Champagne Louis Roederer Camille Charmont
Champagne, France
Vintage:2020 (Current)
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Reviews
Wine Spectator 92 Points
Fresh and elegant, with good focus to the pure flavors of plum skin, creamed cherry, dried lavender and sandalwood, backed by an underpinning of graphite and tar-tinged smoke. The silky tannins are fine-grained and well-meshed, providing light, taut tension on the finish. Drink now through 2032.
The Wine Advocate 92+ Points
The finest release of this cuvée so far is the 2020 Coteaux Champenois Mareuil-sur-Aÿ Hommage à Camille, an intensely flavored but weightless red that offers up aromas of dark berries, spices, cinnamon and cloves. Medium-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with lively acids and powdery structuring tannins, it concludes with a delicately oak-inflected finish. As readers will remember, it derives from a 0.43-hectare parcel in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ lieu-dit Charmont that was planted with Burgundian Pinot Noir selections in 2002 and farmed with the intention of producing a still wine. It's matured in one-third new oak, including some 500-liter barrels, from Taransaud, Séguin Moreau and Lagrange.
Wine & Spirits 94 Points
It's not that Coteaux Champenois are more aggressive than great Côte de Nuits pinot noir. In fact, this one is delicate and rose-scented, more Champagne than Burgundy in the earthy complexity of its raspberry-red fruit. Grown at a one-acre parcel in the Charmont lieu-dit, planted by Roederer in 2002, this wine's spontaneous fermentation includes 30 percent of the fruit as whole clusters, finishing at 12.1 percent alcohol; it then spends 16 months in barrels, one-third of them new. The wine's structure drives the flavors in fascinating ways, taking pink-peppercorn spice and washing it over the taste with the same transparency as the wine's color, lending the texture a zesty, scratchy redness, like a very pleasant rash. With a day of air, it only grows more powerful and intense, its red-fruit drive needing cellar time to mellow; Coteaux Champenois of this quality can thrive for decades.
Vinous Media 94 Points
The 2020 Camille Hommage Mareuil-sur-Aÿ Coteaux Champenois is stellar. Striking aromatics and a touch of whole cluster savoriness meld into a core of blue/purplish fruit. In 2020, what stands out most is the purity of the flavors. All the elements are so well balanced, especially the stems (20%) and the oak that was overpowering in some of the very first vintages. This supremely polished Coteaux is an absolute delight.
JamesSuckling.com 96 Points
This is so fragrant and spicy, brimming with aromas of cloves, balsamic, blood orange, rust, dried flowers and burnt rosemary. And then silky on the palate, medium-bodied, with supple and gorgeously sleek tannins, complementing the ethereal and lightly estery character. Long and elegant. Pinot noir from lieu-dit Charmont in Mareuil-Sur-Ay. Vinified with 40% stem inclusion. Delightful already but better after 2024.
Overview
Named after one of the most remarkable figures in the history of Champagne Louis Roederer, Camille Charmont allows wine enthusiasts to discover another facet of the unique winemaking expertise of this family-owned House, today headed by Frédéric Rouzaud, Camille Olry-Roederer's great-grandson.
A resourceful widow at the helm of Louis Roederer from 1932 to 1975, Camille brought the House into the modern world as she successfully steered the it through all the important events of that time. Camille, the widow of Léon Olry-Roederer, gave the House a new energy and direction, acting as its most brilliant ambassador. She enjoyed inviting her most loyal customers to dine with her, not only to unveil her latest champagnes but to surprise them… toying with codes and conventions, she used to serve the multi-vintage brut at the apéritif and some still wines from Roederer’s finest vineyards with the meal. Her guests were amazed by these still wines from Avize or Cumières and she was delighted to have found an original way to showcase Roederer’s quality and success.
Behind the creation of Camille, we find the natural, virtuous viticulture that has been practiced by the House for over 20 years, but here we see it taken in a new direction, daring to break with Champagne tradition through the absence of bubbles. It allows Louis Roederer to take what Nature has offered and render it even more beautiful, revealing another facet of the Champagne terroirs.
Winemaking
Sourced from a 1.06-acre plot in the Charmont lieut-dit (Mareuil-sur-Aÿ), the Pinot Noir grapes are sorted three times and separated according to the ripeness of their stalks. 30% whole clusters are vatted immediately and the rest of the fruit is then added. The grapes are simply left to infuse with very little interference in order not to hurry the juices—the maceration lasts about two weeks. The juices are then transferred to French oak barrels (1/3 new, 1/3 one-year old, 1/3 two-years old) where they will continue to integrate and become more refined over 14 months. A total of 1,687 bottles were produced.
Tasting Notes
Garnet red hue with bright tints. Elegant, concentrated Pinot noir bouquet: sweet red fruit (blood orange), forest fruit and peonies. Then come spices (cocoa bean) and dried leaves accompanied by smoky, bacon-like notes. A magical and complex nose of fresh, ripe Pinot noir. The palate is velvety smooth with fresh red fruit and a soft and silky texture with noticeable but round, creamy tannins. The typical freshness of the Champagne region has made the tannins fairly vertical but these are nicely coated by the juicy, velvety texture which lends them a unique character: firm but not austere and sappy with a saline, umami finish. Magical and complex nose of fresh, ripe Pinot noir.
Harvest Notes
The 2020 season followed a similar trajectory to that of 2019: a mild, wet winter followed by a dry summer with several heatwaves, admittedly less extreme than in 2019, but which had an impact on the vines. Fortunately, a rather dull month of June brought us a wet interlude between two dry periods. Despite the hot spells and the impression of constant sunshine, the 2020 campaign ended up with relatively normal temperatures and sunshine levels. These continental weather conditions, but with "normal" annual averages, allowed us to produce ripe and well balanced wines!
Technical Information
Varietals: 100% Pinot Noir
Wine Alcohol: 12.1%
Harvest Start Date: August 30, 2020
Bottling Date: December 1, 2020