally have nothing to lose. I know this was long, but everything I just said is a hundred percent true. We have tens of thousand of fans and even if a small percentage of you joined, we could keep making videos for you in the long term. And the last perk is that you can start watching episodes in the members section and you don't have to hear this pitch or see ads ever again. Thank you to our existing Vino VIP members and thanks for considering joining. Rosé isn't just one thing. So talking about the grapes that make it up is a bit tough. It's like a Dr. Seuss book, heavy grapes, light grapes, dark grapes, bright grapes. Any red grapes from anywhere can be used to make rosé wine. I've had rosés from Pinot noir to Malbec, from California to Spain. But Provence is by far the epicenter of rosé, the place that so many other regions model their wines after. Therefore, let's stick to the basics. We're talking classic grapes and styles of wine made here. There are five principle red grapes in Provence used in rosé and a whole slew of other secondary grapes. Rosés here are always blends because that's the law. To be called a Provence wine by the AOC, at least two of the five principle varieties must be used and they must account for at least 70% of the blend. Also, no single grape can make up over 90% of the blend. They really wanna ensure you're making a true mixed bottle. In practice, most winemakers will use Grenache as their main grape followed by a few of the others to add depth to the wine. Grenache is a great base grape. It's yields are high, so it's easy to grow and it provides beautiful spicy red fruit flavors, along with most of the body and the alcohol. Think of Grenache like a pizza dough. It's the go-to base that ensures your finished product is balanced and delicious. Other grapes are added similar to how you add sauce or toppings to a pizza. In rosés, you add Mourvedre for tannin and color, Cinsault for aromatics and freshness, Syrah for dark fruit and Tibouren, a local variety for finesse and bouquet. Every house has its own style based on their plantings. And they change from year to year based on the vintage. Don't let its fun pink color fool you. Making rosé is serious business. It's not leftover wine that's thrown together haphazardly. The blending process takes a whole lot of skill to master. Another myth busted. Provence rosé tends to be light in body, bone dry, crisp, and acidic. An easy way to remember most of its tasting notes is to, well, think pink. Pink grapefruit, strawberry, watermelon and rose petal. Stone fruit like white peach or red fruits, like cherry and raspberry are also common. And you'll even get fun notes like white flowers, spice, cucumber, or melon. It really all depends on the blend and the grapes. And almost all rosés from Provence have a solid core of minerality running right through the wine. No trip to the South of France is complete without a beach day. We hopped on a boat and headed to Ile d'Arz, an island 45 minutes from the coast. This was the paradise lifestyle I was waiting for. Nothing for the crew and I to do but relax in the Mediterranean sun. At least for a moment. I have this theory that the closer you get to the equator, the more laid back life becomes. Think of New York versus Miami, or London versus Southern Italy, or pretty much anyone in the Caribbean. I just never picture those people in suits. I mean, I know they have to work sometime, but in my head, it's like for two hours a day between siestas, surfing and eating. It's this mentality that I think draws so many to Southern France. Somehow even just knowing there's crystal clear beach waters within striking distance and a bottle of rosé in the fridge just waiting to be popped, just makes the work day move quicker and the sun set a little slower. Domaines Ott's second vineyard is unique. It's in Bandol, one of the only AOCs in Provence known for its red wine. It's also the area that's known for some of the most age worthy rosés, because its primary grape, Mourvedre, has a higher tannin structure that helps preserve the wine. While we were there, I was hoping to try both a red and an older rosé. - Bandol. - We are here. So this is Chateau Romassan. - Yes. - Bandol's kind of a unique place in Provence, is it not? - Yeah. Bandol is a part of Provence, but it's a very small operation. It's only 60 producers. We have mountains here and we have the sea on the other side. So the mountains kind of block the influence of the sea. - Of the wind. - Yeah. And that makes exactly the best place to grow Mourvedres. - Because Mourvedre is a late ripening grape. It needs a lot of sunlight, it needs a lot of heat. And so when you block the wind with the mountains, you can do that. - [JF] Exactly. - If a wine says Bandol, you can be confident that it's Mourvedre, right? - Yes. For sure. - For sure. - There's a lot of Mourvedre in rosé wines and in red wines. - And in red wines. And this is one of the only places. You know, everybody, when they think of Provence, they think of rosé. But this is a place that makes some pretty tremendous red wines, big red wines, big rich, powerful red wines. 