Roederer/Louis Brut Champagne Cristal 2008 6L

100 points Jeb Dunnuck: "The 2008 Cristal is a perfect wine, and Champagne simple does not get any better. This incredible wine offers a beautiful perfume of clean, crisp fruits, layers of complexity in its toasted spice and white flowers, and an utterly seamless, yet powerful style on the palate. This is a rich, decadent expression of Cristal yet it’s still crystalline and elegant, with no sensation of weight, and it just glides over the palate. Haut Couture at its finest and this majestic, profound, legendary Cristal can be drunk anytime over the coming 2-3 decades. (12/13/18)"

100 points James Suckling: "OMG. A masterpiece. A benchmark. Tight and structured, with fantastic precision and structure. Sharp line of acidity throughout, with fine and tight bubbles. Pineapple, lemon, white apricot, seashell, biscuit, blanched almond and a hint of chamomile. Vertical and mineral. Dosage 7g/L. Special release in magnum and aged two or three years longer on the lees than the normal bottling. I can’t go higher than this. Even better in a few years. (7/11/22)"

100 points (20/20)/'Le Coup de Coeur,' La Revue du Vin de France: "The three Cristal cuvées are a real hit, as they climb to the top of the Champagne region. The 2008 white and rosé require patience to wait, as there is so much energy and tension that must be channeled. (2020)"

100 points Wine Enthusiast: "This latest incarnation of the famous brand is a superb wine. It is on par with, maybe even better than, the already legendary 2002. Its balance is impeccable: Apple and citrus flavors working with the tight minerality to give a textured yet fruity wine. Produced from Roederer's own vineyards which are mainly biodynamic, the wine has its own intense purity and crispness. It has amazing potential and is likely to age for many years. Drink from 2020. Cellar Selection. Alcohol 12%. (Dec 2017)"

99 points Tyson Stelzer (The Champagne Guide): "(tasted in 2021 in France; en magnum; 40% chardonnay, 60% pinot noir; Verzenay, Verzy and Beaumont-sur-Vesle, Dizy, Aÿ, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Cramant, Avize and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger; from a pool of 50 hectares of vines of 25–64 years of age (average 47 years), on the most chalky mid-slopes, yielding 50% less than the appellation; 35 parcels from a pool of 45 dedicated to Cristal (10 declassified in 2008); 40% biodynamic then (100% for the first time in 2012); 22% fermented in 60hL oak casks; 16% malolactic fermentation; aged more than 10 years on lees; 8g/L dosage, the lowest ever for Cristal; cork). Cristal 2008 is the ultimate and absolute embodiment of Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon’s fanatical work in the winery and, most of all, in the vineyards – a magnificent, towering monument to the lofty chalk aspiration that defines Cristal. Many have declared 2008 to be the greatest Cristal of the modern era, not least Lécaillon himself. It achieves this ambition not by a fanfare of pyrotechnics, but by the precision and focus that define the greatest Champagne vintage of recent decades. The struck-flint and gunpowder complexity of the reductive Roederer style lends a subtle complexity to the start. This is quickly swept up in a beautifully focused flow of chardonnay’s lemon freshness and pinot noir’s red berry and apple fruit. On first release, the most delicate strawberry hull, more recently graduating to wonderful depth of black cherry. More than a decade of on lees lends the subtle beginnings of almond nougat and understated mixed spice. The chalk mineral mandate of Cristal is exemplified in all-consuming presence like no vintage before it, as the planets aligned when the exacting purity and energy of 2008 met the ever more focused regime of Jean-Baptiste and his team, benefiting from all the learnings of 1996 and every season since. The result is a brilliant flash of signature 2008 malic acidity, stark as high-noon daylight, illuminating in dazzling radiance the crystalline chalk minerality of old vines deeply rooted in the greatest terroirs. It churns and froths with sea salt minerality, a beach fresh, aquamarine landscape that at once confronts you with its vivid, stark brilliance and simultaneously calms you with its peaceful, ordered beauty. In line and length it is other-worldly, hovering motionless literally for minutes, at once lighter than air, yet thunderingly expansive, soaring to the epitome Cristal heights. A true masterpiece by every definition, quintessential Cristal and unreservedly the greatest I have tasted. It holds its epic purity and magnificent freshness with unwavering confidence every time I return, and will not attain its full potential until at least 2038. Its mesmerising spectacle promises to continue for at least half a century and perhaps longer in magnum, in which this wine is more expansive in every dimension: more fruit, more secondary depth, more mineral presence, more ethereal and more epic! And unlike many vintages of Cristal en magnum, it does not show the same pronounced reductive character. (Edition VII; 2024)"

