Louis Roederer: 2017 Vins Clairs and a Cristal Vinothèque Masterclass

Somewhat unsurprisingly – we’ve come to expect first-class hospitality from Chef de Cave Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon – our vins clairs tasting at Louis Roederer was the most comprehensive of all the houses we visited this year. We tasted a range of Pinot Noirs from the Vallée de la Marne and Montagne de Reims and a selection of Chardonnays from the Côte des Blancs before sharing a truly magnificent champagne lunch, which showcased some of the best – both old and new – of the Roederer range.

As Louis Roederer are the biggest biodynamic producers of Champagne, with 110 hectares of their 240 hectare estate now following biodynamic farming methods, many of the vins clairs we tasted were produced from grapes grown on organic and biodynamic vineyards. As such, it is worth quickly highlighting the difference between the two.

Organic vineyards cultivate organically-certified grapes, which means they are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilisers. Bugs, weeds, and pests are managed using all-natural substances (or are mechanically removed) and the fertilisers used to nourish the vines are also 100% natural.

Biodynamic vineyards also do not use synthetic chemicals, but go further than organic farming by incorporating ideas about a vineyard as an entire ecosystem. The important concept behind biodynamics is the belief that the crops, soil, farmer and universe are all interconnected – thus, the connection between farmer, vine and the earth itself is finely balanced in accordance with such things as astrological influences and lunar cycles. Where known, the organic or biodynamic status of the plot that produced each Louis Roederer vin clair tasted is shown below.

Vins Clairs 2017

Lécaillon introduced the vintage with an overview of the growing season. “In general it was a complicated year, of which Chardonnay was the clear winner,” he said. Although there were no incidences of acid rot in the Roederer vineyards, many of the Pinot Noir plots struggled with botrytis. Lécaillon informed us that they’d decided to stop tilling the soil in late-June (earlier than usual) and he believes the volume of water in the soil may have encouraged botrytis to spread – a process accelerated by vines sucking the excess water from the soil and insects bringing in bacteria.

“We planned to pick the Vallée de la Marne on 1st September, the Côte des Blancs on 4th September and the Montagne de Reims on the 5th September,” Lécaillon said. However, unexpected wet and warm weather in late-August forced Lécaillon to change plans as botrytis spread further. “We started with all 600 pickers straight away rather than slowly increasing to our full picking workforce,” he told us. This still wasn’t quick enough. After three days, he had to send all of his pickers to the Montagne de Reims to harvest the Pinot Noir even faster.

This bold decision to pick quickly undoubtedly improved the overall quality of the harvest, but the bulk of the Pinot Noir grapes were still not as ripe and mature as desired and many had to be rejected due to rot. That said, of all the Pinot Noir vineyards, Lécaillon noted that those farmed biodynamically were the most stable. The vins clairs we tasted were mostly produced from Roederer vineyards. Those that were had no malolactic fermentation – the only base wines that underwent malolactic were those produced from purchased grapes, as they were lacking the required level of ripeness and the malolactic helped broaden their otherwise lean mouthfeel.

Next we moved eastwards, towards the Montagne de Reims and the Grand Cru villages of Beaumont-sur-Vesle and Verzy. All three are Cristal plots that are biodynamically farmed, however with no Cristal produced this year, the wines will go into the reserves. Lécaillon is fond of this region for its “chalky, ripe soils” that “promote elegance and freshness of acidity”. The Champs Romés plot in Verzy in particular has all the chalky, round and spicy elegance of Cristal – the very essence of the prestige cuvée’s style.

To complete our Pinot Noir experience, we compared three biodynamic plots from Verzenay. This Grand Cru village in the northeast of the Montagne de Reims was struck by frost in 2017. White frosts attacked the bottom of the hill, whilst black frosts arrived from strong winds from the north that hit all parts of the slope, resulting in a 40% loss of vineyards in Verzenay.

However, those that did survive produced wines with impressive juicy character. The first plot was vinified in large oak vats, the others in stainless steel. Lécaillon shared with us the importance of balanced blending: “When you blend all three components equally, the salinity comes out,” he said. “The lightness comes from the salinity and then during second fermentation and lees ageing, you get the umami.”

