France — wine

Cassis

One of Provence's smallest and most distinctive appellations — the dramatic cliff-backed town of Cassis, 20km east of Marseille on the Calanques coastline, produces some of France's most mineral and food-friendly dry whites. The amphitheatre of Jurassic limestone cliffs surrounding the bay create a unique microclimate where the Mediterranean's warmth is tempered by altitude and sea breezes, and the white and blue-tinted limestone soils impart a distinctive minerality and aromatic complexity to Marsanne, Clairette, and Ugni Blanc. 'He who has seen Paris and not Cassis has seen nothing' goes the old Provençal saying — the white wine is as essential to the town as the calanques.

Year Rating Notes
2022 Good vintage with characteristic Cassis freshness and mineral limestone quality.
2021 Outstanding Cassis vintage — cool conditions preserving exceptional freshness and mineral tension.
2020 Hot year with good limestone minerality preserved. Marsanne of good aromatic depth.
2019 One of the finest recent Cassis vintages — complex, mineral whites with genuine cellaring potential.
2018 Classic Cassis vintage with characteristic aromatic freshness and limestone mineral quality.