One of 2 wines for my sweetie’s birthday dinner as just posted: My sweetie's birthday day dinner with 2002 Cristal and 1997 Williams Selyem Hirsch Pinot Noir
2002 LOUIS ROEDERER CRISTAL BRUT- 55% Pinot Noir, 45% Chardonnay; this bottle had been in the cellar for at least 8 years since being purchased from an importer; it’s gold color suggested some maturity and the nose confirmed it with distinct bruised apple and a mustiness, neither of which blew off over the 2 hours since being opened; the taste profile had more of the same with some caramel and honeyed yellow apple which tailed off leaving a distinct note of honeyed lemon as if to suggest, it was going back from where it started OR, this was the last hint of where it came from; the texture had some weight and viscosity and each sip seemed to be just bit different from those before it, but never devoid of those musty, bruised apple notes; I prefer most champagnes in their earlier stages, certainly prior to the advanced oxidative notes that show up in the form of caramel, butterscotch and nuttiness; our bottle seemed to be well short of its apogee, but it did not perform as I’d hoped.
Cheers,
Blake