
Louis Roederer Launches its Replacement for Brut Premier with Collection 242 NV
August 29, 2021
Read about the launch of Louis Roederer Collection 242 the replacement for Brut Premier. Fighting for Freshness was their objective.
Read about the launch of Louis Roederer Collection 242 the replacement for Brut Premier. Fighting for Freshness was their objective.
We met with recently departed Veuve Clicquot cellar master Dominique Demarville last summer, shorty after it was announced that he would be departing at the end of the year. A marvellous final tasting with Demarville at Clicquot saw us explore 2008, from the perspective of non-vintage, vintage, and prestige cuvée.
Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, who has been President of the company since 2006, will be stepping down at the end of the year. His daughter Vitalie Taittinger will take over as President, while son Clovis will be promoted to General Manager.
This summer, we stopped off at Charles Heidsieck’s majestic garden and reception facility, Pavilion des Crayères, for a quick-fire visit and tasting with managing director Stephen Leroux. We sampled the new Coteaux Champenois and Collection Crayères releases.
We were truly spoilt during our recent tasting at Taittinger, which included not one, but two(!), of the notoriously rare Comtes magnums. Discussion centred around the newly released 2013 vintage, the future for Comtes, and the recently renovated vinification of Comtes Rosé.
Scheduling appointments at twenty champagne houses in one week is never an easy task, but perhaps our greatest feat of organisation was pinning down Olivier Krug. We managed to catch up with the globetrotting face of the company amidst his ever-busy international schedule for a whopper of a tasting this June.
Our last visit to Palmer & Co’s new winery in Reims included a comparison of the current range from bottle and magnum and a selection of older vintages from the late release Blanc de Blancs and Vintage Collections.
Veuve Clicquot have announced that Didier Mariotti, currently chief winemaker at G.H. Mumm, will be joining the house next month and will take over as chef de cave in January 2020.
The unusual weather patterns in 2018 produced the “perfect conditions for the vineyard”, according to new Taittinger Chef de Cave Alexandre Ponnavoy. We met last month to taste the vins clairs, which displayed incredible specificity: each wine showcasing the distinctive characteristics of its individual origins.
During our trip to Reims last week, we visited Champagne Palmer & Co to meet with Managing Director Rémi Vervier. After hunting in the underground cellars for the biggest bottle we could find, we discussed harvest 2018 and tasted two stunning examples of Palmer Vintage Collection.
Last weekend, we attended a veritable extravaganza of champagne and food: a tasting of 88 champagnes from 1988 organised by fizz fanatic Peter Crawford and hosted at multiple Michelin-starred restaurants Domaine Les Crayères and L’Assiette Champenoise. Read our review of every champagne tasted.
Last weekend, we met with new Piper-Heidsieck cellar master Émilien Boutillat, who shared his thoughts on the 2018 vintage, what makes Piper-Heidsieck unique and what the future holds for winemaking in Champagne.
The 2018 Champagne harvest officially began on August 20th – the earliest harvest since records began in 1822 – with the southern villages of the Côte des Bars being picked first. What does the picking schedule tell us about the maturity of the different grape varieties?
Our vins clairs visit to Champagne ended at Lanson, with Chef de Cave Hervé Dantan. Here we tasted a comprehensive range of base wines, current champagne releases and some stunning magnums of Vintage Collection, from 1979-1990.
Chef de Cave Frédéric Panaïotis talked us through the 2017 vintage for Champagne Ruinart. Although a difficult year for Pinots, we tasted some stunning Chardonnay vins clairs and sampled the upcoming Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2007.
When in Reims last month, we visited Charles Heidsieck to taste their exciting brand new cuvée Blanc de Blancs NV and sampled a magnum of Champagne Charlie 1982 from their Collection Crayères range.
The latest iteration of Bollinger R.D. (Recently Disgorged) will hit the market in late-March 2018. Here we share our thoughts on the bottle of Bollinger R.D. 2004 that we tasted with cellar master Gilles Descôtes last year.
After twelve years of waiting, we finally have a new vintage: Blanc des Millénaires 2004. Not yet officially launched, but available to purchase in February 2018, here we share our tasting notes from a bottle sampled with cellar master Cyril Brun.
Our trip to Reims in August included a smorgasbord of Taittinger: over twenty champagne tasted with head winemaker Loïc Dupont, including an interesting look into the future with Comtes de Champagne 2008 and 2012.
The first ever Noble Cuvée Blanc de Blancs and Brut vintages; Black Label NV blends based on the last vintage of the previous six decades; and a comparison of vintage and prestige cuvée. Our recent trip to Lanson had it all.
Is there a better way to spend a Sunday evening than dinner with Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon at the Louis Roederer family mansion? We tasted new Cristal 2008 and the exclusive late-release Cristal Vinothèque 1995.
We met with Charles Heidsieck Cellar Master Cyril Brun at the newly renovated tasting facility in Reims. An incredible tasting included a Blanc des Millénaires vertical and a preview of the new ‘Collection Crayères’, dating back to 1981.
We visited Krug over August bank holiday weekend with Jancis Robinson MW. With an unexpected visit to Clos du Mesnil, a tour of the new Maison, a mini-vertical tasting and dinner at the house, it was well-worth the long drive!
Yesterday, Veuve Clicquot launched their new Champagne, Extra Brut Extra Old at the Moët Hennessy offices in London. We tasted it with Chef de Caves, Dominique Demarville at the winery in Reims last month. It’s good!!
Bruno Paillard founded this eponymously named Champagne house in 1981: the first in nearly a century. A remarkable success story that is still being written… we met with daughter, Alice and tasted (sniffed) the 2016 Vins Clairs and current Champagne range.
Chef de Caves, Dominique Demarville showed us the 2016 Vins Clairs, a trial blend for this year’s Yellow Label NV and both La Grande Dame & Rosé 2008. We also cellared some Champagnes from the 60s…
Big changes have occurred at Champagne Lanson since Chef de Caves, Hervé Dantan took the reins two years ago. We sampled the 2016 Vins Clairs, the latest Black Label NV blend and Clos Lanson 2016 as Hervé talked us through the new developments.
The 2016 Vins Clairs; reserve wines as old as 1998; winemaking with an iPad; Grande Cuvée 163rd Edition; Clos du Mesnil 2002; and revolutionising Champagne terminology. It’s all happening at Krug!
In the first of our Vins Clairs 2016 articles, we recount our visit to Louis Roederer to taste the 2016 base wines. Chef de Cave Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon had a lot to say about both the present and the future…
What makes a sparkling wine ‘Champagne’? What goes into the blend and how is it made? What do the different styles mean and why does one taste sweeter than the other? The answers you seek are here.
An experience worthy of sharing, very recently I journeyed to France with Louis Roederer to explore the magnificent vineyards and all things Louis Roederer. Find out more
From Islington to Champagne. Visiting Hautvillers Abbey and tasting Oenothèque in the historical and spiritual home of Dom Pérignon.