Champagne Louis Roederer win the 2022 Gucci Golden Vines Sustainability Award
Champagne Louis Roederer were honoured to be awarded the 2022 Gucci Golden Vines Sustainability Award held at the stunning Palazzo Vecchio Salone dei Cinquecento in Florence on Sunday 16th October.
The Golden Vines Awards, received by Frédéric Rouzaud, CEO and seventh generation of this prestigious house, is the definitive international awards recognising and celebrating excellence in fine wine, and stands as a lasting legacy to the incredible life of Gérard Basset OBE, MS, MW, MBA, OIV MSc. Organised by Gérard’s friend Lewis Chester DipWSET, and his wife, Nina, The Golden Vines Awards are a not-for-profit event with all profits from the event and the charity auctions going to the Gérard Basset Foundation.
“To mark the second year of these prestigious awards, launched in September 2021 at Annabel’s Private Members Club, we decided to introduce a new award category for sustainability reflecting future-facing contributions to global fine wine and spirit craftsmanship” explains Lewis Chester Co-Founder and CEO of Liquid Icons, the fine wine research and content production company founded by Lewis and Gérard.
Champagne Louis Roederer are dedicated to working hand in hand with nature, for in the words of Frédéric Rouzaud “If you are not in perpetual motion, each stagnation has an impact that is magnified over time. We must constantly be thinking in terms of sustainable, long-term innovation”
photo by Getty Images for the Gérard Basset Foundation
Pio Cesare 2018 Barolos and Barbarescos receive great ratings from Monica Larner
We are delighted to share the great ratings that Pio Cesare 2018s have just received from Monica Larner, Wine Advocate.
Pio Cesare Barbaresco 2018 Piemonte, Italy 93 pts
Pio Cesare excels when it comes to the classics, and this wine is one of those. The 2018 Barbaresco (released one year later compared to its peers) delivers some mild candied raspberry ripeness with lilac, tarry smoke, cedarwood and spice. The mouthfeel is silky smooth with softly integrated tannins.
Pio Cesare Barbaresco Il Bricco 2018 Piemonte, Italy 94 pts
The 2018 Barbaresco Il Bricco shows ample depth and intensity with dark fruit, smoke, toasted spice and cured tobacco. This is a production of 6,393 numbered bottles. This vintage shows a mid-weight approach with rich fruit weight and polished tannins.
Pio Cesare Barolo 2018 Piemonte, Italy 93 points
The 2018 Barolo opens to ripe aromas of dried plum and tobacco. This vintage lacks some of the complexity of a cooler growing season, but these results are far from monochromatic. Those tobacco aromas cede to cedar, earth, forest floor and hints of shaved truffle.
Pio Cesare Barolo Ornato 2018 Piemonte, Italy 94 pts
The 2018 Barolo Ornato reveals some very distant hot-vintage aromas that are vaguely reminiscent of dried raspberry or stewed plum. Nebbiolo is extremely sensitive to the warmer temperatures and even a hint of extra ripeness is easily detected. However, the wine is fluid and ever-evolving. Those fruit-driven aromas soon transition over to brooding complexity with smoke, tar and licorice. The Ornato paints a wide picture of that characteristic Serralunga d’Alba intensity.
Pio Cesare Barolo Mosconi 2018 Piemonte, Italy 95 pts
Compared to the Ornato, the 2018 Barolo Mosconi (with fruit from Monforte d’Alba) shows a tighter and more compact quality with a direct, linear and powerful approach. The bouquet builds in vertical intensity, starting with tart fruit aromas and culminating with tar, rusted nail and camphor ash. That aromatic ascent comes at you quickly, and the wine ultimately settles on a very wide, all-encompassing performance.
All wines are available in stock, should you require further information, please contact your sales manager or the Brand Manager, Valeria Maffeis on valeria.maffeis@mmdltd.co.uk.
Pio Cesare 2018 Barolos and Barbarescos receive great reviews from Jamie Goode
‘2018 promises to be a surprising quality vintage for the Langhe region, especially for Nebbiolo’
‘It can be considered a traditional vintage: not excessively hot, with a very good water supply. At Pio Cesare, these climatic conditions resulted in Barolo and Barbaresco wines of great structure and aromatic complexity. The wines show a remarkable acidity on the palate, silky tannins and a very long finish’, said Federica Boffa and Cesare Benvenuto in March when the 2018 Barolos and Barbaresco were about to be released in Italy.
We are now delighted to share the great reviews that Pio Cesare 2018s have just received from Jamie Goode!
Pio Cesare Barbaresco 2018 Piemonte, Italy 94/100
Aromatic and expressive with lovely red cherry and raspberry fruit. Very expressive with nice tannins and these melt into the juicy red fruits, with a nice savouriness. Some tea notes and lovely cherry and plum fruit. Has freshness and poise.
Pio Cesare Barbaresco Il Bricco 2018 Piemonte, Italy 95/100
Textured and rounded with nice edges, this has sweet cherry and raspberry fruit. There’s nice stern but fine-grained structure. This has lovely stony complexity with grippy tannins but also appealing fruit and a fine-grained structure. Real finesse here to this wine.
Pio Cesare Barolo 2018 Piemonte, Italy 94/100
30 months oak ageing with 90% in big botti and 10 in small oak. Some sappy hints here, and notes of iodine, blood, raspberries and cherries. Juicy but rounded with a seductive quality as well as a nice freshness. There’s a spicy, green hint to the red cherry fruit. Very fine.
Pio Cesare Barolo Ornato 2018 Piemonte, Italy 95/100
This was the first estate they acquired in Barolo back in 1979, and the first vintage of this was 1985. Lovely density here with concentrated compact red cherry and raspberry fruit. Rounded with nice texture and good structure underneath the dense sweet fruit. Serious.
Pio Cesare Barolo Mosconi 2018 Piemonte, Italy 96/100
In Monforte d’Alba. Fresh and detailed with lovely purity and nice grainy tannin. Fine with tapered structure and red cherries and plums. Some roundness in the mouth with a hint of pepper. This has a real sense of elegance, finesse and purity. There’s some generosity and nice ripeness. The structure is hidden by the fruit at the moment.
Should you require further information, please contact your sales manager or the Brand Manager, Valeria Maffeis on valeria.maffeis@mmdltd.co.uk.
The Winner of the Louis Roederer Photography Prize for Sustainability is announced
It is with great delight following an award event last night at London’s Nobu Hotel Portman Square that we can announce the winner of the inaugural Louis Roederer Photography Prize for Sustainability. The theme this year is that of ‘terroir’ and the submitted works were judged by an internationally renowned panel of judges comprising Darius Sanai, Maryam Eisler, Brandei Estes, Azu Nwagbogu, Carrie Scott, Maria Sukkar.
Many congratulations to the winning photographer, Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah for her stunning series entitled ‘Behold the Ocean’. This forms part of an extensive body of work that explores the circumstances of climate research in southernmost Patagonia. In 2020 she accompanied two oceanographers as they researched ocean acidification, a phenomenon caused by global warming. Its negative effects are significant; toxic microalgae thrives and endangers the marine ecosystem. Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah is a German-Ghanaian visual artist and documentary photographer based in Zürich, Switzerland. To discover more of Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah’s work please visit her website www.akosuaviktoria.com
Darius Sanai, Chair of the panel of judges, commented: “On behalf of the judges, it was both a privilege and a challenge to judge such a consistently high standard of works and we are indebted to the artists, and nominators, for bringing such a wealth of artistry and interpretations of our theme to the inaugural Prize.
Ocean acidification is an issue that affects all of us, whether or not we live by the water. The oceans provide two thirds of the oxygen we breathe and are a major driver of our weather and climate; they are also home to 90% of the habitable space on the planet, yet remain both mysterious to, and abused by, humans. Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah’s works cast light on the state of the oceans while being memorable artworks in themselves.”
Last night Frédéric Rouzaud, CEO of Champagne Louis Roederer and the President of the Louis Roederer Foundation awarded Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah with the first prize and she will receive £5,000 to continue funding her projects.
The two runners up are Jasper Goodall and Sahab Zaribaf who were also highly praised by the judges for their interpretations of the theme.
Frédéric Rouzaud concluded the presentation saying “I’m very proud and honoured to launch this new photography prize and my thanks go to the great panel of judges, nominators and fantastic artists! The quality of the submissions exceeded my expectations, all of which were striking in the intelligence, sensitivity and authenticity of their approach to the subject.”
Champagne Louis Roederer, sustainability and the arts
Champagne Louis Roederer have long patronised the arts. The Louis Roederer Foundation was founded in 2011 with the purpose of perpetuating Louis Roederer’s sponsorship activity which followed on from its discovery of the photography collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 2003. Since being awarded the title of ‘Major Patron of Culture and Arts’, the Foundation has supported photography and cinema through the Discovery Award at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award at La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes and the Louis Roederer Foundation Revelation Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival, and patronising the French Academy in Rome, among others. In all the creative and artistic endeavours that it sponsors in these iconic places of culture and intelligence, the Louis Roederer Foundation plays its favourite role in supporting and nurturing talented up-and-coming artists.
Champagne Louis Roederer are passionately committed to sustainability, and for more than 20 years, they have been engaged in ‘renaissance viticulture’ using practices that respect the living environment to allow the nuances of the Champagne terroir to be fully expressed. They use practices inspired by the permaculture model, which allow the ecosystem to self-regulate. These include organic farming, the use of biodynamic composts, allowing the land to lie fallow for long periods, maintaining hedgerows and low stone walls, growing fruit trees and installing beehives. Louis Roederer’s eco-friendly ethos is rooted in its history and yet looks to the future. Frédéric Rouzaud commented “We are ‘artisans’ of champagne, whose savoir-faire includes a great deal of creativity. It was only natural to build bridges with art”.
By creating this prize, they can continue to support the arts, while highlighting sustainability and environmental issues.
The works of the three finalists are currently being exhibited at The White Box, Nobu Hotel Portman Square until the 29th May 2022.
Tim Atkin MW Rates Marqués de Murrieta
We are delighted that once again Tim Atkin MW has rated Marqués de Murrieta as one of his First Growth Rioja wineries in his latest report, alongside selecting three of the wines as his Wines of the Year!
Wines of the Year
Dalmau 2019 – 97 Points Made with Tempranillo, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Graciano, all of it from the 9 hectare Canajas Vineyard, this is structured, inky and wonderfully profound, with some leafy top notes, chalky minerality, dark brooding licquorice, cassis and blackberry fruit, perfumed French oak and the concentration to reward patience.
Gran Reserva 2015 – 96 Points Darker and more concentrated than the 2014 release, this is a superb Gran Reserva from Maria Vargas. Based on Tempranillo, with 20% Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha Tinta, it’s still youthful and energetic, with layers of damson, black fig and blackberry fruit, scented fine grained American oak and the minerality and focus to age beautifully in bottle.
Capellania 2017 – 95 Points Part of the Murrieta range since 2001, this is a French and American oak-fermented Viura from a north-east facing plot at 500m. Toasty, fresh and energetic with a little more weight than the 2016 release, plenty of extract and concentration, aromatic spices and citrus flavours and the density to age.
Reserva 2016 – 94 Points The 2018 release is the latest in a stylish range of Reservas from Marques de Murrieta – combining Tempranillo with 8% Graciano, 4% Mazuelo and 2% Garnacha all aged in American oak. Structured, serious and intense, with lots of perfume, racy acidity, wild plum and red berry fruit with a spicy finish.
BAME wine professionals Announces the winner of the Louis Roederer BAME Educational Bursary
BAME wine professionals are delighted to announce this year’s winners of the Louis Roederer BAME Educational bursary
The aim of the bursary is to help BAME professionals gain support, education and opportunity within the wine trade to help in their career progression. The bursary is offering WSET level 3 to two candidates.
The winners of the 2021 Louis Roederer BAME Educational bursary are Jainisha Amin and Melvin Appleford. We will also be awarding the WSET Level 2 course to Jonathan Vardon. All three candidates demonstrated a passion and drive to pursue a career in wine, and we have no doubt their commitment will be rewarded.
Jainisha discovered her passion for learning about wine when she undertook the WSET L2. She has no experience in the wine industry, her background is finance, but is committed to learning about wine and developing the confidence and knowledge through the L3 to explore the many possibilities the wine industry holds.
Melvin is an ex-beer drinking wine convert, and took the leap from a career in property to join Majestic where he passed his WSET level 2 and discovered the wonders and splendour of Margaux and Beaujolais wine. He wants to use the knowledge he will gain from the WSET L3 to write about wine and introduce people to new styles.
Jonathan works in tech, but started exploring the world of wine in his spare time over the last year. He started an instagram blog called @EverSoGrapeful to share his discoveries. The adventure so far gives him hope for a future in the wine industry, and completing the WSET L2 is the next step in his journey to a new career.
Many congratulations to you all and best of luck with your studies in 2022!
This is an annual bursary which opens in November each year for applications.
For more information on other available opportunities please visit BAMEwineprofessionals.co.uk/opportunities
Louis Roederer Presents Collection 242
LOUIS ROEDERER PRESENTS COLLECTION 242
THE FIRST OPUS OF ITS NEW MULTI-VINTAGE CHAMPAGNE
WITH COLLECTION, THE LOUIS ROEDERER CHAMPAGNE HOUSE TAKES ITS QUALITY TO THE NEXT LEVEL IN A STYLE MARKED BY A SPIRIT OF FREEDOM
@Louis Roederer / Emmanuel&Quentin
With the creation of Collection, Louis Roederer is writing a new chapter in the story of Brut Premier through its reinvention. This multi-vintage wine reveals the power of blending, expressed year after year, demonstrating the full extent of its genius. With Collection, Louis Roederer combines its longstanding pursuit of excellence with a new spirit of freedom to achieve its constant objective: to create the best possible champagne with each blend.
Collection is testimony to both the Louis Roederer founding vision, that of a winemaking approach founded on the long ageing required to craft remarkable wines, and the capacity for constant innovation and reinvention that has led it to continuously explore new territories.
Thus, this new wine is in line with the other Louis Roederer creations while expressing an evolution in structure, form and style that marks an important milestone in its history.
“Since 1776, Louis Roederer has continually opened up new avenues, innovating to take the expression of its terroir ever further. This quest is that of a family-owned and independent Champagne House that has always placed great value on freedom as it allows to create and revisit tradition in order to keep it alive and constantly moving forward. Today Collection, a new wine that is very much aligned with its times, is a perfect testament to the Champagne House’s mission to be the best possible interpreter of the great terroirs of Champagne,” said Louis Roederer CEO, Frédéric Rouzaud.
“The times we live in, climate change, the importance of practising a sustainable viticulture that respects the living environment are all factors that we wanted to take into account. These are what have given us the impetus to take the quality of our blends to the next level, allowing ourselves to take a bold and uninhibited approach,” Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, Cellar Master.
Each year, the single-minded quest for the best wine…
For Collection, Louis Roederer has taken the fine art of plot selection even further. From the heart of the Champagne terroir and with a focus on sustainable growing, it has selected the vineyard plots that are perfectly suited to the identity of the new wine and the most appropriate for the year’s specific blend.
Each bunch of grapes that goes into Collection is carefully selected both upstream – in the vineyards – and downstream, at the time of harvesting and pressing, in order to retain only excellence.
The creation of Collection is also influenced by the introduction of a “Perpetual Reserve”, which began with the 2012 vintage and has been enriched each year with wines from the latest harvest stored in large capacity oxygen-free stainless-steel vats. Over the years, this Perpetual Reserve will be further enriched with new wines from each new harvest to create a template of infinite complexity, freshness and energy.
In parallel, Roederer has greatly increased the proportion of oak-aged reserve wines contained in the blends. These wines from previous years and young plots on the Cristal estate, aged in large French oak vats (foudres), are a Louis Roederer hallmark. They provide a perfect point of balance with the freshness created by the Perpetual Reserve, giving the wine greater intensity and honing its salinity.