'Cause Mourvedre is Monastrell in Spain, I think, right? - Exactly, right. - It's the only other place they really make it. And Spain is hot. - Yeah. It is hot. - And what does that give to both the rosés and the reds? What does that give to it? - The structure, for sure. - Structure. - Yeah. - When you say structure, you mean it's got some weight, some power? - And it gives you the fruit, the finesse, and at the same time, the deep taste and the structure. - So you'll get a little more of those red fruit flavors from these type of rosés versus the citrus-y. - Absolutely. - I did my research and I learned that if there is a place where rosé can age, this is the place. And as I did my scouting, my Googling for myself, I looked up one of your older vintages and I go through some of the tasting notes of comments and somebody simply wrote, "best rosé ever". They had an old vintage and they said it was the best rosé they've ever had. So that being said, we should probably start with the young vintage. - Okay. - Okay. Merci. Off the nose to me, this is a different style than the other ones. It's still fresh, but it's more savory, meatiness to this wine that you do not get from the other wines. - Yeah. - Dense, ripe, big berry rather than small underripe one. It's nice. - For sure I like the structure. I mean, it's exactly the type of rosé that you can have with a meal, with lunch. So I brought a 2009. I had it when it was young. But since then, no. - Oh, since then you haven't had? - No. - So this will be for both of us? - Yeah, yeah. A surprise. Okay. - There you go. - Made it. - Saved it. - Well, thank you for sharing this 'cause I also know that there's probably not a lot of these floating around. - No. - There are very few. - Yeah. - So right away, the color. - [JF] The color is way darker, right? - It almost gets into that orange hue. The first sniff is always the most exciting. Oh, dude! It's waxy. I think maybe 'cause we probably had some honey notes in the first wine, so now it's turned into like. - [JF] You get the orange note, the citrus notes. - Like you would expect, right? The acidity's toned back. There's a roundness, a richness, almost to an oily sense. Like I said that maybe that waxy. It is even more savory. Some of that really bright fruit is gone and it's rich. - So imagine you're blind and you taste this. What do you think it is? - If I taste this blind, it is completely unique from anything I've ever had. Maybe it's like another older white wine I've had, but because it's got the red fruit character also playing in there, there's a meatiness to it that you would never get from an older Riesling or an older Chanin. - It's long, I mean the flavors are staying in your mouth for a long time. - [Vince] No, I wouldn't recommend laying down all your rosés, but it's great to know that some of the best ones can age beautifully. Very good. Okay, so last but not least we have the red. Of Provence, I think this is probably the most famous place that makes red. - For sure. - Yeah. It's also a way for us to be recognized as the wine makers or wine growers. It's a different viticulture. We need to have small grapes, we work on the skin. The ripeness is so different, the balances are different. We need to have fruit taste. And I think you get fruit taste in this red wine. And in the same time, I think you have the deep taste of Mourvedre, a ripe Mourvedre. - Dark, dark fruit land. This wine has a lot of the character from the rosé, but in a different way. So I get the dark fruit land, I get some smokiness. The structure is firm. The tannin structure is there, which leads me to believe that this also would age very well. Well thank you for, this was a special one to me. Like I said, I was excited about this one and it did not disappoint. Welcome to the "V is for Vino" nerd lab, where we take complicated wine topics and make 'em simple. Today, we're talking about wine temperature. - [Speaker] Wine temperature. - Do you ever notice that wine sometimes tastes amazing at a restaurant or a tasting room, but not quite as good in your own home? There's a lot of factors that may contribute to