Louis Roederer unveils the 247th blend of its Collection cuvée, built on the 2022 harvest. The House states its proportions, something a champagne with no year displayed rarely does. It remains to be seen what these figures allow one to judge.
A multi-vintage champagne usually keeps its composition for the cellar. Collection 247 gives its terms: 68% wines from the 2022 harvest, 27% Réserve Perpétuelle, 5% reserve wines aged in French oak foudres. The total makes one hundred, and the reader can set these shares beside those of the previous edition. That is the purpose of the number. According to the House, it corresponds to the number of blends made since its founding in 1776 and allows each edition to be followed over time.
The Réserve Perpétuelle holds the central place, with more than a quarter of the wine. The House states that it created it in 2012 and enriches it each year with the latest harvest. It attributes to it the freshness, depth and relief of the whole. The wines aged in wood, for their part, are said to constitute the House’s “sensory memory”, according to its press release. This wording belongs to the official position, not to an observation.
The House also gives its climatic context. It presents 2022 as a particularly sunny and globally dry year, with ripe grapes that nevertheless stayed fresh. It ties the Collection project to a conviction: the new balances induced by climate change can open new avenues of expression. The argument is defensible, but the three figures do not demonstrate it on their own. It will be verified, or not, over the editions, by observing what the share of each year makes vary.
The wine spent nearly four years in the cellars of Reims before being presented. The description of its taste (ample, fresh, chalky, with a saline finish) is the House’s. An app and a QR code on the back label link to further information.
What the back label therefore allows one to read is the structure: the share of the year, that of memory, that of wood. It does not yet allow one to read the reserve itself, whose composition by harvest is not given. At a recommended €60, the buyer receives a blend whose proportions he knows, and part of whose foundations he does not.
Composition: 68% 2022 harvest · 27% Réserve Perpétuelle (created in 2012) · 5% reserve wines aged in French oak foudres. Ageing: nearly four years. Recommended price: €60. Information declared by the House.
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