(2023) Gosset's pink is a blend of 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir, 8% of the Pinot vinified as red wine. The wine does not go through malolactic conversion, and is aged a minimum of three years on the lees. Interesting factoid: Cellarmaster Odilon de Varine prefers to blend it in black glassware, so he is not influenced by colour, but by taste and aroma alone. The nose has a lovely pillow of biscuit and custardy creaminess, but there's keen, small red berry fruit too. The mousse is mouth-filling, and this is immediately dry and crisp with 8g/l dosage, shimmering with elegant, lemony, almost minty fresh acidity. The savoury berry fruit is nicely weighted through the mid-palate. Watch the Wine of the Month video for more information.

(2021) From Grand Cru Pinot Noir vineyards in Äy, plus 28% Chardonnay from Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger, this rosé spent eight years on the lees and is Extra Brut with 4.5g/l dosage. 5212 bottles were disgorged in March 2019. It's a remarkable and serious pink, the nose smoky and mineral, crammed with small, tight red berries and streaking citrus, just a little biscuit character too. There's an immediate sense of concentration, borne out on the palate, which is intense and beautifully fruited, with raspberry and redcurrant, again that smoky, stony, mineral base, some natural fruit sweetness gathered up into a sweep of acidity through to the finish.

(2019) Fabulous and a bit of a rarity, I confess this bottle came from my own collection where it had been cellared for five or six years, so although bottles on sale now will have a more youthful character, I couldn't help but include it in this round up. Krug Rosé is a blend of the three main Champagne varieties, from a wide range of years with a high proportion of reserve wines, and it is an 'assemblage', made by blending still Pinot Noir before at least five years ageing in bottle at Krug’s cellars. It has a moderately deep pink colour and a wonderfully expressive nose: strawberry shortcake aromas of berries and buttery pastry, floral highlights adding lightness. In the mouth more of those red berry and vanilla flavours, decidiely smooth and refined, the acidity making its presence felt ever so subtly, giving this an effortless freshness too. Majestic stuff. Most retailers are charging between £210 and £250 per bottle.

(2019) A blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Meunier and 10% Chardonnay with a dosage of 8.5g/l.  Quite a deep pink with a hint of copper. Very fine bubbles. There is obvious red fruit on the nose, dry cherry and cranberry, but there's a meaty autolytic character. Dry on the palate, plenty of lemony character and acidity, there is still a touch of the dry red berry character, but it finishes dry and citrussy and would drink well with salmon, duck, or even grouse in season.

(2019) Quite a deeply coloured rosé, lovely red fruits, summery raspberry and strawberry, strawberry shortcake, then the gorgeous freshness and zip comes through on the palate. Creamy mid-palate and that dazzling orangy freshness. The blend is 42% Pinot Noir (of which 13% of the total blend is red wine), 23% Pinot Meunier and 35% Chardonnay.

(2019) When I tasted this wine early in 2018, I noted: "an austere reticence that is quite uncommon for a 2005”.  One year on, the wine is beginning to build some fruit.  Stylistic somewhere between 2004 and 2006.  Medium weight, with a bouquet of crunchy red fruits, that picks up some tangerine zest on the back of the palate. This has good potential, although one to bury at the back of the cellar to allow the fruit to build.  I wouldn’t broach the first one until 2022, should hold nicely for a decade beyond that. (SP)

(2019) Only my second encounter with this wine since its initial release.  So not toasty!  The nose delivers an intense blast of banana oil (possibly a consequence of the combined effects of drought and reduced yields). The attack is somewhat gentle, the aromas building through mid-palate.  The fruit is super dense, coating the palate with its viscosity.  Chewy, powerful, rather potent, an unusually early drinker for a Dom Pérignon release. A strong similarity to the blanc version here, and again, I’d probably wait for the P2 or P3 versions of this wine as extended lees aging should help manage the excesses of the vintage.  Drink from 2019 until 2023. (SP)

(2019) The neckband of all of the ‘D’ non-vintage wines states "Aged 5 years," a considerably longer period than most Champagnes, especially rosé wines, that tend to forsake some of the yeasty development in favour of fruitiness. This blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is also a low dosage Brut, with 8g/l of residual sugar. It retains delicacy, though there is a meaty, earthy character with small red fruit notes, a touch of redcurrant, but a shimmering lemony freshness. The palate is driven by the red fruits, but the time on the lees comes through giving this a more complex layering of flavour, some umami and salts, and a lovely acid freshness. An excellent rosé Champagne. Watch the video for more information and food-matching ideas.

(2019) Old vine Pinot Noir from 1er Cru vineyards in Vertus, this is made by bleeding some colour from the Pinot grapes at the start of fermentation. It's Extra Brut, so dry with only around 3g/l of sugar, but ageing for two years on the lees and six more months on the bottle adds richness. Filled with small, taut red fruit aromas - redcurrant and raspberry - it is vinous for sure, the PInot heritage clear as it strikes the palate with real authority: tight, crisp tannins and acids, the little bullets of hard red fruits giving crunch and presence, and the mousse and touch of leesy creaminess softening the picture into a long, crisply-defined finish. Terrific, thought-provoking pink Champagne.

(2017) Beautiful aromas here, a hint of meatiness and damp forest floors, then the small red fruits, very clear indeed, a haunting glimpse of something floral, like rose-hip perhaps in this blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. Dry, delicate, but there is good length and it does have substance and a touch of meaty, earthy character beneath the charm of the fruit. Drinking now.