Louis Roederer Brut Rose 2017
(Champagne, France) - [WE 95] [JD 95] [JS 94] [WS 93] [TWI 93]

About the Winery:
Louis Roederer has been synonymous with the world's great Champagnes since 1776, and it is one of the rare family owned companies, which is still managed by the Roederer family today. They are also one of the only French champagne producers to own nearly 75% of the grapes in the most desirable vineyards in the Champagne. The property is located on 450 acres in the finest villages of Montagne de Reims, Cotes des Blancs, and Valle de la Marne. Each region is selected to produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with the elegance needed for perfectly balanced champagne. The Louis Roederer vineyards rate an average 98% based on France's statutory 100-point classification scale.

About the Vintage:
2017 was a year of living dangerously! An exceptionally warm and dry winter and spring, but the latter brought severe frosts from 17 to 29 April, setting the sorry record for 12 nights of frost. These were followed by a dull, wet and not particularly hot summer, which ended in an almost tropical (hot and humid) spell at the end of August. This sudden change led to a significant increase in grey rot on the ripening Pinot noir and Meunier grapes.  The harvest was fast-paced and completed very quickly demanding very precise and methodical selection work of an unprecedented level even for Roederer.

Tasting Notes:
Lovely pink hue with light copper tints. Steady flow of fine bubbles. An immediate bouquet of forest fruit (wild strawberries and raspberries) and citrus  (blood orange) with some zesty and powdery petal-like notes (rose-flavoured macaroons). Upon aeration, the citrus fruit gives way to iodised and chocolate nuances with a few spicy and resinous (cedar) overtones. The palate is caressingly soft, delicious, delicate and elegant. We have the sensation of a silky texture that softly evaporates to give way to a cloud of delicate and slightly spicy perfumes. The fruit is concentrated and almost liqueur-like on the mid-palate where it is energised by the fresh and iodised flavours. On the finish, the delectable chocolate nuances combine with the chalky freshness to create a lingering and pure impression of salinity.

Ratings & Reviews

95 Points - Wine Enthusiast:
"Vineyards in Cumières, facing the Marne Valley, are the source of this ripe, full and balanced Champagne. The fruit of one year, with an aroma of roses and a rich, vibrant palate, the wine is opulent and full." - Roger Voss (Dec 2024)

95 Points - Jeb Dunnuck:
"The 2017 Champagne Vintage Rose is co-fermented from a blend made at harvest time. It pours a pristine bright salmon color and shimmers in the glass, offering notes of peaches, fresh berries, white pepper, and Mirabel. The palate has surprisingly good tension and lovely focus. A superb and more gastronomic wine, it has a hint of warmth, but it is more the spice that comes through. Drink 2025-2045." (AF)

94 Points - James Suckling:
"This is a layered and complex rosé showing aromas ranging from strawberries, apricot pits and pink grapefruits to nutmeg, pastries and rust. It’s firm, focused and minerally with a tight mousse and a long, taut finish. Drink or hold." (Jul 2025)

93 Points - Wine Spectator:
"There's a succulent quality to the nectarine, white cherry and melon fruit flavors on display in this elegant rosé, though a firm spine of well-meshed acidity provides fine definition. Plush and creamy in texture, with a minerally underpinning of chalk and smoke, backed by pleasing hints of pink grapefruit pith, pickled ginger and toast that linger on the finish. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Drink now through 2034. 780 cases imported." - Alison Napjus (Dec 2024)

93 Points - The Wine Independent:
"From the challenging 2017 vintage, a growing season plagued by severe spring frosts, a lackluster summer, and bouts of botrytis in the run-up to harvest, somehow comes the bright, breezy breath of fresh air! The 2017 Rosé Vintage is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from Roederer’s la Rivière estate. It reveals a very subtle salmon-pink color. Delicate scents of fresh raspberries, wild strawberries, and McIntosh apples languorously drift from the glass, followed by chalk dust and rose bud tea suggestions. The palate is understated and elegantly styled with a zippy line of freshness and tiny, persistent bubbles supporting the red berry and chalky layers, finishing with a quietly intense floral perfume. 29% was aged in oak, 24% went through malo-lactic, and it has 8 grams per liter of dosage, making for a very dry expression with great tension and finesse." (LPB)

91 Points - Wine Advocate:
"Incorporating “the survivors of 2017,” as Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon notes, Roederer’s 2017 Brut Vintage Rosé is a fine effort in a year that was particularly challenging for red grapes, which were pressured by gray rot come harvest time. Heavily based on Pinot Noir, with fruit carefully selected during picking in Cumières, complemented by Chardonnay sourced from Chouilly, it offers a bouquet of strawberries, candied orange zest and spices. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, textural and ample, with a delicate infusion of Pinot Noir phenolics, vibrant acidity and a sapid finish. Disgorged with eight grams per liter dosage, it does not quite match the precision of its immediate predecessor." - Kristaps Karklins (Apr 2025)