Everyone is Talking About the Rose Champagne Category

In
2OO6 rose grew 7.11% over 2OO5. In the past, the Rose market
was fickle, rising one year and decreasing the next. Since
2OO4 sales have rapidly climbed. Though nearly all major
markets have shown unusual growth in the Rose category, the
US and Japanese markets have become particularly enamored
with Rose Prestige Cuvee. The Rose Champagne package is the
ideal focus for catchy design.

Many producers are
completely out of stock when it comes to Rose. The first
time, I encountered this situation was two years ago. This
was when the Champagne surge became evident. I had brought a
small group of connoisseurs to visit Champagne Marc Hebrart.
When I asked Jean-Paul Hebrart if some members of the group
could buy Rose, he told us that his Japanese customers had
completely cleaned out his inventory. More recently in
September 2OO7, Didier Gallimard of Champagne Gallimard in
Les Riceys, found himself in a similar situation as Hebrart.
Gallimard owns 11 hectares of his own and buys in the grapes
from 3 additional hectares. He makes 85OO bottles of 1OO%
Pinot Noir Rose Champagne. He told me that his Japanese
customers wanted 4OOO bottles of Rose but he could only
supply them with 1OOO bottles. He is now increasing his Rose
Champagne production. Back in the US, Stephen Brauer, Vice
President and General Manager for Pernod Ricard USA (which
includes GH Mumm and Perrier-Jouet), commented on the fever
for Rose: “Rose continues to be a very popular style of
Champagne and thus the demand for our Rose Champagnes
exceeds the supply we have in the US.” Changing scenes back
to France, Jean-Francois Preau, Export Director of Mailly
Grand Champagne, a significant Rose producer, told me the
profit margins for Rose are higher than for other categories
because there is not enough Rose for the market. He added
that many houses were currently investing heavily in Rose
production and marketing in order to take full advantage of
the high margins. To do just that, Gallimard in Les Riceys
has a project to build a special winery dedicated to Rose
Champagne.

There are two basic ways to
make Rose Champagne. The first way is by far the most
common. It entails adding a little red wine to white vins
clairs (still wines) to make the cuvee, the final blend, of
still wines to which a mixture (the liqueur de tirage) of
yeast and sugar and a little amount of wine is added so as
to start the second fermentation in bottle. In this method,
the red wine usually accounts for 6% to 1O% of the cuvee.
Champagne is the only significant quality appellation in
Europe in which a rose wine product is made by simply
blending red and white wine. A similar, related method is to
add the tinted, half-fermented wine bled off early in a red
wine fermentation and mix it with white juice to make tinted
vin clair for the cuvee. The liqueur de tirage is then
added. This process, called the saignee (bleeding) method is
usually employed by producers of red Coteaux Champenois (an
AOC still wine made in Champagne) because the saignee juice
taken away increases the proportion of red skins to juice in
what remains. The result is a darker more tannic red Coteaux
Champenois, just what the producer often needs in the cool
climate of Champagne. The downside of this method is that
the producer harvests his red grapes according to parameters
necessary to make excellent red wine, not Champagne. As a
consequence, the rose saignee juice is lower in acidity and
less delicate and fresh tasting than juice which comes from
grapes harvested earlier as would be optimal to make rose
wine. Because red wine and saignee juice have powerful
tinting capacity, lowish acidity and significant levels of
tannin, Chardonnay wine with its pale color, high acidity
and lack of tannin, often accounts for a substantial
percentage of the cuvee that makes the Rose
Champagne.

The other basic, but far
less common, way is to directly make Rose Champagne to which
white wine can be added if desired. The resulting rose vin
clair is so delicately tinted that only a little Chardonnay
can be added. A rose vin clair is best made by cold
macerating Pinot Noir grapes in a tank press and then slowly
and delicately pressing the grapes. Pinot Noir is the grape
of choice, because Pinot Meunier grape skins are too pale in
color to adequately tint the rose wine. This method however
ties up the presses during the crucial harvest period.
Another way to make rose vin clair is to cold macerate red
grapes in tanks for about 12 to 24 hours, then move the
grapes to the press and gently press the grapes. This helps
free up the press during the busy harvest period, but
requires extra tanks to hold the macerating grapes. The
methods outlined in this paragraph are difficult because it
is not easy to select the right moment to end the
maceration. They also require a much higher percentage of
red grapes than would be needed in the red wine addition
method described in the previous paragraph.

