2000 Louis Roederer Cristal (Late Release)
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Tasting notes
The 2000 Cristal is gorgeous. Open-knit, creamy and totally seductive, the 2000 is a charmer. There are no hard edges or angular contours in this supple, open-knit Champagne. A gentle touch of reduction lingers on the close. The 2000 is an absolute delight today. “It was a very wet, stormy year with slow ripeness,” Lécaillon explains. “It was the most difficult Cristal I had blended up until that time, as the wines kept changing prior to blending.” Dosage was 10 grams per liter. Disgorged: 2007.
Critic scores
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Magnum. Disgorged in 2006, dosage 10 g/l. 58% Pinot Noir, 42% Chardonnay. 24% of the cuvée is fermented in oak. Five years spent on the lees. Hint of damp plaster on the nose. Then very marked acidity. Lots of citrus. Reminds me a bit of 2013! Though this is richer on the finish. Lots of acidity. (JR)
From a difficult vintage with destructive hailstorms and botrytis, the 2000 Cristal opens with an elegant and delicate bouquet with brioche, ripe apple, green olive and iodine aromas. Complex and very salty, with oyster and umami flavors, this is a generous and very long Cristal that is excellent with Japanese food, such as sashimi for example, as chef de cave Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon said during the tasting in New York in November 2018.
57% Pinot Noir, 43% Chardonnay. Usually Pinot Noir is Montagne de Reims rather than Aÿ but in 2000 they had to use more Aÿ than usual. 10-15% malo. Quite an opulent nose. Lovely stage of evolution. Beautifully dense and tightly laced. Very complex and layered. Admirably persistent. This would be a great Cristal to drink now. Smoky. (JR)