Louis Roederer Blanc de Blanc 2016

Produced from four plots in Avize, the 2016 Brut Blanc de Blancs was disgorged in February 2022 with seven grams per liter dosage. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of citrus oil and peach mingled with toasted almonds, buttery pastry, iodine and white flowers, it's medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with a deep and layered core of fruit, racy acids and a long, succulent finish, it stands out once again as the insider's choice in the Roederer range.

As I've written before, Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon never seems to rest on his laurels. Roederer is already one of the region's leaders in farming, having committed, two decades ago, to a plan that most other grandes marques are only now beginning to emulate—an evolution outlined in more detail in the March 2020 Week 1 Issue of The Wine Advocate, to which I refer readers looking for more insights into this house's methodology. On my latest visit to Reims, we looked at the new Blanc de Blancs, the latest Cristal Rosé and the new release of Brut Collection, Roederer's reimagined non-vintage Brut, which now embraces the base vintage rather than trying to efface it, accepting variation from iteration to iteration.