2014 Louis Roederer Rose

Tasted blind. Pale orangey salmon. Rose-petal aromas and candied rose petals and violet cachous on the palate. Lots to get your teeth into. Lightly smoky finish. Really racy. (JR)

Wafting from the glass with notes of pear, raspberries and honeycomb, mingled with hints of white flowers and brioche, Roederer's 2014 Brut Vintage Rosé is medium to full-bodied, deep and complete, with fine concentration, brisk acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse. Long and penetrating, this is a fabulous cuvée that punches well above its weight, and it comes warmly recommended.

63% Pinot Noir, mainly from Cumières, and 37% Chardonnay, mainly from Chouilly – all from Roederer's own vineyards, many of them biodynamically farmed. Roederer is the only champagne house making rosé via ' infusion'. Because Roederer are looking for fruit rather than colour or tannins, they cold-macerate the Pinot grapes for five or six days before fermentation and some Chardonnay juice is added to the cold maceration as chef de cave Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon believes this helps integration of this portion of the blend when it is later blended with the fermented Chardonnay in the spring following harvest. 17% of the wine is fermented in large oak fermenters. The wine spent 5.5 years in bottle on the lees and was disgorged in September 2019 with a dosage of 8 g/l. It's hardly pink at all! I'd call this colour very pale apricot. Great vitality on the nose and excellent integration so that neither grape component is obvious. Very zesty with a hint of orange peel – definite citrus. More obvious acidity than on the Charles Heidsieck Réserve Rosé NV described in this selection. It's still quite youthful and should have a long life. Complex and almost liqueur-like in its intensity (not in terms of sweetness of which it has hardly any apparently). Perhaps tincture is a better word than liqueur. Bone-dry finish. A fascinating wine that would be worth cellaring for future Februarys. Not a ridiculous price for this quality. (JR)