A Summertime Wine Like No Other

[lsanderson]

Rosé des Riceys looks a bit like red Burgundy. It is several shades darker than the usual pale pink or salmon-colored rosé.
By ERIC PFANNER
Published: June 22, 2012

LES RICEYS, FRANCE — Last winter, workers renovating a winery in this village in Champagne poked through an old plaster ceiling. Down fell several bags of gold coins: U.S. dollars, dated 1851 to 1928 and val ued at €700,000, or nearly $900,000.

The wine growers of Les Riceys are patient and discreet. Tucked away in their cellars is another treasure, also frequently kept hidden from the outside world. This one is liquid, and its color is not gold but pink.

Alongside sparkling Champagne, Les Riceys is the source of one of the more unusual wines you’ll ever come across, if you can find it. The village — actually three villages strung out along a stream in the southern Champagne area known as the Aube — also makes a still wine, called Rosé des Riceys. Moar