Louis Roederer "Collection 243" Brut Champagne 375ml

Professional Reviews

Notes

The new Louis Roederer Brut Collection is numbered as a series, just like Krug Grande Cuvée and Laurent Perrier Grand Siècle, and this is just the 2nd release in half bottle. The wine is composed of 59% of 2018, with 31% coming from a solera-like perpetual reserve that contains the six previous vintages: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. The balance (10%) comes from large oak barrel reserves going back to 2009. The perpetual reserve is always kept at 50/50 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the final blend is 42% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir and 18% Meunier. The results are a wine that is both more complex and expressive than the Brut Premier that it replaces, but surprisingly also much fresher. The dosage has been dropped to around 8g/L and the balance is perfect. Only 26% of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation because of the ripeness of the 2018 harvest. By adding the collection number to the founding date of the house, 1776, you get the year that it was bottled. If you subtract one from that number, you get the base vintage, for this second release it is 2018. (Gary Westby, K&L Champagne buyer)