Chardonnay

The Chardonnay vins clairs we tasted were all from vineyards in the Côte des Blancs that, according to Lécaillon, “usually produce vintage material”. The south of the region received less water than in a typical season and the grapes were picked in pattern with geographical location: the further north the village, the later it was harvested.

The wine from Oger was fermented in stainless steel and had a notably expressive mouthfeel and will be used in the Blanc de Blancs blend. The wine from Chouilly was produced from an organically farmed plot and fermented in oak vats.

The next three vins clairs were all produced from biodynamic vineyards in villages located in the centre of the Côte des Blancs. As we tasted, Lécaillon spoke of the difference in transition to biodynamics between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay plots. “Within two years, the experiments on Pinot Noir showed a big difference, but with Chardonnay it wasn’t as clear,” he said. Lécaillon attributes this difference to the removal of sulphites: “With zero sulphur you lose some of the elegant and delicate Pinot Noir flavour, so we keep a little pre-press SO2.”

We finished our vins clairs tasting with the 2017 base year Brut Premier NV blend, which had been completed just the day before our visit. The assemblage is 183 different plots, with a slightly higher Chardonnay percentage than typical, owing to the high quality of the white grapes this year. The 27% reserve wine content is a blend of seven vintages, 16% of which is the Brut Premier blend from last year and a further 10% is from reserve wines aged in oak casks. Despite being such a small percentage of the overall blend, the influence of the oak is incredibly powerful, lending a real smokiness to the finished wine. This was already tasting impressive as a standalone still wine and with its higher-than-usual 3.6 million bottle production is one to watch when it hits the market in a few years. Roll on 2022/3 when we may see it in the market place.

Champagne

The mouth-watering business of vins clairs tasting was kindly followed by a sensational lunch, matched only in calibre by the quite mesmerising range of finished champagnes that Lécaillon was generous enough to pair with it. The first flight of champagnes included rare original disgorgements of Blanc de Blancs 1998 and Brut Vintage 1990, and a bottle of the equally unique Brut Vintage Rosé 1996.

Asked about the lower pressure in their Blanc de Blancs champagne, Lécaillon told us that every vintage had been bottled at a pressure of 4 atmospheres since the very first bottling in 1930. “A higher pressure competes with the malic acid,” he explained. Lécaillon also spoke fondly of Brut Vintage 1990 – his second year at Roederer and one in which they were conducting trials of hyper oxidation.

The fourth champagne was particularly interesting for its surprisingly gentle acidity. Brut Vintage Rosé 1996 – from a vintage famed for its record-breaking acidity levels – was apparently produced with a high quantity of wine from Cumières, an unusually ripe 1996 that Lécaillon referred to as an “amphitheatre of chalk, clay and mixed soils”. After the Cristal Rosé 1974 blend worked so well, Lécaillon said the winemaking team at the time adopted the same recipe for Brut Vintage Rosé 1976 – a recipe that hasn’t changed since.

An outstanding year in many respects, Lécaillon looks back on 1996 as a landmark year for shifting ideologies in Champagne. “1996 was the last vintage that we became blind by numbers… now taste is so much more important. This was the year that triggered the new approach in viticulture and so we began farming organically.”

Our second flight was a masterclass in Cristal – both the past and the future. We began with new Cristal 2008, due to be released in June this year.  Lécaillon declared it “the new 1988” and spoke of his experiments with dosage. The trial disgorgement was given a standard dosage of 8 g/L but, lacking the race and vivacity desired, he dropped the dosage to 7.75 g/L. “Dosage is the search for purity,” he added. Interestingly, following our almost immediate comments regarding the power of the nose and the delicious richness on the palate, Lécaillon revealed that the bottle had been opened an hour ago and that “two hours was probably optimum”.

Next up was an original disgorgement of the remarkable Cristal 2002. Unsurprisingly elegant and light, a near-perfect champagne, the wait for Cristal Vinothèque 2002 is almost too much to bear. Lécaillon told us the Vinothèue 2002 had been disgorged last year, given a dosage of 6 g/L and laid in the cellars where it will rest for seven years before release (in 2024!)