Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Champagne 2014.

A RADIANT CRISTAL

It is a radiant Cristal champagne that is emerging, already quite a charmer yet still with such immense potential ahead of it. Of Domaine Cristal’s 45 historical vineyard plots, only 39 were selected to go into the final blend this year, those in which the grapes reflected the true identity of this unique wine: purity of fruit, remarkable finesse and elegant length.

Cristal owes this loyalty to the soil to its permanence. It is a wine that is rooted in the eternal, that of the seasons, a ripening cycle, a heritage and a quest. The quest for excellence, purity and harmony, to create a wine that vibrates in tune with its terroir and mirrors its qualities. All that remains is for the cellar master to adjust this resonance, to give the wine the most fitting ageing process to allow it to vibrate at the highest level.

THE RADIANCE OF A SUNNY YEAR

2014 was a bright and sunny year in which the fruit and finesse were more radiant than we ever thought possible. This sunny vintage gave us a generous and well-ripened harvest of grapes which allowed us to craft a Cristal that is truer than ever to its identity.

The 2014 vintage has given us a more terroir style of wine than ever before, one in which the purity and excellent drainage properties of the chalk enabled us to mitigate the vagaries of the weather over the year.

Gentle, increasingly eco-friendly sustainable growing techniques have resulted in a Cristal 2014 that shows us the ultimate balance between maturity and freshness.

A WINE OF THE SOIL

The Cristal identity is unique, original and truly unlike any other in the history of the fine wines from the Champagne region. It is a wine of the soil, a wine of depth, a wine of the land yet turned to the light, reaching for the heavens that it almost seems to touch. Cristal is a wine of evolution, a wine that continues to reveal itself to us, slowly and gradually as it ages, to unveil a very different side to itself and the true extent of its unique personality.

Every new vintage reveals the unmistakable Cristal character although through a very different prism each time, a kaleidoscope of flavours and textures, a palette of nuances.

"Time has worked its magic and Cristal 2014 has emerged triumphant. It is ready to be enjoyed in its youth but can also be further cellar aged to allow it to attain the complexity of a magnificent maturity."

JOYFUL BEAUTY

With its rich, fleshy character and exceptional maturity, the Cristal 2014 discloses the inherent purity of its aromas with disconcerting ease. The wine’s powerful fruitiness melts into an intense, powdery and saline chalkiness before giving way to a graceful finish.

Cristal 2014 now offers itself to us for drinking yet still has great potential for evolution and a long future ahead of it.

The 2014 is a loyal expression of the vintage and a more accurate reflection of the Cristal style than ever. It delights us effortlessly and unapologetically. It is a great Champagne wine with both allure and charm. A perfect Cristal and intensely of the 2014 vintage.

A "weather waltz", and one with clear, sharp contrasts! The spring was sunny and dry and ended with a heatwave in June; summer was autumnal, cool and rainy; September was hot, sunny and very dry… weather we would usually associate with the month of August. The ‘key’ to the vintage lay in the soils as well as in the work carried out by the winegrowers. The good drainage properties of the chalk on the lower-middle part of the hillside helped us greatly by allowing the excess water from the summer to drain away which limited any excess vigour in the vines.

These factors were complemented by our increasingly eco-friendly viticultural practices which allow us to take our quest for grapes of perfect balance and maturity even further.

TASTING NOTES

Intense, bright and luminous golden hue.

Dynamic effervescence with a continuous stream of fine bubbles.

Intense, fragrant bouquet of great purity. Concentrated and candied citrus fruit mingle delicately with notes of grain and lightly roasted almonds. The lovely sensation of big ripe fruit is balanced and lifted by energetic fresh tangy overtones.

Fruity palate with a silky texture, complemented by soft bubbles that are perfectly integrated and deliciously elegant. The purity and perfection of the ripe yellow fruit melt into the intense chalky freshness, typical of Cristal, that is both powdery and saline.

Dense, juicy, concentrated and long on the mid-palate, thanks to the spicy and sappy structure resulting from partial ageing in large oak vats (foudres).

The finish builds to a crescendo, revealing a rich grainy and velvety texture that is wrapped in a long, saline and superbly elegant finish.

A vintage that trusts more in elegance and purity than anything else. Beautiful pure concentration and fresh elegance characterize the vintage, which is strikingly similar to Bollinger's version of the vintage despite the fact that only 32% is stored in oak barrels. Here, ripe fruit melts sophistically with house-typical silky elegance and ultra-sharp minerality. One of the most impressive young vintages I have tested by Cristal in an ultra-pure and marine imprinted form of the purest chalk with a wonderful scent of magnolia and Jozo as an exceptional elegant spice -Richard Juhlin.