Roederer Estate 2015 Brut Rosé L'Ermitage Anderson Valley Sparkling Wine 750ml

The L'Ermitage Brut is California's answer to Cristal. The L'Ermitage Brut Rosé is something more specific still — and more rare. It is produced only when the vintage is exceptional enough to warrant the additional complexity and additional delicacy of a rosé tête de cuvée, and only when the estate's Pinot Noir has achieved the specific quality of color, aromatics, and structure that Arnaud Weyrich's Burgundian maceration technique demands for the small red wine addition that transforms the L'Ermitage's prestige Chardonnay-Pinot Noir blend into something more perfumed, more fruit-forward, and more immediately sensually appealing than the standard Brut alone achieves.

The technique is specifically Burgundian: the 3.5% of red Pinot Noir added to the L'Ermitage Rosé is produced through skin contact maceration — the method that great red Burgundy uses to extract color, aromatics, and structure from Pinot Noir skins over a controlled period of contact. The result is not simply a tinted sparkling wine but a specifically crafted component whose color, berry aromas, and structural contribution are precisely calibrated to produce the "delicate berry flavors and a nice color" that the estate describes as the rosé's defining addition to the L'Ermitage character.

Decanter's Clive Pursehouse found "pink cotton candy, ripe apricot flesh and red apple peel — the palate exquisite and refined, with candied peach, blood orange and a touch of wet chalk to finish." Wine Enthusiast awarded 95 Points. Wine Spectator awarded 93 Points: "Delicate and pretty, with rose petal and strawberry tones accented by lemon, gingerbread and spices as this glides on the elegant finish." The 2015 vintage is the finest expression of the L'Ermitage Rosé's specific combination of Anderson Valley mineral freshness and Burgundian red wine technique available in the current market. Pink cotton candy that glides on a chalk finish. California sparkling wine at its most beautiful.

Origins & Craftsmanship

Roederer Estate was founded in Anderson Valley in 1982 by Champagne Louis Roederer — whose 1776 founding in Reims makes it among the oldest continuously family-owned Champagne houses in existence, and whose Cristal tête de cuvée represents one of the world's most celebrated and most age-worthy prestige sparkling wines. The L'Ermitage Rosé follows the same founding philosophy applied to the rosé format: estate-grown fruit exclusively from Roederer Estate's nearly 600 acres of Anderson Valley vineyards, méthode traditionnelle production with special oak-aged reserve wines added for complexity, and release only in exceptional vintages when the quality of the harvest justifies the prestige cuvée designation.

Winemaker Arnaud Weyrich — who has led the estate since 2002 — applies the Burgundian maceration technique specifically for the rosé addition: a small parcel of estate Pinot Noir is vinified as a red wine through skin contact, extracting the color compounds, red berry aromatics, and structural tannins from the skins over a carefully controlled maceration period before the resulting red wine is incorporated at 3.5% of the final blend. This Burgundian technique — developed for still red wine production in Burgundy — produces a rosé addition of greater aromatic intensity and more complete structural integration than the direct pressing saignée method, and is more technically demanding to execute at the precise level that the L'Ermitage Rosé requires.

The 2015 dosage wine — the small addition of wine and sugar that balances the final cuvée — was aged for six years in a French oak cask before use, a development period that produces the subtle toasty, nutty complexity that distinguishes the L'Ermitage dosage from standard expedition liqueur. Following disgorgement, the wine aged for a minimum of six additional months on the cork — the final integration period that allows the dosage to dissolve completely into the base wine before release. The result is bottled in the distinctive salmon-hued bottle that identifies the L'Ermitage Rosé as a separate and specifically produced expression from the standard Brut.

Critics Reviews

Wine Enthusiast — 95 Points (2015 Brut Rosé): 
:This wine is salmon-hued with aromas of Rainier cherry, raspberry, strawberry, orange cream and pink grapefruit zest on the nose. The bubbles are fine and the midpalate has semifirm creamy mousse with flavors of white strawberry, white peach, Golden Delicious apple, dried fine herbs and toasty buttery brioche on the finish. — Tonya Pitts"

Decanter (Clive Pursehouse) — 94 Points (2015 Brut Rosé, July 2023): "This effusively aromatic blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Roederer Estate is absolutely delightful. L'Ermitage, both Brut and Rosé, is a special tête de cuvée. This sparkling wine is made only from pre-selected, estate-grown grapes in exceptional years — aromatics of pink cotton candy, ripe apricot flesh and red apple peel. The palate is exquisite and refined. Candied peach, blood orange and a touch of wet chalk to finish."

