2018 Muse de Miraval
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
Tasted from a 5-cl mini sample. Grenache and Rolle from ‘a strict selection’ of the two oldest (60-year-old vines) and best parcels of the château. Vinified in egg-shaped concrete tanks, aged in demi-muids with lees. Only bottled in magnum (a handcrafted bottle, they say). 2,000 magnums. I’m not sure how this can be called rosé. Poured into my glass, it looked like a Pinot Gris that has seen an hour or two of skin contact. Tastes a bit like an oaked Alsace Pinot Gris as well. Attar of roses, chamomile tea, custard tart, banoffee. The weight of the Muse de Miraval doesn’t only lie in its ‘handcrafted, unique-shape bottle’ – it's a heavy-bodied wine too. The texture is of heavy brocade silk and I find myself longing for an edge, a breath of freshness, something to cut the oil. (TC)
Critic scores
Average Score
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
Limpid orange-pink. Intensely perfumed aromas of fresh red berries, nectarine, blood orange and pungent flowers, along with subtle hints of smoky minerals, fennel and vanilla that emerge with air. Densely packed but surprisingly lithe thanks to a core of minerality that drives intense, deeply concentrated strawberry, cherry, orange zest and candied lavender flavors. Finishes extremely long and with sharp delineation, displaying lingering floral and vibrant mineral notes. This wine was built for cellaring and its potential is pretty clear to see. Fermented in concrete eggs, aged in 600-liter oak barrels and bottled in magnums.
Still in tank at the time of my February visit, the 2018 Cotes de Provence Rose Muse will be bottled in magnums (2,000 of them). Produced only from estate-grown fruit and fermented and aged in a mix of demi-muids and concrete "tulips," it shows hints of vanilla and pencil shavings, merging them seamlessly with hints of tangerine to create something almost creamsicle-like. Medium-bodied, plump and fleshy, it turns a bit spicy-peppery on the long, silky finish.