Simon Field MW is greatly impressed by Veuve Clicquot chef de caves Didier Mariotti and the latest vintage of La Grande Dame Rosé.
Madame Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin has been variously described as an iconoclast, a strong businesswoman, and a winemaking genius, the shroud of reputation possibly confusing the true and the apocryphal. Such is the destiny of the face (a somewhat austere face, in this instance) of a brand. Whether or not she actually fell upon the process now known as riddling when working at her kitchen table is a matter of idle conjecture. What is more important, and more demonstrably true, is the happy alliance of her love of the Pinot Noir grape variety and the pink-tinged style now known as rosé Champagne, of which 2015 La Grande Dame Rosé is the latest—but far from the least significant—manifestation.
The idea of blending red and white wine, traditionally shunned by the legislature, appealed to Madame in 1818—all the more so since she had identified and nurtured a particular 1.3ha (3.2-acre) plot in Bouzy, Clos Colin, to provide an ideal red wine for the assemblage. Sophisticated geological mapping has proved what Nicole understood intuitively: Namely, that this “hot belt” of soil was and is perfect for still red wine—the Musigny of Champagne, if you like. It turns out that the topsoil—sand and clay, mostly—is three times thicker than elsewhere, the chalk far deeper, and the micro-environment ideally suited to fashion a red wine to be offered up as a blending
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
