Other than the Grand Tasting the only event I attended was the Masterclass with Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon. I had attended another seminar with him at a La Fete about 6 years ago and he was just as erudite, informative, and eloquent a speaker now as he was then.
The focus of the event was the move from the old NV Roederer (a perennial favorite of mine and many of my friends) to the Collection series. He explained his reasons for doing so we well as how they have evolved since he started the reserve perpetuelle. We were to have tasted the 4 trial Collections (238-241) as well as the three which have been released commercially (242-244). Unfortunately earlier that day the bottles of 240 were stolen so we missed one of the pre-release vintages.
He has been actively experimenting to adapt to the issues caused by climate change and his “fight for freshness”. The move to the Collection is part of those efforts. He says there have other shifts in the focus of Champagne in the past. 35 years ago it was all about branding and celebration. More recently it’s moved to a focus on terroir. Once it was a dessert wine, then an aperitif, now with climate change he is aiming for a shift to make it more of a gastronomic wine. Climate change means more phenolics, warmer years, earlier ripening, more color, less acidity and more dry extract.
One thing he’s noticed is that Pinot Noir and Piniot Meunier have been affected more strongly by climate change (greatly so from 2017 onward) than chardonnay so he steadily increased the %age of the latter as he moved through vintages of the Collection. Previously PN on chalk had been Roederer’s maim focus and the NV was always 40/40/20. With the changes that no longer works. Also, he’s been reducing the amount of malo. Other variables he’s been experimenting with are pressure and dosage. Different plots have reacted differently, for example one that used to show green now shows citrussy so he is adjusting accordingly.
In the 70s and 80s the distinction between NV and vintage waines was that the vintage wines got ripe fruit, the NV wines got unripe fruit. To hide the unripe fruit techniques such as malolactic fermentation were used. Now we have less acidity so that process needs to change. There is roughly half the malic acid now that they had in the 70s. If you shift away from malo you need to increase the density of the wine and get creaminess from the reserve perpetuelle instead of malo.
He made a point of mentioning that you can age them 15-20 years with no problem. If you are looking for cepage, disgorgement, etc. information there is a flash code on the back label with all the information. Each Collection has one blend but multiple disgorgements.
The solera is always 50/50 chardonnay/pinot noir but the base wine %age will change depending on the conditions of the year. He might eventually do an all-reserve perpetuelle bottling. He’s already bottled some magnums for the 10 year anniversary of the project and is waiting to see how they turn out.
Collection TRIAL 238
Base 2013. PN dominated.
Nose is a bit restrained. 60% malo. high acid, quite austere, not much complexity
B-
Collection TRIAL 239
Base 2014. Nose a bit restrained. 50% malo. cool summer but 3 beautiful weeks in September. He started to add phenolics by pushing the pressing of the PN skins to give a slight bitterness on the finish.
B
Collection TRIAL 240
Stolen!
Collection TRIAL 241
Base 2016. 27% malo. More chardonnay.
First one with a truly lovely nose and good, round balance on the palate
B+
Collection 242
base 2017. 32% malo. reserve perpetuelle is now up to 30-37%. Quite lovely. A chardonnay year, difficult for pinot. they picked in a rush as they were racing botrytis.
A-
Collection 243
base 2018. Lovely light acidity, great freshness but lacking the complexity and interest of the 242. Some bitterness. Disappointing. I’m glad I wrote that note before finding out that the base vintage was 2018 so I know it wasn’t just my prejudice regarding the vintage. My disappointment with 2018 was echoed over and over again at the grand tasting the next day. 5.5 kilo pressure.
B-/B
Collection 244
Base 2019. 5.8 pressure they increased the pressure since it was a more concentrated year. Chalkier, more minerality. Gorgeous wine and my favorite of the event (including the Cristal). The only glass I finished.
A
2015 Cristal
Complex floral nose, quite young and precise. On the palate it seems stern and shut down. I wouldn’t bet against it in the long run but the fact that I didn’t finish my glass says a lot. A/A+ nose, B palate for now.
At the end I had the opporunity to ask a question which has puzzled me - how he decides when to release a vintage of the Starck. The Starcks were his first laboratory of climate change and he is only making them in the hotter years (06, 09, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22). As they are consistently among my favorite Roederer releases I can only observe that he is addressing those issues very well indeed.
