Tasting Notes
Vinous 98+
The 2013 Cristal, tasted from magnum, is an infant. Citrus confit, white flowers, chalk, mint and white pepper stain the palate with crystalline intensity and pure, saline-drenched intensity. Time brings out more floral, delicate dimensions of nuance. Readers lucky enough to find the 2013 in magnum are in for a tremendous drinking experience.
Anticipated maturity: 2028-2064
JancisRobinson.com 18.5++
Disgorged in 2020, dosage 8 g/l. 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, 32% of the cuvee is fermented in oak. Six and a half years spent on lees. Very challenging in the vineyard. A very late year, spring arrived especially late. Lots of sunshine but a very high acid level, emphasised by Louis Roederer s non-malo policy. The oak proportion in this wine is relatively high because Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon is aiming for a dry finish which helps stretch the impact of the wine on the palate . Biodynamic fruit means the fruit can take more oak because it s so concentrated. Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon loves this wine, calling it the essence of Cristal . Very fresh. Very tight on the nose. Extremely youthful and tense. Needs to unfurl. Tight and dry on the end. Long but embryonic. Lots of citrus elements. Elegant.
Anticipated maturity: 2022-2036
Robert Parker 98
I’ve revisited Roederer’s 2013 Cristal four times since I reviewed it in April of this yeara including several times from my own cellara and I had to admit that even my lavish praise didn’t do it full justice. Combining the cool-vintage cut of 2008 with the more completely mature fruit of 2012, the 2013 Cristal might well be said to represent the perfect combination of the two from a purist’s perspective. The wine unwinds in the glass with notes of crisp orchard fruit, white flowers, almond paste and citrus oil, followed by a medium to full-bodied, seamless and multidimensional palate that’s intense but weightless, with racy acids, a pinpoint mousse and a long, penetrating finish. Drink the 2008 Cristal on its own, and you’re unlikelya to put it mildlya to have any complaints; but compare it directly with the 2013 and you’ll see Roederer’s rapid progress in the vineyards writ large.
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2060
