Description
Champagne De Sloovere-Pienne, Brut Rosé
Yes, even on Christmas Eve, there are fire drills: This is the most luxurious and infinitely pleasurable Rosé Champagne I’ve tracked down in 2022. I’m talking Bollinger, Krug, and Billecart levels of swagger. It’s that good. And while I’m certain you’ve never seen or heard of today’s producer, De Sloovere-Pienne, I’m 100% confident anyone within arm’s reach of an open bottle will be simultaneously blown away and demanding more.
This micro grower estate unlocked the cheat code to “rosé gold” by blending together Champagne’s three noble grapes, infusing it with an enormous amount of older reserve wine, and adding a mouthwateringly generous dosage. Lastly, as an added bonus, 30 months have passed since this small parcel was disgorged, lending today’s epic rosé creamier, richer, strawberry brioche flavors. Just 250 cases were originally produced and distributed around the world. Only a fraction remains. Fair warning: you’ll regret buying fewer than three bottles. Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Here lies yet another unknown French estate with preternaturally ancient origins. Backed by five generations of winemaking expertise, the Piennes are no strangers to Champagne, and they’re certainly intimate with its land. The family’s farm in the Coteaux Sud d’Épernay village of Brugny stretches all the way back to the Middle Ages when it provided produce to the looming castle that once stood three miles away. Given the tumultuous times, hand-carved tunnels were created to serve as a secret passageway between the two sites; some of those remains currently hold Sloovere-Pienne’s Champagnes.
Today, Emeline De Sloovere-Pienne and her mother run the winemaking/operations, and Emeline has introduced many initiatives—wild barrel ferments, sustainable farming, no filtration—to ensure a pure, powerful, luxurious end product. It’s a true-blue, farm-to-table family operation. Their Brut Rosé is sourced from estate vines and is roughly equal parts Chardonnay and Meunier with a splash of Pinot Noir. After crafting the base wine in their cellar, 40% of older stainless-steel-aged reserves are blended in before being transferred into bottle. After two years of maturation, this parcel was disgorged in July of 2020, given a nine-gram dosage, and topped off with 10% still Meunier wine to produce that beautifully deep salmon color.
As mentioned above, this now has two-plus years of post-disgorgement aging, and that’s worked wonders on this Champagne. It is a seamlessly opulent and intoxicatingly rich rosé masterwork that oozes muddled raspberry, strawberry pastry, cherry coulis, ripe white peach candied rose petal, crushed chalk, and toasted hazelnut. The palate is medium-plus in body and dominated by a lavish tidal wave of creamy red fruits and pulses of crushed stone minerality. It’s dangerously good, to the point where you’ll seriously wonder if anyone can outperform this rich, vinous rosé style. Enjoy your bottles over the next 2-3 years. Cheers!
