Objectively thinking about a man sitting alone in his basement drinking a 280$ bottle of Champagne, while eating a wedge of cheese in front of a camera, sounds absurd, but this video was delightful!
I was lucky enough to be invited to Roederer for a weekend, visits to the vineyards press room, tasting rooms, cellars, bottling line. Culminating with a lunch in the chairman’s dining room, lots of champagne including three different vintage Cristal 90,96 2002 served from Magnums. Once in a lifetime experience
My wife and I have had the good fortune to have had a few bottles of Cristal over the years, mostly in Barbados of all places. Strangely enough my wife prefers a vintage Veuve Clicquot and I lean more towards a Billecart-Salmon as a everyday holiday indulgence.
My friends and I popped a bottle tonight while playing Dungeons & Dragons. Went out and bought one as soon as I saw this video. It really is a great Champagne. Super citrusy, and that acidity that just makes your mouth water. I am sipping it while writing out this comment, and it has grown a bit in the bottle/glass - the peach has come out a lot more, and I've got more brioche and chalkiness. Absolutely fantastic, and thank you for reviewing it!
Thank You for your kind work! It is a pleasure to watch! Regarding Champagnes the marketing that was put in them in decades is amazing, so they can sell this expensive...
Sehr nice, dass du extra für ein RU-vid-Video so so eine geile (darf man das sagen?) Flasche aufmachst! Und sehr interessant, die Hintergrundgeschichte zu hören und vorallem, wie sie zu dem Design der Flasche gekommen sind. Ich dachte bisher immer, dass es einfach ein neuzeitliches Protz-Produkt wäre, und nicht aus der Paranoia eines russischen Zaren geboren😁. Man lernt nie aus!
Brilliant video. I’ve never tried it myself - mainly because of price and I typically only have one or two glasses of champagne in an evening max. Gosset BdB is my go to
We had a bottle of 2005 last year to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We can’t remember what we ate with it, but chances are if we were celebrating and my wife was there, there was a cheese plate 🧀 🥂
A couple years ago, we blind tasted Pierre Peters Grand Cru NV against the Cristal 09. Many found the Cristal 09 wasn't as good. I chalked it up as it needs more time to develop. So, I am saving the other bottles for later. Wonder when I should drink the '09... Nice channel, combining some history and tasting notes! Bravo.
I absolutely love this wine! I´ve tasted this and the 13. I first tried it on the tasting menu in Restaurante MB with a lemon palate cleanser which was magical though since then I´ve tried it with truffle burrata on toasted bread which I find better still!
I have a bottle of 1988 Cristal rose. I didn't quite understand what you were saying about that specific year. I'm interested in selling it. I also have a number of French wines from the 1960's including a white burgundy
I had a lovely friend who sadly passed away but before he died he invited family and friends to have a farewell drink with many bottles of Cristal. Sadly there were quite a few who didn’t appreciate either the gesture or the quality and the gathering descended into using paper cups and over indulging - it was quite distasteful but for me, I remember him, and the wine, fondly. It was in 2011 so I can’t remember the vintage but the cost, I was told, was in the region of £300 per bottle.
Working in a restaurant once (around 2007ish), the manager opened one bottle of Cristal to share with the entire staff of about 20+ of us. So the pour was not very much per person. I even remember announcing to everyone "This is really expensive. Pay attention to how it tastes." But I have to say, I knew NOTHING else about the wine at that time. And at the time, I didn't think much of it. I have gotten to a point where I feel like knowing the story behind a wine largely influences my perception of it. I would love to try it again to see if that is the case with this wine. Love your channel. Cheers.
I found your channel roughly a week ago and find it very interesting. I have to admit: I am far from being a wine connoisseur. I think (on my own palette) I can distinguish a very cheap wine from a better one but I am talking about a price region at max of around 10 EUR a bottle (yes, yes, pun intended). I can not taste and distinguish the various nuances in a wine but I can what I can taste is whether a wine has more nuances than an other one. Having said that: Your channel want's me to try more expensive wines (which means for me to go in the region of max. 30 EUR, which is a lot of money for me for a bottle of wine). Just to see if I can taste a difference. So: Thank you so much for your channel and your work. PS: The moment you wanted to try some food together with the Roeder Cristal some cheese came to my mind. And yes: You put up some cheese on the table. I love that: Having some cheese, some fruits, maybe some salami and/or pastry and a wine. If you take into account how much this all does cost compared to a simple cinema visit ... the food session is probably cheaper, is more healthy, makes more fun and taking into account how bad movies are nowadays it is reliable fun. PS2: I am a whisky drinker and I have the same feeling regarding food: Eating some simple food and drinking a good whisky could also be heaven on earth (and I don't mean the effects of the alcohol).
I drank the 2002 twice; the first time was probably around 2014, it was great but a bit on the austere side - a great drink that did not leave any lasting memories more than that. The second I had in 2018/19 and that was a different experience: maybe the most memorable wine experience I ever had, a probably perfect champagne; I can still remember the flavours. Conclusion: I will not drink a Cristal young again.
Yes I have tasted it is my favorite champagne along with Pol Roger Winston Churchill cuvee .........the 1996 was fabulous !.............Have you tried the latter ? ?
Maybe try a Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2008? I have had the pleasure of trying the 2007 a few times and it is absolutely amazing. Still have a bottle of 2006 in the cellar waiting for it's moment. I'm curious about the 2008 though since it has a lot of hype :) It's also double the price of what i paid for the 2007!
