Rosé Champagne has moved past its pink persona, with prestigious, complex and terroir-driven wines worthy of collecting and aging.
For the first seminar of the 2023 New York Wine Experience, around 900 wine lovers gathered to sample some of the greatest bubbly on earth. “Today we’re going to explore the upper echelon of rosé Champagne with three of the most highly-rated examples I’ve reviewed in the last two years,” senior editor and Champagne taster Alison Napjus (wearing a jacket adorned with rosé Champagne bottles) told the crowd. “I think we are all going to see that these are serious wines to serve on the table with food, to cellar or have at your next party or celebration.”
Incredibly popular during the Roaring Twenties and after World War II, explained Napjus, pink Champagne dropped off somewhere in the 1960s, stereotyped and not taken very seriously. But over the past several years, rosé Champagne has surged in popularity, moving from 2.9 million bottles shipped to the U.S. 10 years ago to 5.9 million bottles in 2022. To meet the demand, Champagne makers have been working hard to increase quality, production and the variety of labels across the category, said Napjus.
This tasting showed what is possible at that top tier of sparkling rosés. The first of three wines, the red-fruited, mouthwatering Taittinger Brut Rosé Champagne Comtes de Champagne 2009 (94 points), was presented by Vitalie Taittinger, president of Maison Taittinger since 2020, representing the fifth generation of family ownership.
She explained there are two ways to make rosé Champagne, both using Chardonnay and the red grapes Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. In the saignée (“bleeding”) method, the juice is left in contact with the skins long enough to pick up color before being bled off from the tank and then fermented; the blending approach adds a small percentage of still red wine into the still white wine prior to secondary fermentation—and the creation of bubbles—to get the ideal pink hue.
All three wines poured at the seminar were made by blending in red wine, which Taittinger believes is better for controlling quality. “Both [methods] make beautiful Champagnes,” said Taittinger, “but blending gives us a freedom to play with the different textures and flavors of wine.”
Representing Bollinger, a house known for its emphasis on Pinot Noir, chef de cave Denis Bunner dove into how its La Grande Annèe cuvée is sourced from 19 terroirs across the region’s villages. This approach allows Bollinger (and other houses) to select the best lots for each vintage. For the youthful and elegant Brut Rosé Champagne La Grande Année 2014 (96 points), Bollinger mostly pulled from the village of Verzenay, blending it with only 5 percent red wine from a single plot in Aÿ—“one of the most mature terroirs for Pinot Noir,” Bunner explained. “This wine is a jubilee between the power of red wine from Aÿ and the freshness and brilliance of Verzenay, showing the best of Champagne for the year.”
Piper-Heidsieck chef de cave Émilien Boutillat has worked at the house since 2018 and started overseeing the Rare label last year. The 1976 vintage was the first of only 14 releases of the white Rare cuvée, which is bottled only in the best years, using the best grapes. Striking and elegant, the Rare Champagne Brut Rosé Champagne 2014 (97 points) is “even rarer than rare,” Boutillat said; just four vintages of the rosé have been produced. Creating a market-worthy rosé is more complicated than a blanc de blancs because it requires high-quality red grapes as well as white, but it’s worth the extra effort, explained Boutillat. “Blending different grapes and terroirs is essential to get that balance of fruitiness and freshness you need for great Champagne.”
Boutillat and the other presenters agreed that rosé Champagne is a true gastronomique wine—a superb companion to many types of seafood (particularly lobster), salty charcuterie and even richer dishes such as succulent beef tartare. “Because of the red wine, it can hold its own,” explained Bouillat. “Even with bold food choices, rosé Champagne can fit that power.”
