Château Roubine

Rosé held across the estate brief

The release begins before the glass, in the decision to keep vineyard, cellar and reception in one hand. Valérie Rousselle, winemaker at Château Roubine in Lorgues, has carried that work since 1994, as owner, CEO and winemaker of the estate. Her preparation did not come from a single bench. Oxford, the Hotel School of Lausanne, Suze-la-Rousse school and the University of Wine sit behind a career that joins wine study to the codes of hospitality. Work with Barrière Group in Deauville and Cannes added the discipline of arrival, room, service and public encounter, which matters here because Château Roubine is not only a production address. It is a Provençal estate where the visitor, the tasting room and the bottle all answer to the same house language. Rousselle’s role also extends beyond the property: she chairs Les Éléonores de Provence and has owned Château Saint-Béatrice since 2016. At Château Roubine, though, the fixed point is the Côtes de Provence AOC estate itself, held over time through rosé identity, estate direction and cellar authorship.

Seventy two hectares in Côtes de Provence

The property covers 130 hectares, with 72 hectares of vineyards set within a cirque of pine and oak forest in the Var countryside, between the Verdon and the Mediterranean. Château Roubine works within Côtes de Provence AOC and is counted among 23 Cru Classé producers in the region, a designation that gives the estate a formal place inside Provence wine history without replacing the work of each vintage. The planted language is broad: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Tibouren, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Vermentino, Rolle, Ugni Blanc and Clairette all belong to the estate’s palette. The wines move across still rosé, still red and still white, with named bottlings associated with Rousselle including La Vie en Rose cuvée, La Vie en Rosé and Inspire Rosé. The estate describes its production philosophy as sustainable, a word that only has weight when it returns to the vineyard block, the picking decision and the cellar choice.

Light over the cellar terrace

The cellar at Château Roubine works with the old estate around it rather than against it. Natural light comes through panoramic views over the vines; the terrace looks across the vineyard rows and out toward the Var countryside. The room reads as refined, but the refinement is quiet: stone, glass, cellar equipment, a measured tasting pace, conversation held at a level where the glass can still lead. Guided tastings, oenology courses and product tastings place the public side close to the working side, which suits a house run by someone trained in both wine and hospitality. The setting carries its own memory, including Knights Templar heritage attached to the estate, but the present tense remains in the cellar and in the wines poured from La Vie en Rosé.