Champagne Larmandier-Bernier 1er Cru Rosé de Saignée NV Disg. Sep 2017

This rosé is made by macerating and bleeding Pinot Noir from a single old-vine plot at Vertus, not by blending a little red wine into a white base.

Vertus is the premier cru at the southern end of the Côte des Blancs, a village far better known for Chardonnay but with long-standing Pinot Noir on its chalk. Larmandier-Bernier, run by Pierre and Sophie Larmandier since 1988, farms around fifteen hectares there and in the grand crus to the north, organically from 1992 and biodynamically from 1999. The rosé comes from one old parcel where a little Pinot Gris grows among the Pinot Noir. The fruit is partly destemmed and macerated on its skins for two to three days, then the pink juice is run off before the colour deepens, so hue, structure and fruit weight arrive together and cannot be adjusted later. Fermentation is on indigenous yeasts in tank and concrete egg, malolactic conversion runs, and the wine spends close to a year on lees before tirage and at least two more years in bottle, finished at about two grams of dosage.

Drinking well now and it will hold for a few more years in bottle. Serve at about 8°C with charcuterie, roast quail or a plate of jamón. This bottling was disgorged in September 2017.