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Experts give Brangelina's wine two thumbs up

Wine snobs usually turn their noses up at celebrity wine labels, but the rosé from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is apparently the real deal.Wine Spectator magazine just ranked the Jolie-Pitt & Perrin Côtes de Provence Rosé Miraval from Chateau Miraval No. 84 on its list of Top 100 Wines of the Year, the only rosé to make the list, and the couple’s good looks and fame had nothing to do with i
Chateau Miraval 2012, wine from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Today

Wine snobs usually turn their noses up at celebrity wine labels, but the rosé from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is apparently the real deal.

Wine Spectator magazine just ranked the Jolie-Pitt & Perrin Côtes de Provence Rosé Miraval from Chateau Miraval No. 84 on its list of Top 100 Wines of the Year, the only rosé to make the list, and the couple’s good looks and fame had nothing to do with it—the magazine says it maintains a strict blind-tasting policy for the 15,000 bottles it reviews each year.

"It seemed to be very creamy, I liked its density, it had more complexity than the average rose," Wine Spectator's managing editor Kim Marcus told TODAY.com. "Roses don’t really pop out much over 90 points. There are a few others in the same league. Roses, especially from Provence, are really growing in quality and this is indicative of that."

After the wine’s release in March, it almost instantaneously sold out, but it is possible to get your hands on a bottle—for now.

Not everyone has it, but Union Square Wines in New York City, which ships, currently had about 100 bottles in inventory as of this writing, though there has been a flurry of orders since the list’s release, says wine director Jesse Salazar, 

Even before Brangelina became associated with the label, their popular rosé has always sold out each summer, Salazar said.

The Pitts got the wine-making bug after vacationing at the Chateau Miraval wine estate for the past few years and then purchasing the property.

“Once the Pitts came on board, it’s like, of course people want to drink rosé from the property where they vacation, who wouldn’t?” Salazar told TODAY.com.

Although some celebrity wines are of dubious quality, Salazar says the Pitts took an approach more similar to Francis Ford Coppola’s with his high-end line of wines. “It’s not about him as much as staying true to the region,” he said, and the same goes for the Brangelina wine.

“You have some celebrities who are contracted to slap a logo on a bottle of wine, and then you have celebrities who work with the wine makers to come up with something they actually like to drink. In this case, they did it the right way, working with a family known for making good wine and starting with good materials. It’s really a rebranding of the wine that was there, they’re not trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.”

The rosé is light and refreshing, with an aroma of wild strawberries and spices.

“It’s not a heavy, dark pink rosé that looks like it will give you a headache,” Salazar said.

While TODAY.com’s wine writer Edward Deitch found the fruit flavor too muted, Salazar argues that that helps it pair well with almost any food, making it a good choice for your Thanksgiving spread. “It’s not one of those rich, forceful fruit-forward wines that only goes well with a couple of things. Turkey, roasted vegetables—it goes with any of it.”