The Louis Roederer 11 Champagne Masterclass
“An extraordinary vintage…. Harvest 2015 is a dream year!”
- Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, head winemaker at Louis Roederer
&
The Exclusive Louis Roederer Dinner Including a
3 vintage vintage of Cristal from 2012, 2014, and 2015.
Masterclass - 11 Champagnes Including:
- The New 2015 Vintage Releases
- The Brut Nature Deluxe 2015 & Rose 2015
- A Mini Vertical of 2014 Cristal Vs The 2015
- A Pre-Release Tasting of the Brut Vintage 2016
- The Stellar Cristal Rosé 2013
Tasting: 3-5:30pm, with Nibbles, $295
Hosted By Tracy Mann
Saturday July 27th
Dinner - 12 Roederer Champagnes Including:
- The New 2015 Vintage Releases
- The Brut Nature Deluxe 2015 & Rose 2015
- A Cristal vertical from 2012 (from Magnum), 2014, and 2015
- A Pre-Release Tasting of the Brut Vintage 2016
- The Stellar Cristal Rosé 2013
Dinner: 7pm, with 5 Courses Menu, $550
Hosted By Tracy Mann
(In the Private Dinning Room)
Saturday July 27th
As the dinner has limited availability, please use the form below to place a booking or request more information.
The 2015 Vintage Report
“The 2015 reveals the natural intensity and remarkable concentration of Verzy Pinot noirs from a spectacularly continental vintage.”
Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, head winemaker at Louis Roederer
“Very good maturity and very healthy condition of all three varietals is the hallmark of 2015. The 2015 wines are rich, with good concentration, good body but not heavy, not flabby at all. To the contrary, they show a lot of finesse and a good balance.”
Michel Davesne, head winemaker at Champagne Deutz
“Growing season was not excessively hot, but sunny and very dry, almost too dry during the spring and summer, which has given small berries and high concentration.”
Benoît Marguet
“As for the quality: Thank to the dryness, the grapes are perfect, healthy and ripe. We can compare this vintage in terms of weather conditions and sugar/acidity balance to 2012, 2002, 1989, 1976 and 1947. It seems 2015 will give us tremendous pleasure for the next 100 years!!”
Dominique Demarville, chef de cave at Veuve Clicquot
The Menu & Champagnes
1st Course
Brut Nature Deluxe 2015, Our Price $187
The most compelling rendition of this bottling that Roederer has produced to date, the 2015 Brut Nature exhibits inviting aromas of golden orchard fruit, clear honey, dried white flowers, and wet stones. Medium to full-bodied, layered and vinous, with a fleshy, concentrated core of fruit, chalky structure and a long, precise finish, it's a Pinot Noir-dominant blend from Cumières that's slightly lower in pressure, making for a more delicate mousse.
94 Points, William Kelley, The Wine Advocate
Blanc de Blancs 2015, Our Price $183
Lively and elegant on the nose and palate, with a long mineral streak from start to finish. Sharp and thrilling, intense with lemon pastry flavours and a creamy round mouthfeel. Straight yet wide, rich but lean, direct yet juicy, this really offers a complex and very individual style that captivates from the first sip. Delicious.
95 Points, Georgina Hindle, Decanter
Cheese galette, petit greens
2nd Course
Collection 243, Our Price $123
The brightness, energy and purity of 243 are as evident today as they were on its first release, exuding impressive focus and drive of apple, grapefruit and lemon, beautifully wrapped in gentle crème pâtissière and energised by gentle saline chalk minerality. A magnificent Collection from the outset, with every promise of a confident decade before it still, and longer again en magnum.
95 Points, Tyson Stelzer, Champagne Guide
Collection 244, Our Price $123
The freshness and energy of Collection 244 are on grand display and has not diminished one iota since its first release. The magnificent 2019 base was in a more confident place when it first landed than 242 and 243 before it, which both blossomed after an additional year on cork. Do not underestimate 244, and don’t miss a moment of the spectacle set to unravel over the coming months, years and even decades. This is a masterful interplay of primary fruit, with the spicy, honeyed, roast nut layers of substantial reserves and oak fermentation and maturation, energised equally by malic tension and saline chalk minerality, nudged with just the right level of phenolic tension that lends neither graininess nor bitterness. This is not only an exceptional Collection, it is also a grand declaration of the fine-tuned detail of the evolution of Collection and the triumphant achievement of upholding the holy grail of freshness and tension even in such a warm season.
95 Points, Tyson Stelzer, Champagne Guide
Abrolhos half shell scallops, Jamon, sambal
3rd Course
Vintage Brut 2016 (Pre-Release), Our Price $170
Vintage Brut 2015, Our Price $170
A great 2015 vintage champagne! Super-elegant synthesis of pinot noir and chardonnay character with a dazzling interplay of complex red apple, citrus and delicate floral aromas with racy acidity and chalky minerality, that is animating for mind and body. Unusually graceful finish for the vintage. 70% pinot noir from Verzy, the highest point of the Montagne de Reims, that’s also very close to the forest. 30% chardonnay from Chouilly, another rather cool location. From biodynamically grown grapes.
