Today, the name Roederer reveals a different facet depending on the angle from which it is viewed, much like a kaleidoscope. It is the name of a significant group of wineries stretching from California to Portugal. It is the epitome of a highly regarded champagne brand. And it is an umbrella for various wine-growing centres within the Champagne region, each of which produces the Maison’s top products more or less independently. Two people held together this fascinating conglomerate. The main owner, Frédéric Rouzaud, a descendant of Louis Roederer and the seventh generation head of the family business, Groupe Champagne Louis Roederer. And Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, the group’s vice-president and cellar master at Champagne Roederer. In recent years, the two have jointly initiated a significant deepening and fundamental transformation of the portfolio. This includes the introduction of the Cristal Vinothèque series, the Late Release Vintages and the Coteaux Champenois of the Camille series. And, of course, the replacement of Brut Premier by the Collection.
However, beneath these product-level innovations, a much more fundamental transformation was taking place: the shift from négociant to winemaker. Although the house had owned its own vineyards since acquiring its first plots in 1841 – Roederer now owns 250 hectares of vineyards – it was not until Frédéric Rouzaud’s father Jean-Claude in the mid-1970s, and especially since Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon took over responsibility for vineyard management in 1999, that the company began to focus on viticulture. But it was only when Frédéric Rouzaud’s father Jean-Claude took over in the mid-1970s, and especially when Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon took over responsibility for vineyard management in 1999, that the house’s operating philosophy changed significantly. It is now based on the fundamental intuition that great champagne is no longer created primarily in the cellar, but in the vineyard. ‘The new Champagne is determined by the terroir,’ is one of Lécaillon’s core beliefs. This is particularly important in view of climate change. Because it is the vineyards and the soils that will give us the future, not the climatic conditions. And that is what it is all about: preparing for what is to come in order to ultimately ‘be in the best part of the future’.
The master class
In a master class, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon illustrated the impact of this fundamental idea on three pillars of the Roederer portfolio: Collection, Vintages and Roederer+Starck. He began by comparing two versions of the Collection. Introduced in 2021, this numbered multi-vintage champagne replaced Brut Premier as the house’s entry-level cuvée. This was a bold move, given the importance that every classic non-vintage brut usually has for the Grandes Marques of Champagne. In addition to the base vintage and a proportion of reserve wines aged in large wooden barrels, a ‘Reserve Perpetuélle’ created in 2012 plays a key role here. These are blended and annually renewed base wines (without ‘malo’) that mature in stainless steel. The Collection offers a precise mosaic of Champagne as a whole. Depending on the vintage, they tend to be “Atlantic” or ‘continental’, as Lécaillon classifies wet and cool or hot and dry vintages. Collection 245, based on 2020, has a bouquet of ripe peaches and mirabelle plums and a soft acidity with a rich mouthfeel on the palate. Citrus and yeasty notes dominate Collection 246 from the cool base vintage of 241. It is leaner, but shows more pressure on the mid-palate.
Next up are the Brut Nature Champagnes from the collaboration with Philippe Starck (here is the link to my article on the current vintage). The Rosé 2018 is particularly impressive here. In its third vintage since the start of this mono-cru from Cumières, the Champagne is vinous and generous, with hints of wild strawberries and orange zest. With the same colour, but even more elegant and with brilliant acidity, the ‘standard’ Vintage Rosé 2018 is even more appealing. The classic vintage from the same year is again somewhat softer and, despite its complexity, almost hedonistic. Its backbone is Pinot Noirs from Verzy in the northern Montagne de Reims. From the 2019 vintage onwards, a Blanc de Noirs millésimé will be released from here. Finally, Lécaillon presents the Blanc de Blancs as the first bottling from this exceptional vintage. It comes from four parcels in Avize, whose dry, central limestone ‘mid-slopes’ produce unique results. It is indeed the best Blanc de Blancs I have ever tasted from Roederer.
The Cristal Dinner
In the evening, Frédéric Rouzaud invited guests to dinner at the family’s Hôtel Particulier in Reims. It was an experience, not least in culinary terms, but also something of a continuation of the afternoon’s masterclass. The themes: Roederer Cristal and Camille. For Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, it was another opportunity to recall the cornerstones of the Roederer style. These do not include malolactic fermentation or the autolysis aromas produced by the yeast. Instead, the decisive factors are the fruit (which derives from the quality of the vintage) and the soil. Ideally, these complement each other in a 50:50 ratio, with juiciness layers over minerality. For Lécaillon, the two following vintages, 2013 (from the magnum) and 2016, play on this relationship in their own way. The cool, late-ripening 2013 with 45% sunshine and 55% minerality – the ripe, generous, but still very youthful 2016 vintage in reverse proportion.
