Roederer Estate L’Ermitage 2015 (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 sparkling wine made only in exceptional years from pre-selected, estate-grown grapes. Carrying on the tradition of Champagne Louis Roederer in France, Roederer Estate produces its sparkling wines in the traditional French méthode traditionelle 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 blend that allows for longer aging, which produces a fine wine with elegance and finesse.

The wine for the dosage added to the L’Ermitage 2015 was a 2015 wine liquor aged for 6 years in a French oak cask. Following disgorgement, L’Ermitage 2015 was aged an additional six months (minimum) on the cork prior to release.

The 2015 vintage was at the end of the 2013-2015 drought spell. Winter was mild and budbreak was very early in February. Bloom was early May when it was windy and cool then June got very hot, all pushing for an early harvest starting August 7th. Labor was difficult to secure to harvest quickly enough and the last lots for sparkling were picked September 10th. Overall the yields in 2015 were good with plenty of maturity for the late picks.

Tech

Appellation: Anderson Valley

Varietals: 52% Chardonnay, 48% Pinot Noir – 4.9% aged reserve wine from 2014, 2012 and 2010

Wine Alcohol: 12.4%

pH: 3.04

Harvest Start Date: August 7, 2015

Harvest End Date: September 10, 2015

Dosage: 8 g/L

Cases Produced: 3,649