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As if Champagne doesn't feel

decadent enough, the rosé

style seems to generate an

extra rush of adrenalin in the

bloodstream. Whether it's

vintage or non-vintage, dry

or sweet, bronze or pink, rosé Champagne

is a guaranteed hit, delivering that extra little

layer of luxury and summeriness.

The dry and non-vintage combination

might be the most common style around, but

all pink Champagne has been popular in the

past decade or so thanks to our noughties'

love a air with rosé wine in general. And this

boom in popularity

has sparked renewed

interest in rosé by the

Champagne houses

themselves. Rather

than prioritising other

styles - the money-making Brut non-vintage,

the wine trade's darling Blanc de Blancs,

or the celebrity-loved prestige cuvée - in

recent years pink Champagne has been taken

more seriously by its makers and quality has

improved as a result.

Blush blends

Improved quality makes its higher price an

easier pill to swallow, but the extra skill that's

involved in making it has to be factored in

too. After all, rosé Champagne is normally

made by blending red wine into alreadymade

white Champagne, and the amount of

red wine needs to be very carefully managed

or it could throw a Champagne's delicate

taste equilibrium out of kilter. The red wine

that is used is also made in the Champagne

region, and the village of Bouzy is especially

famous for its role in producing red wine for

pink Champagne. This method is unique to

Champagne, as the region holds the rights

to produce the only pink wine in the EU that

can be blended for colour, so we're probably

paying a little bit extra for exclusivity as well.

Champagne can also be made pink in the

same way as other rosé wines, by bleeding

the pigment out of the red grape's skin, a

method called saignée. Usually all three

of Champagne's main grapes are used:

Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

But sometimes only the red grapes (Pinot

Noir and Pinot Meunier) are used, producing a

style called blanc de noirs. A few Champagne

producers prefer the saignée technique,

thinking it's a more holistic approach, but

ultimately no-one can categorically state

whether one way is better than the other.

The renewed interest in pink Champagne

in the region itself has sparked healthy debate

over the years about the shade and intensity

of its colour. The classic hue is like a still rosé

from Provence - a shade known as 'pale

salmon' or 'onion skin' - but some houses

have gone more pink than bronze in recent

years in a shameless bid to appeal to the

biggest category of pink drinkers: women.

However, Christian Holthausen, export

With rosé wine more popular than ever, it's no surprise that

the Champagne houses are putting some serious e ort into

their own styles, which is good news for pink � zz lovers

WORDS JANE PARKINSON ILLUSTRATION SUSAN BURGHART

coming up

rosés

The renewed interest in rosé has

sparked debate over the colour