Winemaker Notes
The Blanc de Blancs is a pure, taut, ?ne, and bright wine. Its contrasting tones range from an intense, chiselled acidity to the supple lightness of notes of fresh hazelnuts, almonds, and white flowers with accents of acacia, broom, and honeysuckle.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Four plots in Avize, a village that delivers strong character in blanc de blancs, picked later and riper. The delicate lemons and fine, chalky minerals here are impressive. Mouth-filling, vinous flesh with yellow-grapefruit and nectarine flavors. Super long, fresh and focused mineral finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is made from Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs. The well-balanced palate is textured and mineral driven, with a crisp white-fruit flavor that comes together well. This can be enjoyed now, although it will be better from 2020.
Cellar Selection
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Wine & Spirits
This has springtime scents of meadow flowers and chanterelles, the wine’s sunny freshness infusing its richer tones of toasted brioche and crème fraîche. It’s a classic, mineral-driven blanc de blancs, with a length of flavor that feels compressed and youthfully charged.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Roederer's 2011 Blanc de Blancs is showing brilliantly and no doubt reflects Lecaillon's decision to be extremely selective, taking fruit only from four particularly successful plots in Avize. Offering up aromas of crisp yellow apple, blanched almonds, white flowers and nougat, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and enveloping, with a ripe but racy core of fruit that's complemented by a delicate, low-pressure mousse, concluding with an elegantly precise finish. This may not make especially old bones in the cellar, but this elegant, charming Blanc de Blancs is drinking beautifully today.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant Champagne, this is finely knit and fresh, marrying the delicate mousse and lithe acidic frame with notes of Gala apple, lemon sorbet and slivered almond, accented by hints of fleur de sel, graphite and spice. Drink now through 2028.
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.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
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.’