Winemaker Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon spent several years in Tasmania during the Roederer-Heemskerk joint venture days but it is Jean-Claude Rouzard who drove the business to unparalleled fame and fortune. This wine is typically a blend of 62% pinot noir, 30% chardonnay and 8% pinot meunier and is noted for its rich, creamy flavours. This release has great elegance and above all, length. $90; 94 points & Halliday’s Top 100 Wines for 2009 – The Weekend Australian November 14-15, 2009
Brut Premier is the embodiment of Louis Roederer style, combining all the fruitiness and freshness of youth with the vinosity of a fully mature wine. This is a structured and elegantly mature wine, with a lively attack and a smooth palate.
56% Pinot Noir, 34% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Meunier, including 10% of reserve wines from three former harvests, aged in oak casks for 2-6 years. An average of three years ageing on lees, plus another six months after disgorging. Pale golden colour. Delicate, persistent beading. Rich yet subtle bouquet with hints of hawthorn, almonds and toast. Clean attack, creamy structure. The inclusion of reserve wines gives the complexity and roundness characteristic of Louis Roederer champagnes.
Arguably the most reliable non-vintage champagne of them all, made by one of the very last family-owned large houses with their own grapes...Of the well-known, so-called grandes marques of champagne (no longer an official title), Bollinger, Louis Roederer, Pol Roger and Veuve Clicquot all carry a premium. But heavy Bollinger can be awkwardly angular when young, racy Pol Roger can also need a little bottle age to show its best and variable Veuve Clicquot can be downright disappointing in my view. But I have yet to experience a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier that did not taste deliciously superior and ready to drink. www.jancisrobinson.com
Louis Roederer Bruit Premier NV is a perennial favourite of mine – I love its biscuity character, its backbone and structure, which are more impressive than in virtually any other NV. But I do prefer to stash newly bought bottles away for at least a couple of years because it is an NV which really fills out, softens and complexes in a most rewarding way with just a little extra ''on cork'' maturation. Huon Hooke, SMH Good Living
A house that never fails to release wines of the highest caliber. The NV Brut Premier (A$89/NZ$80) is a concentrated and elegant wine with fine persistence. The 1997 Brut (A$120) proves to those producers with access to the very best vineyards can make superb wine in lesser years. This is a tight mix of minerals and apricot, with fine acidity. Ken Gargett; Gourmet Traveller Wine
Louis Roederer is one of our very favourite champagne houses. This latest shipment of non-vintage is very fresh and would benefit from a few months more in bottle, but it’s still a fine introduction to the Roederer style: subtle, more-ish, smooth and long-flavoured with a lovely sherbetty-ness. Food fishy pre-dinner nibbles. Ageing drink over two years. 5 Stars * * * * * Huon Hooke and Ralph Kyte-Powell; Epicure Uncorked