Champagne Louis Roederer was established in 1776 and is now run by the 7th generation of the family, Frédéric Rouzaud. With over 240 hectares of vineyards located exclusively in Grands and Premiers Crus villages, Champagne Louis Roederer is self-sufficient for approximately 70% of their non-vintage production and 100% of their vintage champagnes. With the creation of Collection, Louis Roederer is writing a new chapter in the story of Brut Premier through its reinvention. This multi-vintage wine reveals the power of blending, expressed year after year, demonstrating the full extent of its genius. With Collection, Louis Roederer combines its longstanding pursuit of excellence with a new spirit of freedom to achieve its constant objective: to create the best possible champagne with each blend. The Collection number, which represents the number of blends since the foundation of the Louis Roederer Champagne House in 1776, will allow champagne lovers, like collectors, to choose their champagne according to their preferred degree of youth or maturity. Have you tried Champagne with French Fries? You’ll be surprised how well they go together. Louis Roederer Brut Premier As mentioned above, it may seem unusual for a Champagne house to ditch a NV blend. Non-vintage blends have been, and probably always will be, the lifeblood of the Champagne region. They make up a huge proportion of annual sales for the region (over 70% in 2020). Since Brut Premier’s inception in 1986, there have been major shifts in farming across the region (Biodynamics have been deployed at Roederer) and, of course, we can’t forget climate change. The latter being one of the key factors in the decision to pursue this new multi-vintage blend. With regards to the Brut Premier, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon has been quoted in Falstaff as saying:

It is certainly different to the Brut Premier. It’s edgier, racier. Very youthful and elegant. There’s great texture to the fruit (there’s been a real focus on getting lots of dry extract into the wine), a refreshing vein of acidity. It’s a lovely wine that I feel would benefit from a few more years in the cellar. In theory it should be treated like a vintage Champagne. It has the makings of something quite special, but the component parts need a moment to harmonise and develop complexity. This is certainly a wine to watch. The creation of Collection is also influenced by the introduction of a “Perpetual Reserve”, which 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. Over the years, this Perpetual Reserve will be further enriched with new wines from each new harvest to create a template of infinite complexity, freshness and energy.The grapes for the whole range of Roederer champagnes are sourced, for the most part, from their own vineyards. By far the biggest selling is the non-vintage, extra dry, Brut Premier which is full-bodied and distinctive. The non-vintage wines tend to be a blend of roughly two parts pinot noir and one part chardonnay with just a dash of pinot meunier.

Later, in the 1920s, future heir to the House Léon Olry-Roederer continued this boundary-pushing spirit by focusing his attention on creating a highly balanced wine: a blend of several vintages, to ensure his wine would always be of the utmost quality. This formed the basis of the later non vintage cuvée named Brut Premier. Eco-Friendly Practices The Roederer portfolio also holds Bordeaux estates Château de Pez and Château Haut-Beausejour in Saint Estèphe. [9] In late 2006, the Rouzaud family acquired majority share in the second-growth estate Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. The deal also included the Cru Bourgeois estate Château Bernadotte. [10]

Also included in the Roederer Group are Champagne Deutz, Ramos Pinto Port in Portugal, Domaines Ott in Provence, Roederer Estate, Scharffenberger Cellars, Merry Edwards Winery, Domaine Anderson in California.