Billecart-Salmon, Champagne "Le Rose", NV [non-discountable]

If any rose Champagne has achieved icon status, it's this one, a wine so beloved it has become shorthand for the whole category. Billecart-Salmon builds Le Rose by assemblage, blending a small amount of still red wine into the base rather than bleeding color from the skins, a gentler approach that gives the wine its famous pale, delicate hue. Chardonnay leads the blend for freshness, with Pinot Noir and Meunier behind it, and the red-wine component comes almost entirely from old Pinot Noir vines in the house's home village of Mareuil-sur-Ay, fermented in steel to keep the red fruit bright. The signature long, cool fermentation gives it a texture and elegance few roses can match.