Our favourite 'grand marque' Champagne house is back, with their new 'multi-vintage' cuvee, Louis Roederer 'Brut Collection' 242, which we offer here in bond.

Roederer's leading non-vintage cuvée since the 1980s was their 'Brut Premier', which we were great fans of and we were surprised and a little sad last year to hear it was being replaced by 'Collection'.  However, having tasted Collection, we can completely see the intention and are very pleased to add it to our list.

Roederer's longstanding cellar-master Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon pointed out that Brut Premier was created to deal with the exigencies of vintage variation in champagne, balancing less ripe years with reserve wines.    

Brut Collection, by contrast, is a response to the warmer vintages of recent years which offer an abundance of ripeness but which need careful handling to preserve freshness and elegance.  To achieve this, Brut Collection is sourced predominantly from Roederer's own vineyards and from those of their closest partners, with soils on the best chalk soils, which they refer to as their 'coeur de terroirs'.

Brut Collection '242' is the first release of this new cuvée, 242 being the number of releases since Roederer was founded in 1776.  242 is based predominantly on the 2017 vintage (56%) with 34% of reserve wines and 10% foudre-aged wines.   We saw these reserves when we visited a few years ago, held in a number of large wooden foudre and stainless steel vats.

The result is a delight to taste (we re-tasted it just this morning).  It's surprisingly easy to discern why this is a 'multi-vintage' rather than a non-vintage and Galloni puts it well when he says that it tastes more like a wine from the Roederer stable, with more similarities to their vintage, blanc de blancs and Cristal than the old 'Brut Prem' ever managed.  We think you will find the same, but the best way is to taste it for yourself!

Please let us know if you would like to order.

£210 per case of six bottles in bond

Offered in bond, available for delivery in September