Roederer, Louis Roederer Collection 246 Champagne Brut, 750 ml

Louis Roederer's numbered non-vintage flagship, built from the house's 246th harvest and now the standard-bearer that replaced the old Brut Premier. Chardonnay drives the blend: base wines from 2021 join a deep perpetual reserve stretching back to 2012, plus a small addition of young-vine juice from the same plots that feed Cristal, aged in cask. About a quarter of the blend ferments in oak, giving it real backbone. This isn't a fruity crowd-pleaser. It's chalky, saline and precise, the kind of champagne people who actually know champagne reach for first. Yellow plum, nectarine and candied lemon up front, with toasty, vanilla-edged oak and a savory hint of sea shell and roasted almond. Soft, creamy bubbles turn saline and chalky through the mid-palate, finishing long with smoky, energetic lift.