Louis Roederer "Cristal" Brut Champagne 2015
(Champagne, France) - [TWI 98] [WE 98] [W&S 98] [JG 98] [JS 97] [VM 96] [JD 96] [WA 95+] [DM 95]

About the winery:
Louis Roederer has been synonymous with the world's great Champagnes since 1776, and it is one of the rare family owned companies, which is still managed by the Roederer family today. They are also one of the only French champagne producers to own nearly 75 percent of the grapes in the most desirable vineyards in the Champagne. The property is located on 450 acres in the finest villages of Montagne de Reims, Côtes des Blancs, and Valleé de la Marne. Each region is selected to produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with the elegance needed for perfectly balanced champagne. The Louis Roederer vineyards rate an average 98 percent based on France’s statutory 100-point classification scale.

Champagne Louis Roederer's "Cristal" was created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II as the first "Prestige Cuvee" and it remains as such to this day.  These are the best grapes from the best sites in the best vintages.  The Champagne, a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, spends an average of five years sur lie, and is notable for its richness. Cristal is an all-estate Champagne, from 50 hectares of vines: the best, oldest and chalkiest parts of Louis Roederer's vineyards.  They farm these plots, which are roughly 1/3 from the Cotes de Blancs, 1/3 from the north-facing side of the Mountain de Reims and 1/3 from Ay, differently from the rest of the estate, intentionally working the land for lower yields and higher quality.

Ratings & Reviews

98 Points - The Wine Independent:
"The 2015 Cristal is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. No malo-lactic was employed, and 25% wine was aged in oak. The dosage is 7 grams per liter. An exquisitely delicate yet complex perfume of clover honey, freshly shaved ginger, marzipan, and jasmine slowly emerges from the nose, giving way to a core of pear tart, persimmons, and apple butter. The palate is an exercise in finesse, featuring very fine bubbles and fantastic intensity with a myriad of spice and floral nuances, finishing with impressive persistence and jaw-dropping poise. This is a style for those that embrace purity, soft-spoken expression, and impeccable crafting. It won't disappoint those who love Champagne in its initial youthful perfume flushes, yet will undoubtedly reward the patient with a richer, toastier, more obvious and opulent style with 5-10 years+ of cellaring." - Lisa Perrotti-Brown (Apr 2023)

98 Points - Wine Enthusiast:
"From vineyards that are run organically, this iconic Champagne's latest iteration is as beautiful as ever. Textured, with a mineral undertow, the wine is just beginning to soften and show a balanced maturity. Drink this great wine now." - Roger Voss (Dec 2023)

98 Points - Wine & Spirits:
“Ripened to fragrant white-peach flavors in the heat of the 2015 vintage, the biodynamically farmed fruit for Cristal transforms that ripeness into a delicate juiciness, the wine both luscious and youthfully concentrated, almost severe in its structure. None of the wine undergoes malolactic conversion, and a quarter of the base wine ages in oak; particularly in this vintage, Cristal is built for the long haul, rather than for drinking on release. Spicy and subtle, this wine’s earthiness is incipient, not yet revealed, like a groundnut - not the peanut, but the native-American tuber with a flavor that might literally be described as a pomme de terre. Sophisticated and layered, this wine hums with a quiet energy.”

98 Points - John Gilman:
 “The 2015 Louis Roederer Cristal is composed this year from a cépages of sixty percent pinot noir and forty percent chardonnay, with twenty-five percent of the vins clairs raised in oak barrels. As is customary, the still wines do not go through malolactic fermentation for Cristal and the wine was finished with a dosage of seven grams per liter in this vintage, after aging nearly seven years sur lattes. It delivers a beautifully refined aromatic constellation of apple, nectarine, a superbly complex base of chalky minerality, a touch of raw almond, pâtissière, white flowers and a very, very discreet hint of oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and utterly seamless in its perfect balance, with a marvelous core, superb soil signature and grip, zesty acids and a very, very long, focused and complex finish. 2015 is a riper year in Champagne and this seems to have dovetailed brilliantly with the classic Cristal style of mineral signature, precise fruit tones and great structural integrity. This is destined to be a great, great classic vintage of Cristal!”

97 Points - James Suckling:
"For the warm and dry vintage this has tremendous freshness and elegance. The complex nose of citrus blossom, mint, lemon and lime zest opens up slowly as this aerates in the glass. The wine’s ample structure is still quite firm, which is a vintage characteristic, the mousse very fine but also very lively for an eight-year-old champagne. Cristal fans will love this as it is, but a year or two more in the bottle will do a lot for the very long mineral finish of this youthful masterpiece. A cuvee of 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay, picked from all 45 Cristal vineyard plots. Tasted at the Cristal vertical tasting at the champagne house on July 6th, 2023. Drink from release." (Jul 2023)

96 Points - Vinous Media:
"I have tasted the 2015 Cristal three times so far - once as part o an extensive vertical I will be reporting on shortly, and then later in my office. Those tastings paint a portrait of a complex Champagne that is still finding its center. Tasted at the maison, the 2015 is rich, dense and explosive, with tremendous textural intensity and also a good bit of energy to back it up. Citrus confit, spice, ginger, chalk and dried flowers abound in a Champagne endowed with tremendous aromatic presence in a style that offers notable richness, but lighter than vintages such as 2012. There is a bit of the savoriness that is such a signature of the year, but it is nicely integrated in the wine's fabric. Two later tastings in my office strongly suggest the 2015 has already started to shut down a bit, which is a shame, as it may be hard to read for some time to come. Dosage is 7 grams per liter." - Antonio Galloni (May 2023)

96 Points - Jeb Dunnuck:
"I had the opportunity to taste the 2015 Champagne Cristal twice, both at the house in Reims as well as at my home office. On both occasions, the wine offered a terrific balance of decadence and notable freshness for this vintage, which was highly expressive on opening. The release reveals layered custardy notes of lemon balm, incense, apricot, and hazelnut. Medium to full-bodied, the mousse is fluffy and rounded out beautifully through the palate. Round and approachable, it has a well-managed richness along with underlying savory sapidity and saline to keep this going over the coming three or more decades, with a chalky tannin structure to support it. Drink 2025-2050. This was only the second vintage where Mr. Lécaillon opted to source from all of the 45 plots dedicated to Cristal. (Since then, he chose to draw from even more plots for the 2018.)" (Nov 2023)

95+ Points - Wine Advocate:
"If the 2014 vintage was especially open and demonstrative, the 2015 Cristal is going to require more patience. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of citrus oil, crisp stone fruits, white flowers, crushed mint and subtle hints of buttery pastry, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with a deep, concentrated and rather introverted core of fruit framed by chalky extract and animated by a pretty pinpoint mousse. This is a serious, vinous Champagne that has considerable substance to age and may well evolve along the lines of the lovely 1985." - William Kelley (Apr 2023)

95 Points- Decanter Magazine:
"An open and inviting nose references cream, oatmeal and Amalfi lemon with the slightest edge of smoke. The palate immediately strikes with a mouthwatering lemon ripeness and a juicy, mouthfilling generosity reminiscent of yellow plum. It stays true to the trademark sleekness of Cristal and speaks of the concentration of 2015. Fine mousse accentuates the fullness and roundness of the wine while the long finish hints at chalky depth which, for now, is dominated by ripe stone fruit and more of that textured, rich notion of oatmeal. Definitely a Cristal to enjoy soon." - Anne Krebiehl MW (Apr 2023)