Champagne Louis Roederer Brut Nature Rosé
Champagne, France
Vintage:2015 (Current)
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Reviews
VinePair 92 Points
“This is part of Louis Roederer’s limited-edition lineup created in collaboration with Philippe Starck where they focus on zero-dosage wines. This is a blend of all three major Champagne grapes, but with a focus on Pinot Noir, which makes up 50 percent of the wine. The result is a mineral-driven wine with focused notes of guava and honeysuckle. The palate is angled, with sharp corners softened slightly by that round Pinot Noir fruit. There's an electric acidity that really brings this rosé to life.”
The New Wine Review 94 Points
“This is a beautiful, peachy pink in color. This smells like macerated strawberries and raspberries. The attack is eye-opening with slicing dryness and a delightfully heady amount of beautifully developed fruit. Dried apricot and peach take the lead followed by whole wheat croutons and roasted almond slivers. The mousse is miniscule—truly, remarkably refined. The finish is punctuated by bright lift with the pop of the bubbles and the integrated acidity. The harmony is impressive. This hails from the La Rivière vineyard in Cumières. The Pinot Noir is “infused” for color and aromas for five days then the blend of 20% Pinot Noir and 80% Brut Nature. A small, 11% of the wine was aged in oak barrels prior to the prise de mousse. This was disgorged in April 2022 then aged four months before release.”
View From the Cellar 93 Points
“The 2015 Louis Roederer “Starck Nature” Rosé non-dosé has a lovely salmon color and is relatively deeply hued for a Rosé bottling from Maison Roederer. The wine is composed from a cépages of fifty percent pinot noir, thirty-seven percent chardonnay and thirteen percent pinot noir, with all of the grapes grown in the commune of Cumières. The wine takes its color from a percentage of the pinot noir harvested in the lieu à dit of les Chèvres, which is segregated and macerates on its skins to take on a bit of color, prior to the infusion pinot noir being blended back in with the other vins clairs. Just over ten percent of the vins clairs are barrel-fermented, and thirty percent went through malolactic fermentation for the 2015 bottling. The wine offers up a beautiful nose of strawberries, rhubarb, a touch of tangerine, gentle brown spice tones, chalky soil and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a fine core and soil signature, elegant mousse, bright acids and a long, well-balanced and classy finish. This is excellent Brut Nature! 2023-2040.”
Wine Spectator 94 Points
“A vivacious rosé, with a minerally overtone and a well-meshed range of crunchy pear, peach skin, pickled ginger and blood orange zest flavors set on a refined, lacy mousse. Ends with a long, creamy finish. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Drink now through 2032.”
Vinous Media 94 Points
“The 2015 Brut Rosé Nature is stellar. What a wine. Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon and his team capture a striking interplay of richness and drive, but with softer contours than the first few vintages of this wine. All of the personality of Cumières comes through in this wonderfully savory, mineral Rosé. Dried rose petal, chalk, mint and white pepper lend brilliancy that carries through to the intensely mineral finish.”
The Wine Advocate 94 Points
“To produce the 2015 Brut Nature Rosé, Lécaillon and his team picked the ripest Pinot Noir in Roederer's holdings in lieu-dit Les Chèvres a week before the rest of their fruit there, macerating it at low temperature for four to five days before adding some 20% of this Pinot Noir to the same base that produces the regular Brut Nature. Delivering aromas of peach, clear honey, freshly baked bread and almond paste, it's medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with a rich, vinous profile, racy acids and a long, chalky finish. This has always been a structured wine, but in 2015, that structure is cloaked in more flesh and texture.”
JamesSuckling.com 93 Points
“Plenty of biscuit, pie crust, lemon pie, praline and hazelnut, as well as hints of toffee, cream and salted butter. Vibrant and sharp, but with lovely butter and brioche character and tight bubbles. So delicious. Wonderful balance of freshness and creaminess. Chardonnay from Avize. Drink or hold.”
Overview
Champagne Louis Roederer's Brut Nature is a champagne without artifice, conceived as an exchange, forged by a long-standing friendship with Philippe Starck. Abstract conversations between Frédéric Rouzaud, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon and Philippe Starck began with a few very specific descriptors which formed the foundations for the Brut Nature: honest, minimal, diagonal, modern.
Brut Nature Rosé 2015, the fourth opus of this cuvée, is deliciously refined, with a delicate sweetness and sensation of umami.
Winemaking
The “Domaine Brut Nature” covers only ten hectares and the vineyards are cultivated according to the principles of biodynamics, virtuous viticulture that preserves the character of this terroir. When summer comes to an end and the harvest season gets underway, the grapes are carefully and gently harvested together on the same day. They are then pressed together, all at once, a technique commonly used by our forefathers. All this ensures that the wine has great complexity. The structure of the Pinot Noir, the ripeness of the Meunier, the floral character and lively acidity of the Chardonnay come together in a single harmonious movement.
For the Brut Nature Rosé, a small proportion of the domaine’s Pinot noirs are harvested separately and undergo a cold “infusion” for five days without alcohol fermentation before being incorporated into the Brut Nature Blanc juices. Co-fermentation follows with the final blend proportions.
11% of the wines are vinified in oak. 30% of the wines undergo malolactic fermentation. The dosage is 0 g/L.
Tasting Notes
Pink hue with bright, fresh tints and generous, slowmoving bubbles. The deep Pinot noir bouquet is a blend of delicate citrus notes (Etna blood oranges), red fruit (blackcurrants) and spice (a touch of camphor). After aeration, the red fruit becomes intertwined with notes of honey and gingerbread. On entry, the wine is juicy, fruity, concentrated and palatecoating. The sun-drenched fruit and its slightly sweet texture give one the impression of biting into a perfectly ripe blackberry. The wine shows remarkable poise thanks to the sensual, almost powdery texture that balances the zero dosage. The end palate reveals slightly spicy (camphor), smoky (bacon) and iodised notes that usher in a sensation of Umami.
Harvest Notes
An extraordinary vintage which is also the year in which the Champagne region was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site! 2015 followed the continental trend of that decade: a mild, wet winter and a hot, dry summer. The summer, hot and sunny, brought record-breaking temperatures and water stress. The second half of August brought some very welcome rain, giving the vines some much needed relief. Thanks to this fresh finish, the vines produced juicy, ripe and concentrated grapes. Our ambition for this vintage? To capture the concentration which is the hallmark of this spectacular vintage!
Technical Information
Varietals: 50% Pinot Noir, 37% Chardonnay, 13% Meunier