2017 Cristia Collection Cotes de Provence Rose 750 ml

Robert Parker 98-point Châteauneuf-du-Pape winemaker Baptiste Grangeon produced this stingingly vibrant and succulent red-berry 2017 Cristia Collection rosé. 25-year-old vines lend wet stone minerality thanks to limestone-rich soils. “The Grangeons have been on fire qualitatively for the last five to six years,” says Robert M. Parker Jr. of Baptiste and his sister Dominique. We sampled this wine at Cristia and can attest: few under-$20 rosés from either side of the Atlantic hold a candle to this crisp, mouthwatering, strawberry-infused Southern Rhône beauty.
 
Critics are crowning Baptiste Grangeon as a new champion in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Baptiste and his sister Dominique Florent are third-generation winemakers, inheriting the craft and vineyards from their grandfather Etienne. The family started out in 1942 with just five acres of Grenache, but the wine sold to negociants. Etienne’s son Alain began expanding the holdings and gradually bottling some of the production.

Cristia’s CdPs have rightly mesmerized critics, pulling down 15 whopping 95- to 99-point scores from critic and Rhône expert Jeb Dunnuck. But for the deal-hunter, the jewel of the line-up is undoubtedly the Cristia Collection Côtes de Provence Rosé. Thanks to the region’s dry Mediterranean heat, grapes reach phenolic ripeness quickly. Vines winnow deep underground, building strong root systems to suck up the land’s nutrients and minerals, lending this pink its unmistakable limestone minerality.
 
Organically farmed with a meticulousness more akin to Burgundy than Provence, the Grangeons nurse their Grenache, Syrah, and Cinsault vines to full concentration while retaining stinging “northern” vibrancy and acidity—rarely as brilliantly as in the summer of 2017. One of Baptiste’s finest efforts of the new millennium, buy this by the case and guzzle it all year long. If you’re a pink wine enthusiast, it’s a no-brainer.