Veuve Clicquot was founded in Reims in 1772. Its name and its character come from Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, widowed at twenty-seven in 1805 and left in charge of the house at a time when a woman running a business was close to unthinkable.

She changed champagne twice. In 1816 she devised the riddling table, the method still used to clear a bottle of its sediment — before her, champagne was cloudy. In 1818 she made the first known blended rosé champagne, adding red wine to the blend rather than tinting it.

The house style has stayed hers: Pinot Noir dominant, built on structure and body rather than delicacy. The yellow label, registered in 1877, has been its signature ever since.

The Brut Rosé is the direct descendant of what Barbe-Nicole invented in 1818: the Yellow Label blend given colour and flesh by the addition of the house’s own Pinot Noir red wine, rather than by maceration.

Wild strawberry and raspberry with a hint of blackcurrant; fresh and vinous on the palate, firmly red-fruited, closing dry and structured. A rosé that holds its own at the table.