x
  • Country ranking ?

    178
  • Producer ranking ?

    5
  • Decanting time

    No
  • When to drink

  • Food Pairing

    Seafood, Salads & Consommes

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Vintage 1996

Up to this point 1996 has been considered a fantastic vintage which produced classic wines; the best since 1990. A long, dry summer produced grapes of record ripeness with record acidity. Some, including myself, question how the 1996s are aging. The wines are generally characterized by a distinctive rather lemony acidity and very good attack, but some wines now seem terribly austere, while others already seem dangerously short of fruit. None of the subsequent vintages are quite as distinctive as 1996, which in the more successful cases should almost certainly be drunk after the 1999s.

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

Launched in 2018. Different balance of the three stages of ageing. Just 400–500 bottles. This needed longer on lattes because of the high acid – 10 or 11 years sur lattes, just four years sur pointes and seven years before disgorgement. Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon: ‘I want to keep sugar for ageing. We don’t want to go Extra Brut for Cristal. Maybe I would for immediate drinking but I know this wine will need to travel and perhaps age.’ Skins were very thick and bitter – high phenols, and maybe more terpenes than usual. 
Deep straw. Very firm and grown-up and very Cristal. Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon prefers the original disgorgement for 1995 but Vinothèque for 1996. Really exciting and beautiful and firm. Lovely tight bead. So clean and fresh.

  • 98p

The 1996 Cristal Vinothèque is a magnificent, towering Champagne. Bright and yet deep, with tremendous flavor intensity, the 1996 is a real stunner. The flavors are remarkably pure and crystalline, with tons of energy that gives the citrus and floral character its vibrancy. I have been fortunate to taste the 1996 a few times in the past. This is its best showing yet. The 1996 Cristal Vinothèque spent ten years on its lees, flat (sur latte), and another four years upside down (sur pointe), the first period to get a slight oxygenation, and the second to bring the wine back into a slightly reductive state. Dosage is 7 grams per liter, using a custom liqueur made from bottled wine and liqueur, as opposed to the Cristal from cask that is used for the first release of Cristal and Cristal Rosé.

  • 98p
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Information

Origin

Reims, Champagne

Other wines from this producer

Blanc de Blancs

Brut Nature Rosé

Brut Nature Starck

Brut Premier

Carte Blanche Demi-Sec

Carte Blanche Sec

Collection 241

Collection 242

Collection 243

Collection 244

Coteaux Champenois Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Hommage à Camille

Cristal

Cristal Rosé

Cristal Rosé Vinothèque

Rosé Brut

Vintage

Vintage Blanc de Blancs

Vintage Rosé

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