Champagne Leclerc Briant, Rosé, Extra Brut

Champagne Leclerc Briant, Rosé, Extra Brut

Product: 10001583704
Prices start from £55.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
Champagne Leclerc Briant, Rosé, Extra Brut

Buying options

Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

"Imaginative, creative, terroir-driven and vinous,” is how our Buyer Davy Żyw describes the Champagnes of Leclerc Briant. Spearheaded by Hervé Jestin’s inventive, inspirational winemaking, this extraordinary house has reinvented itself over the past decade. Cynics might dismiss Hervé’s wilder ideas (such as under-sea cellaring) as marketing ploys, but the ideas here are rooted in respect for nature.

A blend of 95% Chardonnay with 5% Pinot Noir, this rosé Champagne is a shimmering pale pink colour. The nose is a wash of raspberry, wild strawberries, pink grapefruit and acacia, with a hint of aniseed and mint. With time, the wine reveals aromas of blackcurrant, peach skin, fresh almond, passion fruit, chalk and a heady scent of roses.

On the palate, it is supple and fresh with a soft and creamy effervescence followed by a fleshy fruitiness supported by a citrus backbone. Chalky minerality lends breadth to this long and saline wine. A juicy fruity sensation, and a hint of salt, set in an ever-changing whirl of freshness.

Davy Zyw, Senior Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd

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Critics reviews

Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20

95% Chardonnay with 5% Pinot Noir.

Mid-bronzey-salmon colour. Quite a neutral nose. But real presence in the mouth – a gastronomic champagne. Excellent balance and the intensity of fruit compensate for the low dosage. Clean and neat, though without the exuberance on the nose of the Réserve Brut.

Drink 2022 - 2025

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (June 2022)

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About this WINE

Champagne Leclerc Briant

Champagne Leclerc Briant

Champagne Leclerc Briant focuses on organic and biodynamic viticulture, working in harmony with nature to produce some of the region’s most exciting wines.

Lucien Leclerc founded the estate in 1872 in the village of Cumières. In the mid-20th century, in the hands of Lucien’s great-grandson, Bertrand Leclerc, and his wife, Jacqueline Briant, the operation was moved to the beating heart of Champagne, Epernay. Here it also took a new name – Leclerc Briant. Around the same time, the house started practising biodynamic viticulture (becoming one of the first in the region to do so), eventually earning certification in the 1980s.

Since 2012, Chef du Cave Hervé Jestin, formerly of Champagne Duval-Leroy, has refined the house style here. Working with organic and biodynamic fruit, he also practises biodynamic principles in the winery. Leclerc Briant has taken on new vineyards, renovated its facilities, and has a renewed, uncompromising focus on quality.

The traditional sparkling wine method here is low dosage, vineyard-specific, and extremely interesting. The popular Abyss cuvée is aged underwater. As of the 2012 vintage, Hervé Jestin and the team are responsible for making the wine at Château d’Avize, which they bottle under the Leclerc Briant label and sell through La Place de Bordeaux.

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Rosé Champagne

Rosé Champagne

Rosé wines are produced by leaving the juice of red grapes to macerate on their skins for a brief time to extract pigments (natural colourings). However, Rosé Champagne is notable in that it is produced by the addition of a small percentage of red wine – usually Pinot Noir from the village of Bouzy – during blending.

Recommended Producers : Billecart Salmon (Elizabeth Salmon Rose), Ruinart

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Champagne blend

Champagne blend

Which grapes are included in the blend, and their proportion, is one of the key factors determining the style of most Champagnes. Three grapes are used - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.

26% of vineyards in Champagne are planted with Chardonnay and it performs best on the Côtes des Blancs and on the chalk slopes south of Epernay. It is relatively simple to grow, although it buds early and thus is susceptible to spring frosts. It produces lighter, fresher wines than those from Burgundy and gives finesse, fruit and elegance to the final blend. It is the sole grape in Blancs de Blancs, which are some of the richest long-lived Champagnes produced.

Pinot Noir accounts for nearly 40% of the plantings in Champagne and lies at the heart of most blends - it gives Champagne its body, structure, strength and grip. It is planted across Champagne and particularly so in the southern Aube district.

The final component is Pinot Meunier and this constitutes nearly 35% of the plantings. Its durability and resistance to spring frosts make the Marne Valley, a notorious frost pocket, its natural home. It ripens well in poor years and produces a soft, fruity style of wine that is ideal for blending with the more assertive flavours of Pinot Noir. Producers allege that Pinot Meunier lacks ageing potential, but this does not deter Krug from including around 15% of it in their final blends.


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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.