Product Description
Varieties
Pinot Noir 80% *
Chardonnay 20% *
The Vineyard
Crus: 100% Grand Crus. Some of the most prestigious crus such as Ambonnay, Bouzy, Verzenay for the Pinot Noir and Avize, Cramant and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger for the Chardonnay.
The selection of plots and vineyards for the perfectly ripe Chardonnay and Pinot Noir was extremely strict.
It was always natural for Laurent-Perrier, creator of the benchmark Cuvée Rosé non-vintage champagne, to eventually offer a prestige Cuvée Rosé. Alexandra Rosé is a rare and cherished wine that comes from a rigorous selection of the best plots; an exceptional marriage between Grands Crus grapes of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
The year 2004: despite periods of hail and storms during the spring and summer, September’s beneficial warm and dry weather saw an abundant, well-matured harvest of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes (the former being more heterogenous).
The Cellar
Ageing: released from the cellars after 10 years ageing.
An Alexandra Rosé Cuvée vintage is only created in years when the Grand Crus grapes of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay reach maturity at the same time. During the Pinot Noir maceration, 20% of Chardonnay is added.
Only 7 vintages have been released since its launch in 1987.
The chosen date owes nothing to chance. The global release of Grande Cuvée Alexandra Rosé Millésimé 2004 takes place 26 years to the day after the official 1987 presentation of the first (1982) vintage. Since that première, Laurent-Perrier has produced six vintages, the launch of the 2004 vintage making a seventh.
Only seven, in 26 years? But that is because rarity and the exceptional are the attendant spirits at the birth of Alexandra Rosé Millésimé. Consequently, in honour of this and those earlier vintages – 1982, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1997 and 1998 – seven cities will host the global launch: Paris, London, Rome, Brussels, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Marrakech.
Only outstanding vintages are deemed worthy of a Grande Cuvée Alexandra Rosé. These exceptional years are eagerly awaited, yearned for…. Each harvest is closely monitored and gauged. Grape quality, sugar concentration, acidity, and potential for development are all scrupulously analysed and weighed in the balance by Michel Fauconnet.
Looking back at that spring of 2004, a lengthy period of wet weather gave way to what looked like being a sunny summer. The damp spring fed a profusion of bunches. Bucking every expectation, 2004 was simultaneously generous and opulent. September promised both quantity and quality: the bumper Champagne grape harvest beat all records. The first tests carried out in the vineyards confirmed the healthy state of the vintage. The consensus view among the experts was that 2004 was one of the greatest vintages in two decades.
