Louis Roederer Brut Premier
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Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spirits
Wine &
Product Details
Your Rating
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Winemaker Notes
Louis Roederer has been synonymous with the world's great Champagnes since 1776. Brut Premier is the House's flagship multi-vintage Champagne and its most popular and best-selling wine. It's the Champagne that sets the house style for this esteemed producer.
Brut Premier characterizes the timeless Louis Roederer style with the combination of fresh, youthful fruitiness and the vinous qualities of a fully matured wine. It is a structured wine with a lively attack and a smooth palate. Brut Premier comes in antique-colored bottles that filter out nearly 100 percent of light and are light weight.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
42% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, 18% Meunier from 55% estate vineyards; 16% fermented and matured in oak casks; 30% malolactic. The rise and evolution of this cuvée over the past 15 years, and particularly since the construction of its dedicated facility in 2007, has showed no sign of slowing today, as Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon continues his fanatical regime of experimenting, tweaking and refining every detail. I’ve long adored Brut Premier, a grand pinnacle and dependable bargain in the non-vintage Champagne stakes.
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James Suckling
This has a core of fresh, extremely fleshy and attractive peaches and lemons from a ripe year. The delicacy and purity of this Champagne is stunning, as is its gently powerful nature. Such great purity here. In great form!p>
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Wine Enthusiast
Always a fine nonvintage cuvée, this richly textured Champagne has weight to go with the wine's structured fruitiness. White fruits are laced with lime juice and this bottling has a hint of age in its nutty background.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Based on the 2015 vintage, complemented by 25% reserve wines, the latest rendition of Laurent Roederer's NV Brut Premier is showing nicely, opening in the glass with aromas of crisp yellow orchard fruit, Anjou pear, white peach, pastry cream and subtle hints of freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and complete, with a delicate pinpoint mousse, ripe but racy acids and exquisite balance, this is a beautiful Brut Premier that will age in style; indeed, it will be even better with some bottle age. This is among the finest examples in its category and comes warmly recommended.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming mostly from estate fruit, the NV Brut Premier is a terrific value offering lots of golden apple and white flower notes, medium-bodied, richness, and a textured, balanced, layered mouthfeel. It’s beautifully done and one classy Champagne to enjoy over the coming 7-8 years.
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Wine & Spirits
Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon allows some malolactic conversion in the wines for Brut Premier, which include some purchased fruit (all of Roederer’s vintage wines are estate grown). That buttercream note is immediately apparent in this latest release, but if you give it time to open—or a year in the cellar—the initial richness gains tension and chalky savor. It’s a generous aperitif.
Uncompromising Quality
Champagne Louis Roederer was founded in 1776 in Reims, France and is one of the rare family owned companies, which is still managed by the Roederer family. In 1833, Louis Roederer inherited the company from his uncle and renamed the company under his namesake. Under his leadership, the company rapidly grew while remaining true to their philosophy of uncompromising quality. Today, the company is under the helm of Jean-Claude Rouzaud and his son Frédéric who continue to place quality before quantity.
First-Rate Vineyards
Champagne Louis Roederer is one of the only French champagne producers to own nearly 75 percent of the grapes in the most desirable vineyards in the Champagne. The property is located on 450 acres in the finest villages of Montagne de Reims, Côtes des Blancs, and Valleé de la Marne. Each region is selected to produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with the elegance needed for perfectly balanced champagne. The Louis Roederer vineyards rate an average 98 percent based on France’s statutory 100-point classification scale.
The reserve wine is then tasted and graded by a team of Roederer specialists. They choose as many as 40 different wines from several lots for the blend. For the final touch, the wine is then added in order to enhance the cuvee and guarantee consistency while retaining the champagne's characteristics.
A term typically reserved for Champagne and Sparkling Wines, non-vintage or simply “NV” on a label indicates a blend of finished wines from different vintages (years of harvest). To make non-vintage Champagne, typically the current year’s harvest (in other words, the current vintage) forms the base of the blend. Finished wines from previous years, called “vins de reserve” are blended in at approximately 10-50% of the total volume in order to achieve the flavor, complexity, body and acidity for the desired house style. A tiny proportion of Champagnes are made from a single vintage.
There are also some very large production still wines that may not claim one particular vintage. This would be at the discretion of the winemaker’s goals for character of the final wine.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’