Louis Roederer Blanc de Blancs 2014
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Bright golden hue flecked with green. Slow, gentle and steady bubbles. Very pure, delicate and ethereal bouquet. Delicate hints of flowers (honeysuckle, jasmine), ripe, fine and almost roasted citrus fruit (citron). These are followed by iodized, sea-breeze aromas, combined with the warm, sweet notes of freshly-baked pastries. After a fresh, energetic entry to the palate, the wine is dense, delicately zesty and invigorating. A predominantly saline character overlays flavours of citrus fruit (orange), harvest (almond, wheat) and Madagascan vanilla. The soft, melting bubbles give way to a limestone freshness, revealing an end-palate that seems light and powdery at first, but which surprises us with a real acceleration on the finish created by its elegant tannins and roasted spices.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plenty of biscuit, pie crust, lemon pie, praline and hazelnut, as well as hints of toffee, cream and salted butter. Vibrant and sharp, but with lovely butter and brioche character and tight bubbles. So delicious. Wonderful balance of freshness and creaminess. Chardonnay from Avize.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Disgorged with just over seven grams per liter dosage, Roederer's 2014 Brut Blanc de Blancs is showing brilliantly, wafting from the glass with aromas of citrus oil, orchard fruit, freshly baked bread and white flowers, framed by subtly reductive top notes. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's pillowy and enveloping, with lively acids and a pearly, lower-pressure mousse, concluding with a long, chalky finish. Derived entirely from Avize, it's one of the great sleeper cuvées in contemporary Champagne.
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Wine Spectator
A graceful Champagne, with vivid acidity creating a mouthwatering frame for delicately-meshed flavors of ripe yellow plum and melon, preserved lemon and salty mineral. There's a light, creamy plushness to the mousse, carrying the flavor profile through to the well-cut, lightly spiced finish. Drink now.
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Wine & Spirits
The texture of this wine is luscious and smooth, completely saturating the taste with notes of cream and an oyster-shell complexity, the scent of wet limestone being cut. It’s mouth-watering, with the earthiness for escargots.
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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.’