Pink notes - rosé champagne

Hello all

An evening of rosé champagne (with a kitchen white (champagne)).
All wines were opened in the morning, about eight hours before we poured the first glass, and all were drunk from Spiegelau Adina Ribolla (which I find to be excellent for serious champagnes).

While busy in the kitchen we had

1998 Vilmart ”Cuvée Création”
Started out oddly shy on the nose and quite heavy on the oak, but blossomed into its usual tropical fireworks-self. Every conceivable tropical fruit dancing in the nostrils with pineapple as the star of the night. Complex? No. A pleasure? Hell yeah. So round, pleasing and just pour-it-down-delicious - almost a slutty wine.


Then on to the main event - the rosés:

NV André Clouet Rosé
The only non-biodynamic one. Medium depth of colour. Strawberries, orange, iron and leather. Surprisingly deep and serious, but lacks the precision and the balancing acidity to be great.

2006 (bottled as NV) Raphaël Bérèche “l’Instant no 1 Rosé” (disg. 4/5-09)
Very light colour. Oh my word, a slightly sweet nose of rosehips, sea buckthorn, strawberry marzipan and raspberries, but the aromatic sweetness is kept in check by and incredible purity, freshness and a certain irony, saline note. Fabulous! Loved this – a shame that production is so small.

2006 (also bottled as NV iirc) Vouette et Sorbée “Saignée de Sorbée” (disg. 17/2-09)
I was expecting this to be the highlight of the evening. Really deep dark colour. I didn’t quite agree with the sweet, red berries, raspberry lemonade, and campari elements on the nose. In all fairness it also had lovely scents of fresh raspberries and orange peel, but it was a bit too tutti frutti liqueur soda pop kids party for me. It tasted nice, no doubt, but not my kind of rosé.

2004 David Léclapart “l’Alchimiste”
Medium colour. First sniff: WTF?!? VERY complex and VERY strange nose: leather, salt, iron and wild strawberries. Not a hint of sweetness, but a slight bitterness and serious tannins – yes, tannins in a rosé champagne. A bit disjointed without food, but was quite delicious with a powerful poultry dish with plenty of mustard and tarragon. My fellow taster loved it. I find it the most interesting (and weirdest) rosé I’ve tasted, but not quite the best. It was way too strange for that.

/Michael

Michael,

Nice bunch of Champagnes you had there. I love the Bereche L’Instant Rose and have been bugging Raphael Bereche to due a second edition of the wine, but haven’t convinced him yet. As of now it is a one time offering though he may do a L’Instant/Assemblage mix just to see how it turns out. Hopefully you have a few more bottles hidden away to see how this ages.

A nice first post…keep drinking!

Hi Brad,
Too bad if it ends up a one off.
I have access to a few more, but given the production numbers (it’s something like 500 bottles, isn’t it) I guess sooner would be better than later as for bringing them home.
Have you had the white l’Instant? I haven’t seen it at my local bio-champagne dealer, but had it at a tasting earlier this summer, and loved it.

/Michael

Michael,

I really like the white L’Instant. I’ve tried the 2004-2007 at various stages of their life and all are very good. My favorite of what I have tried is the premier vintage of 2004. Just a great wine and my favorite of all the L’Instants (whether Rose or not) by a hair over the Rose and the upcoming 2006.

A little under 900 bottles (895) of the L’Instant Rose were made so there aren’t too many to go around.