Photo courtesy: Johnny

Champagne Dom Ruinart Brut Rose Vintage 1996

Grape proportions: 85% CH, blended with 15% PN (as red base wines)

Tasted in Feb., 2010

Salmon pink, turning orange. Streams of very fine bubbles in leisurely effervescence.

Very expressive, uplifting perfumes of wild flowers and strawberry on the nose right upon first pouring! This is opening up nicely now, compared with a very subtle, restrained yet exceedingly promising bottle tasted one year ago.

After this initial flush of perfumed strawberry, the nose becomes richer in the splendor of ripe raspberry.

The first attack on the palate is all freshness and purity, with exquisite early summer red fruits. The fruit, alcohol, acidity and underlying minerality are so perfectly balanced and integrated that the wine feels vivacious, soft and airy yet at the same time vigorous, deep and long. It finishes with caramelized fruit and restrained minerality.

Then the wine constantly evolves in the glass, with bouquets of fresh butter, acacia honey, oiled wood, vanilla icecream and mineral. The palate takes on tones of burnt toast with a spicy (cinnamon) edge. In time, the fruit gradually turns peachy and the finish becomes charged with woody perfumes.

This is a great rose champagne of finesse. And now it may be the best timing to appreciate its exquisite red fruits. Or, you may wish to wait another 5 years or so when it's desidedly evolved and mature: reminiscent of a mature Burgundy red then?