Charles Heidsieck : Rosé Réserve

This elegant, seamless Champagne is supple in texture, expressing toast, coffee, spice and dried berry aromas and flavors that also pick up a hint of vanilla. Offers lovely harmony and a long aftertaste. Drink now through 2013. 500 cases imported.

Based on the terrific Pinot Noir from the 2012 vintage, this is a top-dollar pink at a reasonable price. Fresh, intense and opulent, but also refined and of great class. All sorts of sensuous fruits, including black cherry, plum and even prunes, are checked by freshness and vigour. Dosage 11g/l. Disgorged in 2017

(one-third each Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; 11 g/l dosage; L130297 3835): Light, bright orange. Intensely perfumed scents of raspberry, orange zest, white flowers and chalky minerals. Juicy and precise in the mouth, offering vibrant red berry and blood orange flavors and a complicating hint of brioche. The floral quality comes back strong on the very long, incisive finish, which features a subtle anise quality and smoky minerality. About 20% of the Pinot Noir here was in the form of still red wine.

Medium salmon pink, silver reflections, fine, persistent mousse. Delicate smoky-tobacco undertones, fine red berry fruit, but also yellow tropical fruit, candied orange zest, mineral touch. Complex, juicy, preserved cherry, subtle fruit sweetness, fine acidity, good length, a complex food companion with a salty finish, one of the best non-vintage rosés on the market. (Cellared 2013, degorged 2019).

A blend of 40% Pinot Noir (5% of which is red wine from the village of Les Riceys), 35% Chardonnay, and the rest Meunier, the NV Champagne Reserve Brut Rosé pours a medium salmon/pink color. The nose is layered, fruity, and inviting, with aromas of crushed strawberries, fresh baked croissant, marzipan, and floral perfume. This carries to the palate, which is balanced with a round and chalky mouthfeel, a spritely mousse, and notes of grapefruit citrus through the finish. It offers a wide drinking window for enjoying now or over the coming 7-8 years.

Very pale salmon in color, the Rosé Réserve NV has an attractive floral nose with teasingly ripe notes of red fruit, kumquat and pomegranate. The medium-bodied palate has a lithe acid line running throughout to accent red forest fruits with hints of spice and chalk through the long, lovely finish. A blend of 40% each of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay plus 20% Pinot Meunier; 5% of the Pinot Noir from Les Riceyes is always pre-blended with the best Pinot Meunier from the vintage, then added to the same assemblage as the Brut Reserve which includes 30% of reserve wines in the blend. This is a complex and well-crafted NV rosé with nine gram per liter dosage.

This finely textured Champagne is ripe in fruits and with a taut edge of steeliness. The wine's red-berry flavors are intense and deliciously fresh. Drink the wine now.