Champagne Christophe Dechannes Rosé Brut Les Riceys NV

This estate is a true family affair. Roland Dechannes started producing his own Champagne in Les Riceys back in 1973, and today his son Christophe carries the torch alongside his wife Christine and their children, Romain and Laura. Laura – who happens to be Arnaud Gallimard's wife – serves as assistant winemaker under her father while also wearing the myriad hats of sales rep, admin, and generally cool-as-all-get-out host with the most. This is a small, human-scale operation of roughly 8 hectares, where the family handles everything from picking the grapes to finishing the bottle, working in the traditional method with an innate respect for their land. Look for the old tree on the label – planted after the French Revolution, it's stood on the property for generations as a symbol of liberty, life, and growth.

Tucked into the Côte des Bar in the Aube – the most southerly reach of Champagne, so far south it nearly bumps into Burgundy – the remarkable village of Les Riceys is the only place in all of France to hold three separate AOCs: Champagne, Coteaux Champenois, and the legendary Rosé des Riceys. It's also home to the single largest vineyard area in Champagne, with hundreds of hectares of vines carpeting the slopes. And it shares Burgundy's prized Kimmeridgian soil, that magical mix of limestone, clay, and marine fossils that lends such tension and minerality to the wines. In other words… this is rosé country at its finest, and the Dechannes family are among its most passionate stewards.

The Brut Rosé itself is a pure expression of Pinot Noir – the prized grape of Les Riceys. It gives off this wonderfully mouth-hugging note of raspberry clafoutis fresh from the oven… warm, fruity, gently sweet-scented but dry in the glass. Bright raspberry and wild strawberry follow closely behind, joined by a lift of violets and a note of morello cherry, with an intriguing herbal-floral thread – a touch of tarragon's green freshness and an exotic breath of plumeria on the top notes. Charming, generous, easygoing, yet surprising, and never heavy – this completely delivers in every way. As does the price! Like everything we’ve shared from this family, it won’t last long. Grab at least 3 bottles for complimentary shipping!