Louis Roederer Collection 243 MMD

The bouquet is open and rich yet also wonderfully fresh.  It offers an explosion of ripe, delicate fruit with intense notes of mirabelle plum from the Pinot noir, complemented by sweet lemon meringue pie and delicate notes of jasmine from the Chardonnay. The nose opens up to reveal autolytic characters and evolves towards smoky, roasted notes and freshly baked pastries.

The palate is deep and dense with a big, well-structured backbone. The texture is simply mesmerising with its fleshy mouthfeel from the Pinot noir that coats the palate before giving way to an incredible saline freshness with a pleasant hint of bitterness. This wine combines the strength, intensity and power of the delectably ripe Pinot noirs which are balanced to perfection by the chalky freshness and density from the Chardonnay which forms the majority of the blend.

Collection has all its warmth and generosity thanks to the perfect ripeness of the fruit harvested in the 2018 vintage, yet it is the freshness, energy and complexity of the ‘Réserve Perpétuelle’ created in 2012, as well as the texture imparted by the oak ageing, that extend and elongate the wines’ body resulting in unrivalled finesse and persistence.

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 115 ha, with the remainder of the estate in conversion.  The whole estate uses biodynamic practices and is 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:

1.  “La Rivière” vineyards
2.  “La Montagne” vineyards
3. “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”.

2018, the base vintage for Collection 243, was a warm, continental and truly unique vintage.  Summer set many new records in terms of heat, drought and sunshine levels.  The Pinot noirs displayed a luxurious texture whilst the Chardonnays were dense and saline where harvested at perfect ripeness and the Meuniers were intensely fruity.

The harvests began on 27 August and ended on 8th September.

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.

243rd blend: Perpetual Reserve: 31% (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
Reserve wines aged in oak: 10%(2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
2018 Vintage: 59%
Malolactic Fermentation: 26%
Dosage 8g/l

42% Chardonnay
40% Pinot noir
18% Meunier