Louis Roederer Cristal : $349.99

Wine Details

Vintage: 1999
Price: $349.99
Producer: Louis Roederer
Region: Champagne
Varietal: Sparkling
Container Size: 750 ML
Flavors:
  • Sparkling Wine
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Product Description

  • Elegant, deep, and silky-textured, this medium to full-bodied beauty is immensely concentrated, pure, packed with apple flavors, and astoundingly long in the finish. Vintage Cristal is the standard-bearer for the House of Louis Roederer. It is blended from 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay, grown in the best vineyards of Verzenay, Le Mesnil, Avize, Chouilly, Verzy, Ay and Mareuil. It has to mature on lees for six years to develop its golden appearance with lightly burnished reflections and its intense bouquet of white flowers, citrus and red fruits, followed by toasted, woody aromas that are warmer and more mature. Cristal deserves the finest delicacies: caviar, cooked oysters, scallops, John Dory or lobster.

Expert Ratings

Ratings   Vintage Source Flavors
WineNews - 93 Details: Doughy toasted grain aromas. Tart lemon-lime flavors have a frothy mouth-feel. This is a young, energized, well-structured Champagne with bracing acidity that sweetens-up in the finish. $240 2000 WineNews
Tanzer - 92 Details: ($200) Bright gold. Deep, subtly smoky nectarine and musky yellow plum aromas are energized by a suave mineral quality. Broad and fleshy, with deep, chewy pear, pit fruit and buttered toast flavors. A serious style, with velvety texture and excellent finishing punch. This has the concentration to repay cellaring but is open-knit enough to enjoy on the young side. (Maisons Marques & Domaines USA, Oakland, CA) 2000 Tanzer doughy
WineSpectator - 91 Details: This goes for personality and finesse. An assertive, honeyed style, with plenty of citrus flavors. Mature coffee and roasted nut accents are peeking through, with a robust structure and a dried citrus aftertaste. Drink now through 2025. 32,000 cases imported. –BS 2000 WineSpectator citrus, coffee
WineEnthusiast - 92 Details: This is a lightweight Cristal, floating and fresh, without the punch this great wine can have from Pinot Noir. It is also way too young. To taste, there is good balance, but the persistent grapefruit flavor shows the wine’s youth. 2000 WineEnthusiast
Tanzer - 92(+?) Details: ($188) Light gold. Vibrant, tangy aromas of apple, pear, white peach and minerals. Wound tight right now, only reluctantly offering up flavors of fresh orchard fruits, herbs and pepper. Finishes zesty and long. Seems less deep than the 1997 bottling; is this just in a sullen, youthful stage? 1999 Tanzer apple, herbs, minerals, peach, pear, pepper
CGCW - 94 Details: One does not have to be a rock star to enjoy Cristal, but it does help to have deep pockets. The wine is a beauty, and always has been, so its great success with us should come as no surprise. We love its rich, creme brulee, apple and cherry notes tied to toasted biscuits and hints of chalk and minerals. It has a wealth of tiny bubbles and is creamy and smooth across the palate. Its mix of richness and refinement makes it into one of the more sophisticated wines in the tasting. 1999 CGCW apple, chalk, cherry, minerals
WineSpectator - 91 Details: High-toned and floral, with hints of coconut and spice. Firm and lively. Needs a little time to integrate and resolve the fine mousse with the tactile finish. More backward and powerful than most 1999s, this has potential. Drink now through 2015. 29,000 cases made. –BS 1999 WineSpectator coconut, spice
WineEnthusiast - 95 Details: A powerful Cristal, which has all the richness of the 1999 vintage. The aromas of white flowers and cocoa lead to a palate that is rich, intense, concentrated, but restrained. It is already drinkable, but should mature well. 1999 WineEnthusiast
WineNews - 92 Details: Pale gold hue with tiny bubbles. Inviting scents of vanilla, lemon cream and bread dough. Creamy lemon custard flavors. Hints of minerals and crème brûlée in the lemony close. $211 1999 WineNews lemon cream, minerals, vanilla
WineAndSpirits - 95 Details: The precision of the flavors in this vintage of Cristal is riveting. They feel substantial, complete, youthful and extremely long even as their aromatic intensity remains subtle, layered in scents of fresh apple, brioche and yellow plum. But the integration is such that rather than emphasizing individual elements, the wine brings to mind words like brisk, elegant, refined. A beauty to drink now, though it will have more to offer with age. 1999 WineAndSpirits
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Food Pairings

Category Pairing
Poultry & Eggs Quail
Fruits & Nuts Fruit Salad
Vegetables Risotto, Vegetable, Fruit Salad
Fish or Shellfish Stews and Soups
Herbs & Spices Wasabi
Vegetables Leafy Greens

Wine Terms

Name Value
Champagne A region in France that makes wines from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. It is also the name of the world’s most famous sparkling wine. Although many winemakers outside of Europe can legally call their sparkling wine champagne, European Union regulations prevent any other member country from doing so.
France France is the standard bearer for all the world’s wines, with regard to the types of grapes that are used to make wine and with the system of defining and regulating winemaking. Its Appellation d’Origine Controlee, or AOC system, is the legislative model for most other European countries. Most French wines are named after places. The system is hierarchical; generally the smaller and more specific the region for which a wine is named, the higher its rank. There are four possible ranks of French wine, and each is always stated on the label: Appellation Contrôlée (or AOC), Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure (or VDQS); Vin de pays, or country wine; and Vin de table. France has five major wine regions, although there are several others that make interesting wines. The three major regions for red wine are Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone; for white wines, the regions are Burgundy, the Loire and Alsace. Each region specialized in certain grape varieties for its wines, based on climate, soil, and local tradition. Two other significant French wine regions are Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon, both in the south of France. Cahors, in the southwest of the country, produces increasingly good wines.
Sparkling Wine Sparkling wines are part of a growing category of bubbly wines.

Tasting Notes

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