Louis Roederer "Collection 246" Brut Champagne

The newly-released Louis Roederer “Collection 246” non-vintage Brut is from the base year of 2021, which comprised fifty-five percent of the blend. Thirty-five percent is from the perpetual reserve started more than a decade ago for this bottling and the final ten percent is of various individual reserve wines that complete the mosaic. The final cépages ended up being fifty-four percent chardonnay, thirty-five percent pinot noir and eleven percent pinot meunier. Only thirty percent of the vins clairs ended up going through malo for this iteration of the Collection and the wine was finished with a dosage of seven grams per liter. It offers up a bright and elegant bouquet of pear, apple, bread dough, chalky minerality, raw almond and a topnote of white flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, precise, full-bodied and complex, with a fine core of fruit, lovely mineral drive, elegant mousse and a long, beautifully balanced and still quite youthful finish. This is very tasty out of the blocks, but like all of the Collection Series released thus far, the Collection 246 will be an even better drink with two or three years in the cellar. It will age several decades.