this. Things like using the proper glassware or even the simple psychological effect of being somewhere fun and beautiful, like a winery versus your boring old living room. But I would argue that there is one simple secret the winery is doing that has the most effect on the wine. They serve it at the proper temperature. Before we get into what the proper temperature is, let's talk about why it's important. See, most of us are guilty at serving our wine either too warm or too cold. The reality is that red and white wines should be served at a much closer temperature to each other than you may think. If a wine is served too cold, the wine will taste tart, reds will taste overly tannic and you won't get any of the flavors. I call it the college beer effect. Beer me, bro. When you were in college, you wanted your beer as cold as possible because it was cheap and you didn't really like the taste of beer yet anyway. So you would drink it ice cold because things that are ice cold lose their flavor. If the wine is too hot, the alcohol is overemphasized and the wine will taste syrupy and heavy, not fresh. So what is the right temperature? Well, if you only have two temperatures you serve wine at, fridge and room temp, you're either over or undershooting. A refrigerator is too cold at around 37 degrees and the red at room temperature adage referred to drafty old castles in Europe, not your well insulated home, which is far too hot at around 70 degrees. See the chart below for your ideal temperature for each style of wine. Generally, the lighter the style of wine, the cooler it should be served. But this information doesn't really help us, now does it? Without opening the wine and measuring with a thermometer, what is a practical way to get our wine to proper temperature? A great solution is one of these little guys. This is a wine fridge, with two zones for two different temperatures that you could set at the medium temperatures for whites and reds, 50 and 60 respectively. I do highly recommend them. And if you have the space, they get even larger, which are great for the long term storage of wine, which I would set to 55 degrees, or cellar temperature. But perhaps you were hoping not to have to buy any new equipment. The chart below gives the amount of time in a standard refrigerator it takes a room temperature bottle to chill, but timing this with when you want to drink the wine can be a bit of a challenge. So if you wanna keep it simple, and this is my number one advice of the video, you can get really close by following this general rule. Put red wines into the fridge 25 minutes before you wanna serve them and take white wines out of the fridge 25 minutes before you wanna serve them, provided they were stored in there. The exception is sparkling wine, which can be served fridge temp, because it helps preserve the bubbles. And if you need to chill the wines quickly, the freezer will get a sparkling wine cold in about an hour, provided you lay the bottle on its side, not upright 'cause science I don't wanna get into right now. You can cut that number down even further by wrapping the wine in a wet dish towel before you put it in the freezer, which should get it chilled in about 40 minutes. Just don't forget it or you'll end up with a ruined wine and potentially an exploded mess. Even quicker, the ice bucket. There's a reason it's used at restaurants. Lots of ice, water and a good amount of salt, which lowers the water's freezing point and gets it cooled quicker. Less than 10 minutes for reds, 15 to 20 for whites. Really desperate? Put the wine in a ziplock bag and into ice water for two to five minutes. Or worst case scenario, just kidding folks. Save the ice for your sodas and your cocktails as to not water down the wine. I hope you enjoyed today's nerd lab on temperature and as always, keep geeking out. Domaines Ott's other Cru Classé vineyard is Clos Mireille. And it was here that I learned just how much goes into the harvest and production of these rosé wines. All right, we have arrived. The final vineyard, Clos Mireille. - Absolutely. Clos Mireille. - Now, what makes it special? - Clos Mireille for us is pretty special because it's really close to the beach. So we have all the influence on the soil, but also with the weather of the sea, the salty taste in the wines. More personally, it was also the house of my grandmother. - [Vince] Oh, wonderful. - [JF] We spent so many times during summer here. - So tell me about the harvest and I guess everything leading up to the harvest as well. - The harvests are made by hand. So that means 250 people on every vintage. - So a small army of