Our Provenance Guarantee
Purchase with confidence. All of our wines are selectively sourced and thoroughly inspected for authenticity and signs of poor storage. Accepted bottles are preserved in our climate-controlled cellar until they reach your doorstep. We have no storefront and no walk-in traffic, so nothing is moved or handled between inspection and shipping.
The bottle you see photographed is the bottle you receive (or fundamentally identical when multiple bottles are listed), and our commitment to you is that it arrives as represented. If it doesn’t, we want to hear from you.
Ratings & Tasting Notes:
94 points — Wine & Spirits (December 2000)
No tasting note was published with this score.
92 points — Wine Enthusiast (December 2000)
Pinot Noir character suffuses this wine, imbuing its aromas with a compelling meaty, leathery, sweaty quality. Full-bodied and earthy, it nevertheless shows great verve and liveliness in its brisk, citrusy finish. The reviewer notes it is a Champagne badly in need of age.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Louis Roederer was founded in Reims in 1776 and remains one of the rare family-owned houses in Champagne, still directed by the Roederer family. It is also among the very few to own the large majority of its own vineyards, a degree of self-sufficiency almost unheard of in the region. Cristal was created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II, who is said to have requested a clear flat-bottomed bottle so that no assassin could conceal a device beneath it — the origin of the flat base and clear glass the bottle still carries, wrapped since in its protective amber cellophane. It is made only in declared vintages, from the house’s oldest and best-sited parcels.
1994 was a difficult year in Champagne. A promising summer gave way to a wet September, and the houses that declared the vintage did so selectively, leaning on rigorous sorting and on their best-sited parcels. Roederer’s Cristal from the year is a Pinot-driven wine, full-bodied and earthy, its aromas carrying a meaty, leathery depth alongside brisk citrus. Reviewers tasting it young found real verve and liveliness beneath the weight, and were clear that it needed considerable time in bottle. That time has now passed — at thirty-two years, this is fully mature Champagne, and the Pinot richness that defined it young is the kind of structure that carries a wine this far.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Perfectly stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar. These bottles were kept in their original shipping boxes and never opened until we received them.
Condition:
Outstanding condition as shown. Color has darkened due to 30+ years of cellaring.
Please watch the video below to see similar bottles from this same lot being opened and unveiled for the first time since release.
Please note: The condition of the bottle you will receive is accurately reflected by the one shown in the images.
