Launch of
Louis Roederer Collection 242 (Brut Premier's successor)
Laurent Ponsot produces high-priced wines from some of France’s oldest and most revered vineyards. But that doesn’t stop him from embracing innovation.
www.afr.com
Collection 242 differs from Brut Premier in almost every way.
The Roederer team have been working with growers since 2012 to identify specific plots in vineyards to provide grapes for this wine – and each of those plots is now vinified separately. Previously, when it came time to blend Brut Premier each year, Lécaillon would start with the base wine from that season’s harvest, and then start adding reserve wines from previous years that had aged in oak.
Starting in 2012, he created a “perpetual blend”, or solera, by ageing wines from five vintages in a big vat. This then becomes the heart of the Collection blend each year, with Lécaillon adding wines from the best plots from the latest season (Collection 242 is based on the 2017 vintage). The champagne is then aged on lees for three years.
The goal is no longer to produce a consistent blend every year but to make a non-vintage wine that reflects vintage variation: to this end, the first Collection is called 242 because it’s the 242nd blend produced at Roederer since its foundation in 1776, and the next release will be Collection 243 and will be slightly different, and so on.
Louis Roederer Collection 242 [Champagne]
This is quite a departure in style from Brut Premier, but a deliciously welcome departure. Whereas Brut Premier was very much an “aperitif” champagne, this is a more complex, food-friendly wine: bold, nutty, mouth-filling, with generous ripe vinosity, deep flavours of bruised apple and oak, and hints of Vegemite. Bloody lovely. $85
Experience the Real Story of Champagne at our unique events, including champagne tastings, dinners and education.
vineandbubble.com
242 stands for the 242nd blend made by the House which is based on harvest 2017. It comprises: 42% chardonnay, 36% pinot noir, 22% meunier. 12% reserve wine aged in oak from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011 and 2009. 34% perpetual reserve from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012. 34% malolactic fermentation. Dosage is 8g/L.
The nose is pronounced; fronting with lemony freshness, creamy, then with sweet summer fruits and ginger spice. On the palate, it’s rich and succulent, loaded with mineral energy and malic tension, and drives some intense red and yellow fruits with just a little apple peel bitterness. It finishes in a crescendo of salty mineral verve and dry extract.