Champagne Charles Heidsieck, Rosé Reserve, Brut

This bottle of the NV Ros Rserve was based on the 2008 vintage, with the addition of 20% reserve wines and 5% or 6% of still red wine from Les Riceys in the Aube; it was disgorged in 2017, with 11 grams per liter dosage, meaning that it has spent longer sur lattes than most recent releases of Heidsieck's ros. Salmon-pink in hue, it unfurls in the glass with a reserved bouquet of red berries, orange rind, brioche and gingerbread that will become more expressive with bottle age. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, with brisk acids, a fine but vigorous mousse and a tight-knit, nicely concentrated core, concluding with a saline finish. This is one of the most tensile, age-worthy rosés that I can recall tasting from Charles Heidsieck.