Clos Cibonne Rose Cuvee Speciale des Vignettes 2023

Clos Cibonne does not behave like modern Provence. It doesn’t chase gloss, poolside ease, or fleeting refreshment. Instead, it hums with memory — of wind and salt, of ancient vines gripping the Maures hillside, of a rosé tradition that predates the very idea of rosé as fashion.

The estate sits just inland from the Mediterranean near Le Pradet, close enough that the sea feels less like a neighbor than a collaborator. Mistral winds funnel through the vineyards, drying the vines and sharpening their focus, while the hills behind provide shelter and a long, slow ripening season. This narrow strip of land, balanced between limestone, schist, and maritime air, has quietly nurtured one of Provence’s most idiosyncratic grapes: tibouren.

Tibouren is the soul of Clos Cibonne — thin-skinned, low-yielding, notoriously difficult, and almost entirely forgotten outside this corner of southern France. Where most growers abandoned it for easier varieties, the Roux family doubled down. They planted it extensively, protected it fiercely, and preserved a style of rosé that speaks less in fruit and more in texture, savor, and place. It is one of the rare estates permitted to name tibouren directly on the label — a quiet act of defiance and devotion.

The winemaking here mirrors that conviction. Whole clusters are gently pressed, fermentations are clean and controlled, and then something quietly radical happens: the wines are aged for a full year in old, neutral foudres beneath a veil of yeast, known locally as fleurette. This slow élevage softens edges, builds structure, and introduces a savory depth more often associated with Jura or Andalusia than the Riviera. It is the reason Clos Cibonne behaves less like a seasonal rosé and more like a serious, age-worthy wine.

Of all the wines Clos Cibonne produces, Spéciale des Vignettes feels like the estate speaking in its lowest, most resonant register — quieter, deeper, and more assured of what it is.

This cuvée comes from the oldest tibouren vines on the property, parcels tucked closest to the Mediterranean where the vines feel the sea before they see it. The air here is salt-laced and restless, the soils streaked with limestone and schist, and the vines themselves gnarled and stubborn, yielding little but concentrating everything. This is tibouren with a long memory, shaped as much by wind and restraint as by sun.

Clos Cibonne’s commitment to tibouren is already singular in Provence, but Spéciale des Vignettes pushes that devotion further. The fruit is harvested with patience, pressed gently as whole clusters, and fermented cleanly before being laid down in large, old foudres. There, the wine rests for an extended year beneath its natural veil of yeast — fleurette — a slow, quiet élevage that transforms what could be a simple rosé into something architectural. Texture is built not through oak flavor but through time, oxygen, and calm.

In the glass, the wine glows a deep copper-rose, almost bronze at the rim — less blush than burnished. Aromatically, it opens savory and lifted: dried orange peel, crushed strawberry skin, wild thyme, fennel seed, and a clear marine note that feels unmistakably coastal. There’s an earthy undertow too — stone dust, faint balsamic, a hint of resin — that pulls the wine out of the realm of refreshment and into something more contemplative.

The palate is firm and expressive, driven by salinity and grip rather than fruit sweetness. Blood orange, pink grapefruit pith, and tart red berries move across a chalky, almost tactile mineral core. Herbal notes build with air — rosemary, bay leaf, dried grasses — while the yeast veil lends a subtle savory roundness that never dulls the wine’s energy. The finish is long, dry, and mouthwatering, carrying a lingering echo of citrus peel and sea spray.

This is rosé built for the table and for time. It pairs naturally with grilled fish, shellfish, anchovies, olive oil–rich dishes, and Provençal fare that leans into herbs and heat. It also rewards patience in the cellar, where its savory complexity deepens and its structure becomes even more pronounced.

Spéciale des Vignettes is Clos Cibonne at its most articulate — a wine that doesn’t perform Provence, but inhabits it. It reminds us that rosé, when rooted deeply enough in place and tradition, can be as serious, expressive, and age-worthy as any white or red — and far more surprising.

Clos Cibonne is not trying to redefine Provence. It is simply reminding us what it once was — and what it still can be — when tradition, landscape, and patience align in the glass.