Through Rosé-Colored Glasses: Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte
By: Jameson Fink
Published: April 21, 2010

I was invited to a tasting of multiple cuvées and vintages of the rosé Champagnes from Nicolas Feuillatte.  For all Champagne lovers, there is a special place in their hearts for rosé.  The range of beautiful colors certainly plays a part in this: some a delicate copper, others pink as a salmon, to those with a deeper, red berry hue.  How does a winemaker achieve such a range of colors?  Either by blending still red and white wines or the more difficult method of saignée, the bleeding of the grape juice after limited contact with the red skins.  Since the grape skins give color to clear juice, the winemaker has to be extra-vigilant to separate the juice from the skins at the moment the desired color is achieved.  (Or as Winemaker Jean-Pierre Vincent, who was present at this tasting, put it: "You need to sleep beside the tanks.")
The most compelling thing about rosé Champagne, naturally, is the taste.  In evaluating these Champagnes, I was really struck by a comment by Jean-Pierre that these were "wines with bubbles."  It was a simple, yet perceptive, way to help me focus on Champagne as a distinct wine region and to evaluate every sample as I would a still wine.  With that in mind, I was really struck by the Pinot Noir character that came out of many of the rosé Champagnes, especially (my favorite) the 2004 Cuvée 225 Rosé.  Although a blend of grapes, it had qualities I expect to find in great Pinot Noir from Burgundy.  Maybe the time it spends in wood adds complexity and richness that accentuates its relationship to the best-known examples of Pinot Noir? (This Champagne is aged in old 225 liter oak barrels, thus the name.)
On further thought I should feel a bit reticent to draw too many comparisons between these Champagnes and wines from other famous regions.  Every rosé I tasted was distinctive, showing how blending, aging, and different vintages can produce a wide variety of styles and coax out a multitude of flavors.  These "wines with bubbles" were emblematic of arguably the most iconic wine region in the world: Champagne.
Coming Up: An interview with Winemaker Jean-Pierre Vincent and There Will Be Lunch

Jameson Fink is a wine buyer at a bustling grocery store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. He moved to Seattle from Chicago (where he dabbled in the restaurant and wine industries) five years ago to pursue a full-time career in wine. He’d rather be drinking Champagne and eating popcorn right now.