Louis Roederer: Something Old, Something New

Appointments with Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon are always highly anticipated. The eminent chef de cave is a master educator, conversationalist, scientist and host and we’ve come to expect memorable evenings in his company. That said, our most recent meeting in June 2019 with Jancis Robinson MW still took us by surprise. Reaching an altogether new dimension, like the Vinothèque of tasting programmes, it was packed full of youthful delights yet teased the palate with layers of complexity and maturity, exuding, overall, an air of ultimate prestige.

Lécaillon took us on a journey through time, beginning with all the latest vintage transitions and a brand new Brut Nature, through to the upcoming Cristal and Cristal Vinothèque magnum launches, and finishing with some old – very old – Cristals.

First on the agenda were the eagerly anticipated Brut Natures. Environmentally conscious, handcrafted wines are very much en vogue and Brut Nature is perhaps the most wholesome and unrefined expression of this emergent artisanal trend. It is a ‘field blend’, produced using all three of the dominant Champagne grape varieties, all grown on the same 100% biodynamically farmed vineyard in the Premier Cru village of Cumières, and all picked on the same day – the way the Champenois were “doing it a century ago”.

To be harvested on the same day, the grape varieties must reach peak maturity at the same time. Such synchronisation is difficult to achieve and is a primary reason why Brut Nature can only be produced in warm, dry years. Cumières sits on dark clay soil rich in potassium and nitrogen that, during wet and cool years, encourages the grape varieties to take divergent paths, ripening at different stages. During warm and dry years however, the grape varieties ripen linearly, so peak maturity can be synchronised.

After harvest, all three grape varieties are pressed together and cold fermented. Malolactic fermentation is blocked and 15% of the wines are fermented in large oak casks. Brut Nature is bottled at a lower pressure of 5 atmospheres (the typical pressure is 6 atmospheres), as “the champagne has some tannins and zero dosage, therefore a lighter mousse sits better”. Although there are no challenging blending decisions to make, Lécaillon explained that producing Brut Nature involves more work than the other wines, because “if you go wrong, it is really obvious… it will stand out, it is a ‘naked’ wine.”

Brut Nature 2012 is the third iteration, following 2006 and 2009, and is the most precise and pure expression of terroir yet. Brut Nature Rosé 2012 is the much anticipated first release of a rosé equivalent, produced from an identical field blend, differing only in that a proportion of the Pinot Noir grapes are vinified using the same 5-day red wine infusion technique utilised in the production of Vintage Rosé and Cristal Rosé to impart more colour and tannins to the wine. According to Lécaillon, Brut Nature Rosé was simply “ready to be produced in 2012… it was an extra special year of Pinot Noir ripeness.”

The current vintage release in magnum, Brut Vintage 2012, is a Pinot Noir masterclass. “The Pinot Noirs were the best in 2012 since 1990,” Lecaillon said, adding, “although both were beaten by 2018.” To produce Louis Roederer Brut Vintage, Lécaillon makes a Blanc de Noirs from the grapes of Verzy and experiments with the addition of incremental percentages of Chardonnay to the “austere Pinot Noir” until the perfect blend is achieved.

Over the course of the year, the entire range of Louis Roederer vintage champagnes will transition to 2013. The new Brut Vintage 2013 is 80% Pinot Noir and is already surprisingly expressive, particularly considering the bottle we tasted was so recently disgorged. Lécaillon described 2013, which was the most recent October harvest, as “a great vintage… in mineral expression, in fruit, with a bit of bitterness and chalkiness.”

Rosé 2013, which underwent 25% malolactic fermentation, is produced from the Pinot Noir of Cumières and the Chardonnay of Chouilly and has a much sweeter, delicate, rose petal character than the full bodied 2012.

The biggest change across the new vintage range was Blanc de Blancs 2013, with which Lécaillon is introducing a new style of Blanc de Blancs. The Chardonnay ripeness was “pushed very high, to almost 12%” and all malolactic fermentation was blocked. “Pushing ripeness and keeping freshness creates a chalkiness,” Lécaillon explained, however this technique is being threatened by climate change. Whereas Pinot Noir is less affected by the warmer summers and consequently accelerated ripening periods (“you can make beautiful Pinot Noir with 88 days flowering”), Lécaillon believes that Chardonnay “needs long phenolic ripeness… 95, 96, 97 days. People don’t push Chardonnay enough.”

It is this reduced phenolic structure of Chardonnay that causes the bubbles in Blanc de Blancs champagnes to be more active – the addition of Pinot Noir and the phenolics that come with it keeps the bubbles restrained. “They couldn’t bottle Blanc de Blancs in the 1990s, they called it a ‘crazy wine’… now we know to drop the pressure.”

From this point onwards, the tasting and its accompanying dinner were a veritable feast of Cristal. We began with an exclusive preview of the eagerly awaited next release, Cristal 2012, tasted alongside the current release, Cristal 2008.

