(2024) The massively popular Whispering Angel from Cave d'Esclans is a global phenomenon, but it is just one of several premium rosés made by this Provence-based producer. Majority  owned by LVMH, the range includes both estate wines and wines made from fruit sourced from local growers.

Though their £100 per bottle Garrus is a game-changer for the rosé sector (latest vintage to be reviewed soon), I always think this, the first of the range made from estate-grown fruit, is where Esclans moves into more serious fine wine territory.

The Château d’Esclans is a blend of Grenache and Rolle, fermented in a combination of steel and 600-litre oak barrels. Pale and peachy pink, the creaminess and very gentle sheen of oatmeal from the barrels adds a luxurious touch to the pert stone fruit and hint of redcurrant. The palate too has texture and creamy weight, and while filled with supple and smooth fruit, there's a bit of grip here and no shortage of balancing acidity. It's a rosé that doesn't want to be over-chilled, and will match mildly spicy foods as well as salmon or trout. Note that at time of writing, North & South Wines has this on sale by the six-bottle case, bring the per bottle equivalent close to £30.

(2024) Lampe de Méduse in its striking genie's lamp bottle is a pale and attractive, organic certified rosé from clay and limestone soils. The blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Tibouren, Mourvèdre and Syrah has a strawberry shortcake nose, delightfully crammed with summery red berries. The palate has real vibrancy, ripe and punchy berries scythed through by salts and lemon acidity. Very good.

(2024) Galoupet is a £50 pink from the LVMH stable, conceived to be a little bit different from most other Provence rosés. The certified organic wine blends 52% Grenache with Tibouren, Rolle, Syrah and small amounts of Cinsault and Semillon. Packaged in a 70% recycled amber bottle it was also aged in larger French oak barrels. A touch deeper in colour than some, there's a hint of cedar and vanilla creaminess to this, some citrus and a melon rind sense of grip. A palate of bitter orange and taut red berries also carries the grip, through a touch of tannin and the higher alcohol (14%). Really quite different, and apparently ageworthy (the 2021 said to be drinking really well).

(2024) Mostly Grenache, with 20% made up of Syrah, Cinsault and Tibouren this comes from the three main terroirs (schist, clay and sand) of Minuty’s own vineyards. 100% free run juice. Blush peach in colour, it has a fragrant nose, citrus peel, green herbs and a touch floral. In the mouth the acidity is bracing and mineral. Fruit moves from crunchy red apple to citrus, with a delicate red berry, summery sweetness just held nicely in check. Delightfully intricate stuff.

(2023) From the LVMH stable, this is a wine of serious intent - and pricing, though at time of review Berry Bros price of £36.50 is £10 less than any other retailer I can see. It has partial oak ageing, and that perhaps helps adds a burnished tone to the salmon pink colour, and certainly some delicate pastry notes to otherwise fruity and floral aromas. There's great concentration in this 14% abv pink, with a grapefruit grip and definition to the acidity, but very pleasing, relatively broad and juicy flavours through the mid-palate. A gastronomic rosé in a beautifully stylish package too.

(2023) An aristocratic pink from the Provence outpost of the Rothschilds, a collabroation between Bordeaux's Baroness Ariane de Rothschild and Valerie Rousselle of Provence. Biodynamically certified, in the blend is 60% Grenache, 20% Cinsault, 10% Syrah, 5% Mourvèdre and 5% Tibouren. Pale peachy salmon, so much flinty, chalky mineral character here, backed up with a softer strawberry fruitiness and a sharper edge of raspberry. In the mouth a saline character gives a slipperiness to the texture, which is intriguing. That intense and decisive fruity but steely impression continues. Lots of pithy acidity and a little tug of tannin here giving this seriousness, though the fruit is good. £24.95 by the six-bottle case.

(2022) Fans of Whispering Angel will notice a slightly more gastronomic, mineral and meaty character here, Esclans cuvées from this point up seeing some barrrel fermention, of Grenache, Cinsault and Vermentino. Peachy-pink, this is in some ways a sweet spot on price and quality for the whole, impressive range: intense, concentrated peach fruit, but with a keen raspberry edge of mouth-watering tartness, minerals and a touch of savoury tannin into a long, shimmering finish.

(2022) Last year's Les Clans was a fabulous wine that I ranked more or less equally with the Garrus, and I have to say this 2020 is equally compelling. The blend is Grenache, Syrah and the white Vermentino, the wine fermented and aged 10 months in oak. I detect the creamy, quality but subtle oak across the aromas, but there's a raft of delightful small red berry fruit that still dominates the nose. The palate shows that layered, complex subtlety, delicate but so intense, the frut and mineral, stony acid core combining to extend the finish.

(2022) The estate wine is partly vinified in larger oak barrels and blends Grenache and Syrah with Vermentino. There's an attractive peachiness on the nose here, but mostly tight, small red berries and a wisp of salt. The palate is firm and has a really decisive, dry, grippy citrus core that is eminently food-friendly. Long, structured, with a saline edge, it's a lively and serious wine.

(2021) A blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Tibouren, Carignan and Rolle, this is Saint-Maur's top cuvée, even paler than the regular Côte de Provence rosé, and very aromatic. There's even a touch of elderflower and passionfruit here among the pretty red berry fruit notes, and a sense of something more taut and mineral. In the mouth it bursts with sweet, ripe fruit, but there's a tart, mouth-watering character too with citrus and salts balancing into the finish. Quite powerful and concentrated too, it nicely straddles prettiness and power.