JCP Maltus, Château Teyssier Pezat Rosé, 2025
JCP Maltus, Château Teyssier Pezat Rosé, 2025
- 75cl
- 13%
- Rosé Still
- Merlot, Cabernet Franc
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Optimal drinking window: 2026 - 2027
JCP Maltus is the négociant arm of Jonathan Maltus, the British entrepreneur who quietly became one of Saint-Émilion's most influential figures through estates like Château Teyssier. Pezat is the satellite appellation just north of Saint-Émilion proper, and this rosé is very much the estate in holiday mode — Merlot and Cabernet Franc picked early, pressed gently, and vinified cool to keep everything bright and lifted.
The result is a wine that has more purpose than your average Bordeaux rosé: proper dry structure, real fruit character, and the kind of refreshing acidity that makes it genuinely useful at the table rather than just poolside. Drink it young, drink it cold, and drink it without ceremony.
Tasting Notes
AppearancePale salmon-pink with a faint copper edge and good clarity.
NoseFresh strawberry and crushed raspberry lead, with white peach and a squeeze of grapefruit underneath. There's a floral lift — something between rose hip and dried lavender — that keeps it interesting rather than one-dimensional.
PalateDry and medium-bodied with lively acidity that gives the wine its shape. The fruit is generous but not confected — ripe redcurrant and peach flesh — and there's a faint savoury edge from the Cabernet Franc that stops it being simply pretty.
FinishClean and refreshing, with citrus zest lingering and enough grip to remind you this is Bordeaux, not Provence.
Overall impressionA rosé with a backbone — more aperitif-with-intent than sun-lounger sipper.
Food Pairings
On the right bank of Bordeaux, a wine like this would find its natural home alongside a platter of charcuterie and rillettes from the Périgord, or a simple salade landaise with duck gizzards and pine nuts. The locals would be equally happy pouring it alongside grilled river fish — shad or pike from the Dordogne — with a herb butter. In the summer heat around Saint-Émilion, it's the wine that appears at lunch with a cold tomato salad dressed in good olive oil and fleur de sel. And nobody would argue if you opened it with a plate of oysters from Arcachon.
We think this wine would go well with
Serve well chilled at around 8-10°C — this is a wine where cold temperature is a genuine friend, not a mask. No decanting needed or wanted; just pull the cork and pour. A standard white wine or tulip glass works perfectly; there's no need for anything larger that would warm it too quickly.
Pezat sits on the plateau just to the north of Saint-Émilion, with clay-limestone soils that share a family resemblance with the grands crus just across the boundary. For a rosé, the key here is the relatively cool mesoclimate that allows grapes to retain freshness and natural acidity even in warm vintages. The 2025 growing season in Bordeaux was generally generous, with good fruit ripeness and enough freshness to produce lively, balanced wines.
Bordeaux Rosé is one of the appellation's less celebrated but quietly reliable categories, governed by the same broad Bordeaux AOC rules that cover the region's dry whites and lighter reds. Merlot dominates most rosés from this corner of France, often joined by Cabernet Franc, and the style tends toward dry, food-friendly wines rather than the pale, ultra-delicate expressions of Provence. It sits outside the prestige hierarchy entirely, which gives producers like Maltus the freedom to make something genuinely refreshing without the weight of expectation.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
FAQs
What does this rosé taste like?
Fresh and dry, with strawberry, white peach, and a grapefruit-like edge from the Cabernet Franc. It has more structure than most Bordeaux rosés and a clean, refreshing finish with a faint savoury kick.
What food works well with this wine?
It's versatile at the table: charcuterie, grilled fish, tomato salads, oysters, or anything with a bit of herb and citrus in the seasoning. The dry structure means it holds up to food rather than being purely a pre-dinner sipper.
How should I serve it?
Cold — around 8-10°C. Keep it in the fridge and serve straight away. No decanting, no ceremony. A standard white wine glass is all you need.
Is this worth cellaring?
No, and that's not a criticism. It's built for pleasure now, not the cellar. The acidity and fruit that make it appealing are exactly the qualities that fade first.
Who makes this wine?
JCP Maltus is the négociant label of Jonathan Maltus, the British businessman who became one of Saint-Émilion's most respected producers through estates including Château Teyssier. This rosé comes from Pezat, the satellite appellation just north of Saint-Émilion, and shows a lighter, more playful side of what is otherwise a serious right bank operation.
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