Louis Roederer traces back to 1776 in Reims and remains family-owned and independent seven generations later, farming around 240 hectares of its own vineyards — much of it biodynamic, at a scale no one else in Champagne has attempted.

Cristal was created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II, who wanted his champagne in clear glass with a flat bottom — no punt in which an assassin could conceal a device. The bottle has not changed since.

Cristal Rosé is the rarest expression of the cuvée and the most technically demanding. It is made by infusion: Pinot Noir from a handful of the oldest biodynamic grand cru parcels is macerated gently with its skins, then blended with Chardonnay. The colour and the texture come from the fruit itself, never from added red wine.

2014 was a cool, drawn-out season that favoured precision over power — exactly the register in which this wine works best.

Wild strawberry and blood orange over rose petal and fine chalk; silken and precise on the palate, the red fruit deep-set rather than showy, closing extremely long and saline.