NV Champagne Louis Roederer Collection 244 Brut

After the upheavals of the early 1900s, particularly the First World War that destroyed more than half of the Louis Roederer estate, Leon Olry Roederer reconstructed the vineyards. He decided to buy grapes to ensure the continuity of the House during this difficult period and, at the same time, created a multi-vintage wine that would have a consistent flavour, whatever the harvest year.

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.

Collection is testimony to both the Louis Roederer founding vision, that of a winemaking approach founded on the long ageing required to craft remarkable wines, and the capacity for constant innovation and reinvention that has led it to continuously explore new territories.

Thus, this new wine is in line with the other Louis Roederer creations while expressing an evolution in structure, form and style that marks an important milestone in its history.

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.

2017, the base vintage for Collection 242, was a year of living dangerously! An exceptionally warm and dry winter and spring, but the latter brought severe frosts from 17 to 29 April, setting the sorry record for 12 nights of frost. These were followed by a dull, wet and not particularly hot summer, which ended in an almost tropical (hot and humid) spell at the end of August. This sudden change led to a significant increase in grey rot on the ripening Pinot noir and Meunier grapes. The harvest was fastpaced and completed very quickly demanding precise and methodical selection work, of an unprecedented level even for Roederer. The harvest took place from the 31st August to the 9th September 2017.

DOMAINES:
1/3 ''La Rivière'' vineyards
1/3 ''La Montagne'' vineyards
1/3 ''La Côte'' vineyards

GRAPE VARIETIES:
42% Chardonnay
36% Pinot noir
22% Meunier
242nd BLEND:
2017 Harvest

RESERVE WINES AGED IN OAK:
10% (2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)

MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION: 34%

PERPETUAL RESERVE:
34% (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)

DOSAGE: 8g/l