Château Le Puy Rose-Marie 2024

Château Le Puy is a family estate at Saint-Cibard near Libourne, on the same rocky limestone and clay plateau as Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. The Amoreau family has farmed here for four centuries without chemical treatments, working the vineyard biodynamically and bottling without additives as a natural wine. This rosé is made from Merlot and aged for six months in used French oak barrels, which is unusual for a rosé and shapes its character. The old barrels add no overt vanilla but lend texture and a gentle oxidative complexity, while the limestone subsoil holds water and gives freshness through the Bordeaux summer. The colour is pale pink with a faint copper tint. The nose shows redcurrant, wild strawberry and white peach, with a subtle nutty, savoury note from the time in wood. The palate is dry and restrained, more textured than a steel-fermented rosé, with quiet red fruit, fine acidity and an earthy, almond-edged finish. Serve at 10 to 12 degrees, a little warmer than most rosés so the barrel character shows. It suits roast chicken, white fish and shellfish.