Champagne Louis Roederer, Cristal, Brut 2008

170.00 €

Succesful Bid
This lot was part of our auction «1. Auction» on 16.01.2021.
00138

Champagne Louis Roederer, Cristal, Brut, 2008

1 x 0.750L
Champagne
perfect
perfect
high fill
none
97 / 100 Robert Parker
Let's start describing the 2008 Cristal technically first. It is a 60/40 blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from 36 plots in seven grands crus: Verzy, Verzenay, Beaumont and Aÿ for the Pinot Noir and Mesnil, Avize and Cramant for the Chardonnay. Twenty-five percent of the wine was fermented in oak, and 16% underwent malolactic fermentation to moderate the fresh acidity of the 2008 vintage. The assemblage was bottled in May 2009. After 8.5 years on the second lees (longer than any Cristal before), the first release was disgorged in September 2017 with a relatively low dosage of 7.5 grams per liter. So, here is how it tastes as a "young" cuvée: The 2008 Cristal opens bright, super clear, fresh and pure on the exciting, absolutely fascinating nose with its fine, complex and elegant bouquet of gorgeously ripe and matured fruits, brioche and chalk expressions. This is the finest you can get from Champagne. The palate is pure, lean, fresh and filigreed but concentrated, highly complex, full of tension and enormously vibrant. This is a great vin de terroir, a dense and elegant Super-Cristal that goes straight and precise as a laser beam over the palate but also has texture in the form of sensually fleshy fruit. The dosage, however, is the lowest ever: just 7.5 grams. The endless and highly tensioned finish is complex, citrusy fresh, full of chalk and crystalline finesse. The 2008 Cristal is a vitalizing drug, "the Chevalier Montrachet of Champagne," as Jean-Baptise Lécaillon puts it. It is the most exciting 2008 Champagne I have tasted thus far (May 2018). The 2008 Cristal and Cristal Rosé come two years after the 2009. "The 2008 is launched after the 2009 because of its impressive personality. The wine wasn't ready two years ago, whereas the 2009 was brilliant,“ says Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, cellar master at Roederer since 1999, during my visit at the domaine in Reims in May 2018. Later this year, Roederer will also relaunch the famous 2002, which was disgorged in 2010 and of which Lécaillon kept a few thousand bottles apart for three-star Michelin restaurants, enabling them to offer several vintages of Cristal. "The 2008 vintage was a continental year with a slow and late ripening process due to an unusually dry and cool summer. Under certain circumstances, ripeness could have been difficult to achieve,“ Lécaillon explains. "This was also the case in 1996, which we eventually picked a bit too early due the pressure given by rot. In 2008, however, I waited a bit longer, maybe a week or so, to lower the high acidity level naturally. I also did malolactic fermentation in 16% of the volume, which is not much, but enough to soften the acidity. Last but not least, the 2008, which we bottled in May 2009, spent eight and a half months on the second lees before the disgorgement—longer than any Cristal before. The resulting taste is incredibly pure, like spring water from the rocks..." In fact, the Cristal is a great combination of freshness, salinity and finesse with power, concentration and complexity. The 2008 Cristal Rosé is still terribly young and fresh but highly promising. The true class of both is something we should debate again in five to ten years. So far, the 2002 Cristal and especially the Cristal Rosé are unrivaled masterpieces, yet there is something in the air that smells...incredibly chalky! 2009 is also a continental but very sunny year following a very cold and dry winter. The summer was "glorious,“ full of sunshine "and almost no rain in August and September.“ These conditions led to ripe grapes with excellent health and enabled team Roederer to produce fine, very elegant, deliciously light but fruit-intense cuvées of great balance and harmony. The 2009 Cristal is pretty reductive at the moment, and according to Lécaillon, this will remain for about 15 years following the harvest. The Cristal Rosé combines purity and finesse with texture and complexity. It is an age-worthy wine with substance and the precision of a laser sword.
Interim Mid-June 2018, The Wine Advocate
97 / 100 Wine Spectator
This expresses a sense of focus and vibrancy to the overall structure, while the palate is all grace and charm. A fine, lacy texture carries a tapestry of ripe white cherry, toast point, blood orange zest, honey and ground ginger notes, with a minerally, mouthwatering finish. A stunning Champagne with a long future ahead of it. Drink now through 2033.
https://www.winespectator.com/wine/detail/source/search/no..
19.5 / 20 Jancis Robinson
It is a tribute to the special qualities of the 2008 vintage that this Cristal has benefitted from longer in bottle than any other Cristal: 10 years. More malo and a little more oak on this wine that Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon claims is all the better for the lessons learnt with the similarly high-acid 1996 vintage. Just one sniff and you're assailed by the most extraordinary combination of density and lift. There's a hint of lime and it's extremely tight (I'd guess it has only just been deemed ready to release) and firm on the finish. But there is just so much pleasure to be had already. Super-fresh but so concentrated that there is no question of austerity. So much to dig into here. It will surely slowly unfurl but is already gorgeous. Hedonistic rather than intellectual. Very special.
https://www.jancisrobinson.com/tastings/search?keywords=Lo..
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