The 2014 (also from the magnum) and 2015 vintages of Cristal Rosé form a similar contrasting pair. The former showed the great advantage of a vintage without extremes. They are the ideal prerequisite for an essential characteristic of great Champagne: elegance. In contrast, 2015 is powerful and softer – for Lécaillon, it reflects ‘100% sunshine and 100% soil’. In my opinion, however, because it is less acidic, it is somewhat less tension-filled. Two Cristal variants from 2004 in the Vinothèque version followed – the Rosé as a premiere! Both were disgorged in 2019 and then matured for another six years ‘post-dégorgement’ in the Maison’s cellar. This year, for me – which is by no means always the case – the Blanc has the edge. It combines incredible freshness (for Lécaillon, ‘eternal youth’) with seemingly endless depth. A simply sensational champagne!
The evening ends with the Maison’s two still wines, the Coteaux Champenois Camille from 2022. The white comes from Le-Mesnil-sur-Oger and the red from Bouzy. They are worthy of their own article. At this point, just a note that a red Dizy will be released next year. Two more wines are in production.
In the vineyard
The following day offered a rare opportunity to visit two of the most important vineyards owned by Roederer. The trip began in the Grand Cru Verzenay. Next to Verzy probably the most important wine-growing commune in the northern Montagne de Reims for Roederer. The house has its own pressing centre in Verzenay, specialising in Pinot Noir. This is one of the reasons why the English version of the back label of Roederer’s vintage Champagnes refers to “‘La Montagne’ Estate” (the French version only refers to ‘vignobles’, i.e. vineyards). The biodynamically cultivated Basse Couture vineyard is located just outside the village on Rue de Sillery. Here, the vines, which are over 50 years old, are already in their second generation of mass selection. After 20 centimetres of topsoil, you come directly onto pure chalk, which makes the site a central component of the Cristal blend. Les Bayons in Verzy, also a top site, has a slightly higher clay content and is a historical component of Roederer’s vintages.
The second Pinot Noir hotspot for Roederer is Aӱ. Here, as in Verzenay, the Maison is the second largest landowner – and in Avize, it is even number one. There we visit the young La Gargeotte vineyard. Its mass-selected vines come from the company’s own La Bouleuse vine nursery, but are only ten years old. It will take at least ten years before grapes for Cristal Rosé can be produced here again. Currently, the harvest is used in the liqueur d’expédition, or dosage, of Roederer champagne. Together with neighbouring plots such as Goutte D’Or and Bonotte-Pierre Robert (also replanted in 2021), this is another historic centre of Roederer. It was here that Jean-Claude Rouzaud identified the first plots for Cristal Rosé in 1974. In 1998, however, the plot selection for the Champagne was reconsidered due to climate change. The yield from Goutte D’Or now goes into Cristal Blanc – and the core of the Rosé is currently the higher-altitude La Villers site in Aӱ, which was replanted in 1998.
Final stop at the Vendangeoir
The tour concludes with a visit to Louis Roederer’s Vendangeoir in the centre of Aÿ. Among other things, it serves as the Maison’s pressing centre in the Grand Vallée de la Marne, or ‘La Vallée’ for short. In addition to vineyards in the Grand Cru Aÿ, the Maison also has other important properties here. These include top Premier Crus such as Cumières, the origin of Roederer+Starck, Dizy, Hautvillers and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. Like its counterpart in Verzenay, the Vendangeoir in Aÿ also has specific tasks. In addition to traditional 4-tons Coquard presses, it also has a special facility for pressing Meunier grapes. The Camille still wines are also matured here. The property’s historic central wing, modest on the outside but stylishly restored on the inside, will undergo at least a temporary upgrade in the near future. Because the Hôtel Particulier in Reims needs to be repaired, it will serve as the Maison’s official guest house for some time.
Exciting news! A Blanc de Noirs Vintage, new still wines and a range of Single Vineyard Champagnes…
The visit concludes with a wonderful lunch, introduced and accompanied by current and older vintage champagnes from the Maison. There are two sets of three, with the younger vintages served in magnums. The first trio consisted of 2016 Vintage, 2016 Blanc de Blancs and 2013 Rosé. The latter in particular shows itself to be perfectly matured with its restrained fruitiness and salty length. The 2008 Rosé was also wonderfully fresh. Its bouquet is reminiscent of raspberry biscuits – in fact, this patissier surface conceals an unexpected, exciting complexity. The 2005 Blanc de Blancs also presented a wonderfully mature bouquet. All its components are seamlessly interwoven on the palate. The enormous ageing potential of Roederer vintages is also demonstrated by the still light golden yellow 1993 with its delicate pear aroma and slender texture. To round off the meal, the Carte Blanche is an excellent accompaniment to dessert. One wonders why the demi-sec (38 grams dosage) is so rare in Germany.
In the Vintage Champagne segment, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon then announced the biggest news: Roederer will be introducing its first single vineyard Champagnes in two to three years. Initially, if I understand correctly, these will be pure Pinot Noirs. The goal is 15 individual bottlings of 500 bottles each. These will be Roederer’s next generation of Vintages.
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Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel images
Further information
Sur-la-pointe has focused more intensively on Louis Roederer than on any other champagne house. Interested readers can find further online articles at the following links: on Brut Nature here, on late-release vintages here, on Cristal and Cristal Rosé here and here, and on the house’s future strategy here, here and here.
