Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Champagne 2013

99 Points, Decanter
Created in 1876 to satisfy the demanding tastes of Tsar Alexander II, Louis Roederer’s Cristal has since become a symbol of luxury all around the world. Produced only during the best years, it’s made from 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, the grapes coming from 45 of the finest lieux-dits in the region. 2013 was a late bloomer, with flowering only taking place in July after a cool spring. Lemon colored with a pink hue. Like a blanc de noirs, with cherries and white fruit aromas. Balanced and suave. Packed with elegant yet powerful aromas of ripe orchard trees that merge with brioche and dry cookies. This is a harmonious and well-defined Champagne with integrated residual sugar and astonishing acidity.Goes from less to more, with an exceptionally long and complex finish. Minerally and sophisticated. Divine!

98 Points, Vinous
The 2013 Cristal is a stunner. It takes themes first seen in the 2008 and amplifies them to grand effect. Lemon confit, marzipan, tangerine oil, spice and crushed rocks all race across the palate. The 2013 is a Champagne of energy and tension, but it also avoids any hint of austerity. It shares a real feeling of saline drive with the 2008, but also offers a bit more mid-palate richness. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir (from Aÿ, Verzy, Verzenay, Beaumont-sur-Vesle) and 40% Chardonnay (Mesnil, Avize, Cramant). Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon was especially selective and used only 30 out of the potential 45 plots that are typically available for Cristal. About 32% of the lots were done in oak, the rest in steel, with the malolactic fermentation blocked across the board. It was an October harvest, the sort of harvest that has become increasingly rare in Champagne. Lécaillon describes the summer as similar to 2012 in terms of summer heat but adds the vines were a month behind in their development from the beginning of the season. The 2013 has always been a Cristal that marries elements of warm and cool seasons. That duality is what makes it so intriguing.

98 Points, Parker’s Wine Advocate
I’ve revisited Roederer’s 2013 Cristal four times since I reviewed it in April of this year—including several times from my own cellar—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 unlikely—to put it mildly—to have any complaints; but compare it directly with the 2013 and you’ll see Roederer’s rapid progress in the vineyards writ large.