Roederer Estate L’Ermitage 2003 Late Disgorged (Archive)

Overview

Founded in 1982, Roederer Estate is nestled in Mendocino County’s fog-shrouded, Anderson Valley. As the California property of Champagne Louis Roederer, Roederer Estate builds upon a centuries-old tradition of fine winemaking. The premium grape growing region’s proximity to the Pacific ocean gives rise to a gentle cycle of warm days and cool nights, allowing grapes to mature slowly on the vine and develop full varietal character.

Among the very few California sparkling wine houses that only sources estate-grown fruit, Roederer Estate is also meticulous about all its farming decisions. The winemaking process begins with in-depth knowledge of the Estate soils to introduce open lyre trellis system or high density plantation, extends to the decision to farm vineyards organically and biodynamically, and finishes by painstakingly tracking grape maturity to achieve perfect balance at harvest.

L’Ermitage, Roederer Estate’s special Tête de Cuvée, is a supremely Californian sparkling wine made only in exceptional years from pre-selected, Estate-grown grapes from our vineyards. Carrying on the tradition of Champagne Louis Roederer in France, Roederer Estate produces its sparkling wines in the traditional French method and adds special oak-aged reserve wines to each blend. L’Ermitage debuted with the 1989 vintage.

Winemaking

Roederer Estate wines are made with juice from just the cuvée pressing; no première or deuxième taille is used. The concept of the vintage L’Ermitage is the same one that is used in Champagne: Only the best of the vintage is selected. These are exceptional wines that create a “noble” (special) blend that allows for longer aging, which produces a fine wine with elegance and finesse. Four members of the blending team include winemakers from Champagne Louis Roederer in France and Roederer Estate in California, together totaling over 130 years of experience.

The dosage wine added to the L’Ermitage 2003 is from vintage 2004 and was aged for 5.5 years in a French oak cask. Following disgorgement, L’Ermitage 2003 was aged an additional six months (minimum) on the cork prior to release.

Harvest Notes: The 2003 vintage was fairly wet with above 11 inches of rain during the growing season. Overall, spring and summer were mild and even though we had an early bud break we ended up picking our grapes fairly late. Long hang time is beneficial to the grapes to allow for ripeness( sugar maturity) as well as phenolic maturity (aromas, tannins and anthocyanins). The crop quantity was above average and the fruit was well balanced in acidity.

Tech

Appellation: Anderson Valley, California, United States

Varietals: 52% Chardonnay, 48% Pinot Noir

Wine Alcohol: 12.1%

Titratable Acidity: 1.02%

pH: 3.04

Residual Sugar: 12 g/L

Cases Produced: 96 750ml cases