Rosé Vintage Champagne 2016

90 points, “The 2016 Brut Rosé is charming. Soft and inviting, the 2016 will drink beautifully right out of the gate. Readers will find a beautifully perfumed, gracious Rosé. The 2016 is not the richest or most complex vintage Rosé Roederer has released lately, but it is impeccably balanced and very easy to enjoy for its sensual personality.” – Antonio Galloni’s Vinous

Louis Roederer’s 2016 Rosé is a gorgeous wine. The year was a tricky one, with frost and hail radically lowering the yields. However, what remained was of excellent quality, it just might prove a little hard to get your hands on if you wait too long.

This youthful and sophisticated wine resonates with peach, strawberry sorbet, redcurrant, blood orange, baguette spread with apricot jam, nectarine, marzipan, smoked sea salt, pink grapefruit, almond croissant, gingerbread, roasted cocoa nibs and a touch of chalk from the Chouilly Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir comes from Cumières, which is steeply sloped and one of the earliest Champagne crus to ripen, resulting in great depth and a very vinous quality. A larger than normal proportion (21%) was fermented in oak and the wine was aged for more than five years in the bottle. This ‘going the extra mile’ is the hallmark of this great Champagne house. Consider pairing with salmon, pink lamb, canapés, beetroot risotto, lighter Japanese dishes and strawberry desserts.

Founded in 1776 and famed for being the producers of Cristal, Louis Roederer is one of the last major Champagne houses to still be independently family-run. It falls under the stewardship of the Rouzauds – one of the wine world’s most powerful families and owners of Domaines Ott, Champagne Deutz, Ramos Pinto Port, Merry Edwards and Diamond Creek in the USA, Maison Delas in the Rhône and Bordeaux’s iconic Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande.