2004 Cristal
France
Champagne
Sparkling White
58% Pinot Noir, 42% Chardonnay (2016 vintage)
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2024 - 2044
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2023 - 2044
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2014 - 2034
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My visit to these historic cellars earlier in the year was an eye-opening experience. I spent several hours with Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon tasting through a wide range of 2009s vins claires. Readers may want to take a look at my feature on this site for more on those wines. The visit was capped off by previews of the 2004 Cristal and the as-yet-unreleased Cristal Rosé. Both were superb. Over the last six months the 2004 Cristal has come together beautifully and shaping up to be a truly great, monumental Champagne. From top to bottom, this is an impressive set of wines. My only real criticism of Roederer is the estate's insistence on using lot numbers that resemble missile launch codes in their complexity. Surely something simpler must be possible.
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Roederer makes three lines of Champagne. The NV Brut Premier and Vintage Blanc de Blancs constitute the entry-level at Roederer, although the truth is that these wines are of such a consistently high level that they regularly outperform other wines in the same categories. The Brut Premier is the only wine in the range that contains Pinot Meunier and also the only wine where part of the juice undergoes malolactic fermentation, both employed to give roundness, softness and early accessibility. Roederer’s reserve wines are enough for well over 1 million bottles and span a number of years. The Brut Premier typically includes 30% or so reserve wines going back six to seven vintages.
The Vintage and Vintage Rosé are also reliably outstanding. The Vintage is typically 70% Pinot from Verzy and Verzenay and 30% Chardonnay . The Vintage Rosé is 70% Pinot from Cumières and 30% Chardonnay from several villages in the Côtes des Blancs. Lecaillon favors Pinot vineyards with a northern exposure as he feels wines from due south vineyards can be excessively heavy and ponderous. Richness in the Pinots is achieved through Draconian yields that are typically half of those the estate works with in their Chardonnay vineyards.
The top of the line Cristal and Cristal Rosé are two of my favorite Champagnes. Sometimes maligned for their relatively early release and a dosage that is on the higher side, the reality is that both Cristal and Cristal Rosé have a fabulous track record of aging spectacularly well in bottle. My impression is that the vast majority of Cristal and Cristal Rosé is drunk far, far too young. At a recent comprehensive tasting of the 1996s, Cristal and Cristal Rosé were both nothing short of extraordinary. I have rarely been disappointed by older vintages. Cristal is typically 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from a variety of grand cru villages, while Cristal Rosé is typically 70% Pinot from Aÿ and 30% Chardonnay from Avize and Mesnil. Much of the base wines for Cristal and Cristal Rosé increasingly come from biodynamically farmed vineyards, with the juice fermented in oak vats rather than steel, and with no malolactic fermentation.
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