The Opening · Bordeaux rosé

Prélude2025

Still maturing in our cellar — released only in its drinking phase.

Ageing in bottle

Arriving

Like a late afternoon on the Basque coast.

A rosé with backbone and texture, conceived for the table, not a trivial terrace wine.

A prelude sets out the theme before the suite begins, clearly and with a sense of what is to follow. That is how this rosé opens an evening.

Limitation: 409

The coast in the late afternoon

The first glass

The flavour profile of Prélude 2025

Prélude is a rosé made from Malbec, a dark grape, and you can taste it: wild strawberry, white peach, a hint of pink pepper and a saline minerality that gives it drive. Elegant and structured, a rosé for the table, well chilled at 10–12 °C.

Why Prélude

An opening with a clear voice.

A suite is a sequence of dances. Each has its own character, and only all together do they make the whole. That is how our estate is built: each cuvée is inspired by a movement of this suite and takes on the character of its form.In music, the prelude comes first: it sets out the key and makes you curious about the movements that follow. The pianist Johanna Summer improvises on Ravel's Prélude and hears the old piece with today's ears. With us, Prélude opens the rosés of the Suite. Well chilled, it is an aperitif with substance, and it stays at the table for the meal, with seafood or chicken from the grill.

Prélude shows that a rosé may have backbone, with the spice of Malbec and a saline minerality.

Johanna Summer — Improvisation Prélude Ravel

Maturity — how it drinks today

Still maturing in the cellar

Expected to be ready to drink: around 2027

Our principles

Why we take the trouble

Ageing in our own cellar

Most of our wines go on sale only once they are ready to drink; until then they mature with us, and we carry the risk.

Composed plot by plot

Each plot is vinified separately; only at the end do we compose the cuvée from them.

Time as an ingredient

Depth takes time. We give the wines the years in barrel and bottle that they need.

Organic & HVE4

The Domaine's vineyards are certified organic and HVE4, set within a 19-hectare ecosystem of woodland, meadows, water and vines.

The terroir and the wine it yields

Where it comes from

The Prélude comes from a single plot: C3 on the Plateau du Limancet, a good third of a hectare of clay, planted with Côt — the Malbec — in 1953. From these old vines comes a rosé that draws its spice and structure directly from the clay, carried by the saline minerality that runs through the whole suite. One plot, one grape variety, one soil — the calm upbeat of the movements.

Precision & method

In the tradition of modern oenology

Aux Conseillans was for decades the Domaine of Jean Ribéreau-Gayon — one of the co-founders of modern oenology, founder of the Institute of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux (1949) and long-time owner of the estate. We work in that tradition: each plot analysed and vinified separately, the ageing guided under control, drinking maturity checked in a blind tasting.

The legacy of the oenologists

The hour before dinner

Poured well chilled and given a few minutes in the glass: Prélude needs nothing more, there is no need to decant it.

Your evening

A wine for the table.

Dishes to pair

A selection from our recipe kitchen, matched to the structure and maturity of this wine.

Bouillabaisse marseillaise – saffron fish stew with rouille

Calamars farcis in a tomato-herb broth

Carne cruda all'albese

Carpaccio di manzo – beef fillet with rocket & Parmigiano

Cataplana de marisco

Grilled côtes de porc – sage-lemon butter

Escalivada catalana – aubergine, pepper & onion from the wood oven, olive oil & anchovies

Fideuà de marisco – Valencian noodle paella with seafood & alioli

All recipes

The mood to match the wine

A playlist for the moment

If you are a friend of classical music, here is a playlist that may suit your evening and the character of this wine. One possibility among many; listen in, if you like.

Sound of Prélude · Listen on Spotify

Ageing in bottle

Not yet ready to drink