96 Points Stuart Piggot, jamessuckling.com.
Cauliflower and truffle croquettes, white balsamic pearls
4th Course
Cristal Brut 2015, Our Price $501
percent pinot noir and forty percent chardonnay, with twenty-five percent of the vins clairs raised in oak barrels. As is customary, the still wines do not go through malolactic fermentation for Cristal and the wine was finished with a dosage of seven grams per liter in this vintage, after aging nearly seven years sur lattes. It delivers a beautifully refined aromatic constellation of apple, nectarine, a superbly complex base of chalky minerality, a touch of raw almond, pâtissière, white flowers and a very, very discreet hint of oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and utterly seamless in its perfect balance, with a marvellous core, superb soil signature and grip, zesty acids and a very, very long, focused and complex finish. 2015 is a riper year in Champagne and this seems to have dovetailed brilliantly with the classic Cristal style of mineral signature, precise fruit tones and great structural integrity. This is destined to be a great, great classic vintage of Cristal!
98 Points, John Gilman, viewfromthecellar.com
Cristal Brut 2014 (Gift Boxed), Our Price $573
Sourced from 39 plots, the 2014 Champagne Cristal is 60% Pinot Noir and the remainder Chardonnay, with 32% aged in oak, and it has 7 grams per liter dosage. It is highly expressive of classic elegance and purity, revealing aromas of crushed rock, almond croissant, and perfume of citrus blossoms. The palate is hyper-refined in its mousse, with pinpoint bubbles, a subtly rounded mid-palate, an irresistible chalky texture, and energy throughout its long and floral finish. Everything about this feels perfectly tailored.
98 Points, Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com
Cristal Brut 2012 (en Magnum) - Dinner Only
The rise and rise of Cristal over recent decades has been something to behold, and the ever more fanatical approach of Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon and his team has crafted a style that articulates its terroirs and seasons with ever rising dramatic clarity. The latest release captures a season that contrasts great generosity of fully ripe, low-yielding fruit in a dry harvest with profound tension. The power and concentration of epicentre sites across the grand crus are amplified by the definition and richness of biodynamic viticulture. Lécaillon has responded to the richness of the season in the winery, astutely calling on a little more oak vinification and less malolactic fermentation and a touch less dosage than the 2008 that preceded it. The astute decision to release 2008 after 2009 and to skip the lesser 2010 and 2011 season has dictated that we’re back to just six years on lees here. Pinot noir takes a confident lead, defining a core of deep and powerful red fruit presence that builds a wonderfully rich and expansive mid-palate. Chardonnay declares its presence on the close, defining a tail of grand focus and tension. Six years on lees has contributed more toasty, nutty, spicy, honeyed, ginger complexity than usual, making for an effortlessness, a confidence and an allure rarely seen in Cristal of such desperate youth. It holds every detail in suspended animation on a finish of mesmerising line and length. Malic acidity is played tactically to profound effect, ripe and full and yet excitingly tense and energetic, promising great potential – though its flavour spectrum is already advanced, so this will not go down alongside 2008 as a Cristal for the very long haul. Its mineral definition is a triumph, rising to the chalk mandate that defines Cristal, testimony first to the greatest chalk sites, second to the deep and profound reach of old vine roots, and third to the ever-rising impact of biodynamic viticulture. This is a great Cristal by every definition, testimony to a strong season, and profound evidence of the rising success of an ever more fanatical approach in the vines and the wines.
98 Points, Tyson Stelzer, Champagne Guide
Exmouth prawn chowder, furikake
5th Course
Brut Nature Deluxe Rosé 2015, Our Price $190
Who says that Brut Nature lacks joy? Here’s the proof that this is not always the case! Wonderful pure red berry and nectarine fruit that leaps out of the glass at you. Wonderfully fleshy and juicy for a Brut Nature, and this carries through the long finish. A field blend of the three classic Champagne varieties from a south-facing site in Cumieres. 20% of the cuvee is pinot noir and they did a pre-fermentation cold soak to extract the color. From biodynamically grown grapes.
95 Points Stuart Piggot, jamessuckling.com.
Vintage Rosé 2016, Our Price $180
There is a gorgeous, primary purity to this vintage, encapsulated in a pretty, medium salmon hue and beautifully pure and fresh red cherries, raspberries, strawberries and cranberries, accented with pomegranate and the slightest hint of pink pepper. Super fine tannins unite with saline, fine chalk minerality and vibrant acid line. The contrast here between juicy red fruits and chalk/acid/tannin tension is captivating, pronounced yet seamless and harmonious like only the Roederer infusion magic can conjure.
95 Points, Tyson Stelzer, Champagne Guide
Cristal Rosé 2013, Our Price $996
The ascent of Cristal Rosé to the greatest rosé not only in Champagne but in the world today is complete, confirmed emphatically and unequivocally by the trilogy of 2008, 2012 and 2013, unparalleled anywhere on earth in living memory and, one must surely assume, ever. The pinpoint precision of the utterly seamless union between pinot noir and chardonnay displayed here is mesmerising in itself, but it is its juxtaposition with profound structure and tension that is most astonishing of all. A flash of malic acidity that brilliantly illuminates a landscape of stark white chalk from horizon to horizon plays out a drama like I have never before witnessed. Le Montrachet has chalk. Clos du Mesnil has chalk. But they have chardonnay. And malolactic. Cristal Rosé is founded fundamentally on Aÿ pinot noir. Yet it is inseparable from Avize and Le Mesnil chardonnay. Never before have the three united to such an emphatic declaration of chalk mineral purity. This is the most profound recipe, executed with intuition to perfection. It exudes an irresistible allure from the outset, yet make no mistake, its finest days are yet decades away, and this will prove itself to be one of the most enduring rosés history has yet witnessed. If the mythical Cristal Rosé 2008 and the transcendental 1996 are the greatest rosés I have ever tasted, 2013 ranks a mighty, mighty close third.
99 Points, Tyson Stelzer, Champagne Guide