2014 Bieler Père et Fils ‘Sabine’ Rosé

2014 was an interesting vintage in Provence. It started off rather warm then cooled off for the latter months before becoming quite wet during harvest with frequent light rain. We are used to significant rain events in September and early October but what was unusual was that it was light rain that persisted for much of the harvest. It made it challenging to ripen certain grapes, particularly for red wine, but thankfully for rosé, it didn't pose too much of a challenge. Our goal is always to balance fruit, savory and acid and so we want to pick on the early edge of ripeness, ideally after a fairly long hang time which we got. Harvest extended in to November which is quite late for us! While we were concerned that the challenging conditions would result in a small crop, it was mercifully full, the first after a string of increasingly small crops.

THE VINTAGE:

While in 2013 we had an unusually tiny grenache crop and quite a powerful syrah component which resulted in a dark and fuller bodied rosé, 2014 is back to our more traditional Bieler style. It's driven by more delicate grenache, cinsault and rolle aromas and flavors with the syrah bringing body and cabernet sauvignon adding spice. The wine is quite aromatic and jumps out of your glass with the classic Provence tug of war between wild red fruit berries as if you just picked them along a path to the beach, floral notes of lavender and rose petal and underlying savory herbs de Provence. The color is paler than last year and the acidity at the finish more assertive. Much to love! The blend is the following: Grenache: 41%, Syrah: 38%, Cabernet Sauvignon: 12%, Cinsault: 5%, Rolle: 4%.. Wine chemistry is the following: ALC BY VOL 12.8%, TA 6.16, PH 3.28, RS .2 % 30,000 cases imported to North America.

In 1992, my father, Philippe Bieler, founded Chateau Routas in Coteaux Varois – asmall appellation in the middle of Provence. The winery focused on grenachebased red blends and rosé. My sister Mira and I got involved in the mid 90's whenwe developed, through unorthodox winemaking and creative marketing andselling, one of the more dynamic rosé brands in America at the time. In 2005 therewas a great opportunity to sell the winery and estate and we took it. We foundedBieler Père et Fils that same year we sold Routas and focus 100% on making rosé.

An overnight success in just 15 years! I'm so proud of how far the dry rosécategory has developed over the last handful of years but some of us have beenbanging away at it for a a decade plus. Dry rosé not only remains one of the fastestgrowing wine categories in the US wine market but has even accelerated furtherthis past year and Provence, France remains the standard for what consumers arebuying and drinking. If you can find a better bottle of rosé out there for less thanthe Bieler Père et Fils then I recommend you buy it!

THE WINE:

THE HISTORY:

THE MARKET:

THE CONTACT:charles@bielerfamily.net | www.bielerpereetfils.com