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By Champagne Louis Roederer
Cristal
Wine Details
Region: Champagne, France
Vintage: 2015
Varietals: 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay
Overview
Forged by a chalky soil unlike any other and honed by time, Cristal is Louis Roederer's flagship Champagne. Created in 1876 at the special request of Tsar Alexander II, this exceptional Champagne is sourced from 45 plots in seven Grands Crus vineyards spanning the Montagne de Reims, the Marne Valley, and the Cote des Blancs. It is only produced in years when grapes have reached perfect maturity. This bright, powdery, and chalky Champagne is the product of time and the fruit of a haute couture artisanal viticulture, where eco-friendly practices and respect for living organisms are the only rules. Cristal is a drinking experience unlike any other. It is crafted to reveal itself gradually over time, growing ever more glorious with every passing year, gaining depth, finesse, and aromatic complexity.
Vintage
An extraordinary vintage, also the year in which the Champagne region was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site! 2015 followed the continental trend of that decade: a mild, wet winter and a hot, dry summer. The summer, hot and sunny, brought record-breaking temperatures and water stress. The second half of August brought some welcome rain, giving the vines much-needed relief. The vines produced juicy, ripe, and concentrated grapes thanks to this fresh finish. Our ambition for this vintage? To capture the concentration that is the hallmark of this spectacular vintage!
Winemaking
Cristal 2015 comprises grapes sourced from 45 "lieux-dits" in Verzenay, Verzy, Beaumont-sur-Vesle, Ay, Avize, Mesnil-sur-Oger, and Cramant. 25% of the wines are vinified in oak. No malolactic fermentation. The dosage is 7 g/L.
Tasting Notes
Deep yellow hue with a lustrous sheen. Ultra-fine, dynamic bubbles. Intense, concentrated bouquet of yellow fruit (white peach, Mirabelle plum) combined with delicious, concentrated toastiness in the form of roasted hazelnut and almond aromas. Perfect, seamless, and complex marriage of the almond, wheat, and sweet pollen notes from the Chardonnay with the juicy red fruit of the Pinot Noir. Concentrated, energetic, and vibrant on the palate, starting as a silky, almost oily caress with soft flavors of candied citrus and iodized spices. Then the powdery texture becomes tauter, and the pure, precise, chiseled freshness crescendos. The salivating finish is underpinned by slightly oaky, sappy, and saline notes, creating a simultaneous sensation of delicacy and concentration!
[Information provided by Maisons Marques and Domaines USA]
Region
Champagne
Vintage
2015
Grape
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
Country
France
Unit Size
750.00 ML
Alcohol Percentage
12.50
Appellation
Champagne
Wine: Louis Roederer 2015 Cristal Brut Champagne
Score/Rating: 98
Review Date: 12/08/2024
Tasting Notes: This iconic Champagne is expensive but worth it, especially for that very special person. It opens with a complex, ethereal bouquet of citrus, blanched almonds, and minerals. Very fresh on the palate with additional notes of lemon cream, patisserie and hazelnut, finishing long and mineral-like. A blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay sourced from 45 Cristal vineyard plots with 25% matured in oak barrels. The base wine does not go through malo, and the dosage is 7 g/L [...].
Wine: Louis Roederer 2015 Cristal Brut (Champagne)
Score/Rating: 98 - Cellar Selection
Review Date: 12/01/2023
Reviewed By: Roger Voss
Tasting Notes: [...] this iconic Champagne's latest iteration is as beautiful as ever. Textured, with a mineral undertow, the wine is just beginning to soften and show a balanced maturity. Drink this great wine now.
Wine: Louis Roederer 2015 Champagne Brut Cristal
Score/Rating: 98
Review Date: 12/2023
Tasting Notes: Ripened to fragrant white-peach flavors in the heat of the 2015 vintage, the [...] fruit for Cristal transforms that ripeness into a delicate juiciness, the wine both luscious and youthfully concentrated, almost severe in its structure. None of the wine undergoes malolactic conversion, and a quarter of the base wine ages in oak; particularly in this vintage, Cristal is built for the long haul, rather than for drinking on release. Spicy and subtle, this wine’s earthiness is incipient, not yet revealed, like a groundnut - not the peanut, but the native-American tuber with a flavor that might literally be described as a pomme de terre (an apple of the earth). Sophisticated and layered, this wine hums with a quiet energy.
Wine: 2015 Louis Roederer Cristal
Score/Rating: 98
Suggested Drinking Window: 2027-2060
Review Date: 04/18/2023
Reviewed By: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Tasting Notes: The 2015 Cristal is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. No malo-lactic [sic] was employed, and 25% wine was aged in oak. The dosage is 7 grams per liter. An exquisitely delicate yet complex perfume of clover honey, freshly shaved ginger, marzipan, and jasmine slowly emerges from the nose, giving way to a core of pear tart, persimmons, and apple butter. The palate is an exercise in finesse, featuring very fine bubbles and fantastic intensity with a myriad of spice and floral nuances, finishing with impressive persistence and jaw-dropping poise. This is a style for those that embrace purity, soft-spoken expression, and impeccable crafting. It won't disappoint those who love Champagne in its initial youthful perfume flushes, yet will undoubtedly reward the patient with a richer, toastier, more obvious and opulent style with 5-10 years+ of cellaring.
