2003 Jacquesson Champagne, Dizy Terres Rouges Rosé

La Maison Jacquesson is not averse to a little experimentation; and usually, as here, it gets it right. Terres Rouges is the name of a single vineyard, its name betraying distinctive ferrous soils, located just outside the village of Dizy on the hill leading up from Epernay towards the (so-called) Montagne-de-Reims. Both the Pinots are planted here but it is Pinot Meunier which has gone into this fascinating rosé, an atypical wine form a distinctly atypical year.

Eschewing the ease of the assemblage method (merely adding still red wine) the Chiquets have decided instead to bleed the colour from the skins; the result is generous of hue, with distinctive smoky and strawberry notes, grip that recalls a red wine and a firm and very fine finish. The choice of the connoisseur, or, as the French, rather confusingly would have him, ‘l’amateur’.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)