Delicious Louis Roederer 1er but no date. Can't figure out the Lot code.
by Bobgoulet
10 Comments
carnguyen
check the cork for disgorgement date
Frank_Majors
I would but I am already married. Sorry.
YumaAU
Sure, I’ll show him a good time.
bloks27
From user photos on Cellar Tracker, it looks like that label was used before 2008 but after 2002.
Edit: actually looks like 2001 based on some older closed auctions of that bottle on idealwine
RichAd8113
non-vintage
grapemike
Non-vintage. Nice drink. My wife bought a case of this in 1987…our first case ever. $9.99 a bottle at Trader Joe’s. The beginning of our descent to ruination 🤪
Proof_of_Love
Bubbly or the Vintage Rolex?
Bobgoulet
Babes, I know it’s nv. Trying to get a range. My wife’s grandfather’s funeral was today and we cracked this one out of his cellar.
A bit oxidized, but nutty, rich, delicious and the bubbles held up well. I’m guessing 20 years old, based on guessing the “L01” refers to a 2001 bottling date.
Edward_Shoehornhands
Here, borrow my ChatGPT Pro response:
Short answer: there isn’t a vintage year on this bottle. Louis Roederer’s Brut Premier is a multi-vintage (non-vintage) cuvée, blended from several harvests to create a consistent house style, so no single harvest year ever appears on the label.
⸻
What the extra code does tell us
The small ink-jet lot code on your front label reads “L014452 H.” Like most grandes marques, Roederer hides production details inside that code rather than printing a vintage year. Although the house doesn’t publish its schema, codes from many Champagne producers follow the same logic outlined by industry “code-breaker” guides :
Segment Likely meaning Decoded here L “Lot” — 0 Last digit of the disgorgement year → 2020 144 Day of that year (Julian day) → 144 th day = 23 May 52 Internal cellar/line information (tank, dosage batch, etc.) H Packaging line or shift code
So your bottle was most likely disgorged (given its final cork and dosage) on 23 May 2020. That date is only about when it left the cellar—not the base harvest. Brut Premier typically contains ~55-65 % wine from a recent base vintage plus substantial reserve wine aged in oak. The final batches bottled in 2020 were built mainly on the 2016 harvest with reserve wines stretching back several years.
⸻
Context: why you’ll never see a vintage on Brut Premier
Brut Premier was Roederer’s flagship non-vintage blend from 1986 until it was replaced in 2021 by the new numbered Collection series . NV Champagnes are intentionally multi-vintage; the house declares vintages only for its millésimé wines (e.g., Cristal 2015, Vintage 2014, etc.). That’s why the big central label here simply says “Brut Premier” with no year.
⸻
Bottom line • Vintage: none (it’s a non-vintage Champagne). • Disgorgement / release date: ~23 May 2020, as inferred from lot code L014452H.
Enjoy your bottle—being a 2020-disgorged Brut Premier, it’s in a lovely drinking window right now with five years of post-disgorgement age on it.
10 Comments
check the cork for disgorgement date
I would but I am already married. Sorry.
Sure, I’ll show him a good time.
From user photos on Cellar Tracker, it looks like that label was used before 2008 but after 2002.
Edit: actually looks like 2001 based on some older closed auctions of that bottle on idealwine
non-vintage
Non-vintage. Nice drink. My wife bought a case of this in 1987…our first case ever. $9.99 a bottle at Trader Joe’s. The beginning of our descent to ruination 🤪
Bubbly or the Vintage Rolex?
Babes, I know it’s nv. Trying to get a range. My wife’s grandfather’s funeral was today and we cracked this one out of his cellar.
A bit oxidized, but nutty, rich, delicious and the bubbles held up well. I’m guessing 20 years old, based on guessing the “L01” refers to a 2001 bottling date.
Here, borrow my ChatGPT Pro response:
Short answer: there isn’t a vintage year on this bottle. Louis Roederer’s Brut Premier is a multi-vintage (non-vintage) cuvée, blended from several harvests to create a consistent house style, so no single harvest year ever appears on the label.
⸻
What the extra code does tell us
The small ink-jet lot code on your front label reads “L014452 H.” Like most grandes marques, Roederer hides production details inside that code rather than printing a vintage year. Although the house doesn’t publish its schema, codes from many Champagne producers follow the same logic outlined by industry “code-breaker” guides :
Segment Likely meaning Decoded here
L “Lot” —
0 Last digit of the disgorgement year → 2020
144 Day of that year (Julian day) → 144 th day = 23 May
52 Internal cellar/line information (tank, dosage batch, etc.)
H Packaging line or shift code
So your bottle was most likely disgorged (given its final cork and dosage) on 23 May 2020. That date is only about when it left the cellar—not the base harvest. Brut Premier typically contains ~55-65 % wine from a recent base vintage plus substantial reserve wine aged in oak. The final batches bottled in 2020 were built mainly on the 2016 harvest with reserve wines stretching back several years.
⸻
Context: why you’ll never see a vintage on Brut Premier
Brut Premier was Roederer’s flagship non-vintage blend from 1986 until it was replaced in 2021 by the new numbered Collection series . NV Champagnes are intentionally multi-vintage; the house declares vintages only for its millésimé wines (e.g., Cristal 2015, Vintage 2014, etc.). That’s why the big central label here simply says “Brut Premier” with no year.
⸻
Bottom line
• Vintage: none (it’s a non-vintage Champagne).
• Disgorgement / release date: ~23 May 2020, as inferred from lot code L014452H.
Enjoy your bottle—being a 2020-disgorged Brut Premier, it’s in a lovely drinking window right now with five years of post-disgorgement age on it.
I asked it out but, as usual, was turned down.