Founded at Épernay in 1811 by Pierre-Nicolas Perrier and Rose Adélaïde Jouët, Perrier-Jouët is one of the oldest of the grandes marques and the one most closely bound to Chardonnay. The house owns holdings in the Grand Cru villages of Cramant and Avize on the Côte des Blancs, and its style has been built for two centuries on the floral, delicately structured character those chalk slopes give.

Perrier-Jouët is also the house of Art Nouveau: in 1902 Émile Gallé painted the white anemones that still decorate the Belle Époque bottle, a design rediscovered in the cellars in 1964 and now among the most recognisable in Champagne. The cellars are today in the hands of Séverine Frerson, the first woman to hold the position of cellar master at the house.

Blason Rosé is the house’s rosé expression, built around Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier with a Chardonnay core and finished by the addition of still red wine from the family’s own sources. It is aged on lees in the Épernay cellars before release, and dosed low enough to keep the fruit bright rather than sweet.

A rosé with real Champagne structure rather than a simple aperitif wine: it holds up to charcuterie, summer berries, and lighter Asian dishes as readily as it does to a glass on its own.