Rosé Champagne is in increasing demand. With its appealing fruity bouquet, added dimensions of flavour, complexity and allure it is easy to see why.
There are two distinct methods of
producing Rosé Champagne – ‘assemblage’ or ‘saignée’. The most common production method, ‘rose d’assemblage’, uses the traditional ‘Methode Champenoise’. Before being bottled and prepared for the second fermentation, between, 5-20% still red
wine, usually Pinot Noir, is blended with the still white wine. The wine then undergoes the usual ‘Method Champenoise’ second fermentation as per normal. With the ‘rosé de saignée’ method, the recently harvested grapes are left on the skins during maturation for a
few hours, until a pale pink colour is achieved. The wine is then “bled” of the lees and skins and fermented twice as usual.
While Rosé Champagne has surged in popularity of late, (part of a longer growth trend dating back to the mid 90's) commanding a hefty premium when compared to its counterpart, it is not new and has actually been around for quite some time. Rosé Champagne dates back to 1804 and the House of Veuve Clicquot. Despite this history and its current popularity, Rosé Champagne still only accounts for between 3-5% of the Champagne region’s total annual production.
Here at Moore Champagne
we have two great Grower Rosé Champagnes; Rousseaux's Grand Cru
Rosé Saignee and Maude Plener's Grand Cru Rosé.
The two different methods of Rose production are well illustrated here. Maud Plener uses a mixture of her normal Non vintage Brut champagne and 10% of Bouzy Rouge. This is a local red wine made
using the local Pinot Noir grapes. The Champagne region is the only one that allows the production of Rose by simply mixing red wine and white wine.
The Rose Saignee Grand Cru is made using 100% Pinot Noir and allowing the the colour to leach from the skins of the Pinot Noir grape before launching into the normal production of champagne.
Both of these Grower Rosé Champagnes are available in our Champagne Store now.