2008 Louis Roederer Brut Rosé Champagne (1.5L)

All 100% Estate grown fruit (as are all vintage cuvées made by Louis Roederer), the Brut vintage Rose’ approximately two thirds Pinot Noir from Cumieres (a warm village that overlooks the Marne village, and usually the first village to harvest in Champagne), and 30% Chardonnay from north facing plots in Chouilly. The Pinot Noir is given a little colour using the “saignee” method (that is to bleed colour from the skins). Cumieres vines are planted on steep slopes that, in combination with the river below, produces powerful and juicy Pinot Noir. A finessed Champagne, with plenty of grip: the crunchy aromas of red fruit and orange zest interplay with a juicy succulence on the mid-palate. Nicely reductive and toasty in magnum. Louis Roederer produces a rare example of a rose’ that rewards a little bit of cellaring.

The 2008 is the customarily pale salmon in color of Louis Roederer Rosé and today delivers an utterly refined and complex aromatic constellation of wild strawberries, white cherries, orange blossoms, a lovely base of chalky minerality, discreet smokiness, bread dough, rose petals and a lovely array of gentle brown spices in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, precise, full-bodied and supremely elegant in profile, with a beautiful spine of acidity, great focus and grip, elegant mousse, fine depth of fruit and a very long, impeccably balanced, refined and very complex finish. This has turned out even better than I initially imagined, and I have been very impressed since the first time I tasted this vintage! A simply superb wine.