Champagne Louis Roederer 'Collection 245' Brut NV

Champagne Louis Roederer may be best known for Cristal – but its other Champagnes are not to be slept on. The Collection series is a thrilling entry point, and the 245 edition could very well be the most enticing route in. Roederer launched the Collection series to replace its beloved Brut Premier… as a reimagining of what non-vintage Champagne can be. Looking at this generous 94-point version that can be taken for under $60, it appears it can be quite something special indeed!

Collection 245 is built on the 2020 base vintage, which makes up 55% of the blend. The blend is 41% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir, and 24% Pinot Meunier, and rounding things out is 35% from a Perpetual Reserve of vintages spanning 2012 through 2019, plus 10% reserve wines aged in oak from select years going back to 2010, finished with a restrained Brut dosage. This Perpetual Reserve – Roederer's solera-like tank refreshed annually since 2012 – functions as the structural backbone of every Collection, weaving mountains of depth and an ironclad thread of continuity into an otherwise youthful cuvée.

Roederer today owns an impressive 240 hectares of vineyards across Champagne's finest villages and has become a pioneer in biodynamic and organic farming – a commitment you can taste in the wine's precision and vibrancy. The Collection series takes its number from the total count of harvests since Louis Roederer was founded in 1776 – so Collection 245 is literally the 245th blend in the house's unbroken lineage. Rather than engineering the same flavor profile year after year, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon designed the Collection to embrace the singularity of each vintage – "almost a vintage, with more twists," as he put it. 

The glass lifts these almost ethereal scents of citron blossom, lemon tart, and lime leaf, which slowly give way to rising bread dough, fresh ginger, sea spray, and a smudge of crushed coriander seed. On the palate, the wine is so elegantly crafted with intense orchard fruit and mineral layers, finishing with a long and chalky breadth of persistence. Flavors of ripe fresh peach, apricot, white flowers, white pepper, and tangerine oil all collide in the glass, yielding to a more open-knit, inviting style with a chalky, elegant texture and a gloriously refined mousse. This is textural and fleshy, laden with vibrant acidity, and buttoned up with a nicely defined, delicately saline finish. For under $70 (or under $60 when you get 6 or more), this elegant cousin of Cristal gives you every reason to say yes.

FOOD PAIRINGS: I began craving a white truffle pizza bianca with this… something about all those juicy orchard fruits, peppery chalk, and buzzy acidity would scream pleasure with a simple truffle-y pie.