Collector

Best Prestige Champagne

Four tête de cuvée bottles, and when each one earns it

Prestige cuvée is Champagne's top tier: a house's best fruit, longest ageing and, usually, its most elaborate bottle. The pricing invites cynicism, and sometimes deserves it. But the four here are not interchangeable luxury goods — one is a single-village blanc de blancs released only in years the house considers worthy, and the other three are rosés so different from each other that tasting them together is the clearest lesson in Champagne we can offer. Rosé Champagne is where houses show their hand, because you cannot hide behind autolytic complexity when there is red fruit in the glass.

1Best Value98 pts • Côte des Blancs, France

Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque Rose Brut Champagne 2013

Champagne • $250

The most delicate wine here, and the prettiest bottle in Champagne. Strawberry, peony, kumquat and white currant over a hint of toasted brioche; pink grapefruit and mandarin on a fine, silky mousse. The cool 2013 season gave it lacy precision rather than weight — a rosé for the aperitif hour and for anyone who finds prestige Champagne overbearing. Made only in exceptional years, which at $250 makes it the value proposition on this list.

Buy — $250 Full Review

2Most Accessible97 pts • Champagne, France

Rare Millesime Brut Rose 2012

Champagne • $275

Piper-Heidsieck's prestige cuvée is Champagne's best-kept secret among collectors, and the most distinctive glass in this flight. Cherry blossom and rose petal with lychee, wild strawberry and citrus, then a generous texture warmed by ginger and white pepper before saline minerality cools it down. The 60% Chardonnay keeps all that exotic spice airborne. Nothing else here tastes like it.

Buy — $275 Full Review

3Classic Pick97 pts • Champagne, France

Dom Perignon Rose 2009

Champagne • $350

The rosé with genuine gastronomic weight — this belongs with the main course, not the toast. Ripe red berries and blood orange over toasted brioche, with saffron, licorice and fig from the warm 2009 season. Full-bodied and fleshy with a Pinot-led texture, a fine persistent mousse and real mineral tension underneath. Generous and immediate now, still evolving through 2035.

Buy — $350 Full Review

4Top Pick97 pts • Côte des Blancs, France

Salon Brut Blanc de Blanc 2015

Champagne • $595

Only the 45th release in the house's history — genuine rarity rather than manufactured scarcity. 100% Grand Cru Chardonnay from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Champagne's single greatest village, and the chalky minerality is unmistakable behind white flowers, citrus and orchard fruit. Fleshier than Salon usually is, thanks to a sunny 2015, but held taut by vibrant acidity and a pinpoint, almost weightless mousse. It will still be improving in 2050.

Buy — $595 Full Review

The Verdict

For a party, the Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque — it is the most charming bottle here and the easiest to love. For dinner, the Dom Pérignon Rosé, which has the weight to sit alongside food rather than in front of it. The Rare Millésime is the one to open for someone who thinks they have tasted everything. And the Salon is not really a party wine at all: it is a wine to open slowly, with one other person who will notice what it is doing.

Get our top pick — Salon Brut Blanc de Blanc 2015 · $595

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Before You Buy

The background on what is in these bottles.

Sparkling→Rosé→

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