Have we talked about Tibouren?

The Provence region of southern France is, by any measure, the center of all things rosé. It produces more pink wine than any other place on the planet, including the category’s most prestigious iteration in Bandol; its glittering Mediterranean coastline, known as the Cote D’Azur or French Riviera, is the message most bottles aspire to send. Needless to say, we've been here a bunch before in Rosé Club, but I’m not sure we’ve ever talked about Tibouren. 

Almost all Provencal rosés are composed of grapes you’d also find next door in Rhône blends, and many other places - Spain, the US, Australia, South America - besides: Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, Carignan, and Mourvedre, Bandol’s calling card, which must make up at least 50% of all the AOC’s reds and rosés. The only varietal that really belongs to Provence is the aforementioned Tibouren, which you could say is almost* exclusively associated with the area, except for the fact that almost nobody has ever heard of it in the first place. A thin-skinned black grape thought to have originated in Mesopotamia, Tibouren is distinguished by its intensely aromatic nose and herbal palate (a combination often called ‘garrigue’ in wine, after the Mediterranean vegetation, and denoting flavors of  bay leaf, thyme, rosemary and sage), and various difficulties associated with its cultivation. Tibouren tends to produce irregular yields and is highly susceptible to coulure or “shatter,” which is when the grape fails to develop after flowering due to the plant’s metabolic response to extreme or unseasonal weather conditions.  The mild and consistent climate along the Mediterranean coast thus provides its most propitious conditions, but even here, we’re talking about truly miniscule quantities. 

Our two bottles this month are  among the very few that feature this most elusive vin-gredient, and in both cases Tibouren makes up no more than 15% of the blend. The garrigue still manages to sprout out though - and if you’re curious one of the producers here, Clos Cibonne, is arguably tighter with Tibouren than any other vigneron in the world. They’ve been cultivating it for decades, and make the only Tibouren dominated rosé and red bottlings I’ve ever come across. They are both a little too pricey for club placement, but absolutely worth trying, and available via the PlumpJack website or at the Noe Valley location. 

Think Pink! 

The PlumpJack Team

*Tibouren is genetically identical to Rossesse, which is grown and bottled down the road in Liguria, in the Italian Riveria.