2008 Louis Roederer Rose

Bright orange-pink. High-pitched red berry and floral aromas are complicated by notes of candied rose, toasty lees and minerals. Densely packed and lively, offering sappy raspberry and blood orange flavors and a touch of rose pastille that gains strength with air. Closes with excellent clarity and cut, leaving suave floral and smoky mineral notes behind. I like the mix of power and finesse here.

In tasting Roederer’s 2008 Brut Vintage Rose, I am certainly reminded of the belief stated in their press releases that “a great rose Champagne must be made from very ripe grapes,” which, they go on to explain, is the reason why this cuvee is always predominantly informed by the steep, shallow-soiled, south-facing, waterside slopes of Cumieres. Certainly what has been extracted from the two-thirds Pinot here—colored via saignée—is an essence of ripe, juicy fresh red currant and red raspberry laced with lemon and orange rinds and perfectly set off by close to ten grams of residual sugar. A faintly sweaty tang and subtle suffusion of chalk add interest—and slight grain of tannin invigoration—to a lusciously refreshing but still very much fruit-dominated finish. I wouldn’t want to rule out some additional depth of flavor emerging over the next couple of years, but it would be a shame to miss out on this cuvee in its exuberantly fresh-fruited youth. Owners of vast vineyards (totaling some 500 acres) that supply the majority of their fruit, Roederer also presides—by design as well as due to that vastness—over a mind-bending number of micro-vinifications, divided entirely between tanks and foudres, supplemented by a concomitantly deep and diverse range of reserve wines. But for all of the variety that these phenomena entail, scarcely any lots undergo malolactic transformation. Importer: Maisons, Marques & Domaines USA, Oakland CA; tel. (510) 587-2000