(Champagne) Not always being listened to attentively—the classic fate of the drink chosen for special occasions: champagne often has to resign itself to the fact that it is present at the most important moments but is almost never at the center. Yet this sparkling wine itself would have so much to say if it were allowed to: the amount of details tweaked…!

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about champagne is that so many basic parameters have to be the same for all representatives of the genre—and yet the results of the cellar masters are so incredibly varied. As is known well, the appellation in which the grapes must be grown, namely Champagne, and the permitted grape varieties (three main varieties and a further five), are not the only stipulations. The CIVC, the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, dictates even more: among other things, harvesting exclusively by hand and a second fermentation in the bottle. Despite the strict regulations, there is a remarkable range. Champagne can range from a kitschy rosé with 45 grams of residual sugar per liter to a bone-dry biodynamic “field blend” (a cuvée made by co-planting), or even a single-varietal, skin-fermented Pinot Gris sparkling wine reflecting the terroir of a single vineyard. Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon is an example of the personified meticulousness that can be behind a rosé champagne. He grew up in the center of the region, in Reims, and has been the cellar master of Louis Roederer since 1999. This champagne house is one of the last large family-owned houses and can rely on seventy percent of its own biodynamically or organically cultivated vineyards—unusual for such an important Maison, which produces one of the champagne icons par excellence with its “Cristal”.

In order to better understand the processes behind the rosé methods, Lécaillon has chosen an unusual path that he has by no means reached the end of yet: he travels to Japan twice a year to spend a lot of time with the world’s best matcha producers and to delve deeper and deeper into the parallels of processing tea leaves and grapes. One of these experts is the well-known tea master Shinya Yamaguchi from Yame on the island of Kyūshū, who is one of the few people to have reached the highest level, 10 dan, several times.

“People like that rarely tell you everything the first time around,” says Lécaillon about the Japanese mentality. “You have to earn their trust gradually.” The findings from Japan’s tea regions therefore help to shape Louis Roederer’s rosé. Incidentally, unlike many other rosés, this is not an interchangeable easy-drinking bubbly, but a vintage champagne that is only made in the best years. Two types of rosé sparkling wine are permitted in the Champagne region: the majority is rosé d’assemblage, for which white and red base wine is blended before the second fermentation in the bottle. The smaller part is rosé saignée, where, in short, blue grapes release their reddish skin pigments into the must right at the start of the production process. The Roederer Rosé Vintage belongs to the second category.

“No matter which tea you make—green, black, oolong or matcha—it all starts with the same leaf,” explains Lécaillon. “If you want more umami, you cover the tea plants a few weeks before harvesting to stimulate chlorophyll production. In the case of matcha, you also want to preserve the green color and keep the taste of the tea leaf as pure as possible. It is therefore important to prevent the oxidation of the leaf juices—this takes hours. The tea leaves for matcha are steamed to stop oxidation and dried as quickly as possible. They are then placed in the oven for two hours.” Then, according to Lécaillon, the stems are removed, “and so is the bitterness—only the purity of the leaf remains.” The result is the so-called tencha, the basis for matcha, the ground green tea powder, the end product of this effort.

The purity of taste, which is so important to tea masters such as Shinya Yamaguchi, is also very important to the French cellar master: the word “pure” is a key term for Lécaillon to describe the style of Maison Louis Roederer. He uses it particularly often in connection with the “Cristal” and the “Cristal Rosé”, which incidentally celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024—the 1974 vintage was the first. The “Cristal Rosé” is made with around 55 percent Pinot noir from Grand Cru vineyards in Aÿ, 45 percent is Chardonnay. “After we seek purity of flavor for the ‘Cristal Rosé’, we have to stop the oxidation of the Pinot noir.

Just like with matcha. But: Pinot noir is very susceptible to oxidation, and unfortunately I can’t steam grapes,” says Lécaillon. In order to slow down the reaction with oxygen, Roederer cools the red wine grapes in a cold room at minus ten degrees Celsius as quickly as possible after harvesting. “We don’t freeze them, but we essentially bring them down to zero temperature to block any oxidation. We are basically doing the same as with tea.”

While in Japan tea leaves are dried using oven heat after this step, grapes cannot simply be baked. “But we remove the stems to avoid bitterness. And at the end, we squeeze the grapes very carefully, just to open them up and let the juices out. Not to let them oxidize. We allow the grapes to macerate for the rosé, under carbon dioxide.”

The Pinot Noir must is directed into tanks where it flows from below into the Chardonnay must, a process designed to exclude oxygen. “The must of Chardonnay has a reductive character—this eliminates the risk of oxidation once and for all,” as Lécaillon puts it. “From that point on, the rosé ferments without further intervention.” Which undesirable aromas does the cellar master actually want to avoid by chilling the Pinot noir grapes? “Cooked fruit.”

Lécaillon first noticed the parallels between rosé and tea in 2005, during a trip to Japan, where he was actually interested in sake. “At first I thought the infusion was the important thing. The water temperature, the time and all kinds of other details that we pay attention to when we prepare matcha and other teas.” Only after years of speaking with tea experts, visiting plantations and production sites in Japan, did the cellar master realize that the key elements lay in the steps leading up to the process. “Controlling oxidation and maintaining purity—if these factors are managed correctly, ninety percent of the work is already done.”