Adventures in Wine > Southern France > Mas Sainte Berthe
Mas Sainte Berthe
Winery: Mas Sainte Berthe
Region: Provence
Sub-region: Les Baux de Provence Rose
Les Baux Provence Rose
Mas Sainte Berthe (“Mas” means estate in the Provencal dialect) is a family property owned by the David family, located in the picturesque town of Les Baux.
The David family’s 40-hectare estate lies at the foot of the mountain, which is a great tourist attraction because of the spectacular ruins of a medieval town on the mountaintop. The estate began as a fruit-growing property in the 1950s and was converted to a vineyard in the early 1960s. The south-facing vineyard lies on unique, rocky, white clay-limestone soil at the foot of the Les Baux cliffs, which have a warming effect.
The winery maintains a profound respect for its environment: for example, no nitrates are present in their organic fertilizers and natural insect predators are encouraged. The winery was completely renovated 10 years ago and the half of the vines are now over 30 years of age, a fact which adds further depth and complexity to the wines. Meticulous winemaker Christian Nief, originally from Nuits St-Georges, is making the finest wines of the region.
The Rose, called Cuvee Passe-Rose is made by the saigne method in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. It is a blend of 65% Grenache, 24% Syrah, 4% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 3% Cinsault, and 4% Mourvedre. The grapes are hand-harvested, de-stemmed, and sorted at the winery. After a brief period of cold maceration on the skins (about 12 hours) to begin the extraction of color and flavors, the juice is bled off (about 10% of the total volume of each cepage) and fermented at very low temperature, as if it was a white wine. The young wines destined for the Rose are assembled at the end of fermentation and then “aged” in tanks on their fine lees (for the development of flavor and complexity) until bottling in February after the harvest. The Rose is not acidified, nor does it go through malolactic fermentation so as to preserve freshness.
It is remarkably dry and fruity, with pink-grapefruit, watermelon, strawberry, kiwi and spice notes. The Rose is a perfect match for poached salmon with watercress sauce, Thai and Chinese dishes, as well as all summer provencal-type foods such as brandade and pissaladiere. The Mas Sainte Berthe Rose has established itself as the leading dry Provencal Rose in the market.
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