| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Champagne |
| Colour | White |
| Type | Sparkling |
The 2009 Cristal is a wine of pure and total sensuality. There are no hard edges or angular contours. Instead, the solar energy of the year is front and center. Even with all that intensity, the 2009 is impeccably balanced from start to finish. The 2009 is one of the most forward, sensual Cristals in recent memory. It has always been quite seductive, as it is today. Its resonant, engaging personality is impossible to resist. 2023 - 2048.
A very rich and full-bodied Cristal that harks back to 2006 or 1989 in style. It's round and rich, which underlies the ripeness of the vintage. Lots of dried-apple and pineapple character with bread dough and flan flavors. The bubbles are so fine you almost don't notice them. Very vinous style. Drink now.
An interesting contrast to the already-open Henriot 2009. I tasted this at the launch on of the top floor of The Shard, London's tallest building, looking at a fiery sunset and catching up on gossip with David Roberts MW of Goedhuis. Maybe the wine was served just a fraction too cool in recognition of the length of the guest list but it was extremely youthful and tight, so that there was not that much on the nose, but it built admirably through the palate to provide an intriguingly spicy, dense, long-lasting finish. I don't think that this 2009 has reached anything like its full potential and in a world that was not gagging for the latest vintage of Cristal, Roederer would have benefited from waiting a little while before releasing it. Given they have deliberately launched this before the 2008, I can only imagine how backward the older vintage is. It must be a real challenge for winemaker Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon to deliver wines that are easy to drink but do not sacrifice their potential. He is quoted as saying that the proportion of biodynamically-grown grapes in this vintage has reached 40% and will be greater in the future. The wine certainly has real dynamism. And I'm sure will deserve an even higher score eventually. (Drink between 2019-2035)
The 2009 Cristal is a beauty, with incredible richness as well as elegance, which are the hallmarks of this cuvée. Always a rough blend of 60/40 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from estate vineyards, it has a toasty, yet pure bouquet of stone fruits, rising bread, white flowers, and toasted bread, as well as a terrific sense of chalky minerality. While it’s not built around sheer richness and power (à la Krug), it’s perfectly balanced, has a fine, fine mousse, and shines for its class and purity. Bravo! It’s going to keep for another two decades. Maturity: 2018 - 2038.
The 2009 vintage of Cristal is composed of a blend of sixty percent pinot noir and forty percent chardonnay, with none of the vins clairs this year undergoing malolactic fermentation. Sixteen percent of the base wines were barrel-fermented this year and the wine was finished off with a dosage of eight grams per liter. The bouquet shows the generosity of fruit of this warm summer, but coupled with the classic Cristal sense of elegance, as it offers up scents of white peach, apple, patissière, beautifully complex, chalky minerality, a hint of almond and a topnote of spring flowers. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and vibrant, with excellent mid-palate depth, utterly refined mousse, laser-like focus and excellent length and grip on the youthful and very complex finish. This is likely to reach its apogee earlier than many vintages of Cristal, given the Continental warmth of ’09, but the wine is impeccably balanced and it will also age long and very gracefully. Just lovely. (Drink between 2021-2050)
The 2009 Cristal is a blend of Grands Crus from the Montagne de Reims, the Vallée de la Marne and the Côte des Blancs (a total of 33-34 parcels of which 40% were farmed biodynamically). Like the 2008 Cristal, the 2009 also blends 60% Pinot Noir with 40% Chardonnay, and 16% of the wine was vinified in oak casks. No malolactic fermentation was done. The 2009 was aged for six years in the cellars and was disgorged in March 2016 with a dosage of eight grams per liter. Released two years ago, the 2009 is just starting another, more "Burgundian" life. Tasted in May 2018, the bouquet was pretty reductive, with flinty and toasty/nutty notes and some potted ginger flavors. Full-bodied, round and rich on the palate, this is a stunningly pure, fresh and salty 2009 that is driven by its chalky terroir and the lingering salinity. Is it really 2009? It is ripe, yes, but driven by the strength of chalk. The finish is pure, clean, fresh, very complex and long yet delicate and endlessly salty. However, two years after disgorgement, the 2009 Cristal is closing down and in a pretty reductive stage right now. Tasted May 2018.
