Côtes de Provence Pétale de Rose 2025 Chateau La Tour de l'Evêque

The Côtes de Provence Pétale de Rose 2025 from Château La Tour de l'Évêque is a bottle charged with history and emotion, the rosé that invented them all. It was Régine Sumeire who, in 1985, created the first pale Provence rosé at Château Barbeyrolles, experimenting with direct pressing of whole Grenache through a Coquard Champagne press. The juice that flowed had an astonishingly pale colour and unprecedented length on the palate. This founding gesture sparked a revolution in Provence rosés, one that the entire world now imitates. Forty years later, Pétale de Rose remains the original and the finest of its kind.

The terroir and vintage 2025

Château La Tour de l'Évêque is nestled in Pierrefeu-du-Var, in the Maurettes valley, less than 20 kilometres from the Mediterranean and some thirty from Saint-Tropez. This 89-hectare vineyard, all of a piece, rests on remarkable schistose soils — Hyères phyllades and Permian red sandstone, very ancient rocks whose friability and poverty naturally discipline the vines and concentrate the aromatic expression of the grape varieties. The 2025 vintage is marked by a striking contrast: soils recharged with water after a very rainy autumn and winter favoured a markedly early phenological development, budbreak beginning as early as 13 March. The last rains fall on 20 May, then heat settles in until harvest, which begins on 15 August, concentrating warmth, ripeness and aromatic freshness in grapes of fine quality. The 2025 blend unites seven complementary varieties: 49% Grenache, 36% Cinsault, 9% Mourvèdre, 3% Rolle and 3% Sémillon, each bringing its own dimension to the aromatic palette of this exceptional rosé. The estate has been certified organic since 2005, without herbicides or chemical products, with ploughing and biodynamic infusions to invigorate the soils.

Tasting profile

The colour is rose petal, pale, luminous and of a visual delicacy that immediately evokes Provençal elegance. The nose is airy, delicate and of remarkable finesse: notes of grapefruit and blood orange intermingle with the lusciousness of pomegranate and nectarine, with light floral touches that bring subtlety and freshness. On the palate, the texture is lining and silky, with fleshy, satiny flesh that impregnates the palate with vibrant softness. The structure is brought by fine spiced bitters, pomegranate seed, blood orange zest, that balance the rich pulp and confer on the wine a granular and zesty character of fine elegance. The finish is long, concentrated and salivating, with this rebound on the fruit that immediately invites the next glass. Sapid, fresh and of great drinkability, a Provence rosé in all the nobility of the term.

The estate

Régine Sumeire ensures the continuity of work rooted in Provençal tradition: it was her father who taught her the gestures and care of the vine, himself trained by his grandfather, a transmission generation after generation that has perpetuated itself to this day with the same qualitative rigour. Owner also of Château Barbeyrolles, near Saint-Tropez, she draws on two neighbouring and complementary schiste terroirs to produce wines both rounded and taut. The Bettane & Desseauve Guide awards her three stars, saluting a winemaker of strong character who fights with good reason for the recognition of the great wines of Provence. Vinification is carried out by gravity, direct pressing without crushing in the Champagne hydraulic Coquard press, with alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, and ageing on fine lees in tank.

Food and wine pairings

This Pétale de Rose will pair beautifully with crab meat in blood orange jelly, sea bream carpaccio with lime and ginger, quality sushi and maki, smoked salmon with fresh herbs, vegetable gratin or prawn and mango salad. It will be equally delightful as an aperitif, served well chilled between 8 and 10 °C, in the luminous and delicate spirit that has made the legend of this cuvée since 1985.