I’ve had all of these since August of this year, each one is, standing alone, monumental. That they are in consecutive vintages, well that’s just an embarrassment of riches. We will get to compare for a couple of decades…
My favorite if 2013, followed by 2015, 2016, then 2014. Here are my notes…
list][*]2014 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut - France, Champagne (12/9/2024)
I drank this with Gage in Georgia, deer hunting last week! It is amazing how great this wine is and yet how much better the ‘13, ‘15, ‘16 are. What a quartet! This wine, I would say, has the least complex of the lemon traits of this marvelous run of Cristal. Here it is lemony, with some peel oil essence, and a little desiccated peel, which adds sweet complexity. But not too much, just airing hints. There is, again, so much mineral complexity going on, it just wraps around the wine, and just lets it be so drinkable. There are lovely traits of tree fruit, barely. This wine it lively and snappy, maybe the most perky of the four! Love it! (95 pts.)
[*]2016 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut - France, Champagne (11/29/2024)
Wow! Wow! This is fantastic! Whiff of mineral, and lemon compote happily greets the nose, channeling into an instant grin! Taste, and first thoughts are of purity. The wine is so Cristal clear in the mind’s eye! Tastes, thoughts, and perceptions of sweet lemon, berries and bread, mineral, like multiple lodes, quartz, limestone, sea clay. Multiple fruit essences tease the senses, and an ever so slight hint of baking spices…nothing is too much. This is a quintessential power without weight wine. Love it!!! (97 pts.)
[*]2015 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut - France, Champagne (10/24/2024)
Wow! Again! So of the quartet of 2013-2016, the 2015 is just an ever so slight smidge below the perfect 2013. As it is, this is a monumental, fantastic, champagne. It has lemon, deconstructed myriad ways! With sweet peel, compote, lemon reduction. Then there is gingerbread, and a hint of Christmas spice, warm bread. An outstanding array of mineral braces this wine, propping it up, and giving depth, so much depth. I am fascinated by the fruit and berry fruit core. It’s amazing th get hints of colored peels from such a cristal clear beauty! Powerful, and weightless at the same time! (98 pts.)
[*]2013 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut - France, Champagne (8/15/2024)
I’m just gonna say it’s perfect. This is a monumental wine from a vintage that has some superstars. This wine has so much fruit and so much crushed minerals… I mean, there is pith, and peel from myriad orchard and grove fruit, forest berries. White citrus, red berry aroma, sweet juice(but not sweet). It is powerful and weightless, the hardest wine for me to describe of the night, because words do not do justice. You just gotta try it! It’s kinda like if you took the greatest parts of champagne and rosé champagne, and maybe Willi Schaefer Kabinett and Keller Großes Gewachs, there’s the fruit and mineral I’m trying to describe. The sip stayed with me for such a while, and the wine stays in my head for days. (100 pts.)[/list]
Posted from CellarTracker