Wine: LOUIS ROEDERER Champagne Brut ‘Cristal’ 2015
Score/Rating: 97
Suggested Drinking Window: 2025 - 2050
Review Date: 08/2024
Reviewed By: J. D’Angelo
Tasting Notes: The 2015 'Cristal' is utterly sublime. It impresses with its captivating bouquet of vibrant lemon, ripe apricot and ginger, interlaced with delicate notes of honey blossoms and hints of mineral. The initial freshness gives way to a subtle complexity, where toasted brioche adds a layer of warmth and depth. The palate is richly textured with a fine and persistent mousse, enhancing the gorgeous interplay of citrus brightness and sweet, floral nuances. It continues to impress with its remarkable refinement and chiseled frame that lead into a sophisticated and multidimensional finish. Overall, this is a simply marvelous vintage that should age fantastic and offer years of drinking pleasure.
Wine: Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal 2015
Score/Rating: 97
Review Date: 07/21/2023
Reviewed By: Stuart Pigott
Tasting Notes: For the warm and dry vintage this has tremendous freshness and elegance. The complex nose of citrus blossom, mint, lemon and lime zest opens up slowly as this aerates in the glass. The wine’s ample structure is still quite firm, which is a vintage characteristic, the mousse very fine but also very lively [...]. Cristal fans will love this as it is, but a year or two more in the bottle will do a lot for the very long mineral finish of this youthful masterpiece. A cuvee of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, picked from all 45 Cristal vineyard plots. Tasted at the Cristal vertical tasting at the Champagne house on July 6th, 2023. Drink from release.
Wine: 2015 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal
Score/Rating: 96
Suggested Drinking Window: 2023 - 2053
Review Date: 11/17/2023
Reviewed By: Audrey Frick Â
Tasting Notes: I had the opportunity to taste the 2015 Champagne Cristal twice, both at the house in Reims as well as at my home office. On both occasions, the wine offered a terrific balance of decadence and notable freshness for this vintage, which was highly expressive on opening. The release reveals layered custardy notes of lemon balm, incense, apricot, and hazelnut. Medium to full-bodied, the mousse is fluffy and rounded out beautifully through the palate. Round and approachable, it has a well-managed richness along with underlying savory sapidity and saline to keep this going over the coming three or more decades, with a chalky tannin structure to support it. [...]. This was only the second vintage where Mr. Lecaillon opted to source from all of the 45 plots dedicated to Cristal. (Since then, he chose to draw from even more plots for the 2018.)
Wine: Louis Roederer Brut Champagne Cristal 2015Â
Score/Rating: 96 - Collectible
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink now through 2035
Review Date: 11/15/2023
Reviewed By: Alison Napjus
Tasting Notes: This mouthwatering Champagne has an ethereal quality, with a frame of chiseled acidity and focused precision to the pointillisme-like, vibrant mousse. Yet this shows depth and generous expression, with the finely spun notes of patisserie apple and blackberry fruit opening beautifully on the palate and through the minerally finish, with notes of grated ginger, blood orange granita, salted Marcona almond and anise. Drink now through 2035.
Wine: Roederer 2015 Cristal
Score/Rating: 96
Suggested Drinking Window: 2025 - 2040
Review Date: 03/2023
Reviewed By: Antonio Galloni
Tasting Notes: I have tasted the 2015 Cristal three times so far. Those tastings paint a portrait of a complex Champagne that is still finding its center. Tasted at the maison, the 2015 is rich, dense and explosive, with tremendous textual intensity and also a good bit of energy to back it up. Citrus confit, spice, ginger, chalk and dried flowers abound in a Champagne endowed with tremendous aromatic presence in a style that offers notable richness but in a lighter style than vintages such as 2012. There is a bit of the savoriness that is such a signature of the year, but it is nicely integrated into the wine’s fabric. Two later tastings in my office strongly suggest that 2015 has already started to shut down a bit, which is a shame, as it may be hard to read for some time to come. The 2015 is a rare Cristal in this tasting (the other is 2002) that incorporates all 45 plots within the estate. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. [...]
Wine: 2015 Louis Roederer Cristal
Score/Rating: 95+
Suggested Drinking Window: 2027 - 2050
Review Date: 04/20/2023
Reviewed By: William Kelley
Tasting Notes: If the 2014 vintage was especially open and demonstrative, the 2015 Cristal is going to require more patience. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of citrus oil, crisp stone fruits, white flowers, crushed mint and subtle hints of buttery pastry, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with a deep, concentrated and rather introverted core of fruit framed by chalky extract and animated by a pretty pinpoint mousse. This is a serious, vinous Champagne that has considerable substance to age and may well evolve along the lines of the lovely 1985.
Wine: Louis Roederer, Cristal, Champagne, France 2015
Score/Rating: 95
Suggested Drinking Window: 2023 - 2035
Review Date: 04/16/2023
Reviewed By: Anne Krebiehl MW
Tasting Notes: An open and inviting nose references cream, oatmeal and Amalfi lemon with the slightest edge of smoke. The palate immediately strikes with a mouthwatering lemon ripeness and a juicy, mouthfilling generosity reminiscent of yellow plum. It stays true to the trademark sleekness of Cristal and speaks of the concentration of 2015. Fine mousse accentuates the fullness and roundness of the wine while the long finish hints at chalky depth which, for now, is dominated by ripe stone fruit and more of that textured, rich notion of oatmeal. Definitely a Cristal to enjoy soon.
