Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
75cl * 12.5% ABV * Champagne, France
'A wine of pure pleasure and a sophisticated gastronomic wine, Cristal is both powerful and delicate, combining subtlety and precision.'
Roederer's most famous wine was created in 1876 to satisfy the demanding tastes of Tsar Alexander II. The emperor asked Louis Roederer to reserve the best cuvée for him every year. To distinguish this cuvée, Roederer bottled it in a flat-bottomed, transparent lead-crystal bottle. The Champagne became synonymous with this precious, glistening material, which is particularly transparent and luminous. Some say these characteristics made the Tsar feel happier drinking the Cristal as he could see that the wine had neither been poisoned (due to the clear glass) or implanted with an explosive (due to the lack of punt-space on the flat bottom).
Only produced during the best years, when the Chardonnay (around 40%) and Pinot noir (around 60%) grapes have attained perfect maturity, Cristal is aged for six years in Louis Roederer’s cellars and left for a further eight months after dégorgement.
"The 2016 Cristal is a taut, incisive rendition of this benchmark bottling, unwinding in the glass with youthfully reserved aromas of citrus oil, white flowers, wet stones and subtle hints of sweet, buttery pastry. Medium to full-bodied, chiseled and racy, it's almost as electric as the brilliant 2013, with serious concentration, a pure core of fruit, chalky structuring dry extract and a long, intensely mineral finish. Given its tightly wound profile, my advice is to forget it in the cellar for a few years and work on the more open, outgoing 2014 in the meantime. 2026 - 2055" William Kelley, RoberParker.com, August 2024
"Typically light – young Cristal always seems so modest on the nose. Youthful fruit with a streaky, leafy side to it. The length seems a bit more promising, and there's strong benefit-of-the-doubt to be applied, based on older vintages. But at this stage, it's got a long way to go." 17++pts, Drink 2028-2036, Richard Hemming, JancisRobinson.com August 2025