Pinks sparkle for Valentine’s Day
With Valentine’s Day looming, pink sparkling wine comes quickly to mind. So here are 10 to sample, ranging from under $15 to about $100. You could spend a lot more or a little bit less, but these all passed muster with Houston Chronicle tasters, and bottles are on shelves in the Houston area as we speak.
Henriot Brut Rosé
19.5 (9.5 for quality, 10 for value) Tasters take: “Bright and minerally with fresh red fruit in pastry.”
About the wine: The pinot noir (50 percent), chardonnay (40) and pinot meunier fruit (10) is all from the Montagne de Reims, and 35 percent of the blend consists of reserve red wines. A bit of Henriot’s special Cuve 38 Champagne, made from exclusively Grand Cru chardonnay, is also in the mix. Critical acclaim: Decanter (95) praised its “spicy baked red and blackberry nose with a whiff of struck-match.”
Price: $66.99 at Spec’s Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé 18.9 (9.4 for quality, 9.5 for value) Taster’s take: “Bright-red fruit on the nose, creamy citrus notes on the palate. Elegant, long finish.”
About the wine: Based on fruit from Champagne’s 2016 vintage, it’s a blend of chardonnay (40 percent), pinot noir (30) and pinot menieur (30). Reserve wines make up 40 percent of the wine.
Critical acclaim: Wilfred Wong of Wine.com called it his “desert island wine.”
Price: $79.79 at Spec’s 2017 Schramsberg Brut Rosé 19.2 (9.2 for quality, 10 for value) Taster’s take: “Excellent minerality. Nuanced fruit flavors, both citrusy and peachy.” About the wine: Hugh Davies blends pinot noir (72 percent) and chardonnay (28), using fruit sourced from Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Marin counties. Fermentation is done with full skin contact.
Critical acclaim: The Wine Enthusiast scored it a 91.
Price: $41.49 at Spec’s McBride Sisters Brut Rosé 19.2 (9.2 for quality, 10 for value) Taster’s take: “Red and stone-fruit notes. Creamy texture.”
About the wine: This sparkling rosé, about two-thirds pinot noir, features fruit sourced from Hawkes Bay on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, which has one of the country’s warmer climes.
Critical acclaim: It received a 94-point score and best-of-show sparkling wine honors from the Monterey International Wine Competition. Price: $22.49 at Total Wine François Labet Brut Rosé 19.1 (9.1 for quality, 10 for value) Taster’s take: “Tart acidity with apples and red fruit on the palate.”
About the wine: From the owner of the famed Château de la Tour in Clos Vougeot, this Cremant de Borgogne is 100 percent Burgundian pinot noir made in the traditional style of Champagne.
Price: $17.79 at Spec’s
2017 Gérard Bertrand Cuvée Thomas Jefferson Brut Rosé
19 (9 for quality, 10 for value) Taster’s take: “Smooth, creamy strawberry mousse.”
About the wine: Mostly chardonnay (70 percent) with chenin blanc and pinot noir making up the rest of the blend, it’s a Cremant de Limoux from one of the Languedoc’s most reliable producers.
Critical acclaim: The Wine Enthusiast scored it an 89.
Price: $19.94 at Spec’s
Pierre Sparr Brut Rosé
19 (9 for quality, 10 for value) Taster’s take: “Intense pink in color. Chalky and dry but fresh with raspberry and apple notes.” About the wine: A Cremant d’Alsace, it’s 100 percent pinot noir made in the same methode traditionelle style employed in Champagne.
Critical acclaim: Wine Enthusiast noted how “the dark-pink hue of this wine promises body and fruit, which duly appear on the creamy palate.”
Price: $17.99 at Total Wine & More
Gruet Brut Rosé
18.9 (8.9 for quality, 10 for value) Taster’s take: “Light and simple, but red fruit flavors make it most satisfying.”
About the wine: One hundred percent pinot noir grown in bone-dry, high-altitude vineyards in central New Mexico, this nearly garnet-colored rosé was aged for 24 months en tirage.
Critical acclaim: The Tasting Panel scored it a 90.
Price: $13.89 at Spec’s
Chapel Down Brut Rosé
18.7 (9.2 for quality, 9.5 for value) Taster’s take: “Citrus on the nose, fresh, vibrant red fruits on the palate. Persistent mousse.” About the wine: Made from pinot noir grapes grown primarily the winery’s own vineyard in Kent that was planted in the 1970s. Critical acclaim: It earned three scores of 90 or higher with the Wine Enthusiast (92) calling it a “classy, grown-up, creamy wine with lively mousse and lasting fruit..”
Price: $49.99 at Spec’s Frerejean Frères Brut Rosé 18.3 (9.3 for quality, 9 for value) Taster’s take: “Expressive, enticing red-fruit flavors. Brioche on the nose.”
About the wine: Brothers Guillaume, Richard and Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger launched their champagne in 2005 and source fruit from Premier and Grand Cru vineyards in the Côte de Blancs around Avize, where their winery is located.
Price: $99.99 at Spec’s