Château Léoube - Rouge de Léoube

Léoube’s vineyard story begins in Provence, home to the oldest vineyards in France retaining the secrets of life, perfumes and sunny foods deep in its heart.

Léoube estate is rooted between the sea and the hills, offering a unique terroir: 68 hectares of vines and 23 hectares of olive groves, all devoted to growing the grapes and olives that make their organic wines and olive oils. For more than 20 years Léoube hs been cultivating and working the soils in line with their principles of organic farming. In 1998, Léoube started the long process of converting the vineyard and olive grove; restoring the crops, redeveloping the plots, working the soil with the greatest care and planting vines according to the flow of water to avoid erosion. Banning the use of any pesticides and chemicals, to produce only what the land can offer.

As the founders of Daylesford Organic – one of the UK’s most sustainable farms – the Bamford family are passionate about environmentally friendly farming and wished to bring this natural approach to Léoube. Farming in harmony with nature. It is not constrained, but supported, considering the natural cycle of the seasons and respecting the balance of each plant in its environment. Léoube truly embodies their philosophy; to make the world of today and tomorrow more sustainable in order to leave a better planet for future generations.

Reputedly the source of Louis XIV’s favourite wines, Côtes de Provence lies in the south-east of Provence and overlaps with the Var department. Eighty percent of its production is dry rosé wine, distinguished by an inimitable pale-pink colour and elegant flavours. Cinsault and Grenache dominate in the region’s rosés, augmented with the occasional dash of the local, intensely aromatic Tibouren.

The Côtes de Provence appellation spans more than 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) and three departments: the Var, the Bouches-du-Rhône and one village in the Alpes-Maritimes, for a total of 84 communes.

The rosé wines display light to very light, brilliant, clear hues. Their nose offers aromas of fresh flowers (rose), yellow fruits (melon, peach) and red fruits (strawberry, raspberry, cherry), coupled with touches of citrus zest, tropical fruits and marshmallow. Their palate exudes a supple, rounded feel, counterbalanced by a crisp feel to varying degrees depending on the vineyard site. The wines show balanced generosity and light tangy freshness lifting a persistent finish often suffused with abundant fruitiness.

The white wines are very focused and very clean. The Rolle-based wines offer up a wonderful zippy freshness.

The year’s red wines are just coming to the end of the winemaking phase and display stellar ageing potential with good tannin density for the longer vatting periods and lovely fresh fruit profiles for the more easy-drinking wines.