La Lutétienne Rosé, Brut Nature 2005

A mature vintage rosé to which the absence of dosage has added nothing that could soften its edges. Onion-skin rosé colour with salmon reflections, fine and persistent bead, and a nose that moves between dried red berries, puff pastry and roasted hazelnut. With air, dried orange peel and a smoky, chalky note emerge.

The grapes come from the lieux-dits Mocque Tonneau, Four à Chaux and Le Métier in Celles-lès-Condé, as well as Les Forgeottes and L'Enclume in Œuilly, both communes in the Vallée de la Marne. The subsoil is Lutetian limestone: hard limestone bands with lignite in Celles-lès-Condé, crumbly, soft limestone in the two Œuilly sites. In the vineyard, the soil is only worked shallowly beneath the vine row, with the rows between left grassed over; this is complemented by Poussard pruning, plant extracts, home-grown green manure and organic fertilisers.

75% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Noir, harvested from 19 to 29 September 2005 after a sunny year with a warm growing season and cool weather at harvest. Slow gravity pressing, spontaneous fermentation and six months on fine lees in Burgundian oak casks, kept separate by plot, with no malolactic fermentation and no fining. The rosé is created through blending. Bottled on 4 May 2006, disgorged on 9 January 2023 after 16 years and 5 months on the lees, with 0 g/l dosage.

Dry down to the bone, carried by mature acidity and a saline, chalky texture. Red currant and bitter grapefruit set the direction, sourdough crust the depth. The finish stays long, austere and gripping.

Pairs well with crisp roasted quail, veal sweetbreads and aged Pata Negra ham.

3300 bottles from a vintage the Tarlant family left to rest in the cellar for over sixteen years. Without dosage, nothing can be corrected: what you find here comes purely from site, harvest and time.