Mother’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Champagne And Champagne-Method Brut Rosés Over $100

Show mom how much you love her with the persistent pink effervescence of a rosé champagne. These champagnes, and a couple of the best American champagne method sparkling rosés, are special occasion luxuries perfect for celebrating Mother’s Day. If you’re enjoying these outside, consider the Brümate champagne flute to keep your wine cold and carbonated. Limited edition floral prints for Mother’s Day include hibiscus, peony, sun flower and succulents. Serious champagne connoisseurs can even take an online class by the Comité Champagne or a virtual tour of Champagne to bring the rich history and beautiful scenery to life.

Argyle Winery Extended Tirage Brut Rosé 2009

Argyle has pioneered champagne method sparkling wine in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and maintain their supremacy among an increasingly excellent field with this sophisticated sparkling. Extended tirage wines are aged sur lees (with yeast) for an extended period of time (in this case, a full decade), creating additional depth and richness as the yeast breaks down. The delicate blush color of Argyle’s 2009 extended tirage brut rosé belies its creamy, layered texture bursting with fresh raspberry and tight minerality on the finish. This wine is a blend of pinot meunier, pinot noir and a touch of chardonnay, using entirely estate grown grapes from the Dundee Hills.

Dom Pérignon P2 Brut Rosé Champagne 1996

Another example of extended tirage is seen in Dom Pérignon’s P2 line of wines. The designation “P2” refers to the second plentitude, a leap to a new level of quality with an extra decade or so of aging on the lees in the cellars of Champagne. Only a few vintages of P2 rosé have been released – 1992, 1993 and the current 1996 vintage, which was released in the United States in 2017. Winemaker Richard Geoffroy describes the nose as daring, with Mediterranean influences and notes of fig, dried roses and bay leaf. “The wine vibrates and alternates between light and shadow, freshness and gravity,” he says, noting the spicy citrus finish.

Krug Rosé 23rd Edition

Krug has only been making rosé since 1983, but the 23rd edition is nothing short of a symphonic masterpiece. In Krug tradition, the multi-vintage wine comprises a complex blend of 60 different wines from 10 different years, dating as far back as 2000. Reserve wines from Krug’s extensive library make up 56% of the final blend, with the rest coming from the 2011 harvest, including all three champagne varietals – chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. Tantalizing rose hips and pink grapefruit lead to honey, dried cherry and buttery spiced toast on the palate. A wine with robust body, its elegance is best expressed when paired with rich, meaty dishes like foie gras, lamb and game meat.

Mod Sélection Rosé

Just last year, Brent Hocking (founder of DeLeón Tequila and Virginia Black Whiskey) and Drake launched this new champagne brand in collaboration with a family who has been producing champagne in the Vallée de Marne region for five generations. The renegade metallic packaging with intricate filligree is reminiscent of Ace of Spades but classier and more refined. More importantly, the dynamic flavor and balanced structure in their saignée method rosé is equally impressive, with vivacious strawberry and cranberry promising tremendous aging potential. Half the blend is pinot meunier, another iconoclastic choice, with 40% chardonnay and 10% pinot noir rounding out this voluptuous champagne.

Alfred Gratien Cuvée Paradis Rosé 2007

In Épernay, cellar masters within the Jaeger family have been hand-riddling this exquisite tête-de-cuvée for four generations. A blend of nearly two-thirds grand cru chardonnay and pinot noir make for a luminous copper champagne with bright red currant flavors concentrated by seven years of aging in bottle prior to release. There’s no malolactic fermentation to retain a fresh bright flavor, but the first fermentation is in Chablis oak casks. Notes of saffron and orange blossom linger on the finish and just 1,200 cases are produced each year.

Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Rosé 2008

Created as an homage to Madame Clicquot herself, La Grande Dame Rosé is strong and sensual, even pairing well with steak. The 2008 vintage is new cellar master Dominique Dermarville’s first iteration of Grande Dame, hitting the signature fresh and silky style to a tee. He uses six of the house’s eight historic grand crus, including the iconic Clos Colin in Bouzy and crafts his blend nearly entirely with pinot noir – 92% – with the remainder chardonnay, for powerful strawberry and even blackberry pirouetting across the tongue. At just 6g/l dosage, this extra brut cuvée will age beautifully for at least another 15 years.

Louis Roederer Zero Dosage Brut Nature Rosé 2012

Louis Roederer’s first ever 100% biodynamic zero dosage rosé was just released in January, created from a single plot of vineyards in the clay-rich Cumieres region of Champagne and it’s the only brut nature wine on this list. The blend is predominantly pinot noir with 25% pinot meunier and 20% chardonnay, and the entire harvest is whole batch pressed. This is rare in Champagne – often different grapes or different plots are pressed separately, then blended to achieve a house style. This freestyle method, combined with no dosage added, is a wild and authentic expression of terroir with no room for imperfections. Although 2012 was a challenging year with low yields throughout Champagne, these grapes were unusually ripe, leading to an outstanding vintage. Full-bodied, wild raspberry flavors are balanced with crisp acidity and a smoky hint of pepper. Roederer’s first brut nature rosé is a collaboration with French architect and designer Philippe Starck, who designed the minimalist label and contributed to the winemaking process.

Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Rosé 2012

A touch of pinot noir red wine gives this fresh and floral brut rosé its signature pale peach hue. The recipe for this unconventional cuvée includes chardonnay from Cramant, Avize and Le Mesnil, pinot noir from Ay, Mailly and Verzy with just a dash of pinot meunier from Dizy. Perrier-Jouët has been a pioneer in Champagne since the house was founded in 1811, notably creating the first brut champagne in 1854 and releasing their hand-painted Art Nouveu bottles more than a century later. Rose and peonies mingle with fraises des bois and pink grapefruit on the nose and freshness from the legendary chardonnay harvested in the grand cru village of Cramant ensure unusual longevity.

Schramsberg J. Schram Rosé 2011

California’s most acclaimed sparkling winery is housed in a historic estate on Diamond Mountain in Calistoga. The ninth vintage of this hand-riddled brut rosé is noteworthy for its gentle elegance, featuring more than two-thirds chardonnay grapes blended with pinot noir for a translucent salmon hue and fine mousse. With tangy notes of candied grapefruit and nectarine, it pairs well with shellfish and roasted poultry. Only 1,476 cases were produced, making this Schramsberg’s most exclusive wine.

Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon 2007

Champagne Billecart-Salmon was founded in 1818 and the house is still run by the 7th generation of the family today. Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon was created just recently, in 1988, as a tribute to Billecart-Salmon’s founding matriarch. A blend of half Côtes des Blancs chardonnay and half pinot noir from Montagne de Reims and the Grande Vallée de la Marne, this grand champagne offers a juicy bouquet of peaches and strawberries leading to jammy blood orange on the palate. Creamy citrus flavors developed from 10 years of aging sur lees make this a great pairing for buttery langoustines or poultry.

Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte Palmes d’Or Rosé 2006

This saignée rosé is the crown jewel of the Feuillate portfolio, made with 100% pinot noir grapes from two cru vineyards – more delicate Bouzy and lushly fruity Riceys. This pristine harvest displays fresh floral aromas that were masterfully captured and preserved in the 2006 vintage along with round black currant and wild cherry flavors. After aging in cellar for nearly a decade, the 2008 vintage was released in December 2019 and will be available online later this summer.