Tonight I had the rare opportunity to learn more about Domaines Ott through a one night only wine maker’s dinner hosted by Vancouver’s favourite waterside French restaurant, Provence.
This was an intimate way to experience the flavours and terroir of Provence, with only 14 seats available, and ticket priced at $275 per person.
The evening was helmed by Global Brand Ambassador Christophe Coppola Renard, who was visiting Vancouver for the first time this weekend.
As guests claimed one of the available long table seats, we were greeted with a welcome glass of sparkling that we sipped on as we learned more about Domaines Ott and its four generations of history. They have been producing their renowned wines since 1898. This is done on their three estates in Provence: Château de Selle and Clos Mireilleproduce AOC Côtes de Provence wines, while Château Romassan produces AOC Bandol wines.
Their approach has always been sustainable, organic winegrowing and winemaking practices. Their focus has always been on quality and consistency, not volume. They started with white, but have adapted to the wants of the people by also doing rosé for over 230 years, making them the benchmark. With the start of each course and its wine pairing we heard from Christophe, regaling us of stories and antidotes.
Provence Marinaside was the perfect destination for this evening, as Owner/Chef Jean Francis Quaglia himself was raised in Provence, and the restaurant’s menu sees a lot of this influence.
As mentioned above, we begin with a welcome glass of Louis Roederer Collection 243. “243” referred to the number of years they have being making this Champagne in a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It was bright with light citrus, fresh and effervescent. A fun breezy start with bubble that tickled the tongue, and served well as pauses and breaks for all the accompanying salty bites below.
This was served alongside shared welcome canapés de bienvenue of socca, olive tapenade, and Mediterranean sardines. “Socca” is a crispy chickpea pancake that served as a great base for the fish and olives. All and all on the oiler side, but also healthy. The Champagne was necessary and helpful in cutting into the bold flavours of the first course, cleansing the palate in between heavy bites.
We moved from Champagne to rosé from Provence, marrying the best of both worlds in this dinner before us.
Domaines Ott* sources sophisticated vines that are a minimum of 10 years old, and the maximum number of years they are used is 15. The freshest rosé needs young vineyards for high acidity, and are juiced between 3-10 years and directly pressed for an easy drinking wine, such as the following.
The 2024 By Ott* Rosé is considered an entry level wine, given the bottle used. Whereas the others are more voluptuous with curves, 3 to symbolize waves and their breaking on to the beach. The 2024 By Ott* is mostly Grenache grape with its red fruit notes. Due to the vineyards’ proximity to the ocean, the winds from the seas spreads salt, adding lots of salinity and minerality to the grapes. This flavour is preserved in stainless steel in order to keep its purity. The result of all of the above is a rosé with a light and clean finish, which was excellent with food.
Everyone raved over how delicious the Carpaccio de Durade au Fenouil was. Fresh sea bream with fennel and a light lemon gelée. Each thin slice was so refreshing with an incredibly delicate mouthfeel. This was such a contrast and brought us great levity after the richer and saltier start. This was yet another course that allowed the wine to shine.
The 2024 Château de Selle Rosé is their higher tier of rosé, visible from its more salmon-esque colour. This is made with the best of the best grapes coming to Domaines Ott*’s state of the art wine cellar. From here they produce up to 300,000 bottles, distributing to over 109 countries, which Christophe believe spoke to the strong French market and a sign of their quality.
Once again this was Grenache grapes, with Syrah to bring colour to the wine, and Sancerre for increased drinkability. It was nice to be able to compare the two rosés consecutively and identify that this one had a creamier mouth feel. This was best described by Christophe as the “Gastronomy wine” with its strong attack, beautiful bouquet, and long after taste. You can even age it for 10-12 years.
This was paired with Huîtres Fraîches Locales. Local oysters from Fanny Bay served with pear, black pepper and finger lime mignonette. The black pepper really perked up all the surrounding flavours, rosé included, with the vinaigrette adding a refreshing acid to take off some of the oyster’s more creamier bites.
We then moved to white with the Domaines Ott* 2022 Clos Mireille Blanc. A blend of Sémillon and Rollo from Bordeaux. This is a sweet, lazy wine with a green lemon taste. Their proximity to the sea was once again a large contributing factor to its flavour, coupled with micro oxidation. It holds so well in the mouth, with a deliciously creamy and buttery flow, pairing well with its food match.
This we had with the Saint-Jacques Poêlées: pan-seared hokkaido scallops with cauliflower purée, saffron sauce, and chive oil. The scallop is so sumptuous that you wanted to slice it up, in order to ration it. Bites of silky soft and delicate scallop that you enjoyed across multiple bites, along side the soup-like sauce. The purée was as buttery as the wine and they kept the same flow. This was a comforting dish and my favourite of the evening, as I scrapped the dish clean.
The 2019 Château Romassan Rouge is the only red that Domaines Ott* makes, recognizing that it is important for the winery to show all three wine colours. Even as the only red in their portfolio, it is still ranked within the top 100 of reds in the world, and they are the only winery to rank here, that also does rose. It is aged a minimum of two years in their wine cellar and done intentionally gamey and “animal” with elegance, in order to match such dishes as its lamb pairing. It is recommended that you serve this one a little chilled. The wine was light and refreshing compared to the lamb, specially with the slight chill.
Carré d’Agneau Rôti and Pastilla d’Agneau is roasted rack of lamb and lamb pastilla. This was such a well balanced dish. The lamb lollipop was tender and tasty with the bone. The vegetable slices of tomato, zucchini, and eggplant offered some freshness and the flaky curry pastry acted as the starch.
And our evening ended with Domaines Ott*’s best rosé, dedicated to the owner: 2022 Étoile Rosé. Made from the best Grenache from their two vineyards, from two different appellations in Provence; and debatably the best rosé in the world It is aged in a ceramic egg and in barracks, but without taking on any oakiness from the latter, for a pure flavour on the palate. It is aged for a minimum of 2 years in cellar, to show that you can age a rosé. The bottle also has no label to best take in the quality of this rosé as is.
They will be bottling their batch for 2026 in end of June. Currently this $180 bottle is only available at the Everything Wine store at River District, with plans to get it into Legacy Liquor Store soon. For those interested in purchasing this for themselves, there are only 5000 bottles of this wine for the world. The rosé had strawberry notes that paralleled the berry in the dessert, with a citrus crisp to run along side the lemon-sugar as well.
This we enjoyed with the restaurant’s Panna Cotta à la Vanille. This was a classic vanilla panna cotta with fresh raspberries and pistachio tuile. The panna cotta jiggled like jello, was creamy like pudding, and had a tang like yogurt. It had a more neutral flavour to best showcase the tartness from raspberry fruit and the toastiness of the nuts. Crunchy and creamy this was a fantastic dessert, worthy of its wine pairing.
Guest were then invited to “wine down” (pardon the pun) with help from either tea or coffee. This was paired with speciality lemon based cookies flown in from Provence, that are traditionally meant to be enjoyed with coffee. This was no a sweet biscuit. Orange peel and lemon rinds with a hint of liquorice and almond.
In closing, this was such an amazing meal featuring wine of remarkable elegance, structure, and age-worthiness, well complimented by a dinner that best showcases them.
Provence Marinaside
1177 Marinaside Crescent, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2Y3
+1 604-681-4144
provencemarinaside.ca
