Roederer Estate L’Ermitage 2006 Late Disgorged (Current)
- WS
Price: $120.00
Reviews
95 Points
Wine Spectator August 18, 2024
“Luxurious and seductive, with baked apple, brioche and roasted hazelnut flavors that are highlighted by steely acidity, backed by strawberry and Meyer lemon tones on the luscious finish.”
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 2006 is from vintage 2003 and was aged for 7.5 years in a French oak cask. Following disgorgement, L’Ermitage 2006 was aged an additional 14 months on the cork prior to release.
Harvest Notes: The 2006 vintage followed a very wet winter that allowed for maximum ground water capacity. Spring frost being mild and summer being sunny, Mother Nature ended up being very generous with very large yields. Ripening happened slowly and was spread over 5 weeks, which kept both sugar and acidity in check even though the season ran longer than usual. Such a large harvest was a blessing in giving the winemaker lots of choices within the many wine lots both for reserve aging and for vintage bottling.
Tech
Appellation: Anderson Valley, California, United States
Varietals: 52% Chardonnay, 48% Pinot Noir
Wine Alcohol: 12.8%
Titratable Acidity: 0.8%
pH: 3.14
Residual Sugar: 10.7 g/L
Cases Produced: 96 750ml cases
Tasting Notes
After 17.5 years on the yeasts, another life begins for this late disgorged release! At time of pouring aromatics of hazelnut and roasted nuts fill the glass. As the wine warms up notes of baked apples develop. Effervescence is sustained is the glass with a soft delicate wrap on the tongue. It looks younger that the vintage written on the bottle! Marzipan and hints of caramel and ground coffee give away its age once tasted. A layer of warm oak and pastry shop develop nicely. The 2006 Late Disgorged is very long in the mouth with its creamy mid palate and tension of oak and skin tannins lingering in the finish.