people? - Yeah. - To make rosé wine. - A small army. A small army that that is able to sort the grapes. So we are going to have only the best grapes, the best quality grapes in the winery. That makes the difference at the end with the juice and with the wine. - [Vince] By hand picking everything, the quality is obviously way, way better, but it also takes a lot more time. From a time perspective, how much time do you spend in the vineyards compared to other regions? - The biggest part of the time we are using for the vineyard is during spring, between the beginning of May until the middle of July, we are preparing the grapes to get ripe for the harvest. So we spend every year, 600 hours per hectare. - Okay. - Which is exactly the same as the best viticulture that you can have all over the world for red and white wines. - The same amount of time as they would do in a Burgundy, a Bordeaux, a Napa, is getting put into your rosé production. Which is really cool. - So don't tell me that making rosé is easy. - Is easy. - No, it's not. - [Vince] Are there a lot of sub $10 mass produced rosés out there? Sure. Good for hashtagging on social media, but not much else. But now that I know just how much work and effort goes into actual quality rosé, I have a newfound respect for the pink wine. So this is pretty special 'cause this is your grandmother's house. - Absolutely. - That was essentially turned now to part of this estate. So out of all the blend, would you say that this blend, the Grenache Cinsault blend is kind of the classic Provence rosé blend? - Yeah, yeah. Grenache gives you the fruit, Cinsault, the finesse, softness, and a little bit of structure with the Syrah, it's typically the blend of rosés from Provence. - [Both] Yep. - The Clos Mireille might be a little bit more crispy or a little bit more fruity than the other two, so it's gonna be the perfect match for an aperitif or before a meal. - Interesting, okay. - Maybe with the beginning of a meal. - Very nice. And we also said too, maybe a little salinity. - [JF] Absolutely. - Just like that. I mean the salinity is there. That minerality is there right away. And just what you said, very, very, very bright. As you mentioned, citrus. Lots and lots of citrus. Not a super ripe strawberry, very young. - That's Syrah. - That's the Syrah. - Yeah. - Yep. Yeah, I'm bringing this with me and we'll taste 'em all. Did you guys know that on our website, we have the places we visited listed on each episode's page, the wines we drank available for sale and our VIP section with bonus videos? I just thought I'd let you know. Provençal cuisine has such an allure to me. It's how we all wish we could cook at home. It's not ultra modern, nor is it so traditional it feels rustic. It's hyper fresh, high quality ingredients and simple recipes that let these components shine. Olive oil instead of butter, fresh tomatoes instead of cooked ones, wild herbs and lots of garlic. If I sound like I'm gushing, I am. The only thing that gets me as excited as wine is good Mediterranean food. So we got a few ingredients from the market as well as a few from the garden and got to work. Okay, so we have our sea bass we got from the market. We have our langoustine, which looks like shrimp if they only did forearm workouts. What are we doing with these? - So we are going to make a crudo with them. Only cooked with the lime. - Great. So we're using, we're doing it raw? - Yeah. - Beautiful. That's one of my favorites. Okay, so you instruct me, I'm gonna watch it. - [JF] You just take the head, I'm sorry. - Are you apologizing to me or to him? - Oh, sure. It's okay, it works? - Take it off. Great. Let's just say I struggled a bit trying to get my crustacean to come out of its shell. - You have to be gentle. - Just back and forth? - No, right and left. - [Vince] I almost got him. Think I got him. Come on, baby. He's a little spiky. - Yeah. - [Vince] But eventually I got the hang of it. Ah. - Okay. We are just going to cut it. - [Vince] Now what? - Now we put lime. - [Vince] Because the acidity is so high, it's going to kind of cook that. - Exactly. Salt. - Okay. - Pepper. - Pepper. - And at the end, this is, in Provence. - Olive oil, always. Always and forever. Okay, just a drizzle, right? - Yep. - A lot. That's okay. - That's okay. - For the next one. Also too, yeah, I was gonna say good olive oil. I never know. - Then we take the langoustine, we put it on the plate and we do that for all of them. We are going to put them in the fridge for about an hour. - An hour. - And it's gonna be okay. - And let the lime juice do a very little cook? - Exactly. - Great. And in the