2006 Champagne Louis Roederer, Cristal, Brut (2020 Late Release)
Critics reviews
The 2006 Cristal is a rich, explosive wine that captures all of the natural radiance of this warm year. Ample and full-bodied, the 2006 is one of the more extroverted recent Cristals. As such, it will drink well now, even though it has more than enough body to drink well for another 20 years or more. This shows real density and tons of character. It’s a big wine. “In retrospect, we might have preferred a lower dosage, but the wine was quite difficult to balance in blending, so we had to go for a higher dosage,” Lécaillon adds. Dosage is 9 grams per liter. Disgorged: 2014.
Drink 2023 - 2043
Antonio Galloni, Vinous (March 2023)
The 2006 Cristal shows rich and ripe (tropical) fruit on the nose along with delicate brioche notes. Round and textured on the palate, this is a generous but fresh, fine and salty Cristal with a very long and greatly finessed finish. Tasted in New York, November 2018.
Drink now to 2050
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (November 2018)
About this WINE
Louis Roederer
Founded in 1776, Louis Roederer is a family-owned, independent Champagne house with a well-deserved reputation for quality. It is managed by Frédéric Rouzaud, the seventh generation to be at the helm.
In 1876, Louis Roederer created the now-famous Cristal at the request of Alexander II. This once intensely sweet wine is now one of the most luscious, deeply flavoured champagnes available, with the '88, '89 and '90 among the greatest Cristals ever released.
Louis Roederer’s best-selling non-vintage blend for almost 40 years, Brut Premier, has recently been replaced by Collection 242. This new multi-vintage blend was created by Chef du Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon in response to increasingly warm vintages. The cuvée aims to capture freshness and is based on a perpetual reserve which focuses on acidity and minerality.
Brut Champagne
Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé.
Non-vintage Champagnes can improve with short-term ageing (typically two to three years), while vintages can develop over much longer periods (five to 30 years). The most exquisite and often top-priced expression of a house’s style is referred to as Prestige Cuvée. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.
Recommended Producers : Krug, Billecart Salmon, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Salon, Gosset, Pierre Péters, Ruinart
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
The 2006 Cristal is a rich, explosive wine that captures all of the natural radiance of this warm year. Ample and full-bodied, the 2006 is one of the more extroverted recent Cristals. As such, it will drink well now, even though it has more than enough body to drink well for another 20 years or more. This shows real density and tons of character. It’s a big wine. “In retrospect, we might have preferred a lower dosage, but the wine was quite difficult to balance in blending, so we had to go for a higher dosage,” Lécaillon adds. Dosage is 9 grams per liter. Disgorged: 2014.
Drink 2023 - 2043
Antonio Galloni, Vinous (March 2023)
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