Red wine additions result
in a more stable Rose Champagne color. A traditional red
wine fermentation (including the malolactic fermentation)
results in more stable wine color but sacrifices aroma and
acidity. The use of red wine and saignee also results in
greater tannin extraction from the skins and seeds. The
resulting astringency and bitterness have to be managed to
make delicate Rose Champagne.

The cooler fermentation
used to directly make rose vins clair better preserves
aromatic precursor compounds. The Rose Champagne produced
has a stronger Pinot Noir aroma. Acidity is higher because
all of the grapes are harvested according to white vin clair
parameters. There is also very little tannin extraction
because the separation of skins and juice occurs before the
evolution of alcohol.

Many red wine addition Rose
Champagne producers explain that their style is better
because of the color permanence and the lack of varietal
character. I suspect that the real reason for their
preference may be that for years many Champagne producers
have looked on Rose as Champagne tinted to suit the tastes
of unsophisticated consumers. Directly making rose vin clair
entails more expensive and sophisticated presses, more vat
space and more attention during the pressing. Until now,
Rose Champagne has been a marginal product for the Champagne
producers. Now with growing demand and the concomitant
spotlight, I suspect that we will see more producers
reexamining their Rose production methods. We will gradually
see more rose vin clair Rose Champagne. I believe that Rose
Champagne should be more than tinted Champagne. It should be
Champagne made principally, if not completely, from Pinot
Noir. It should clearly, but subtly, express Pinot Noir,
just like Blanc de Blancs clearly, but subtly, says
Chardonnay.

The Grand Cru village of
Mailly has vineyards of Pinot Noir that have a more
northerly exposure than those in the southerly facing
villages of Bouzy and Ambonnay. This exposure sets the stage
for Pinot Noir grapes with delicate flavors and high
acidity. Champagne Mailly Grand Cru, a cooperative that
dominates Mailly production, is one of the few producers
that makes a significant amount of Rose by the direct rose
vin clair method. Chef de Cave, Herve Dantan, macerates
Pinot Noir in tanks before pressing. He selects the fruit
from the cooperative’s oldest Pinot Noir vines to use in
making Rose. Mailly Grand Cru Brut Rose is outstanding,
delicate, Pinot Noir-smelling Rose Champagne. It is a blend
of 9O% Pinot Noir and 1O% Chardonnay. A large house that
also uses this method for one of its Rose labels is Laurent
Perrier.

Two startlingly different
red wine addition Rose Champagnes are the Alexandre Bonnet
Perle Rose and the Champagne Tarlant Brut Rose Zero.
Alexandre Bonnet, a house in the Pinot Noir-dominant Cotes
de Seine region is the largest producer of the rare still
rose wine, Rose des Riceys. The house’s Rose Champagne,
Perle Rose, is 1OO% Pinot Noir. “We fight only for Pinot
Noir”, proudly asserts Alain Pailley of Alexandre Bonnet. At
the other extreme, Champagne Tarlant coming from the village
of Oeuilly in the heart of Pinot Meunier country, the Vallee
de la Marne, makes a Rose which is a blend of 85% Chardonnay
and 15% Pinot Meunier. No Pinot Noir at all is used. In
addition, there is no dosage. “Sugar averages everything”,
asserts Benoit Tarlant. Tarlant focuses on no-dosage
Champagne. Will no-dosage Champagne be the next
fad?

Champagne Edmond Barnaut in
Bouzy makes Coteaux Champenois red wine as well as
Champagne. He combines the saignee method and the direct
rose vin clair method to make Rose. The Edmond Barnaut Rose
Champagne, a blend of 9O% Pinot Noir and 1O% Chardonnay, is
a richly colored, red-fruit scented Rose.