meantime we have to prep our big guy. - Yes. For the fish, it's gonna be very, very easy. On this part, we are just going to cut a little bit here. Because it's thicker than the tail. So then we are gonna put olive oil inside. - Of course we are. Give it a little rubdown? Just a little, huh? - Yeah. - [Vince] Lots and lots and lots of olive oil. - Yeah. - Which I love. One of the best things about Provence cuisine is the gratuitous amounts of olive oil used. I'll salt and pepper it up. - Yep. - [Vince] Outside, inside everything, right? - [JF] Yep. - Now? - Lemon. - Lemon. - Yep. - Squeeze it on? - Yes. - All right. Tomatoes. Are we doing it on the grill or are we putting the oven? - Oven. - Oven, we're doing it in the oven so we're gonna lock in all that flavor. - Exactly. - Great. Look how wet, and of course I dropped it. But look how juicy the tomatoes, it's like candy. All right. - How long did it last? - How long what, to do this? - Yeah. - Like five minutes. - Five minutes. - Five minutes. Super simple. And now you cover or no, you don't cover it. - No, this one is two kilos and we are going to cook it 35 minutes. And see what's going on. - [Vince] Fish cooked, the sun started to fade and JF and I sat down for one last glass together before dinner. - Okay Vince, before we eat, I really need you to taste the last cuvée, this cuvée. - There's another? - Yes. I talked to you about the different personality of each estate, of each terrain, the expression of each terrain. And we wanted to make a blend of what is most typical on each estate in this cuvée. And we call it Etoile. - [Vince] And what is Etoile? - Etoile, it's many things, but after Domaines Ott, you have a small star. The word in English is a star. - The word is star. - Okay. So that's the star that you can see on Domaines Ott name. It's also when my great-grandfather was signing the two T after O for Ott, he was making like a star. So it was the beginning and it's also the star of the range. So it's exactly what we think rosé they should be. - It is symbolic of everything, your grandfather's legacy, the brand. And like you said, the top of the line. - Yep. - I am very, very excited. - We try it. Do we taste it? We want to have finesse of Chateau de Selle, the structure of Chateau Romassan and the serenity and the crispy and fruity taste of Clos Mireille. - Got the roundness that we talked about with Romassan. - Yep. - And structure. But it's got the brightness as both of the other estates. Grapefruit, melon, all the things that I want, the pink flavors, the citrus flavors, they all come beautifully together in harmony, which is just really, really fun. What I love is as much as I love the wine, I love the story that it started with your great, great grandfather writing a star on his name. And his signature which turned into the brand, which turned into your legacy. When you come to Provence, you expect the food, you expect the wine, you expect the light that so many famous painters have come here to paint. You expect those things. They're always stunning, but you know they're here, the beach. But there's a serenity about Provence that is very, very special. And there is a lifestyle to Provence. We joke there's a rosé all day in America, right? Rosé is a lifestyle. But when you come here, it's not this Hollywood firecracker pink lifestyle, it is a serene tranquil, just really feeling like this place can be encapsulated in a wine. So I am so honored to have spent this week with you. Thank you very, very much. - Thank you. - [Vince] We all sat down to our final meal of the trip. The crew, my wife, new friends and Jean-François. In the courtyard of the house where he spent his summers as a kid, we ate, drank and laughed. I thought to myself all I'd learned about rosé, about Provence, about Jean-François and his family and about the gratitude I had for the opportunities afforded to me. Provence is the type of place you visit and say, why don't I live here again? I once came here 12 years ago, a young kid very far away from retirement. And I remember saying to myself, this is where I'm gonna retire. That feeling hasn't changed. I see myself sitting on a beach with a glass of rosé in my hand, reminiscing about that time I hosted a TV show and thinking to myself, remember that? I hope you enjoyed Provence and we'll see you next time, next place on "V is for Vino". Hey, Vince here. Hope you enjoyed the episode. If you have a moment, follow us on Instagram. And if you really want to support, please consider joining Vino VIP on visforvino.com. It's our members only club with a ton of benefits. Thanks for watching and see you soon.