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Tasting notes
One of the greatest wines of Louis Roederer’s contemporary chapter, the 2013 Cristal continues to impress. Tasted from magnum, which was disgorged in September 2024 with a dosage of 7.5 grams per liter, it wafts from the glass with a bouquet of white flowers, lemon zest and toasted hazelnut, mingling with iodine and smoke. Qualitatively speaking, it's “a copy of 2012 with a month longer growing cycle,” summarizes Lecaillon, and it's indeed true that these two wines represent the high points of the of the decade so far—as only time will tell what Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon will achieve with 2019. Expecting a crystalline, electric wine, given the cool, late-ripening season, the 2013 indeed delivers a Champagne that is bright, with incredible clarity and concentration, even if it’s undeniably a leaner version than its immediate predecessor. Since its release, I've enjoyed the 2013 Cristal several times from my own cellar, but having the opportunity to appreciate it from a magnum delivered an even more textural and seamless experience, emphasizing its chalky personality and laser precision.
Critic scores
Average Score
William Kelley, Wine Advocate
Kristaps Karklins, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2013 Cristal (magnum) is outrageously beautiful. A Champagne of stature and pure breeding, the 2013 is so impressive from the big bottle. There is a timelessness to Cristal in magnum that is so special in how the wine ages at the most gradual pace. The purity of the fruit is striking, as is the added touch of mid-palate richness from extended time on the lees in magnum. Sweet floral and chalk notes run through a core of layered citrus and orchard fruits, all framed by the silkiest of contours. Disgorged 2024.
A dense, explosive Champagne, the 2013 Cristal is a picture-perfect example of the year. Ripe pear, tangerine oil, white flowers and crushed rocks are all beautifully amplified. There is an exotic quality to the 2013 that simply can't be denied.
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.
About the producer
Champagne Louis Roederer remains one of the last independent, family-run Grande Marque Champagne houses. It is best known for creating the first prestige cuvée and one of the region’s most celebrated wines, Cristal.