Château Simone’s Palette Rouge 2021 comes from one of Provence’s most established addresses in the tiny Palette AOC, near Aix-en-Provence. The estate works on cool, north-facing limestone scree slopes under Mont Sainte-Victoire, with vines averaging more than 50 years old and some parcels over a century. The red is a traditional field blend led by Grenache (about 45%) and Mourvèdre (about 30%), supported by Cinsault and a mix of local and lesser-seen varieties that can include Syrah, Castet, Manosquin, Carignan and Muscat Noir, depending on the source.

In the cellar, Château Simone emphasizes classical methods: hand harvesting at full maturity with strict sorting; indigenous-yeast fermentation in small vats; a relatively long maceration (about 15–21 days) with temperature control; and an extended élevage of roughly 20 months in wood, moving from small foudres to older barriques. The wine is bottled without filtration, a choice consistent with the estate’s intent to preserve texture and age-worthiness.

The 2021 has an excellent review from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, which awarded 96 points. The magazine notes that the wine “unfurls in the glass with a deep and complex bouquet of cassis, blackberry, blueberry, black olive and exotic spices,” and describes it as “medium- to full-bodied, dense and powerful,” yet “focused and saline.” Particularly striking is the emphasis on structure: the review highlights “mineral tannins of extraordinary precision” and a “long, pepper-inflected finish of considerable depth” (Wine Advocate, May 28, 2026). The same review goes further, calling 2021 “one of the estate’s defining wines of the 2020s,” underscoring both the wine’s stature in the vintage and its clear potential for long cellaring. Small US allocations have been reported at roughly 2,400 bottles annually.