In 2003, while I was the wine director at Cascadia Restaurant, I had the pleasure of hosting a dinner at which Michel Salgues, the founding winemaker at Roederer Estate, poured every vintage of L’Ermitage, going back to 1989 (released in 1993). The wines were stunning, showing freshness throughout the ten vintages (we had a pre-release 2000, and they had skipped a vintage in the mid nineties), but with increasing complexity as the wines got older, and an amazing depth that I have yet to find in a non-Champagne sparkler . . . until this past April. What we didn’t know before we scheduled the dinner, was that Michel would announce, for the first time in public, at this dinner that he was retiring from Roederer Estate to return to France with his wife, who desperately missed her home country (they had been here since 1982).

This past April, at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, I had the pleasure of leading a team of sommeliers pouring for another complete vertical of L’Ermitage, only this time the discussion was led by the Michel’s successor, the brilliant Arnaud Weyrich. Once again, I was reminded that these wines were exceptional, and, in fact (here comes the blasphemy), better than 90% of the Champagne available on the market. The wines have the complexity, and intensity to age, and have a class unequaled outside of Champagne.

There are many reasons for this. The cool, even climate of the Anderson Valley, where Roederer estate’s 580 acres of vineyard lies. The 5 years that L’Ermitage spends on Tirage, and the additional 6 – 12 months on cork after disgorgement. The blending team (the same group used for blending Cristal). The fact that they can afford to use nothing but the Cuvée (confusing this also means the first, light pressing of the grapes). The fact that they hold reserve wine, and wine for the dosage liqueur in specially made barriques from the center of France.

The blend in 2002 is 52% Chardonnay, 48% Pinot Noir.

When young, these wines are fruity, and fresh, with just a hint of creaminess. As they age, they take on complexity in the form of toasty and smoky hints, flowers and tropical fruit, and even the beginnings of mineral character. But the wines are always held together by a fresh acidity and a gorgeous mousse, that was only beginning to fade on the 1989 this past spring.

Try this wine with anything, but I particularly like it with roast poultry (skin on), grilled steaks (nothing on) and asparagus. Drink now – 2020.