Right now we are in Champagne, taking some lucky people across the amazing landscape of this region. Whilst we swapped the winter for summer, we wanted to highlight some of the true values of one of the four styles of champagne - champagne, Coteaux Champenois (still wine), Ratafia de Champagne and champagne rosé.
Let's look at the two main ways of champagne rosé production and then we should pop a few myths about Rosé.
One method of production which most winemakers use is known as the 'assemblage' method, literally meaning to 'Assemble' by adding in a little red wine. This red wine by the way, is the winemakers' chance to use a high quality pinot noir made as a still red wine. This can vary widely and either be made from their village, neighbouring region or even bought in from another popular red wine region e.g. Les Riceys in the Cotes des Bar.
