Bollinger RD 2008 is selling for EUR 350 at Frankfurt DFS. Is the airport price usually this high? Not sure what the release price is but UK offers seem to be at around $250 a bottle.
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The UK is Bollinger’s spiritual home, they always seem to have excellent prices for Bollinger which we can never replicate in Germany. Is that with tax or duty free, our price was 350 with tax.
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Envoyer at $370 today for 2015 Cristal. I hear it’s a step behind the '14, which I had for the first time yesterday and was patently underwhelmed. It was an easy pass at $270 release price.
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Did anyone see the offer on Ulysses Collin wines from Zachys today? Yikes.
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This is why I no longer buy Collin at retail. Much less costly to drink in European (and some American) restaurants.
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It’s ridiculous frankly.
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@Andrew_K
I hear you! I’ve bought most vintages of Cristal since '02. I skipped '10 and '11. The 2015 is an easy pass at $370, especially when excellent 2012 is still available for 20% less, and the 2002 for only $30 more!
Cheers,
Warren
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350 was duty free price, so that’s a pretty good in-store price IMO. 2015 Cristal now also available in Paris airport DFS at EUR 240 so $370 is an easy pass indeed. From what I heard it’s better than 2014 tho.
Had the Les Roises Base 2016 (60 mois) back in December for ~€300 at a restaurant… Absolutely amazing.
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Thankfully, so did Cristal! 
Rich, you have two cool lists there. I saw the Thatcher offer for Hure Freres today and I paused, and thought about it, but then I remembered I had just bought some of your stuff on your second list above, and I I think some new Vilmart (other than 14 Emotion which I bought a few weeks ago) is gonna be offered soon. The reality is that I like stuff on the first list you made, but I have a fondness and apprecition for the consistency of Vilmart and Laherte Freres so I am OK with keeping on with them for a lot of what I drink. But, help me…what do you mean by “well you all know the story”? Not all of us do. Tell me what you mean.
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That they did, although Cellartracker lists over 200 bottles of 2010 in peoples cellars, and Brad Baker has reviews of both (probably tasted before the release decision)
Frank - the story I’m referring to is “prices have been going up like crazy for stuff I like.” Thankfully not all of these producers have rocketed up like, e.g.m Cedric Bouchard or Taittinger. Still, the market dynamic has me looking for new things to try.
Thank you. I’ve been fortunate then, as most of what I buy has not seen the increases like some of the producers that are discussed around here.
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A few of us were lucky enough to attend a dinner with JBL last Friday in NYC. As a Champagne lover, it is so enjoyable to listen to him speak. He spoke in depth about the '15 vintage and the how the stress from the heat and lack of rain affected the finished product. He acknowledged that there are underripe/green flavors in many Champagnes. It is more apparent in Champagne produced from both younger (under 20yrs) and non-biodynamic wines. We drank the '15 Cristal and '15 Roederer and there was a clear difference between the two. The green flavors were apparent in the Roederer, whereas the Cristal took on more of minty, herbal flavor. He did note that the '85’s also exhibited similar notes when young but those eventually disappeared.
He also said that '16 is going to a great vintage for Cristal, as well as '18/'19/'20 and '22. He did not make a '17 Cristal.
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Any good salesman is going to call 5 out of 7 vintages stellar. 
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Yes, but he was pretty honest about '15. You have to give him credit for not making a '10/'11 and there won’t be a '17.
I forgot to mention that we started off with 242 from magnum and wow that blows away the 750’s. Completely different beast.
We also had the '14 Cristal rosé. It came across as much lighter style compared to '08/'12/'13 and I think it will need a lot of time. I would buy '12/'13 over the '14.
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I would like to buy birth year 2016 and 2019 in 750, 1.5L and 3.0L format. What’s the best way of doing so? I don’t recall really seeing magnums available of 2008 let alone 1.5L. Is this someone one can pre-order direct from an estate? @Andrew_K I imagine you have some advice here! Maybe we can split a pallet! (how much is a pallet anyway…)
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I very much enjoy Jean-Baptiste’s candor as well. He has told us before that he made a 2011 Cristal but decided not to release it due to their standards.
I agree with your assessment on the wines we had last Friday - I quite liked the 14 Cristal rose, but it lacks the power of the 12 and especially the 13.
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Mags of Cristal are fairly standard through retailers. It’s not likely to be via the estate, but perhaps others have better connections than I do. Roederer has an importer and generally goes through them. There are occasionally deals in Europe, of course, but I’ve never seen Roederer themselves undercut their importers.
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