Louis Roederer Cristal Rose 2008 (750ML)

100 JG / 99+ AG / 99 JS / 19.5 JR / 96+ WA

#94 James Suckling's Top 100 Wines of 2018

Like the 2008 Cristal, the 2008 Cristal Rosé is the finest young vintage of this cuvée that I have ever tasted. The vineyards used for this cuvée have been farmed entirely biodynamic since the 2007 vintage and the wine was finished with a dosage in ’08 of 7.5 grams per liter. This is simply a brilliant young vintage of Cristal Rosé, offering up a stunningly pure and precise bouquet of fraises du bois, tangerine, complex, chalky minerality, white flowers and a touch of caraway seed in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, refined and full-bodied, with a flawless, completely seamless structural chassis, great depth at the core, elegant mousse and superb complexity and grip on the perfectly balanced, refined and laser-like finish. The 2008 Cristal Rosé is still a baby and will need at least another seven to ten years to start to truly blossom, but its magic is already very easy to behold. Rosé Champagne simply does not get any better than the brilliant 2008 Cristal! Drink between 2025-2075 John Gilman, View from the Cellar

The 2008 Cristal Rosé is all tension, nuance and class. Fresh and utterly brilliant, the 2008 bristles on the palate with pure pedigree. In the glass, the 2008 is at once translucent, weightless and powerful. Readers should be in no hurry to drink the 2008, a wine that will age effortlessly for many, many decades to come. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

Super fresh with all the DNA of the regular ‘08 Cristal. It heads on a chalky, restrained tangent of delicately spiced cherries with fine white pepper and crushed stones. The palate has a thread of silky, smooth pinot flesh that counterbalances the acidity of the chardonnay. Superb textural build, fine layers adding weight through the finish. Super long, fine and fresh red cherries, wrapped in super tight yet silky acidity. Drink in 2025. James Suckling

To be released in the second quarter of 2018. I tasted a trial sample of a wine that is not yet disgorged. Most unusual to taste a Cristal Rosé at this relatively great age. Dosage just 8 g/l, the lowest ever.
Brilliant primary colours in the glass, somehow. Like Cristal 2008 this is a wonderfully saline wine with masses of grip – so youthful. Subtle and beautifully balanced. As much of a treat as the white version, if a tiny bit softer. - Jancis Robinson

Roederer's 2008 Cristal Rosé is a pure but textured, perfectly ripe, round, luscious and mouth-filling Champagne with power and concentration as well as a crystalline, elegant precision and stunning, citrusy freshness. Sourced in four biodynamically farmed plots in Aÿ (two vineyards with old-vines Pinot Noir on calcareous clay soils that can give exceptional ripeness but also crystalline freshness), Avize and Mesnil (one-third), the 2008 is a blend of 55% to 57% Pinot Noir and 43% to 45% Chardonnay and was fermented partly (15%) in large oak casks, with 16% having undergone malolactic fermentation. The unique light peach to pink-salmon color as well as the combination of juicy ripeness and great freshness is the result of "infusion," a vinification method practiced at Roederer since 1974 to combine finesse and mineralization with depth and ripeness. Cristal Rosé is produced with the saignée process after a cold maceration of seven to ten days and, after being blended with Chardonnay, is fermented like a dry wine. The delicate and subtle bouquet of the 2008 Cristal Rosé is intense and fruity, intertwining red berry and sweet cherry aromas with floral flavors and a touch of caramel and nuts. On the palate, the 2008 is very elegant, fine, pure, precise and fresh but nevertheless dense, intense and fleshy, with lots of powdery chalk and a pure, very fresh, chalky-salty finish with zesty citrus flavors. The 2008 should have enormous aging potential. The Rosé was disgorged in March 2017, and the dosage is eight grams per liter. Tasted at the domaine in May 2018. - Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate