Champagne Louis Roederer
Hand in hand with nature
Champagne Louis Roederer was established in 1776 and remains under the ownership of the Rouzaud family to this day. The current CEO is Frédéric Rouzaud, 7th generation of the Roederer family, while Chef de Cave Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon was appointed in 1999 following a decade working in the cellar under Frédéric’s father, Jean-Claude Rouzaud. With over 240 hectares of vineyards located exclusively in Grands and Premiers Crus villages, Champagne Louis Roederer is self-sufficient for approximately 70% of their non-vintage production and 100% of their vintage champagnes, a rare situation in Champagne.
Since 2000, the house has been conducting trials with organic and biodynamic viticulture. Today all the vineyards are farmed according to organic principles, with 50% of them certified organic and 50% of the them farmed biodynamically. The remainder of the vineyards will complete their organic certification over the next two years. This makes Roederer the largest farmers of organics and biodynamics in the Champagne region. The beating heart of Roederer is respect for nature, and thus sustainability, organic and biodynamic farming combined with the recognition of, research into and adaptation to climate change unequivocally improves the quality of the grapes and thus the champagne. In the words of Frédéric Rouzaud ‘We are not artists. At Maison Louis Roederer, the great artist is Nature and each year we are the interpreters of what she wants to give us. Our job is to take part in this choreography between Man and Nature in order to reveal the great Champagne terrorist’.
A selection of wines from each vintage are set aside to be matured in large oak casks in Champagne Louis Roederer’s unique reserve cellar. This wine is aged over a number of years and is highly prized for contributing the mature complexity and consistent character which defines the Champagne Louis Roederer style.
The house makes a range of champagnes starting with the classic non-vintage Brut Premier blended from six different vintages from over 40 individual plots in a cuvée composed of 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Meunier. The champagne is made in a style that is elegant and refreshing yet with an impressive depth of flavour.
Carte Blanche Demi-Sec NV is the same blend as the Brut Premier with a slightly higher dosage, making it the ideal accompaniment to afternoon tea or dessert.
It is only in the best years that Champagne Louis Roederer makes its vintage expressions. The Brut Vintage is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir (from the Grand Cru villages of Verzenay and Verzy) and 30% Chardonnay from Chouilly, which is then aged for a minimum of four years. Thanks to the predominance of grapes grown in Verzenay, a Grand Cru village on the Montagne de Reims, the wine is considered to be an expression of the terroir on that dark and dramatic mountain in the middle of the otherwise flat plaine champenoise.
Champagne Louis Roederer also makes a Rosé Vintage using the saignée method. The Pinot Noir undergoes a cold maceration that can last five to eight days extracting all the flavour but no tannin and only a little colour. It is then co-fermented with the Chardonnay must. The Rosé Vintage is a beautiful expression of the Vallée de la Marne where the Pinot Noir from an amphitheatre like vineyard in Cumières benefits from the additional warmth of the light reflected off the Marne river, giving the wine fuller, fruitier flavours. This is blended with 40% Chardonnay from our coolest vineyards in Chouilly.
From the best Grand Cru vineyards in Avize in the Côte des Blancs Champagne Louis Roederer makes a Blanc de Blancs from Chardonnay, which is bottled at a lower pressure (four atmospheres rather than the usual six) which produces smaller bubbles and gives a delicious creamy richness to the champagne which perfectly balances its chalky minerality and vibrant acidity.
The ultimate Cuvée de Prestige, Champagne Louis Roederer’s Cristal was first created at the request of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1876, a renowned lover of exquisite craftsmanship, he approached Louis Roederer to make him an exclusive cuvee from their very finest grapes. The iconic bottle design with a flat base and made from clear crystal was designed at his behest to allay his fears of bombs and poison. The distinctive wrapper is there to protect the wine from ultraviolet light and should not be removed until consumption. Cristal is produced in the very finest vintages as a true expression of champagnes unique chalky soils. The blend is usually 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay from only the best rated Grand Cru sites of Champagne Louis Roederer’s vineyards. Cristal is released after a minimum six years ageing in the Reims cellars and is the benchmark for luxury champagnes with its intensity, purity and complexity as well as its fantastic ability to develop in the bottle. From the 2012 vintage Cristal has joined Cristal Rosé in its certification as biodynamically farmed.
In 2014, the House launched the first new product in 40 years – since the launch of Cristal Rosé in 1975; the Brut Nature 2006 in partnership with celebrated designer Philippe Starck. The wine is a vintage zero dosage champagne, using grapes from a single biodynamic Premier Cru village grown as a traditional field blend of the three noble varieties in Cumières in the Vallée de la Marne, giving the wine a unique sense of terroir. The wines are co-harvested and co-fermented. In 2019, the Brut Nature Rosé 2012 was launched along side its white counterpart. It is also from the same biodynamic vineyard with some Pinot Noir harvested separately for the cold maceration of the saignée method rosé.
Louis Roederer are delighted to share their champagnes with fellow wine lovers.
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