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:
97 points — James Suckling (March 2012)
The reviewer notes a cool late September harvest following a poor set and high millerandage in the vineyard, and finds some malolactic honeyed character, rare in Cristal at 20 to 25%. Chardonnay dominates the nose, with sweet honey and nougat, dried lime citrus, an earthy side and deep spice. The palate carries almost cognac-like fruit, toasted brioche and raisin bread, very assertive and concentrated — a liqueur-like Champagne with a great deal of potential and great length. Assessed from a bottle from the family collection, disgorged ten years after harvest at slightly lower than original dosage.
93+ points — International Wine Cellar (Stephen Tanzer, December 2001)
Very strong mousse. Deep, yeasty aromas dominated by toffee, butterscotch and toast. Quite powerful but already harmonious, with real thickness of flavour and oily extract leavened by ripe acidity. Very fresh in the mouth, with very ripe hints of yellow fruits and strawberry complicated by leesy, toasty flavours in the background. Tanzer describes a large-scaled, extremely backward wine that should develop for a decade or two in bottle, and calls 1995 a great vintage for both the Brut and the Rosé.
92 points — Wine Enthusiast (December 2001)
Great refinement shows in the subtle hazelnut, fruit, hay and vanilla aromas of this famous luxury cuvée. The palate is flavourful, with dry grape, peaches and cream, toasted nut and plum, and the mouthfeel is soft and gently frothy. Finishes long and leaner, but not hard, with mineral and citrus notes.
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, and is among the most recognised luxury cuvées in the world.
1995 broke a run of difficult years in Champagne and is regarded as the first genuinely fine vintage of the decade’s second half. A poor set left high millerandage in the vineyard and a cool, late September harvest followed, giving small yields of concentrated fruit with firm acidity. The wine shows honey, nougat, dried lime, hazelnut, hay, toffee, butterscotch, toasted brioche and raisin bread over ripe yellow fruit, peaches, plum and strawberry, with an earthy, deeply spiced side and a persistent mineral thread. Powerful, thick-textured and concentrated, yet leavened by ripe acidity and finishing long, mineral and citrus-edged. Reviewers on release called it large-scaled and extremely backward, expecting a decade or two of development. That time has now passed.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Please note: The bottle shown is the exact bottle being sold.
Outstanding condition.
