"Rosé de Saignée" Extra Brut

2017
France
Champagne

100% Pinot Meunier. The fruit for Boulard’s rosé de saignée comes from family parcels scattered around the villages of Paradis, Cuchery and Belval-sous-Châtillon in the Vallée de la Marne northwest of Cumières. Notably, in this particular area of the Marne, there are 400 hectares of vines, of which only 3.2 hectares are farmed organically--1.2 hectares of those belong to Boulard and are certified organic. The average age of their vines is 35 years. The farming includes biodynamic practices, and all work including harvest is manual. As for all Boulard wines, the grapes are picked late with high ripeness in order to achieve balance with minimal to no dosage.

A rosé de saignée is a relatively rare creature in Champagne, made by maceration rather than by blending a still red wine into a still white base. This style tends to be more vinous and have a deeper color. In the Boulard cellar, the unpressed Meunier bunches go into tank where the juice spends 10 to 12 hours in contact with the skins. That juice is then saignée or “bled” from the tank and fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts in used Burgundy barrels. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation with monthly bâtonnage in the same barrels. The wine is bottled in June without fining or the addition of sulfur (tiny amount added only in tank). The bottles are riddled and disgorged by hand, in late 2022 in this case. The wine is finished with a dosage of 2-3 grams per liter.

93 points
"The NV (2015) Rosé de Saignée, 100% Meunier, is a gorgeous but eccentric wine. Red plum, cinnamon, star anise and orang zest give the Rosé its distinctly exotic profile. Airy and elusive, the Rosé is absolutely exquisite; it's not an obvious wine, but rather one that demands quite bit of attention from the reader. That is sure to be a fun and rewarding task. Dosage is 3 grams per liter. Disgorged: June, 2021. "
Antonio Galloni,
Vinous Media
May 2022
91 points
"The current release of Francis Boulard et Fille Rosé de Saignée is from the 2015 vintage. The wine is composed entirely from pinot meunier and was disgorged in June of 2021, with a finishing dosage of three grams per liter. The vins clairs go through full malo and are fermented and aged in older Burgundy casks, with only indigenous yeasts utilized. The wine is a beautiful deep salmon color this year and offers up a refined nose of blood orange, rhubarb, chalky soil tones, rye bread and a topnote of dried rose petals. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and nicely defined by its minerality, with a good core, frothy mousse, brisk acids and a long, complex and nicely balanced finish. The acids here have devoured the three grams of dosage and the wine is quite dry in profile. Fine juice. 2022-2040."
John Gilman,
View from the Cellar

SKU/Code: 
DB8564-17
Product Line: 
Wine
Sparkling
Sparkling Rosé
Varietal: 
Pinot Meunier
Farming Type: 
Organic