The 2008 Cristal Rosé Late Release is a blend of 56% Pinot Noir and 44% Chardonnay with 8 grams per liter of dosage. 16% malolactic was performed and 17% of the base wines were vinified in French oak. Pale salmon-pink colored, it shimmies out of the glass with youthful scents of cranberries and wild strawberries, opening out to hints of brioche, candle wax, lavender, and wet slate. The palate is wonderfully elegant and whispery, delivering minuscule, pinprick bubbles and a crisp backbone to match the bright, intense red berry flavors, finishing long and perfumed. This stunning new iteration sits between the standard Cristal release (minimum 6 years on lees) and the Vinothèque release in terms of aging prior to release. This 2008 was disgorged in March 2022. The "Late Release" edition of the already remarkable 2008 Cristal Rosé adeptly adds that extra layer of texture, complexity, and finesse, taking it to the absolute pinnacle of what it can be. Bravo!

The 2008 Cristal Late Release is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay with 8 grams per liter of dosage. 19% malolactic was performed and 20% of the base wines were vinified in French oak. It opens with a real WOW! Grapefruit, limes, honeycomb, and coriander seed scents jump from the glass, followed by suggestions of honeycomb, almond croissant, and crushed rocks. The palate is amazingly intense with shimmery citrus fruit and spicy layers framed by exquisitely fine bubbles and a crisp line of acidity, finishing very long and zesty. This stunning new iteration sits between the standard Cristal release (minimum 6 years on lees) and the Vinothèque release in terms of aging prior to release. This 2008 was disgorged in March 2022. The "Late Release" edition of the already remarkable 2008 Cristal adeptly adds that extra layer of texture, complexity, and finesse, taking it to the absolute pinnacle of what it can be. Bravo!

The newly-released Louis Roederer “Collection 246” non-vintage Brut is from the base year of 2021, which comprised fifty-five percent of the blend. Thirty-five percent is from the perpetual reserve started more than a decade ago for this bottling and the final ten percent is of various individual reserve wines that complete the mosaic. The final cépages ended up being fiftyfour percent chardonnay, thirty-five percent pinot noir and eleven percent pinot meunier. Only thirty percent of the vins clairs ended up going through malo for this iteration of the Collection and the wine was finished with a dosage of seven grams per liter. It offers up a bright and elegant bouquet of pear, apple, bread dough, chalky minerality, raw almond and a topnote of white flowers. 156 On the palate the wine is crisp, precise, full-bodied and complex, with a fine core of fruit, lovely mineral drive, elegant mousse and a long, beautifully balanced and still quite youthful finish. This is very tasty out of the blocks, but like all of the Collection Series released thus far, the Collection 246 will be an even better drink with two or three years in the cellar. It will age several decades. 2026-2060.

A beautifully weighted and pure NV Champagne from Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon. Hits all the right spots. Plenty of weight and creamy texture, balanced by precise, focused fruit flavours, a super-fine mousse and freshening, lingering acidity on the finish. The Collection project goes from strength to strength.

The newly released 2018 vintage of Cristal is still a very young wine and reminds me quite strongly right now of the 2009 Cristal when it was first released. The wine this year is composed from a cépages of fifty-seven percent pinot noir and forty-three percent chardonnay. Twenty-eight percent of the vins clairs this year were barrel fermented, and as always, none went through malolactic fermentation. The wine was disgorged after six years aging sur latte and finished with a dosage of seven grams per liter. The bouquet is bright, precise and youthfully complex, wafting from the glass in a mix of apple, white peach, almond, brioche, a complex base of chalky soil tones, just a whisper of oak influence and a topnote of lemon zest. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with a superb core of fruit, fine soil inflection and grip, supremely elegant mousse and a long, seamlessly balanced and classy finish. This is still a puppy and truly deserves some extended hibernation time to allow its secondary layer of complexity to start to emerge. That said, it is certainly not hard to drink in its youth! 2035-2085+.