Wine Spectator (Tim Fish) — 93 Points (2015 Brut Rosé, December 2023): "Delicate and pretty, with rose petal and strawberry tones accented by lemon, gingerbread and spices as this glides on the elegant finish."

Roederer Estate official description: "A very intense rosé with a strawberry tart and caramelized pie crust character. This red wine brings delicate berry flavors and a nice color to further extend the L'Ermitage smoothness and subtleties, allowing for a unique tasting experience."

James Suckling — 95 Points: "This effusively aromatic blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Roederer Estate is absolutely delightful. L’Ermitage, both Brut and Rosé, is a special tête de cuvée. This sparkling wine is made only from pre-selected, estate-grown grapes in exceptional years—aromatics of pink cotton candy, ripe apricot flesh and red apple peel. The palate is exquisite and refined. Candied peach, blood orange and a touch of wet chalk to finish."

Tasting Profile

Nose Salmon-pink with brilliant clarity — the 3.5% Burgundian-macerated Pinot Noir's color contribution in a hue of precise, delicate warmth that communicates both the red wine component's presence and the Chardonnay-dominant blend's restraint. The nose is effusively aromatic and immediately beautiful — Decanter's "absolutely delightful" characterization confirmed from the first approach. Pink cotton candy leads with a slightly exotic, slightly confectionary sweetness that is the Burgundian maceration technique's most immediately distinctive aromatic contribution — present and vivid without any artificial quality. Ripe apricot flesh follows alongside red apple peel — warm, sun-kissed, slightly honeyed stone and orchard fruit from the Anderson Valley's warm afternoons and cool Pacific nights. Rose petal and orange blossoms add the lifted, perfumed floral dimension that Pinot Noir skin contact produces most elegantly in sparkling wine. Strawberry and tiny red berries add vibrant, slightly tart red fruit. Brioche and caramelized pie crust add the autolytic and oak dosage contribution — warm, slightly toasty, and deeply appealing. The six-year oak-aged dosage wine's development adds a subtle nutty depth threading through the whole.

Palate Exquisite and refined — Decanter's most specific and most perfectly chosen characterization for a palate that is simultaneously more delicate and more perfumed than the standard L'Ermitage Brut while retaining the same full structural foundation. The mousse is exceptionally fine — the Anderson Valley fruit's natural acidity and the extended lees development producing a creamy, persistent effervescence of the highest quality. Candied peach arrives at entry with warm sweetness before blood orange adds citrus brightness and the slight bitter tension that makes the palate interesting rather than simply sweet. Rose petal and strawberry carry the red fruit dimension through the mid-palate in a combination of delicacy and presence that the 3.5% Pinot Noir addition specifically achieves — coloring the Chardonnay's naturally more austere character with a fruit-forward warmth without overwhelming it. A touch of wet chalk arrives at the mid-palate close — the Anderson Valley limestone soils' most direct terroir contribution, cool and mineral and grounding the fruit generosity in something specifically Californian. Lemon and gingerbread add spiced citrus warmth from the Wine Spectator note. The body is smooth and creamy with a mouth-filling fullness that "verges on sophistication."

Finish Long, elegant, and gradually drying. The wet chalk and candied peach carry the close together before the blood orange and gingerbread spice take over — the finish cycling through fruit, mineral, and spice in a graceful sequence before resolving into a clean, dry, lingering close. Rose petal and strawberry persist faintly at the very end alongside a whisper of brioche warmth. The finish is the rosé's most specifically beautiful quality — gliding, as Wine Spectator observed, through an elegant close that is long without heaviness and dry without austerity.

Quick Overview

Serving & Occasion

Serve at 10–12°C in a generous Champagne tulip or wide white wine glass rather than a standard flute — the developed aromatic complexity of pink cotton candy, apricot, rose petal, and brioche reveals itself most completely with the broader bowl's air exposure. Allow 10 minutes of air after pouring for the full aromatic effusiveness to develop. Drinking beautifully now through 2028. Outstanding alongside salmon preparations, lobster with butter, crab, seared scallops, strawberry-based desserts, stone fruit tarts, fresh goat cheese, smoked salmon, and any preparation where the wine's rose petal, apricot, and candied peach character finds complementary ingredients.