7 8 2003 was a great vintage for Roederer Estate. This, their top vintage wine, is very great, and the price is an absolute steal for this world class sparkler. It’s enormously rich in the strawberries from Pinot Noir and the limes from Chardonnay, while the toast and rich lees combine for a perfect champagne-style smokiness. And so smooth, it's like a kiss of silk. At the age of eight years, this wonderful wine is just getting started.——S.H.(12/15/2011)—— 96

Compared to Roederer’s current nonvintage bubblies, this one’s tight and not as likeable. It has an almost rustic scoury feeling. But it’s very rich in cherries, raspberries, white peaches and yeasty, leesy influences, and probably needs time in the bottle. Try after 2010.——S.H.(12/31/2008)—— 91

Always one of the top sparklers in California, L’Ermitage defines the rigorous selection that marks the best vintage-dated, ageworthy wines. The 2000 is about 50-50 Chardonnay and Pinot, and is very rich and flavorful in yeast, smoke, strawberry, citrus and vanilla flavors, but it’s also a very young wine, tight and minerally. It wants bottle age. Should begin to fantail out by the end of 2007 and continue to develop for 4 to 6 years, if not longer.——S.H.(12/31/2007)—— 94

The 1989 L'Ermitage Brut is fully mature, with aromas of saline and nuts—almost becoming Sherry-esque—with baked peach and apple fruit, pie crust, caramel, mushroom and coffee grounds. The nose is wonderfully layered and nuanced and changes as it spends time in the glass. In the mouth, it’s full-bodied, rich, mature and layered, leaning into those earthy, coffee characters. It has a whisper of mousse and a very long, nuanced finish. This is for fans of fully aged sparkling wine. It was disgorged in August of 1993.