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  • Country ranking ?

    580
  • Producer ranking ?

    33
  • Decanting time

    5min
  • When to drink

    now to 2030
  • Food Pairing

    Garden pea & cucumber and mint gazpacho

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

In 1876 when Tsar Alexander II requested that a special cuvée be created for his court Roederer duly obliged, creating what many regard to be the first prestige cuvée. 

As the political situation in Russia was somewhat unstable, Tsar Alexander feared assassination. He ordered that Champagne bottles be made of clear glass, so that he could see the bubbles and to prevent anyone from hiding a bomb within, as could easily happen with a typical ...

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Wine Information

Louis Roederer II, his son, receives the credit for developing Cristal. The Russian Tsar was absolutely taken with Roederer champagne: in 1873, some 666,386 bottles, which amounted to approximately 27% of its entire production, were delivered to the court of Alexander II. In order to formalise Roederer’s status as official purveyor to the Imperial Court of Russia, Alexander II commissioned Louis Roederer to produce a very sweet, prestige blend...

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Vintage 1982

One of the decade’s best vintages, which can be excellently enjoyed already now. The winter was cold and the spring cool. The cold weather moved the start of the growth season and enabled the vines to avoid spring frosts. The inflorescences, which bloomed in June, enjoyed perfect conditions. The warm and sunny weather continued through summer all the way until early September, when refreshing and needed rains arrived in the area. They saved th...

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Average Bottle Price

2016 2015 2012 2010 2005 2000
706€ +11.7% 632€ +7.1% 590€ +21.1% 487€ +89.5% 257€ +129.5% 112€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Latest Pro-tasting notes

32 tasting notes

Tasting note

color

Medium, Straw and Bright

ending

Long, Flavorful and Lingering

flavors

Bread, Apricot, Meaty, Mineral, Caramel and Chocolate

nose

Complex, Seductive, Generous and Intense

taste

High in Acidity, Perfectly balanced, Well-Integrated, Multi-dimensional, Developing, Medium-bodied, Vigor, Refined and Dry

Verdict

Intelligent and Impressive

Written Notes

Bright deep golden colour. A clean, but powerfully mature character: walnuts and toast. Waxy, dried fruit and apricot nose. Harmonious palate with high acididity, lively amazingly smooth mousse and a vinous rich texture. Soft and mellow wine. Long-lasting raisiny and waxy finish. At a great drinking age now but there is no rush.

  • 98p

aturday night couldn’t come soon enough, this time at Restaurant Daniel.  We started off swiftly with a fight of old Cristal.  The 1982 Louis Roederer Cristal had a butterscotch and wheaty nose, a bit sandy with some nice zip to it.  Its palate was honeyed, long and still fresh.  Dave admired its ‘tertiary’ flavors (95+). 

  • 95p
One of this vintage's really top wines. Luxuriously scented and creamy rich. Slightly high dosage, but devastatingly good with its overflow of vanilla, almonds, honey, white chocolate, and citrus aromas when mature. One of the most brightly shining stars in the Cristal heavens at present. A half-notch from the 97 at this stage.
  • 96p

One of my all time favorites, the 1982 Cristal is magnificent. Fresh, nuanced and exceptionally beautiful, the 1982 remains one of the all-time great Cristals. Apricot, almond and chamomile nuances suggest the 1982 is just starting to turn the corner into its plateau of maturity. This bottle lacks a bit of excitement, but, then again, the 1982 Cristal is not exactly the sort of wine I get to taste on a regular basis, so it is possible this is not the best showing. Hopefully, I will get a chance to taste it again soon. Even so, well-stored bottles will drink well for another decade-plus. “In my opinion, 1982 is the first vintage of climate change in Champagne,” Lécaillon explains. “Sugars were higher than we were used to seeing. As a comparison, the 1981 Cristal is also concentrated, but it is concentrated by low yields. In 1982, we had high yields and elevated ripeness, meaning it was the sun that ripened the fruit.”

  • 96p

Cristal 1982 / Disgorged in 1987. A dream vintage, after 1980 and 1981 – catastrophic because of very low quantity. High quantity and high quality (like Bordeaux). Med pH 65% PN, 35% Chardonnay. 23% oak fermentation.

Lovely truffley fully developed nose. Tightly wound and very intriguing. Rich underneath. Very flattering and gorgeous. Finishes a little skinnier. Lots of mushrooms on the palate. Long. Quite rich really Very much a wine rather than a champagne, with some real weight. Very fine and neat and dense. Perhaps slightly less concentrated than the 1990 and 1996.

  • 96p

Golden. Apples, minerals, fruity, fresh nose, elegant, detailed nose. Fresh acidity, playful, fresh, fruity, elegant, nuanced, playful, lovely balance, long. 94

  • 94p

Fresh, apples, honeydew melon. Dry, vivid, intense, light-bodied, delicate palate with brioche and vanilla wiener flavour. Long concentrated palate. – JL – Aug 25, 2018

  • 96p
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Information

Origin

Reims, Champagne

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Below Average

Fake factory

None

Glass time

30min

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Inside Information

I was completely blown away by the 1982 Cristal. This towering, monumental wine possesses incredibly vibrancy and delineation in its white truffles, honey and hazelnuts. This bottle shows some of the tertiary notes found in the 1979 but married to an intense expression of ripe fruit. While the 1979 is fully resolved the 1982 has another decade-plus of fine drinking ahead of it. The 1982 is 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. 20% of the wine was aged in oak. This bottle is an original disgorgement from 1987 or 1988 and received 12 grams of dosage. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2019.
In the Cellar 
Mar 2009
Antonio Galloni 98 Drink: 2009 - 2019 $737-$825
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