2008 Louis Roederer "Cristal" Brut Champagne (1.5L - OWC)

The 2008 Cristal is a perfect wine, and Champagne simply does not get any better. This incredible wine offers a beautiful perfume of clean, crisp fruits, layers of complexity in its toasted spice and white flowers, and an utterly seamless, yet powerful style on the palate. This is a rich, decadent expression of Cristal, yet it’s still crystalline and elegant, with no sensation of weight, and it just glides over the palate. Haute couture at its finest, this majestic, profound, legendary Cristal can be drunk any time over the coming 2-3 decades.

One of the masterpieces of this exceptional vintage (the last that was this cool). Ravishing nose of Amalfi lemon and white peach with hints of white chocolate, chamomile and oyster shell. Super-elegant and tightly structured with a hint of creaminess on the mid-palate adding tension. Very long steely finish carried by the linear mineral acidity. A cuvée of 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay, part of which (unusually for Cristal) underwent malolactic fermentation. Getting very scarce on the secondary market, partly because of the great aging potential! Tasted at the Cristal vertical tasting at the champagne house on July 6th, 2023. Drink or hold. (SP)