Charles Dufour is my favorite winemaker in the Champagne region and not just because Noma presents his wine as their house champagne. He took over the family winery a couple of years back and transformed it completely. His 6 hectares of organic grapes are located in the Côtes des Bars region, which is quite far from the most famous areas in the north. Since 2013 he is entirely organically certified and uses some of the biodynamic methods he thinks are useful. He is not using any sulfites and only uses his own grape for the secondary fermentation.
The Bulles de Comptoir series is always a limited edition of wines for a specific year. It has become a kind of a collectible as the label is also different every year. For this year's rosé, which actually is more a kind of a hybrid orange-red wine, with its name pointing to the red chalk color. While most of the wine is from the 2016 harvest, it also has a mix of reserve wines from 2010 to 2015. This adds more complexity and some more refined notes. After 12 months in old barrels on the lees, it is bottled and left in the bottle for almost 2 years until it is disgorged, the process to get rid of all the dead yeast in the bottle. It has lots of herbal, nearly tea-ish aromas, mixed with some red apples and hibiscus. The gentle acidity and soft tannins make it perfect as a festive food wine. Have it with mushrooms and fish or only as an aperitif with some savory snacks. And please drink it from a wine glass.