Sakura Japan Women’s Wine Awards: Three Tsarine Champagnes Win Gold
Reims, February 2023
The Sakura Japan Women’s Wine Awards 2023 has just awarded Gold Medals to three Tsarine prestige cuvées:
Gold Medal for Tsarine By Adriana
Gold Medal for Tzarina Brut
Gold Medal for Tzarina Brut Rosé.
The Sakura Japan Women’s Wine Awards, founded in 2014, is now Asia’s largest wine competition. The founder, Madame Yumi Tanabe, who is president of the Wine & Spirits Culture Association, took on the task of promoting women’s role in the world of wine, developing appreciation of wines in Japan, and selecting wines that harmonize with the refinement of Japanese gastronomy and culture.
The originality of the Sakura Japan Women’s Wine Awards also lies in the fact that its jury is exclusively female; this year’s jury comprises 430 Japanese women, all professionals in wines and spirits — sommelières, oenologists, winegrowers, restauratrices, wine merchants, instructors in wine academies, and specialized journalists.
For this 10th Awards competition, more than 4,200 wines from 27 countries were judged in late January in Osaka and Tokyo.
Another Gold for Tsarine By Adriana
Tsarine by Adriana’s bottle has a lovely metallic finish that sets off its golden fluting. Its alluring appearance attracts all eyes. After establishing itself in the USA and the UK, it is now winning admirers in Japan, where it is sold by the century-old House of Kakuyazu, a specialist in wines and spirits, in its shops and on line.
Tsarine By Adriana is blended in the tradition of the Tsarine style, with perfect balance among the three Champagne grape varieties: 34% Chardonnay, 33% Meunier, 33% Pinot Noir. Its sugar dosage, at 12 g/l, gives it an unctuous character and brings its fruity notes forward.
Isabelle Tellier, Chef de Cave of the House of Chanoine Frères and creator of the cuvée, says “This is a flavorful champagne that can be served with an aperitif or to accompany desserts. It should be drunk preferably at a temperature of between 10 and 12°C.”
Tsarine By Adriana recently won another gold medal at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles in Belgium.
Another Gold Medal for Tzarina Brut
Tzarina Brut is a champagne made with wines from the 2015 harvest. Blended and bottled in 2016, it has aged in the House’s cellars in Reims for five years to give all the wealth of its flavors time to develop.
The Tzarina blend comprises 54% Chardonnay, 41% Pinot Noir — the great majority premier cru and grand cru —, and 5% Meunier.
It is a precise champagne, rich, with real stature. It can accompany anything from a chic aperitif to a gourmet dinner and should be enjoyed ideally at between 10° and 12°C.
The Tzarina prestige cuvée recently earned an excellent score of 93/100 from Wine Enthusiast Magazine, the benchmark magazine in the USA in the world of wines and spirits.
The Tzarina Brut and Tzarina Rosé bottles are dressed and packaged by hand, and their fluting elegantly alternates between transparent and frosted glass to delicately reveal the beautiful color of these prestige cuvées.
Tzarina Rosé: Already Gold
Launched in 2022, Tzarina Rosé Brut has already won a gold medal in a major international competition.
It is a delicious champagne made up of 38% Pinot Noir, 31% Chardonnay, and 31% Meunier. Its intense rose color recalls red fruits like strawberry and raspberry.
Isabelle Tellier, Chef de Cave and creator of the cuvée, calls it a “rich wine, with body and structure, ideal for accompanying a meal.” It can be paired with smoked wild salmon or a roast rack of lamb, and for dessert a raspberry tart.
Isabelle advises a drinking temperature of between 9° and 10°C for Tzarina Rosé, “not too cold, so that the aromas of its expressive nose can emerge — fresh, crisp red fruits like raspberry, redcurrant, and cherry, with delicate notes of poppy.”
On the palate it is refined and delectable, with a perfect balance between structure and liveliness. Flavors of blackcurrant and violet, on a background of spices, delicately emerge, to end in a lovely long finish, slightly saline with hints of vanilla.