Domaine Ray-Jane, Bandol Rosé Online now

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 2019 at a tasting last February, I had literally never seen a bottle of Domaine Ray-Jane Bandol in California. In France, it is recognized alongside greats like Tempier (average retail of $56/btl, mind you!), but Ray-Jane is bottled in much smaller volume and thus seldom makes a star turn on our side of the Atlantic. As we all know by now, 2020 has “democratized” access to many of the wine world’s rarities, and today’s wine is no exception: By mid-Summer, this 2019 Bandol had elbowed Domaine Tempier off more than a few of my favorite local wine lists and retail shelves—so much so, that SommSelect has been unable to corner an allocation until today!

Of the myriad reasons today’s wine has so quickly become our “it” Bandol rosé’, I want to start with its capital-H sense of history: Rare is the opportunity to experience wine from a lineage that existed during the Mongol Empire, William Wallace’s revolution, and Duccio’s renaissance painting. I’ve written before about the Chave family continuously and miraculously 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 today’s wine. 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. Throughout countless invasions, revolutions, plagues, and world wars, the aptly-named Constant family has continued farming their vineyards, harvesting fruit, and bottling exceptional wine. 

Now, if the allure of such astoundingly longstanding 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, AKA ground zero for the world’s most profound, ruthlessly in-demand, and ever-more-exorbitantly 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 today’s limited offer is (1) Certified Organic, (2) far lower in price, and (3) effectively unbeatable in terms of history, pedigree, and social media appeal—I challenge you to locate one bottle outside of a respected restaurant! And again, I want to return to my initial point about today’s offer: 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. 

Domaine Ray-Jane’s 2019 Bandol rosé displays a resplendent salmon-pink core with vibrant silver hues moving out to the rim. After pulling the cork and splashing into all-purpose stems around 50 degrees, a cascade of citrus and forest fruit roars out: wild strawberry, crunchy Rainier cherries, white peach, pomelo, tangerine zest, and citrus blossoms, all of which are buttressed by white pepper, finely crushed rock, and dried garrigue. Although creamy and beautifully layered, the wine’s taut acidity and laser-sharp minerality keep those supple textures perfectly in check. And of course, that poise, discipline, and inextinguishable freshness is precisely the backbone that earns this wine a renowned reputation for extended cellar aging.  Believe me, when this bottle hits the 3-5 year “sweet spot,” it will blossom into an even-more exotically textured, richly aromatic, and fascinating second life. So, the choice is yours: throw patience and poignancy to the wind by draining a chilled glass today with a platter of poached, chilled fish or steamed mussels or, follow my lead in hiding a few bottles in the darkest corner of your cellar. I guarantee that when you unearth them in 2022-2025, the saffron/beeswax/fennel aromas will be an almost psychedelic companion to Provençal chicken or bouillabaisse. For many of southern France’s most revered dishes, this is a dream wine—all for $29!