The newest vintage is most suitably introduced against a backdrop of the history that bought about its unique production methods. Lécaillon spoke of winemaking in the 1960-80s, when the use of chemicals and fertilisers was widespread, tripling yields but reducing ripeness. “The idea developed that the longer the lees ageing, the better the champagne… which is true if you don’t have the best raw materials.” The real concept of champagne for Lécaillon though, “is to start with a neutral base and create the idea using autolysis.”

At Louis Roederer, the first signs of weakness in the fruit were identified in 1982. The real epiphany however, was the 1996 vintage. “We should have made outstanding wine but made very good wine… [which was] the same for all winemaking regions,” Lécaillon recalled. This period of awakening really kickstarted the viticulture revolution which Louis Roederer spearhead in Champagne today. First came the organic wave and the widespread reduction of synthetic chemicals and fertilisers, followed by a surge in biodynamic farming, which incorporates ideas about a vineyard as an entire ecosystem.

Louis Roederer currently own 125 hectares of biodynamically certified land – significantly more than any other producer – the grapes grown on which are primarily destined for Cristal. “The DNA of Cristal is not to focus on autolysis, but to focus on the fruit and the vineyard. We don’t aim for autolysis as that gives tertiary aromas… [which] are not the Cristal style,” Lécaillon told us. This emphasis on vineyards goes some way to explaining why the house systematically release their prestige cuvée champagne long before other producers – by cultivating the best raw materials, their wines do not require extended lees ageing (autolysis).

They eventually went “full speed on biodynamics in 2012”, converting all 45 parcels that make up the ‘Cristal Estate’ to biodynamic farming methods. Cristal 2012 is therefore the first 100% biodynamically farmed Cristal vintage. “This [2012] is the next chapter. We changed our viticulture, which will speak with time… we will see the wine showing its multilayered dimension.”

Whether it is the biodynamic effect or not – just 40% of the Cristal parcels were farmed biodynamically in 2008 – the difference between Cristal 2012 and Cristal 2008, though slight in quality, is significant in personality. Cristal 2008 was very closed at launch and while Cristal 2012 is clearly still just a baby, it has a more approachable, palatable texture than its predecessor. The vintage influence is of course not to be overlooked: 2012 was a warm year, 2008 was a cold year. More post-disgorgement time will be necessary before any credible comparison can be made, but Cristal 2012 is at least as exciting a prospect as Cristal 2008 was this time last year, if not more.

For Cristal Rosé, the biodynamic conversion took place even earlier, meaning Cristal Rosé 2012 is already the fourth 100% biodyanmically farmed vintage. Produced in just 10% of the quantities of Cristal, the four parcels that constitute the Cristal Rosé Estate – Goutte d’Or and Villers in Aÿ for the Pinot Noir and Montmartin in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger for the Chardonnay – have been 100% biodynamic since 2007.

Lécaillon has been paying close attention to the colour of Cristal Rosé, which has reduced in intensity in recent years. Cristal Rosé 2012 has a lighter, more salmon pink hue than Cristal 2008. The palate by contrast is more concentrated, displaying an added Pinot ripeness and texture over the 2008. Though dosage is Lécaillon’s least favourite topic of discussion, he did reveal that the latest vintage has “the lowest dosage ever”.

Over dinner, Lécaillon wanted to “explore different shades of Cristal over 43 years” in order to “showcase the consistent freshness, finesse and chalkiness of Cristal.” This he certainly achieved, generously sharing vintages of Cristal from ripe or ‘classic’ years spanning four different decades, examined through the lens of original disgorgement, Late Release and Vinothèque.

The Late Release project, which was initiated with the 2002 vintage, highlights the effect of extended post-disgorgement ageing under perfect conditions. A significant number of bottles and magnums of original disgorgements from special vintages are kept in the cool, dark Louis Roederer cellars for more than ten years of post-disgorgement ageing, until Lécaillon feels that “the wine has reached an extra dimension.” The next Late Release vintages will be 2008 (released in the late 2020s!) and 2012, meaning there will have been just two Late Release vintages for the entire noughties.

The Vinothèque programme, which was initiated with the 1995 vintage, demonstrates the effect of extended lees ageing. The wines are aged on the lees sur latte (horizontal) to “build texture and autolysis” and then sur pointe (upside down) to “prevent oxygen ingress and reach a kind of reductive stage which protects the fruit and freshness” for a combined total of thirteen years. They are then disgorged with a 2-3 g/l lower dosage than the original disgorgement and stored in the cellars for an extended period of post-disgorgement maturation.

We were fortunate enough to taste magnums of Vinothèque during our visit. The strategy with the larger formats is identical, however they are aged for even longer on the lees – sixteen years – and released two years after the bottles of the same vintage.