“The 2014 Cristal Rosé is a stunning, age-worthy bottling that really needs 30 plus minutes of air prior to consuming. For my palate this eclipses the incredible ’99 and ’02 bottlings — and is absolutely amongst the finest Cristal Rosé wines ever produced. A short decant in a narrow decanter also does wonders to arouse the aromatics. Given 7G/L dosage, this was disgorged more than two years ago in June 2022. Sourced from the villages of Aÿ, Avize, and Mesnil-sur-Oger, nearly 20% of the base wines were stored in oak prior to disgorgement. This is big and burly with a refined effervescence. Delicate strawberry and red raspberry alongside chalky soils and nuances of kumquat zest with candied ginger all mark the palate. The length and elegance of the wine really shines as this is already drinking beautifully. Drink 2024-2044”

The brand new Louis Roederer “Collection 244” non-vintage Brut is from the outstanding base year of 2019. This was a ripe year (as was also the case with both 2018 and 2020), but one that has produced truly exceptional wines thus far and looks likely to be eventually considered a great vintage year when those bottlings are released down the road. The cépages of the Collection 244 is forty-one percent chardonnay, thirty-three percent pinot noir and twenty-six percent pinot meunier. Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon notes that the slightly higher percentage of pinot meunier in the blend this year was from cooler Montagne de Reims sites to keep the alcohol a bit lower in this hot summer. Fifteen percent of the vins clairs were barrel-fermented, with only thirty-five percent of the still wines having gone through malolactic fermentation for the 244. The wine was disgorged in January of 2022 and finished with a dosage of seven grams per liter. It offers up a beautifully refined nose of apple, white peach, brioche, fresh almond, chalky soil tones, just a whisper of oak, gentle smokiness and a lovely, delicate topnote of meunier floral tones. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and still quite youthful, with a fine spine of acidity, excellent focus and cut, a lovely core of fruit, fine mineral drive and grip, refined mousse and impeccable balance on the long and nascently complex finish. Like all of the Collection Series releases from Louis Roederer, the 244 is built to age long and gracefully and this is still very early days for this excellent wine. I would opt to tuck it away in the cellar for five or six years and really let it come into its own. Fine, fine juice. 2024-2060.

Cristal 2016 represents a return to purity and classicism for this cuvée, even seen through the lens of 2016's ripe, generous opening. It is characteristically discreet in youth, cloaking its ripeness in long, chalky, stony energy. Gentle mandarin, pale apricot and raspberry fruit sit under slowly maturing notions of floral honey and tight, smoky charm. There's an airy, flowing delicacy and persistence which lifts this cuvée above some other expressions of this year. It's a hugely promising Cristal, likely to stand as tall as the sought-after 2012 and 2013 releases.

There's a succulent quality to the nectarine, white cherry and melon fruit flavors on display in this elegant rosé, though a firm spine of well-meshed acidity provides fine definition. Plush and creamy in texture, with a minerally underpinning of chalk and smoke, backed by pleasing hints of pink grapefruit pith, pickled ginger and toast that linger on the finish. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Drink now through 2034.

A seamless Champagne, deftly knitting flavors of crushed black raspberry, tangerine peel, chalk and Marcona almond with the fine china–like acidity and satiny mousse. The graceful balance gives this an effortless feel, but there's intensity and drive to this well-tailored version. Long and fragrant on the finish, with hints of ground ginger, blood orange zest and mineral. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Drink now through 2040.