NV Jean Laurent Rose Brut

A bright electric pink color, the NV Champagne Brut Rosé is entirely made from Pinot Noir and is forward with aromas of candied orange, grapefruit, red berries, and powdery flowers. The palate is juicy, with a very subtle mousse and a rounded feel with a coating texture. This is a generous rosé to enjoy over the next couple of years. It has 9 grams per liter dosage and was disgorged in November 2022.

Disgorged July 2015, the medium ruby colored NV Champagne Brut Rosé is a strawberry, cherry pie, spice and brioche scented Champagne that has a rounded, supple, impeccably balanced style on the palate. Made from 100% Pinot Noir, from three sites and vines averaging 25-30 years of age, it spent 30 months on lees and was finished with 9-12 grams of dosage. 900 Cases. This family estate is located south of Epernay, with vineyards primarily around the village of Celles-sur-Ource, and covers 35 acres planted mostly to Pinot Noir, with smaller amounts to Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Arbane. All three of the wines I was able to taste were outstanding.

I suspect that the reason I found Jean Laurent’s NV Brut Rose Disg. 3/2013 the most pleasurable of his five cuvees that I tasted on this recent occasion lies in the fact that the forte of all his non-reserve wines – overt fruitiness – coincides with the specific aptitude and aim of this pink Pinot. Fresh red raspberry and strawberry scents anticipate a juicy fruit profusion on the polished palate, underscored by subtle sweetness, with black tea smokiness, crunch of berry seeds, and a lick of salt jointly serving for counterpoint, invigoration and salivation. Delightful if not deep, I was very slightly disappointed with how quickly this lost its effervescence, but that’s a quibble in the context of enjoying this solo or with simple fair over the coming year. Farming a sector of the Cotes des Bar that has been substantially responsible for the buzz (of both estate-bottling and press) accorded this region since the turn of the millennium, Jean Laurent farms 39 acres of which only nine are in Chardonnay, but he has chosen to showcase that cepage every bit as much as he does his Pinot Noir. The basic wines here spend at least three years sur latte and his prestige bottlings a decade, though I cannot claim – on this, my second tasting of Laurent cuvees – to have been convinced that the results justified the time or eventual price tags. Imported by Handpicked Selections, Warrenton, VA; tel. (540) 347-9400