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Releasing in 2021 for the the first time ever and replacing the estate's Brut Premier range, Louis Roederer's Collection Series is a new range of multi-vintage Champagnes where each release will be specifically number, a concept made famous by Krug’s Grande Cuvée.
The idea behind the move for this legendary Champagne house behind Cristal is to give in to nature and showcase more vintage variety in their value release, while still showcasing the estate's unique style, rather than having to manipulate the winemaking process in the vineyard and cellar in an attempt for every release to taste the same.
The major practical difference between the previous Brut Premier range and Collection series is the inclusion of a 'perpetual reserve' and the significant increased use of the oak-aged reserve wines. Ultimately boosting the average age of the Champagne, the reserve wine gives extra tertiary characteristics to the final release.
The perpetual reserve used in the Collection series 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. The oak-aged reserve wines are made from young plots on the Cristal estate, giving the wine immense intensity and wonderful salinity. Roederer kicked off this exciting range with no. 242, representing the number of blends since the foundation of Maison Louis Roederer in 1776.
A debut release was declared to be 'very impressive indeed' by the Wine Advocate's William Kelley and a 'beautiful wine' by Jancis Robinson MW.
Softly shimmering straw gold, green tints, with a delicate filigree dancing at will around the glass. The nose is gently authoritative; spring flowers garlanding stone fruit, a hint of hawthorn maybe, then lemongrass. The palate has encyclopaedic depth, the intricacies of the Perpetual Reserve weaving their early magic; almond, sloe, gingerbread and apples; the finish has a pleasing twist of bitterness, courtesy the small percentage of oak-aged reserve wine. Maybe the dosage can come down even further, such is the engaging and subtle complexity harnessed elsewhere?
Drinking Window: 2021 - 2026
Reviewer Name: Simon Field MW
Review Date: 5th June 2021
This is the first in a new series of nonvintage Champagnes that replaces the producer's well-known Brut Premier. Based around the 2017 vintage and blended with wines from six other years, the wine is dry while also having a rich, toasty character alongside mineral, white fruit and spice flavors. Drink now.
Reviewer Name: Roger Voss
Review Date: 1st July 2022
Deep straw colour and tiny, tiny bead. Really satisfying, complete, beautifully balanced nose with some evolution and richness. A little bit of toastiness and it tastes pretty ripe. Very different indeed from a Brut Zéro champagne! Firm. Some tasters may object to the dosage. But it's a beautiful wine.
Drinking Window: 2021 - 2025
Reviewer Name: Jancis Robinson
Review Date: 18th July 2021
Aromas of cooked apple, bread dough and lemon tart follow through to a full body with round, delicious fruit and a rich, flavorful finish. Yet, it remains tight and fine with lovely, compressed bubbles. New energy and freshness. Medium-to full-bodied with layers of fruit and vivid intensity. 42% chardonnay, 36% pinot noir and 22% pinot meunier. 8 grams dosage. Four years on the less. A new-format non-vintage that designates the year of the 242nd harvest, 2017, plus reserve wine of 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Drink or hold.
Review Date: 5th July 2021
"Roederer's Brut Premier was created in the 1980s to prove to consumers that we could deliver consistent quality with a blend that compensated for less than perfectly ripe vintages," explains Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon. "We were blending in pursuit of maturity, of ripeness. The concept behind the Brut Collection is the opposite: we're looking for freshness—and we are embracing singularity, something we're emphasizing by enumerating each year's blend." This project has been in the making since 2012, when Lecaillon set aside 21,000 liters of wine to constitute a perpetual reserve aged in large tanks without malolactic fermentation. Sourcing has evolved too: less must is coming from cooperatives, and only vineyards cultivated without the use of herbicides inform the blend. A dedicated team oversees all this, visiting every grower three times per year. And vinification is parcel by parcel to deliver a maximum of blending components. Iteration 242 is based on the 2017 vintage (56%), supplemented by 34% reserve wines from the perpetual reserve established in 2012 and 10% foudre-aged reserve wines.
So much for the composition and concept of the new NV Brut Collection 242, but how does it taste? This debut release is very impressive indeed, wafting from the glass with notes of pear, peach, ripe citrus fruit, toasted almonds, fresh pastry and white flowers. Medium to full-bodied, pillowy and textural, it's concentrated and layered, with lively acids, an enlivening pinpoint mousse and a long, sapid finish. Brut Premier was already a very persuasive wine, but the new Brut Collection nevertheless represents a step up.
Drinking Window: 2021 - 2035
Reviewer Name: William Kelley
Review Date: 23rd September 2021
The NV Collection 242 is a new wine from Roederer that replaces the Brut Premier in the range. The Collection (which now will be numbered by harvest) is a blend of three components: a perpetual reserve done in the classic non-malo Roederer style, reserve wines in oak with a touch of malo, and a base vintage, in this case 2017. That blend results in a NV Champagne that offers lovely richness and resonance, with plenty of yellow orchard fruit and floral character. Whereas Brut Premier was typically a focused, nervy wine that, while consistently excellent, also was not always in line with the Roederer house style, the 242 tastes more like a Roederer Champagne in terms of its complexity. Incidentally, there is no Vintage, Cristal or Cristal Rosé in 2017, so all the best lots went into this bottling. Dosage is 8 grams per liter, so lower than the 9 or so that was typical for recent Brut Premier and much lower than the 12-13 that was once customary. The 242 was also bottled with a bit less sugar than the norm, which results in lower atmospheres of pressure in the bottle and silkier texture.“Brut Premier was created in the late 1970s and 1980s, when we struggled to ripen,” Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon explained. “It was our way of compensating for lack of ripeness in the field and the variability of quality across vintages. Because of climate change, achieving ripeness is not an issue today. Instead, our challenge is maintaining freshness and precision. For that reason, we decided to re-think our NV and start from a place of positive rather than negative selection.” (Originally published in May 2021)
Drinking Window: 2021 - 2031
Reviewer Name: Antonio Galloni
Review Date: 1st November 2021
