Cristal Night

Tasted Wednesday, September 6, 2023 - Friday, September 8, 2023 by ubercuvee with 95 views

Introduction

Interesting chance to open a number of different Cristals. This really emphasised the winemaking change around the 2008 vintage and how much more precision modern Cristals have compared to the wines of 10-20 years ago

Flight 1 (1 Note)

  • 2009 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut

    France, Champagne

    (9/7/2023)

    750ml bottle and magnum served side-by-side. Fascinating: the magnum showed much less dosage, much tighter and younger while the bottle was much more developed (to be expected) but also a lot sweeter (perhaps almost too much)? I preferred this to the '06 but felt it was a long way behind the 2012.

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Flight 2 (3 Notes)

  • 2015 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut

    France, Champagne

    (9/7/2023)

    Served in a flight with '12 & '14: I felt this was quite big and burly, and lacking the freshness the '12 (also a fruit forward wine) showed. I'd take the '12 over this.

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  • 2014 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut

    France, Champagne

    (9/7/2023)

    A bit awkward: very tight, lots of linear acidity and lime on the palate. A wiser person than me suggested the '14 reminded him of old skool Cristals (90s and earlier) that needed 10 years to come around, so I guess judgement deferred here.

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  • 2012 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut

    France, Champagne

    (9/7/2023)

    Lovely showing: handily the best of the '12/'14/'15 flight. Has the ripeness and fruit of the vintage but isn't as foursquare as some other '12s: the more modern, precise style really showing here. The '13 is probably going to be the better wine in 10 years, but this is certainly very nice indeed and is really pleasurable to drink now.

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Flight 3 (2 Notes)

  • 2013 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut

    France, Champagne

    (9/7/2023)

    We served in exceptionally tough company (ie Cristal 2008 from 750ml and magnum): the 2013 was clearly not quite at the same level as the 2008s, but also not a million miles away either. On the palate this is fresh, precise, very young: I suspect this will blossom with time in the bottle.

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  • 2008 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut

    France, Champagne

    (9/7/2023)

    There's not a lot more to write about this. It's an exceptional champagne, but probably 10+ years away from being at its very best. We opened a bottle and magnum side-by-side, and the qualitative difference between formats was smaller than I expected: the mags were disgorged much later so maybe that extra development is flattering the 750sml. The recent fall in Cristal pricing has made this look pretty attractive again (at least for me). This will certainly be a future legend.

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Flight 4 (3 Notes)

Flight 5 (2 Notes)

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