Champagne Ruinart, Rosé, Brut

A blend of 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay, and featuring around 25% reserve wines, this is 100% premier cru fruit from the Montagne des Reims and Côte des Blancs. Almost a third of the Pinot Noir was vinified as a still wine. A deep coral colour, this is fresh and youthful, with rounded wild red berry fruit, and a hint of rose. With some time in the glass, it develops deeper, more complex, more exotic notes, leading to a long and lively finish.

Drink 2021 - 2026

Light orange. Sharply focused red berry and tangerine scents are complicated by suggestions of allspice and cinnamon, with a hint of smokiness in the background. Sappy and minerally on the palate, offering fresh strawberry and blood orange flavours lifted by juicy acidity. It packs a serious punch but carries no excess weight and finishes stony and very long, with an echoing red berry character.

An enticing properly dry rosé with a slew of red berry aromas, including wild strawberries, but behind this is the structure of a serious Chardonnay from the chalky soils of this region and it is the chalky texture that anchors this on the long finish.

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Raspberries and white pepper. Quite sweet – there is something that evokes a long-distant memory of strawberry jelly babies. Pretty fruit and a good, broad swathe of ripe acidity, but lacks the complexity and stature I'd expect of a champagne in this price bracket. It might taste better with a slice of strawberry tart?

Drink 2023 - 2027

The latest rendition of Ruinart's NV Brut Rosé is a lovely, vibrant wine that offers inviting aromas of tangerine, blood orange, plum and freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and precise, tangy acids and a lovely mousse, it's a ca-harming, comparatively vinous wine already showing well.

Drink 2021 - 2031