The Elegance of Rosé Champagne
No conversation about rosé wine would be complete without including the sublime and capricious wines of Champagne. For me, most of the best and all of the worst Champagnes that I have had have been rosé—and for good reason. This far north, it is very tricky to get the skins of the grapes perfect, and to introduce color to the wine, at least part of it has to be macerated with the skins. In the south of France, on the coasts of Provence, the sunny, dry weather is moderated by the cooling influence of the sea, but in Champagne, even the summers can be wet, leading to rot. Most producers in the area opt to farm one small plot like a garden, using a different selection or clone of grapes, often very old vines with different pruning and lots of extra work like green harvesting. From this plot they will make a dark red wine that is blended into a base of white wine to make rosé. All three of the Champagnes in this article share this technique, and the first even a little more!
I only know one producer crazy enough to make both a small amount of red wine from a garden plot of old vines, and then also do a full skin contact on half of the base wine in the blend. That crazy man is Paul-Vincent Ariston, someone that many of you have met at our Champagne tent events. His Ariston Aspasie Brut Rosé Champagne $39.99 is half each Pinot Noir and Meunier. The grapes with the cleanest skins are selected for a short maceration, and then about 12% old-vine Meunier is added in from vines from the 1950s. The result is a dark-colored rosé that drinks far more elegantly than the powerful color would suggest. After more than five years of aging on the lees, a complex brioche shares the stage with Rainier cherry fruit and a chizzled dry finish follows up the perfect pearl of tiny bubbles in the mouth. The value is crazy—if you like rosé, you have no reason not to try this at least once!
Antoine and Quentin Paillard have a small vineyard inside the walls of their winery, their own clos, which cannot be farmed by machine at all due to the location inside their compound and its tiny size. Like all their estate, this plot is within the famed Grand Cru of Bouzy, the most famous place in all of Champagne for making red wine to blend into the best rosé cuvées. They use the red wine from this tiny garden to make their Pierre Paillard "Les Terres Roses" Grand Cru Extra Brut Rosé Champagne $64.99, which has a base dominated by Chardonnay to make sure that the wine does not become too heavy. The final composition is 64% Chardonnay, 36% Pinot Noir and 5% red wine from the “in-house” plot. If you like an elegant style, with a light pink color and a delicate touch on the palate, this is a must try. It has a real Bing cherry note that reminds me of the hauntingly dark fruit of Volnay hidden inside the light, bright frame. I have even had this with oysters—it was a great success.
If only the best will do, I cannot recommend the 2012 Billecart-Salmon "Cuvée Elisabeth" Brut Rosé Champagne $219.99 strongly enough. This wine is composed of 55% Chardonnay, entirely from Côte de Blancs Grand Cru vineyard and 45% Pinot Noir. The red wine that gives this Champagne its distinct coppery salmon color comes from an 80-year-old plot in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ called the Vallofroy. This ancient massal-selected Pinot Noir grows alongside the famous Clos des Goisses, enjoying a perilously steep, south-facing slope that almost touches the Marne River. The very small 2012 vintage is sought after in collector circles for its fabulous concentration and balancing brightness, two qualities that describe the Elisabeth perfectly. This wine has it all, from the fine nut bread aromas to the scintillating chalk of the back end.
A toast to you!
- Gary Westby, K&L Champagne Buyer