Rosé de Saignée Brut Champagne Blend

This bottle missed the mark a bit for me compared to other bottles of this cuvée. A bit closed but still very generous.

Busting into our reserve Rosé Champagnes during lockdown. I’m a bottle away from Soda Streaming a Rosé wine.

Nose of ripe; black cherries, black raspberries, strawberries, leaner watermelon, tangerines, yellow peaches & white citrus blend. Grey minerals/volcanics, sea fossils, sea spray, just a whiff of white spice, baguette crust, bread dough, fruit chewing gum, warm toast, cashew w/o salt with pink florals & pink rose pedals.

The palate is, lively, rich, nicely knitted & juicy. Ripe; black cherries, black raspberries, strawberries, leaner watermelon, tangerines, yellow peaches & white citrus blend. Grey minerals/volcanics that are quite piercing, sea fossils, sea spray, white spice with medium heat, baguette crust, bread dough, light caramel, fruit chewing gum, warm toast, cashew w/o salt with pink florals & pink rose pedals. Nice fresh, lively acidity. The finish is lush, elegant, well balanced and persists minutes with gripping mineral & spice driven finish.

Photos of; House of Drappier and various shots of their caves.

Happy New Year!

Is it Friday again? Yeah, I think it’s Friday. 🍾🥂

Bought this at Costco for under $40. Good at regular price, better at under $40.

The nose is showing more blood orange than memory recalls currently. Orange, tangerine, kirsch, rhubarb, strawberries and plenty of watermelon. Nice medium chalkiness, volcanic minerals and shells. Baguette crust, zesty cola and almost liqueur notes with red & pink roses.

The palate is rich and flows nicely. There is elegance and beauty here. The fruits are a little candied...roll up like. Blood orange. orange, tangerine, kirsch, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries and plenty of watermelon. Nice medium, grainy chalkiness, volcanic minerals and shells. Baguette crust, zesty cola and almost liqueur notes with red & pink roses. The acidy is perfect. The finish is; long, well balanced with elegance and polish for days.

Pairs well with, Maxwell’s song, 🎶 Each Hour, Each Second, Each Minute, Each Day. 🎶

Photos of; the House of Drappier, cellar shots and their extremely chalky caves.

What a really nice Rosé Champange from Drappier and an extraordinary value at Costco at $39.99. I’m not giving up my Billecart Salmon Rosé but, this is pretty close to Ruinart. At this price point, it’s being well added to rotation.

The nose reveals, ripe; black cherries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, watermelon and orange rind citrus. Fruit blossoms, pink rose petals, nice, soft chalkiness, sea spray, sea shells, volcanic minerals and a touch of white spice.

The palate is fresh & lively. Nice micro bubbles. It’s thick and rich. The fruits are ripe and deeply concentrated. Ripe; black cherries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, watermelon, orange rind citrus, nice, soft chalkiness, sea spray, sea shells, strong presence of gritty volcanic minerals that press deeply into the palate, a fair amount of dark spice on the palate with fruit blossoms, pink & red rose petals. The acidity is really good...lively. The long, rich, beautiful, well balanced finish persists several minutes.

Photos of, the Champagne House of Drappier, wide & really chalky caves, different oak vats they use for fermentation and one of Drapper’s Grand Cru vineyards.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with champagne made in the Saignee (sohn-yay) method. Here is Readers Digest version.

Saignée means “to bleed.” Saignée is one of the methods of making rosé wines, along with blending white and red wine (this is the method used to for rosé Champagne), along with a simply macerating (allowing contact with skins to leech out color and flavor) the wine with the skins for a short period of time. This can be as short as two hours and sometimes a little longer depending on the style of the Winemaker.

The nose reveals dark, ripe; black cherries, strawberries, cherries, summertime watermelon & raspberries, Cream, hints of bubble gum, saline, sea fossils, soft understated chalkiness, volcanic minerals, wafting vanillin, pink rose petals and spring flowers.

