Buying options
Tasting Notes
The 2016 vintage provided a hot August, creating rich and expressive Pinot Noir, so Chef de Cave Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon used a little more Chardonnay in the blend to lift the wine and create balance (with the final blend 58% Pinot Noir and 42% Chardonnay). Lécaillon considers the vintage a return to a more classically Cristal style after the bolder 2015, comparing it to the fabled 2008, although elevated by the extensive efforts they’ve been making in the vineyards. The wine is a little shy at first, with delicate lemon blossom, honeysuckle and chalk, with a waft of white peach emerging with air. The palate reveals a wine of remarkable finesse, incredibly tight at this youthful stage, combining a savoury, biscuity quality with sweet, ripe peach and chalky, mineral power. The mousse is incredibly fine, with a soft texture that adds further to the sense of elegance and purity. Intense, long and flawlessly balanced – an outstanding vintage of Cristal.
Critic Scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
William Kelley, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Cristal is a taut, incisive rendition of this benchmark bottling, unwinding in the glass with youthfully reserved aromas of citrus oil, white flowers, wet stones and subtle hints of sweet, buttery pastry. Medium to full-bodied, chiseled and racy, it's almost as electric as the brilliant 2013, with serious concentration, a pure core of fruit, chalky structuring dry extract and a long, intensely mineral finish. Given its tightly wound profile, my advice is to forget it in the cellar for a few years and work on the more open, outgoing 2014 in the meantime.
The 2016 Cristal is a blend of 58% Pinot Noir and 42% Chardonnay with 7 grams per liter of dosage. No malo-lactic was performed here, and 31% of the base wines were aged in French oak. The nose begins with bright red berry notes of fresh raspberries and strawberries before opening out to a complex undercurrent of saffron, white chocolate, talc, baker’s yeast, and emerging wafts of citron blossom and pear tart. The palate is very dry and spicy, not needing even a touch more sweetness thanks to the abundance of ripe berry and citrus flavors, delivering beautifully knit acidity and typically tiny, persistent bubbles. It finishes with notes of effervescent chalkiness and saffron flowers, leaving you reaching for another sip.
The 2016 Cristal is bright, aromatic and nicely lifted. Citrus peel white flowers, mint and a touch of chamomile all grace this understated, wonderfully refined edition of Cristal. Light on its feet and super-refined, the 2016 is exquisite in its understated beauty. I can’t wait to see how the 2016 ages and won’t be surprised it gains a bit of weight in bottle, as Cristal so often does. The blend is 58% Pinot Noir and 42% Chardonnay, so a touch more Chardonnay than the norm. Of the 45 parcels that make up the Cristal domaine, just 32 were used for the blend. Verzy and Verzenay dominate the Pinots, then Aÿ. Avize takes the lead in the Chardonnays, followed by Mesnil and Cramant. Dosage is 7 grams per liter.
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.