Created in 1876 to satisfy the demanding tastes of Tsar Alexander II, Louis Roederer’s Cristal has since become a symbol of luxury all around the world. Produced only during the best years, it’s made from 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, the grapes coming from 45 of the finest lieux-dits in the region. 2013 was a late bloomer, with flowering only taking place in July after a cool spring. The summer was ideal with long periods of dry and warm weather. One third of the wine is aged in oak and there’s no malolactic fermentation. Vincenzo Arnese: Packed with elegant yet powerful aromas of ripe orchard trees that merge with brioche and dry cookies. This is a harmonious and well-defined Champagne with integrated residual sugar and astonishing acidity. Divine! Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW: Lemon coloured with a pink hue. Like a blanc de noirs, with cherries and white fruit aromas. Balanced and suave. Goes from less to more, with an exceptionally long and complex finish. Amanda Barnes: Appealing notes on the nose of pastry dough and apple tart that are very open. On the palate there’s beautiful concentration with lingering savoury notes. Minerally and sophisticated. Nominated by Peter Liem

Drinking Window: 2023 - 2050

Reviewer Name: Vincenzo Arnese, Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW and Amanda Barnes

Review Date: 1st December 2022

I've revisited Roederer's 2013 Cristal four times since I reviewed it in April of this year—including several times from my own cellar—and I had to admit that even my lavish praise didn't do it full justice. Combining the cool-vintage cut of 2008 with the more completely mature fruit of 2012, the 2013 Cristal might well be said to represent the perfect combination of the two from a purist's perspective. The wine unwinds in the glass with notes of crisp orchard fruit, white flowers, almond paste and citrus oil, followed by a medium to full-bodied, seamless and multidimensional palate that's intense but weightless, with racy acids, a pinpoint mousse and a long, penetrating finish. Drink the 2008 Cristal on its own, and you're unlikely—to put it mildly—to have any complaints; but compare it directly with the 2013 and you'll see Roederer's rapid progress in the vineyards writ large.

Drinking Window: 2025 - 2060

Reviewer Name: William Kelley

Review Date: 23rd September 2021

This is quite chalky with firm phenolics that frame the wine beautifully. It’s medium-to full-bodied with strawberries and earth. Dense, linear and intense. Hints of brioche and pie crust at the end. Very structured and gorgeous. Salty and lightly chewy. One third of the base wines fermented and aged in oak. Connoisseur Champagne. From organic vineyards of the Roederer domains. Smaller production than normal. Seven years on the lees. Give it two or three years to open.

Reviewer Name: James Suckling

2013 is a dynamic wine with an exquisite salty and chalky expression on the finish. While the perfume is not as reticent as the palate there is still a mesmerising scent of strict citrus notes and faint nuttiness. There is arresting purity and drive here in fact a sip leaves one out of breath, such is the complexity on offer and the time taken for the palate to compute what is happening.

The 2013 Cristal is a wine of extraordinary precision and tension. Searing acids drive a bold, racy Champagne that won’t be ready to offer its best drinking anytime soon. In recent vintages, Cristal has been quite open on release. That is far from the case with the 2013. Readers should plan on being quite patient. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir (from Aÿ, Verzy, Verzenay, Beaumont-sur-Vesle) and 40% Chardonnay (Mesnil, Avize, Cramant). Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon was especially selective and used only 30 out of the potential 45 plots that are typically available for Cristal. About 32% of the lots were done in oak, the rest in steel, with the malolactic fermentation blocked across the board. It was an October harvest, the sort of harvest that has become increasingly rare in Champagne. Lecaillon describes the summer as similar to 2012, but adds the vines were a month behind in their development. In tasting, the 2013 reminds me of the 1996 in its austerity, even more so than the epic 2008. (Originally published in May 2021)

Drinking Window: 2028 - 2053

Reviewer Name: Antonio Galloni

Review Date: 1st November 2021

Light straw-yellow hue. The bouquet is exquisitely complex, figuring toasted bread, dried fruits, dried flowers and much more, the taste intense and precise, powerful yet subtle, with beautifully balanced acidity and impressive depth of flavour. Wonderful lemon-citrus, faintly honeyed flavours. It has a refreshing, moreish dryness and cleanness on the finish and aftertaste. This is a very approachable Cristal, a lovely drink right now. (60% pinot noir, 40% chardonnay; 32% vinified in oak, zero malolactic. Dosage 8 grams/litre)

Drinking Window: 2021 - 2028

Reviewer Name: Huon Hooke

Review Date: 13th April 2021

Very fresh. Very tight on the nose. Extremely youthful and tense. Needs to unfurl. Tight and dry on the end. Long but embryonic. Lots of citrus elements. Elegant.

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2036

Reviewer Name: Jancis Robinson

Review Date: 18th November 2021

I think the 2013 Cristal checks in behind the 2008, but it's nevertheless a beautiful wine. Lots of ripe orchard fruits, toasted bread, brioche, and chalky mineral notes define the nose, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a layered, nicely concentrated, tight, inward style, beautiful precision and purity, and a great finish. It needs a good 5-7 years of bottle age to hit its stride and will keep for two decades or more.

Drinking Window: 2026 - 2048

Reviewer Name: Jeb Dunnuck

Review Date: 30th April 2021