The palate is rich, lush, creamy with nice mousse. It’s very well balanced and has beautiful length. There is ripe; black cherries, strawberries, cherries, summertime watermelon, pink grapefruit, tangerine & raspberries, Cream, hints of bubble gum, saline, sea fossils, slivered almonds, brioche, chalkiness that starts soft but, penetrates the palate deeply & with some heat, dark medium spice, volcanic minerals, vanillin, lanolin characteristic, pink rose petals and spring flowers. The acidity is round and near perfection. The long, rich, elegant, well polished finish carries on for minutes. Quite nice and a steal at Costco for just under $40. Elsewhere, $50 plus.

Photos of, the House of Drappier, shot of their caves, Owner Michel Drappier & one of their vineyards.

Producer notes and history...Drappier’s story begins in 1803, Francois Drappier, descendant of a Reims family of cloth merchants and lawyers, settled in Urville next to an annex to the abbey of Clairvaux, and began working a vineyard in the area which today extends over 55 hectares.

The Drappier family sold the grapes to the great champagne houses of Reims and Epernay for more than a century.

In 1930, Georges Collot, the maternal grandfather of Michel, the current owner, decided to pull up the traditional Aube Gamay, and replant the vineyards with Pinot Noir, focusing on quality instead of quantity. Known has “Father Pinot”, Collot was essentially the driving force behind Drappier’s Pinot Noir heavy style.

After the Second World War, the Drappiers started to expand the business and had acquired the cellars that were located in the annex to the abbey of Clairvaux that remained intact through the years. The former abbey’s cellar was far enough from the front lines to go through both world wars unscathed, preserving the history of winemaking on the distinct limestone soils of the Aube.

In 1952, Andre and Micheline Drappier, Michel’s parents, launch the Carte d’Or cuvee, with its distinctive yellow label. The Drappier house is now run by seventh generation Michel Drappier, and consists of 55 of their own hectares, 50 rented hectares, and 30% of the grapes brought in. The vineyard holdings are dominant in Pinot Noir.

Drappier owns a total of 55 hectares in Aube. Overall, the proportions of vineyards planted are dominant with Pinot Noir 80%, with 12% Chardonnay, a small 7% Pinot Meunier, and an even smaller 1% of ancient varieties such as Pinot Blanc, Petit Meslier and Arbanne.

Currently, 15 hectares are accredited organic since the harvest of 2014. Michel Drappier and his team have been cultivating the estate sustainably for years, and worked on the accreditation for 7 years. It’s one of the largest accredited organic estates in Champagne.

The rest of the Drappier’s estate, composed of 42 hectares, is cultivated with sustainable methods. No preventive treatments, soil management (grass, compost), use horses for plowing.

On board Qatar Airways. Quite a rich red which became like a burnished copper in colour. Aromas of roses and strawberries On the palate quite dry. A good aperitif.

Beautiful nose of rose petals and candied red fruit, so the racy acid and pronounced minerality caught me a bit off guard. I like this style, but it’s definitely NOT a rounder, richer style. Crisp, clean, lean and mean, but pretty good!

Ab Fab! Cheers!

Yes to rosé made in every way!

Today, it’s rosé bubbles made into this vibrant pink hue thanks, in part, to the “saignée method.” A method that’s actually rooted in red winemaking; used to concentrate grape must before fermentation.

Saignée is the French word for “bleeding.” The method gets this name because, as the crushed black grapes are macerating – extracting color, tannins, aromas / flavors from the grape skins – a portion of the juice is “bled off” into a separate vessel for production of rosé wine. The original vessel, now with a greater skins-to-juice ratio, increases concentration during the remaining red-wine maceration.

As a result, Saignée method rosés tend to be a little deeper in color concentration and may adopt more of the aromas and flavors that come from the black grapes used to make them. Certain regions, like Champagne, are well known for producing rosés in this way.

Here we have a Drappier Rosé de Saignée Champagne (NV) made in a Brut style using Pinot Noir grapes. It is deliciously concentrated for a rosé, not just in color, but aromas and flavors of just ripe red cherry, raspberry, redcurrant, apple, pear, bread dough, and toasty notes.