Louis Roederer traces back to 1776 in Reims and took its present name in 1833, when Louis Roederer inherited the house from his uncle. Seven generations later it remains family-owned and independent — a rarity among the grandes marques.

Its real advantage is land. Roederer farms around 240 hectares of its own vineyards, covering the large majority of its needs, where most houses buy in the bulk of their fruit. Much of that estate has been converted to biodynamic farming, at a scale no one else in Champagne has attempted.

Roederer’s rosé is always a vintage wine, which few houses attempt, and it is made by infusion rather than by blending in red wine: the Pinot Noir from Cumières is macerated gently with its skins before pressing, then blended with Chardonnay. The colour and the texture come from the fruit itself.

2016 tested Champagne hard — frost, then mildew, then a hot dry summer that saved the crop. What came through is small in volume and unusually taut.

Wild strawberry, blood orange and rose petal; vinous yet delicate on the palate, with barely a whisper of tannin, closing dry and saline.