After 1 – 2 difficult years for the vine growers in Provence, 2019 finally came with better conditions! The two previous vintages have been rated:

• 2018: The first rating based on wines “en primeur”, was 14/20 points but has now landed at 15/20 points. The mediocre rating is because spring and summer were extremely wet and that the drying Mistral wind was less frequent which caused problems with mildew.
• 2017: 16/20 points. Frost in April and an extremely dry summer, no rain from June until harvest, good quality but harvest decreased by 10% compared to 2016.

The 2019 season was more favourable with a relatively dry and warm summer. What could cause problems was that there were three strong heat waves, with temperatures up to 45.9 degrees (!), But it did not hit Provence as hard as in Languedoc where burnt grapes / vines were reported.

One of “my producers” reports for 2019: “Nice grapes with a perfect health condition, good concentration and very fruity juices.” This is confirmed by reports from Wine Paris 2020 where the judgments are that the rosé wines generally have a very good quality with a good balance between acidity and fruit, i.e. healthy and fresh wines.

Supplement 2020-06-03: Later Robert Parker Wine Advocate also agreed to this: ”The 2019 rosés shine all the brighter… The best of the bunch manage to combine concentration and complexity with refinement and refreshment”.

But all this was before the Coronavirus hit us, more about this and in 2020 in an upcoming blog post, but for now enjoy the vintage 2019!