The NV Brut Premier is apparently being replaced by this new bottling, with focus on one vintage in the blend (2017 in this case, the 242nd vintage of LR) along with some older wines. Also a greater percentage of Chardonnay. I like(d) the NV Brut Premier, but am curious if anyone has tried this new Champagne and can comment on it. Thanks.
1 Like
Curious to get more info on this one too. I’m a fan of Jacquesson’s 7xx series, although it seems Roederer’s inclusion of the main vintage is lower (~50% vs ~70%) so not sure how much it can be a representation of the vintage. Could be a marketing gimmick.
It’s really good! Review out soon on TWA.
I think the intention is not so much to foreground the vintage (if it were, they’d just make a vintage) but rather to be absolved from the obligation to make a wine that tastes as similar as possible, year to year. So, starting with 50% or so of a particular base, they blend to make the best possible wine in the Roederer style. Obviously, if your base is 2020 or 2021, it’s going to be a very different proposition, so the two wines will be different. Enumerating renditions is a way to acknowledge this.
5 Likes
I’ve tried it and I’m quite impressed. This is a substantial step up to the Brut Premier: more complex, better precision, more harmonious and round, more luxuriously structured - all likely to thanks to the roughly 45% reserve wines. I guess the 242 might additionally benefit from the fact that there will be no Cristal for the 2017 vintage and hence more of that material goes into the 242. I’ve scored it 93/94 points whereas I experienced Burt Premier usually around 87-90 points.
I’ve got some bottles at 37 US dollars (taxes and shipping included) which to me seems like an insanely good QPR (was a good offer in Switzerland). But even at 45/50 dollars market price it’s still good value.
2 Likes
Wow, thanks both for chiming in! Can’t wait to try it now
William and Andy, nice to hear your impressions and great background info too!
Here’s what John Gilman said on Twitter.
Several branches on the thread but that seems like the juiciest tweet.
I asked and they said it just start becoming available around this week in the US.
The perpetual reserve (it isn’t technically a solera, if one’s going to be pedantic) was established in 2012, with 2017 being the base year of the first rendition (242). The 242 contains 34% reserve wine from that perpetual reserve (i.e a blend of 2012-2016), which ages in big stainless steel tanks without malolactic, as well as 10% foudre-aged reserve wines.
This winemaking process for this cuvée has pretty much nothing to do with Bollinger’s style, the comparison made in the tweet to which John is replying, and it’s a good example one of the things that make talking about Champagne so tricky: people confuse the signatures of reductive and oxidative styles, dosage, Maillard-like reactions, long sur lattes aging, oxidative evolution on cork etc—to the extent that it’s quite common to hear chalk being compared to cheese.
Since we’re really getting into it, here is a preview of some of my comments which will be coming out in a few weeks:
“Roederer’s Brut Premier was created in the 1980s to prove to consumers that we could deliver consistent quality with a blend that compensated for less than perfectly ripe vintages”, explains Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon. “We were blending in pursuit of maturity, of ripeness. The concept behind the Brut Collection is the opposite: we’re looking for freshness—and we are embracing singularity, something we’re emphasizing by enumerating each year’s blend.” This project has been in the making since 2012, when Lecaillon set aside 21,000 liters of wine for constitute a perpetual reserve aged in large tanks without malolactic fermentation. Sourcing has evolved, too: less must is coming from cooperatives, and only vineyards cultivated without the use of herbicides inform the blend. A dedicated team oversee all this, visiting every grower three times per year. And vinification is parcel by parcel to deliver a maximum of blending components.
6 Likes
Interesting that Gilman says this is a long ager and the producer says they are going for freshness
To me, those things seem far from contradictory! And I agree with John. I’m tempted to buy a few dozen of the 242 and forget it for six or seven years myself.
3 Likes
Bingo!
Thanks everyone! I hadn’t heard about this but it sounds very interesting.
While I get what WK and JG mean by freshness and ageability being linked - in that both would be aided by a vibrant acidic aspect/spine - I also see how Neal would understand the winemaker’s comment to be the wine is one which is best appreciated young, as there is a common connotation of fresh which means not for being appreciated as it gets older.
Nuance/subtlety/connotations of language.
Exactly!
Just saw this thread. It may explain why I saw the NV Brut on sale for $38 yesterday.
Yeah, I’m also seeing it discounted in a few places.
I opened a half bottle of the Roederer Collection 242 tonight. It definitely does not bear any resemblance to Bollinger. It’s a little hard for me to compare it with the Brut Premier because they’re not side by side and it’s been a couple of years since I’ve had Brut Premier, but I’d say the 242 is a bit deeper and richer (though the Brut Premier was by no means a shrinking violet). It’s good and a good value NV, but it’s not drastically different from Brut Premier IMO.
1 Like
We opened our first bottle of this new Champagne today. I was careful to release the cork with a controlled “pfft”, instead of my usual MO of “let it pop & let it fly”. It was an impulsive opening on a beautiful Indian Summer day and we had our first glasses outside on the back lawn in late afternoon. Let’s call it “pre-dinner”. The wine showed yellow-pale with a fine stream of bubbles forming a boule lac on the surface in our Grassl Liberte glasses. My first impression was of fruit and then a fine bubble mouthfeel and then balance. As we drank away and the first glass was followed by a second, I judged the taste to be apple/faint citrus Chardonnay dominant with (to my taste & imagination) Pinot Meunier adding some spiciness. A mouth coating chalkiness was underlying and lingering. Quite delightful & delicious IMO. My taste memory is not up to comparing this with the soon to be former Brut NV that I also liked, and I am too much a neophyte to compare this to other Champagnes in the same price range, but I like it and recommend it.
Envoyer had this today as an offer.