99 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "It has been nearly five years since I last tasted the 2008 vintage of Cristal and the passage of time has quietly been working its magic on this great vintage. As readers may recall, the 2008 vintage was one of the rare examples of Cristal where a portion of the vins clairs for this bottling actually underwent malolactic fermentation, as twenty percent of the still wines in the blend went through malo. The cépages of the 2008 ended up being sixty percent pinot noir and forty percent chardonnay, and twenty percent of the vins clairs also ended up being barrel-fermented in this year. It was the first vintage of Cristal to ever receive a full decade of aging sur latte prior to disgorgement and was finished with a dosage of 7.5 grams per liter. At age sixteen, the wine is just starting to really drink generously, offering up a beautifully complex bouquet of apple, pear, warm bread, almond, a gorgeous base of chalky soil tones, caraway seed, fruit blossoms and a lovely topnote of citrus zest. On the palate the wine is pure, precise, deep and full, with seamless balance, a great spine of acidity, beautifully ripe fruit at the core, elegant mousse and a long, complex and vibrant finish. I love the synthesis here of precisely ripe fruit and the great energy and girdle of acidity that defines the very finest wines from the 2008 vintage in Champagne! 2024-2075+. (Sep/Oct 2024)"

99 points Georgina Hindle (Decanter): "A sublime Champagne from Cristal from the famous and much praised 2008 vintage, which Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon calls a ‘dry and cool year that was a replay of 1996’. ‘The 2008s are so good because all the cellar masters learnt from 1996 - we adapted,’ he said during the masterclass in New York. Sharp, tangy, seriously mouthwatering, direct and compelling with tension at the very beginning that slowly expands and widens as the flavours relax in the mouth. Brioche, toasty notes on the nose with just-ripe green and yellow fruit aromas. Great energy and confidence on show, with hints of white chocolate that offset the low pH and high acidity. Pure and expressive, this is a wine that really gives the emotion with flavour that just lasts and lasts in the mouth full of red berries and chalkiness. Simply divine. Drinking Window: 2023-2050. (Nov 2019)"

99 points Antonio Galloni (Vinous): "The 2008 Cristal is just fabulous. Chiseled and nuanced to the core, the 2008 possesses dazzling intensity from start to finish. Crushed rocks, lemon peel, graphite, mint, lime, chalk and white flowers all race across the palate. This is classic Cristal in a cool, late-ripening year. Drink: 2024-2058. (Nov 2024)"

99 points Jasper Morris, MW: "Wine maker Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon reckons this is his best Cristal to date, and I’m rather inclined to agree with him! Cristal has been on a role since the classical 2002 vintage, Jean-Baptiste has been “tweaking” the Cristal formula, making small adjustments that have clearly paid dividends. A dazzling combination of precision, finesse and immediate complexity, the 2008 vintage Cristal is just astonishing. A wine that is almost impossible to describe (unless we want to start a game of fruit bingo), the vanilla dusted fruit is suave and sophisticated, gliding seamlessly along the palate. Intense and weightless at the same time, with mid-palate weight and a phenomenally long finish, this wine is lacking in no area. A Champagne that will age effortlessly for decades to come. Only the first time I’ve scored a wine 99/100 on potential, and I’ve yet to taste the magnum. (2/9/20)"

98 points William Kelley (Wine Advocate): "Disgorged in September 2017 with 7.5 grams per liter dosage, the 2008 Cristal was produced from 37 of the 45 parcels that are candidates for inclusion in this cuvée—some 40% of which were farmed organically back in 2008—and it's a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. The finest young Cristal in decades, the wine wafts from the glass with a pure and vibrant bouquet of crisp orchard fruit, clear honey, warm brioche, citrus zest and white flowers. On the palate, it's full-bodied, intense and incisive, with superb concentration, racy acids and a long, searingly chalky finish. Pristinely balanced... legend-in-the-making. Drink: 2022-2050. (Mar 2020)"