Sylvain Pataille’s father, a bus driver by trade, spent all his free time helping in a friend’s vineyards. Sylvan’s uncle owned an estate in the Medoc that the family visited every summer. Even as a child, Sylvain knew that he too belonged in the vineyards. In 1999, he started with one mere hectare, and slowly grew his estate to 15 hectares. Years of trusting his vision have paid off.

For this rosé, Sylvain’s vision was “a very serious wine.” “My aim,” he says, “is to make a great wine using great soil, old vines and long ageing.”

Inspired by the age-worthy rosé of Château Simone and the great rosés of Champagne, Pataille handcrafted this Rosé Fleur de Pinot to be a wine of gravitas. The youngest vines he uses are 65 years old, and the rest are 80-85 years old. He ploughs by horse. Yields are miniscule. He’s doesn’t make red wine with the grapes from these plots because he’s so inspired by the minerality it imparts to his whites and rosé.  

“At tastings I don’t tell people it’s a rosé, because many are not interested in rosés. When they taste the Fleur de Pinot, they often say, ‘This is not rosé, this is wine!’.

“What a joy!” writer Jancis Robinson once said in her tasting notes for this wine. We agree. A very serious, very joyful wine. Captivating.