Love the video, I'm opening a bottle this evening!! Looking forward to it even more having learned so much of the story. Why did you suggest a larger glass for such a great champagne?
I had the 2006 vintage and was not surprised. It had some elegance and fine mousse but just not wowing, not like Leeuwin art chard or Billecart salmon rose experience. Maybe too high the expectation for cristal. Please please make a vid on Salon. I don’t see myself emptying the wallet for one anytime soon.
I have a bottle of 2002 that I can't afford to drink... I bought it at a tax free in an airport in Norway and it cost about $140.. I bought it just because I had memories of seeing MTV cribs and they always ha this mysterious champagne in their fridges but I had never seen one IRL so I just had to buy it... Now times or tough and it wouldn't bring me any joy, quite the opposite if I opened it up.. Is the 2002 as great as the one in the video? I have no plan other than just keep it and hope it goes up in value and then sell it, but I don't know how long one can store these before they go bad. probably not optimal temperature in my fridge, but at least better than room temp
I just bought a bottle of the Cristal 2012 and a bottle of 2006 dom rose for our upcoming anniversary, any suggestions on cheese parings to go with those two? Thanks!
Maybe try some grower producer champagne? Lallier, Agrapart, etc. Piper Heidsick you can usually get at a really cheap price, Pommery is in that 40-50 USD range, Veuve Cliquot has a bad rep but have gone strides to improve their NV reputation over the past few years and their vintage champagne's are up there with the best of the cheap price vintage champagne's. I've heard good things about Franck Bonville which is in that 30-40 range for NV. There's around 5000 producers of champagne in the region of champagne, going a little outside of the box can really save you some money and find a lot of bang for your buck
Would like to ask why not give a 100 point? I understand it is not the practice, but what do you miss from the wine? What would make it a perfect score? Thanks!
Thanks. I think you can see that from my scores - the 12 Cristal is the clear winner, even though the Dom P is already more approachable right now and the Cristal will be even better in a few years.
I am not sure why, but I never really liked the 2012 Cristal. I have also had the 2012 Rose. I actually prefer the much cheaper Runart Bland De Blancs. In terms of Rose I have enjoyed the Dom Perignon Rose. I also really enjoyed the Penfolds X Thienot. If I am invited to a tasting, I prefer to go to a Krug tasting than a Cristal. There is one about once a month here and I am always a little disappointed when they are doing Cristal.
recently started working for a wine importing company in korea which deals mostly Mosel wines and all of a sudden MW from Germany pops up in my youtube. RU-vid is probably stalking me lol
@@KonstantinBaumMasterofWine . . . ' Agree ' to which - ? ... that it is in need of at least 5 years to be approachable ? ... or it is ' enjoyable ' now as you stated in reply to an earlier comment ? ... Can't be both .
Yes, I have tasted Cristal, I tasted the 2009 vintage last year and I have to say I did not like it. I also wrote a review about it on facebook which is the reason why I can tell you very precise what I did not like about it. In my opinion it tasted like coffee, citrus an walnut which is not the problem but all these flavours seemed to stand beside eachother like you sip on a coffee, citrus water and some kind of walnut liqueur in a row. I have no problems with complex wines with a lot of totally different flavours but the wine should have a harmonic taste and I just thought that they just did not fit. All in all I have to say there were some much cheaper champagnes I liked more not to speak of Dom Perignon and Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill but I also know that especially vintage champagnes should not taste in the same way ever year (that's why they are vintage champagnes of course) and mybe I will try another vintage or Roederer Cristal in future.
The 2009 was not the best Cristal ever but maybe you had a bad bottle or this is not your "style". The great thing about those wines is that there is a bit range in styles so you can pick and choose the styles that you prefer and maybe Roederer just isnt for you.
@@KonstantinBaumMasterofWine Maybe you are right, the only thing that is really sad about it is that I would have to spend much money to really find out.
@@spiritalex9397 I too had the 2009. I didn't pick up the coffee and walnut. More like red and green apples, almonds, white flowers, brioche... and very fine bubbles. Could it have been a fake? A few times I've gotten a bottle where I'm hit with the feeling that it was a fake (was the Clos de la Roche supposed to taste like a village level red when the lower rated Mazoyeres was truely fantastic)... I don't know how widely spread fraud is among champagnes... You have my sympathies. It sucks to spend good money on a bad wine.
@@thorfischer-olsen6504 I do not think that it was a fake because I bought it from reputable merchant and not on the secondary market like from someone at ebay. Another reason why I don't think its a fake is that I suppose that Roederer Cristal is still ab bit to cheap to be interesting for faking it. I am for sure no expert with this but I think if I had to fake a bottle of wine I would start with something which has a price level from 500 € or higher. That is the point: Maybe I just had a bad bottle and if this had been one for lets say around 50 € I might have instantly bought another one to check it, but not for around 200 €. Anyway, thanks for your reply.
Many red wine go great with lots of cheese. White wine is a bit difficult for me, but not impossible. I enjoy a good Chardonnay or Vermentino with Swiss cheese, which is easier to find in my part of the world.
Interesting somehow. But a lot of fuzz about a way overpriced Champagne. I by myself stick with some very, very fine Champagnes from small vignerons. For a really fair pricing. And I'm thinking they have at least also a lot of work to. Not only Mister Roederers workers like he pointed out: "It costs a lot of money ..." Bullshit in my opinion - all marketing jibber jabber. Don' t fall for it. Great idea with the cheese, I imagine a picnic in the summertime with the beloved lady of the heart ...
