As the climate and resulting fruit quality change, winemakers must adapt to achieve the highest quality. That led the historic (246 years as of 2022) Champagne house of Louis Roederer to create Brut Premier in 1986 to overcome the challenges of underripe vintages, particularly in the 1970s. In 2022, another evolution has occurred, where the fruit is consistently ripe, and the main challenge is to preserve freshness. Thus, the launch of the Collection series, evolving the non-vintage Brut Premier into a multi-vintage wine that represents the best of the base vintage, the house style, and the push for freshness. Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, EVP and Chef du Cave at Champagne Louis Roederer, and Xavier Barlier, SVP of Marketing and Communications of Maison Marques & Domaines USA (Roederer’s import arm), tell us about this transition, strategy, and its market positioning. Don’t forget to support the show on Patreon!Detailed Show Notes:Champagne Louis Roederer246 years oldOwns ~600 acres of vineyards70% of grapes from own vineyards - “grower first”70% of quality comes from grapes for ChampagneThe “New Champagne” trendDriven by climate change and a resultant change in farmingGrapes have more expression and flavors; picked earlier and healthierNeed to adapt winemaking and farming to these new grapesGrapes are picked earlier than 40 years ago, but similar to the late 1880sThe Grower Champagne movement - “a fantastic movement”The growers survived due to the sales prowess of the Houses and have always had a close relationship between themDue to climate change, it’s now possible to bottle wine themselves, whereas in the past, blending at scale was necessary due to the significant variation in qualityTerroir is now being revealed, of which both growers and Houses are moving towardsCollection series launchBrut Premier was created in 1986, after the ’70s which were challenging years, so the non-vintage was created to make consistent, even quality winesUsing non-vintage to correct unripe grapesWith climate change, the challenge is different with ripe grapes; need to give freshness to the winesCollection focuses on freshness, wants to reach the elite of the multi-vintage category, to be the best blend possible instead of consistency of house styleA modern evolution of Brut Premier, which is in the context of Champagne changing (100 years ago Champagne was sweet, 50 years ago it moved to a drier aperitif wine)Collection production methodsPerpetual reserve (“PR”) - a new tool to ensure freshness and minerality, as well as the complexity of agePR started in 2012 with 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay, lots specifically selected for their freshnessPR has the new vintage added to it every year, and it becomes more and more complex over timePR is aged in large tanks (1,000hl) with no oxygen, kept at 12C (underground cellar temp) for prolonged agingCollection blend includes ~30-35% PR, ~10% reserve wines aged in oak, ~55-60% from the most recent harvestBrut Premier had 6-10% oak reserve wines, which were the house signature of Roederer; Collection increases this signatureBrut Premier no longer madeRemoved to have more consistency in the lineup, Collection is more “Roederer” than Brut PremierCollection pricingProduct is more expensive to make, so pricing is higher than Brut PremierCollection is multi-vintage (like Krug Grand Cuvee and Jacquesson), at a higher level than non-vintage Get access to library episodes Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.