A blend of 45% Pinot Noir and 55% Chardonnay, the 2012 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon is a real success, wafting from the glass with aromas of red berries, rose, peony, orange blood and dried flowers. Medium to full-bodied, vinous and broad, it's dense and deep with a multidimensional core of fruit, racy acids and a textural structure, concluding with a long, delicate, mouthwatering finish. This is one of the finest rosé I've tasted at this address. Kudos!

Tasted from magnum. Alongside the main release in 75cl, a limited number of magnums of 2012 Elisabeth Salmon have been released simultaneously. The differences are marked – the magnum presents a hugely engaging sparky, spicy and charry energy that lifts up the Chardonnay presence in the wine and plays beautifully with the allspice, pepper and rose detail that sits above peach melba, raspberry and black cherry fruit. There is plenty of immediate pleasure in what is a medium-bodied, restrained take on 2012, although this is a wine that – especially in magnum – looks set for a long window of enjoyment with its delicately insistent tension. 55% Chardonnay from Chouilly, Avize, Cramant and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger with 45% Pinot Noir from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Ambonnay, with 8.3% red wine addition from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. 2.9% fermented in barrel, and released after 115 months on lees with a dosage of 3.8g/L.

The 2012 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon is a very sexy Champagne, but it is also quite reserved, especially within the context of the year. Crushed rose petal, kirsch, white pepper, slate and mint are all beautifully delineated in a sculpted, taut Rosé. Its finest drinking belongs to the future. Dosage is 3.8 grams per liter. Disgorged: January 2023.

The blend of the 2012 Champagne Elisabeth Salmon is includes 55% Chardonnay along with 10% red wine, the majority of which was raised in stainless steel, with a 3% splash raised in oak. It pours a deeper salmon orange tinge and is a more assertive wine in the glass, with notes of spice, smoky wet stones, peach, almond, and fruitcake. Medium to full-bodied and assertive, it holds its mousse together more clearly and has more transparency, with a pomegranate texture, and is long on the palate. This structured wine will benefit from another year or two in bottle before drinking over the following 15 or more years. Disgorged January 2023, 3.8 dosage; total in the final wine is 4 grams per liter.

55% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir (8% of which is added as red wine). Dosage 3.8 g/l. Released April 2024. Super-mature nose, more developed than the Nicolas François. Lots of autolytic persistence and yeastiness. There's a lovely umami aniseed note in the background, with a level of complexity and interest that is especially rare for rosé champagne. (RH)