With Valentines Day coming, now is a perfect time to discuss one of the key ingredients to this celebration of love: rosé Champagne. It is a misunderstood wine and had famously been dismissed as a wine for “ladies of the night” by the Krug and Bollinger families—until they both later made wonderful ones themselves. For me, the best and the worst of Champagne is rosé, and there is one big reason: climate. The Champagne region is one of the coldest places on the planet that makes fine wine, and this climate lends itself more to making white wine.

Rosé Champagne is most often made by adding a small amount of red wine (between 5-15%) to white. Only the very best exposed plots, mostly on steep south-facing slopes, can produce the red wine that is used to make rosé. These plots must be tended to like gardens, with shorter pruning and plenty of babying to make something intense enough this far north. The most famous proponent of this style is Billecart-Salmon, who uses only old vine Pinot Noir from the mid-slope of Mareuil-sur-Ay in their category-defining rosé. They like to use a lot of very fresh Chardonnay (about 40%) to balance out the power of the red wine. The rosé of growers from the Cotes de Blancs takes this style to the extreme, as they often have no Pinot or Meunier of their own and must trade for it. The Pierre Mineral Rosé and the Franck Bonville Rosé are both 90% Chardonnay and just 10% red wine from Pinot Noir, and Damien Hugot makes one that we cannot keep in stock from 90% Chardonnay and 10% Meunier.

The other method for producing rosé Champagne is by maceration of all the skins with all the juice. It is often called the saignée method, sometimes even on the label, but this isn’t technically correct. Saignée means to bleed, and real saignée rosé is made by taking out some juice mid-maceration to increase the proportion of skins to juice. This is done to make red wine darker—and the by-product is rosé in red wine-producing areas. This never happens in Champagne. Instead, it would be better to call the other method maceration Champagne, as nothing is ever “bled out.” The advantage of leaving all the skins in contact with all the juice is more flavor and aromas from the skins. Paradoxically, that is also the problem with this method. This far north, issues on the skins of the grapes like botrytis, or less noble rots are not uncommon. A little bit of that rot can ruin your whole batch of rosé. The most famous proponent of this style, for good reason, is Laurent Perrier. They have a wholly separate and secret winery for making rosé, which they only use the cleanest grand cru fruit for. Among the growers, it is most common to find this style in the Aube, which is more continental in climate and has warmer summers. Lamoureux, Fluteau, and Fleury all make excellent examples.

There are also a few outliers who use a blend of the two styles. One of the best is from Champagne Louis Roederer. The 2013 vintage uses 63% Cumieres Pinot Noir which is macerated all together but then is “acidified” by the addition of 37% Chardonnay from the north-facing plots in the grand cru of Chouilly. This blend has elegance and power! The Aspasie Rosé is the only rosé that I know of that uses both methods. This Champagne is half each Meunier and Pinot Noir from Paul-Vincent Ariston’s estate in Brouillet. He takes half of each of the varieties for a short maceration, then corrects the aromas and flavors with a small amount of ancient vine Meunier that he makes into a red wine. He is a fool for work!

If you would like to learn- and better yet taste more rosé Champagne, please join us in all three stores for our February 15th tasting. Scotty will pour in San Francisco, Diana will pour in Hollywood, and I will pour here in Redwood City. This is our list:

The pure Pinot Noirs:

Fluteau Brut Rosé Champagne $34.99 (macerated)

Michel Arnould Verzenay Brut Rosé Champagne $36.99 (addition of red wine)

Launois Brut Rosé Champagne $39.99 (macerated)

The all dark fruit styles:

Ariston Aspasie Brut Rosé Champagne $34.99 (both)

Fallet-Dart Brut Rosé Champagne $34.99 (addition of red wine)

The Chardonnay styles:

Pierre Mineral Brut Rosé Champagne $39.99 (addition of red wine)

Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé Champagne $74.99 (addition of red wine)

You can see the times and details here.

A toast to you!