Rows of fragrant roses encircle the 18th-century castle of Château d’Estoublon, an architectural wonder in the heart of Provence surrounded by fields of lavender and a sprawling vegetable garden. But it’s the 750 acres of grapevines—wine has been produced on the estate as far back as 1489—that first drew Carla Bruni-Sarkozy to the estate.
In 2020, she and her husband, former French president Nicholas Sarkozy, visited the château for the first time, after their previous owners put it up for sale. “We fell in love with the property,” she tells Vogue from her recording studio in Paris, adorned with overlapping layers of personal photographs taken over decades. (Guitars—including one classic Cordoba acoustic—are affixed to one wall.) “It’s this lush countryside of vines and roses and platan trees that take so many years to grow. In the summer, it’s a little paradise. The castle itself is a magic place, full of incredible energy. It’s like my version of the Garden of Eden.”
To revive the estate’s Edenic paradise, Bruni-Sarkozy and her husband partnered with Jean-Guillaume Prats (previously the CEO of Domaines Barons de Rothschild) and French entrepreneur Stéphane Courbit, to continue this storied legacy—and it’s remained a collaborative process ever since. “Before, the estate was owned by a family and they weren’t able to evolve it as much as we are attempting to do right now,” Bruni-Sarkozy explains. “We are very close to our partners. They’re our friends. We all thought that maybe we could bring this into the world so that others can experience it the way we do.”
Now, Château d’Estoublon is gearing up to offer its flagship Provençal rosé, the Roseblood d’Estoublon Vintage 2023, to the U.S. market for the very first time—and unsurprisingly, it’s the rose-speckled estate that inspired the wine’s name. “There is meaning behind everything,” Bruni-Sarkozy says. “Roseblood is in reference to the roses, which is easy to understand when you’re at Château d’Estoublon. You feel their presence right away. The rose is everywhere. It’s more than a flower; it’s a symbol. There are roses everywhere across the vineyards. To me, it’s a guardian of the vines. They are inseparable from the property.” (Featuring a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, and Rolle grapes, the vintage harmonizes well with Mediterranean food, or, as Bruni-Sarkozy suggests, “anything fresh from a vegetable garden.”)
Bruni-Sarkozy describes it as another element of the connective tissue between all of her creative outlets—whether that’s songwriting, which she says she can only do from a place of urgency and emotion, or the slower process of winemaking. “What everyone does, even what every child does, at its essence is the same,” she says. “Though creation is evolving, I feel like it is similar in every sort of way: an act of bringing something into the world.”
The longtime supermodel has also found time to balance Château d’Estoublon with her life-long love for fashion and her dedication to its future. Less than a year ago, Bruni-Sarkozy attended the 2023 Met Gala in an archival couture crepe dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld, with a draped silk scarf imagined under the brand’s current creative director, Hun Kim. She did so hours after delivering a moving tribute to the designer at the press preview of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.
“I love the new creations of Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. I was at the fall 2024 show this year,” she says of the current crop of designers that inspire her. “Anthony brings an incredible atmosphere to each show. I feel like Monsieur Saint Laurent is there walking around in the darkness. During this last show, many of the models had headwraps and it reminded me of Loulou de la Falaise, who was Saint Laurent’s muse. I was very close to Monsieur Saint Laurent so it brings me a melancholic joy to see his vision evolve with Anthony.”
As spring days lengthen and summer approaches, however, Bruni-Sarkozy will be occupied once again with those roses in Provence. And there’s no better time, she explains, to drink a glass of rosé than when these horticultural wonders are in full bloom. “The perfect time to drink Roseblood is with people you love in a beautiful place—or maybe it’s the end of the day and you’re alone and you feel good,” she says, or “when it’s the beginning of the summer and the days get longer and everyone gets hopeful.” We can all raise a glass to that.