Description
Domaine Ray-Jane, Bandol Rosé
Yes, we featured this six months ago, and I’m not trying to hide it either. I’m actually embracing today’s offer because we’ve tasted through a veritable rosé gauntlet and still cannot find anything that outclasses this highly complex and deliciously textured Bandol rosé.
Well before Ray-Jane’s explosion into global stardom, we were among the first US advocates trumpeting it as the value grail of Bandol rosé—and ever since that first offer, we can’t keep it stocked fast enough. Given its staggering history, scarcity, and unmatched value, this dazzlingly fresh 2021 remains the greatest price-to-quality Bandol rosé on the market. So please, don’t let the pale pink hue distract from the deeply layered brilliance and 735-year history in the bottle. This is year-round-drinking, truly world-class wine from one of France’s most prestigious appellations! The unrelenting freshness and tension within is precisely what earns this wine a renowned reputation for extended cellar aging. Believe me, when this bottle hits that 2-3-year “sweet spot,” it will enjoy a savory, exotically textured second life—but I’d be remiss if I didn’t also urge you to drink up now. With up to 12 bottles available per person, you can!
In the great appellations of France, it often feels as though the hierarchies are more-or-less set in stone. Each esteemed village is ruled by a few iconic classics, and it’s seldom that a completely “new” name arrives in spectacular enough fashion to upset the pecking order. Yet, that’s exactly what I recently observed in the ancient village appellation of Bandol. Before encountering this at a tasting in early 2020, I had literally never seen a bottle of Domaine Ray-Jane Bandol in California. In France, however, it is recognized alongside greats like Domaine Tempier ($54 average retail), but Ray-Jane is bottled in a much smaller volume and thus seldom makes a star turn on our side of the Atlantic.
Of the myriad reasons today’s wine has so quickly become our “go-to” Bandol rosé, I want to start with its capital-H sense of history: If you can believe it, since 1288, each successive generation of current matriarch Anne Constant’s family has handcrafted wine from their own vines in a tiny hamlet along the Mediterranean coast between Marseille and Nice. Rare is the opportunity to experience wine from a lineage that existed during the Mongol Empire, William Wallace’s revolution, and Duccio’s Renaissance paintings. I’ve written before about the Chave family continuously producing wine in the Northern Rhone Valley since the 1490s—but the 1200s? Let alone in Bandol? It’s one of many reasons my colleagues and I staggered back in awe when first tasting this wine. Throughout countless invasions, revolutions, plagues, and world wars, the aptly named Constant family has farmed their vines and bottled exceptional wine without pause.
Now, if the allure of such astoundingly long-standing family tradition isn’t enough to pull you in, I must then ask you to consider the prized real estate and value today’s bottle offers. Keep in mind we’re talking about Bandol, ground zero for the world’s most profound, ruthlessly in-demand, and ever-higher priced rosé. Few of my peers would dispute that Domaine Tempier claims the rosé crown in Bandol (perhaps all of France), but I feel obligated to point out that this limited offer is (1) Certified Organic, (2) entirely from old-vine fruit, (3) far lower in price, and (4) effectively unbeatable in terms of history and pedigree.
Again, I want to return to my initial point about this 2021 offering: this is not “just a rosé.” Rather, it is a remarkably serious wine that is built to evolve and improve in a way that many regional, built-for-immediate-consumption peers would surely fail. It’s a wine whose sophistication and objectively topflight quality belies its playful complexion and extremely modest price tag. Although it only sees a brief stay on lees in stainless steel, deep layers of red berries, high-toned citrus, and limestone minerality promise to delight your senses while leading you to believe you’re savoring a bottle well beyond its modest price tag. Cheers!
