Louis Roederer 1997 – a vintage with a happy ending

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right” 🍾🥂
This @louisroederer_ 1997 beauty has been ageing so elegantly with a seductively ripe fruit crunch yet with all the glorious notes that only extensive time in the bottle can allow them to develop: preserved lemons, dried honeysuckle, glazed brioche, honey on toast, lemon meringue tart, grilled hazelnuts, mushroom and wet forest floor. A touch of chalk on the finish and the higher than recent years’ residual sugars keep everything in absolute harmony.

🗓 1997 was not one of the greatest years in Champagne – it started very dramatically with every box in the “stay away- list” checked: frost, mildew, millerandage! All made an appearance. However, the Champenois considered themselves lucky when after a challenging spring, summer was almost hot and harvest time didn’t see a single raindrop!

Well, no pain, no champagne!