Champagne Louis Roederer was established in 1776 and is now run by the 7th generation of the family, Frédéric 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.
Pioneers in sustainable farming, Louis Roederer use organic practices in all their vineyards, and are certified organic in 135 hectares, with the remainder of the estate in conversion. The whole estate uses regenerative, renaissance viticulture and sustainable practices that are inspired by the concepts of permaculture. Working hand in hand with nature, respecting terroir and the pursuit of taste underpins everything they do.
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. 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.
Champagne Louis Roederer owns just over 240 hectares of vineyard located in the Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne and Côte des Blancs. Each vineyard is situated in the finest site, of which 90% are Grand Cru and Premier Cru classified.
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.
There are three dedicated, equally contributing vineyards from which the Collection 243 fruit is sourced:
“La Rivière” vineyards
“La Montagne” vineyards
“La Côte” vineyards
Grapes grown on Louis Roederer’s own estates are complemented by grapes from our partner winegrowers plots selected from the “Heart of the Terroir”.
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.
246th blend:
Perpetual Reserve:
35% (2012. 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
Reserve Wines aged in oak:
10% (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
wines in oak
24%
2021 harvest
55%
Malolactic fermentation: 30%
Dosage: 7g/l
The 246th harvest at Louis Roederer was a challenging, gruelling and in many ways confusing one. 2021 will be remembered as a year when the vineyard team showed unwavering commitment in the face of what was probably one of the most difficult winegrowing seasons since 1958, resulting in low yields!
The harvest took place from 13 to 30 September 2021.
Champagne coloured with bright, luminous reflections.
Very fine, even bubbles.
The bouquet reveals yellow fruits (mirabelle plum and nectarine) and candied citrus (lemon), complemented by toasted, oaky notes (vanilla) which come from the 24% of wines vinified in our French oak foudres. The fine reductive notes (shellfish) weave their spell, giving the wine
a very chiselled character sculpted by the Chardonnay.
The palate is very light and delicate with fruity (peach) and floral (pollen) flavours. The gently releasing bubbles are soft and creamy, creating a mouth-watering impression thanks to the savoury and dry-chalk sensations created on the tongue and lips. The texture on the mid-palate is
fresh, oily, powdery and vibrant. The finish is serene and graceful, and lifted by some smoky and toasty reductive notes that are very definitely from the Perpetual Reserve.
Collection 246 is a precise, soft and lively champagne. Its thirst-quenching lightness comes from the exceptional proportion of Chardonnay, which creates finesse, elegance, chalkiness and salinity. It is not unlike the character of certain Blancs de Blancs.
Champagne, France
54% Chardonnay
35% Pinot Noir
11% Menuier
Cork
12.5%
7g/l
