Valentine's Day - a good excuse to drink champagne

Bollinger Rosé
10 April 2012

Bombarded with valentine-targeted advertising for everything from chocolate to lingerie, I tend to assume that some people do buy their beloved pink champagne, even if I don't.

One wine merchant I spoke to recently was sceptical. But Valentine's Day is surely as good an excuse to drink champagne as any.

Codorniu Extra Rosé NV (Co-op, £11.99 reduced to £5.99 until 16 February; Majestic, £12.99 or £9.74 each when you buy two)
If you can't stretch to champagne, this is the best rosé sparkler I've had recently. Crisp and dry, with fairly simple red fruit, but there's a bit of yeasty breadth to it as well.

Alexandre Bonnet Rosé NV (Waitrose, £24.99)
This rosé stands out among the cheaper ones. From the slightly obscure Les Riceys area, more than 100 kilometres south-east of Epernay, this is made from 100 per cent pinot noir. Lots of quite sweet red fruit, bright and well-balanced. Very attractive.

Veuve Cliquot Rosé NV (widely available, RRP £37.99; best offer is Majestic, reduced to £35 until 22 March)
Of the various non-vintage rosés from the grandes marques, Veuve is perhaps the most elegant: crisp, dry and fine, with a long finish.

Bollinger Rosé NV (Waitrose, Berry Bros, independents, from around £45: best deal is Oddbins, reduced to £39.99 until 14 March)
I've sung the praises of this before but re-tasting against other non-vintages, it's just streets ahead: concentrated, complex, with biscuity depth. Not quite up with Bolly's top La Grande Année Rosé 2002 (around £85 a bottle) but seriously good nonetheless.

Krug Rosé NV (Berry Bros, 3 St James St, SW1, www.bbr.com; Harvey Nichols; from £112.40/half bottle)
The price tag is silly but the elegance and finesse haunting: fragrant and light but complex and long. Hard to fault.

Then again, for the same money as the cheaper rosés you could just buy a decent bottle of non-rosé champagne. Among the non-vintages, Pol Roger (widely available: best deal is Oddbins reduced to £27.99 until 14 Mar) is hard to beat: elegant but with breadth, well balanced and long. And Taittinger NV is ever excellent (widely available: best deal is Asda, reduced to £20 until 2 March).

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