Collection thus acquires modernity and complexity and is graced with all the virtues of a very great champagne.
… in complete freedom
Each Collection blend therefore has its own identity which is gradually revealed over time.
Collection 242 is crafted from 34% Perpetual Reserve, 10% oak-aged reserve wines from the 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 vintages, complemented by 56% of the finest wines from the 2017 harvest: the Chardonnays in general and Pinots noirs and Meuniers from the Vallée de la Marne in particular.
The Collection number, which represents the number of blends since the foundation of the Louis Roederer Champagne House in 1776, will allow champagne lovers, like collectors, to choose their champagne according to their preferred degree of youth or maturity.
A new mobile app
To learn more about this philosophy or to obtain additional information about a specific champagne, Louis Roederer is launching a new app for smartphones that can be opened directly using the QR code located on the back label of each bottle.
And new packaging for the range
The arrival of Collection, another demonstration of the unique bond between Man and Nature so dear to Louis Roederer, was felt to be a particularly appropriate time to launch new packaging for the entire range.
The boxes, which are 100% recyclable and crafted from FSC-certified paper, highlight the Louis Roederer’s visuals, which are directly inspired by Nature and bear witness to the creative partnership that Louis Roederer has always enjoyed with Nature.
Founded in 1776 in Reims, Louis Roederer is an independent family-run champagne house headed by Frédéric Rouzaud. In addition to producing Louis Roederer and Cristal champagnes, Louis Roederer also owns Deutz champagne, Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande (Grand cru classé de Pauillac), Château de Pez (Saint-Estèphe) and Maison Descaves in Bordeaux; Domaines Ott* in Provence, Delas Frères in the Rhône valley, Porto Ramos Pinto in Portugal and, in California, Roederer Estate, Scharffenberger Cellars, Domaine Anderson, Merry Edwards Winery and Diamond Creek Vineyards.
Committed to sustainable growing practices for over 20 years, the Louis Roederer Champagne House achieved a new milestone with the award, in March 2021, of the French “AB” organic agriculture certification for 115 hectares of its historic vineyards.
New Belguardo wine: Codice V, Vermentino’s extreme version
The Mazzei family have been firm believers in Vermenitno’s savoury and mineral profile from the first day they started making wine in Maremma. They have long recognised the grape’s ageing potential and complex aromatic profile so they aimed to push their Vermentino a step further, so they created an extreme version of Vermentino, Codice V. The vineyard has a medium texture composition and a good sandstone presence , particularly suitable to enhance this grape variety.
Here, the family planted 2 clones of Vermentino from Corsica and 2 clones of Vermentino from Sardinia , specially selected to bring savory notes, minerality and aromatic complexity to the wine.
The 2019 Vintage represents, at this regard, an expressive peak due to an extreme vinification process: 50% of the grapes are vinified on the skins for 9 months, partly in amphora, the other 50%, in steel “sur lies” The result is a wine comparable with a great red for the complexity and the aging potential
We are delighted to bring you this limited production Vermentino from Tenuta Belguardo.
Contact your Sales Manager or Effi Tsournava for further information
Top Scores for our Producers at DWWA 2021
We are thrilled to share with you our producers’ top medals and scores received at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2021.
Should you wish to receive further information about these wines, please contact your Sales Manager.
Pio Cesare 2017s receive great praise from Decanter
The Pio Cesare and us are delighted to inform you that Pio Cesare 2017s have received great scores from the worldwide acclaimed magazine, Decanter.
Please find Aldo Fiordelli’s scores below:
Pio Cesare Barolo DOCG 2017: 93 points – click HERE for the full tasting note
Pio Cesare Barolo Ornato DOCG 2017: 95 points – click HERE for the full tasting note
Pio Cesare Barolo Mosconi DOCG 2017: 95 points – click HERE for the full tasting note
Should you wish to receive further information, please contact your Sales Manager or the Pio Cesare Brand Manager, Effi Tsournava
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