Louis Roederer traces back to 1776 in Reims and took its present name in 1833, when Louis Roederer inherited the house from his uncle. Seven generations later it remains family-owned and independent — a rarity among the grandes marques.

Its real advantage is land. Roederer farms around 240 hectares of its own vineyards, covering the large majority of its needs, where most houses buy in the bulk of their fruit. Much of that estate has been converted to biodynamic farming, at a scale no one else in Champagne has attempted.

The Brut Vintage is drawn entirely from the house’s own estate parcels, declared only in years the cellar judges worthy, and matured at length before release.

2015 was a warm, dry, solar year in Champagne. It gave ripe, broad-shouldered wines, and the estate’s biodynamic parcels — deeper-rooted and better able to handle drought — held their freshness where others tired.

Ripe orchard fruit, hazelnut and honeyed brioche; broad and ripe on the palate, with a fine acidity holding the line and a long close.