2013 Coteaux Champenois Rouge Bérêche et Fils

This is a real Champagne curiosity - it's red wine! Coteaux Champanois Rouge - originally Champagne was not known for sparkling white wines, but for red wines that could compete with the best wines from Burgundy. In the southern part of the Montagne de Reims lies the village of Ormes, where there is the small 0.38-hectare vineyard. It was planted in 1965 with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier in a ratio of 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Pinot Meunier, which is also the ratio in this wine. Two barrels of red wine are made in the best vintages, mainly because it is the red wine that is blended when making rosé champagne. However, the wine is wonderfully delicious and elegant, so the Bérèche brothers choose to bottle the wine not used for rosé production. The wine spends 16 months in barrels and when it is bottled it is done in a very special way using an ancient method - a special "tap" is fitted to the barrel and the wine is bottled very carefully and slowly by hand. The wine is fine, delicate and elegant - very Burgundian in style and yet very much its own.