2012 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Rose Champagne with Gift Box 1.5L

Winemaker's Notes The bouquet is both elegant and deep, with dark berries (blackcurrant) and fruits of the forest (blackberry, wild strawberries). There is also a hint of perfectly ripe Morello cherry. Reminiscent of concentrated tangy jam. The immediate effect on the palate is velvety, silky and enchanting - characteristic of the great Pinot noir from Ay, simultaneously intense with aromas and with a tight structure, all the while remaining delicate, subtle and ethereal.

Over the years Louis Roederer has developed a unique method for the production of its rosé champagnes. This process, referred to by Roederer as the ‘infusion’ technique, allows us to extract the juicy, ripe character of the Pinot noirs whilst preserving their exceptional freshness. A small amount of Chardonnay juice is added to the Pinot noir maceration which then ferment together and integrate harmoniously.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM


Jeb Dunnuck - "Just about as good as it gets, the 2012 Cristal Rosé is a magical effort based on 56% Pinot Noir and 44% Chardonnay. It’s a powerful, medium to full-bodied, incredibly textured rosé offering a huge amount of salty, chalky minerality as well as awesome notes of white cherries, orange blossom, caramelized apples, and toasted bread. It shows the ripe, rounded richness of the 2012 vintage yet has bright, racy acidity, perfect balance, and a great, great finish."


James Suckling - "This is a great vintage for Cristal Rosé. The pinot noir finds a band of power and expressiveness. The power here is impressive, very assertive and rich, really mouth-filling and super deep. This is exceptional and has intense, chalky and fresh, white-peach and nectarine aromas, underpinning red flowers and pink fruit. The palate has a scintillating blend of flesh and mineral cut, packed with such sweet, pristine, white-strawberry flavor and texture. This has such incredible potential. So exciting. Will take another two or threw years to resolve. Look out for this! Drink from 2025."


Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - "The 2012 Cristal Rosé is showing brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with a beautiful bouquet of fresh peach, bergamot, strawberries, tangerine and blanched almonds that's still quite reserved. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, deep and strikingly complete, its vinous attack segueing into a multidimensional core that exemplifies the ideal of power without weight, built around a racy but integrated spine of animating acidity and complemented by an exquisitely refined mousse. All the concentration of the 2012 vintage is on display, but it's rendered with terrific finesse. Decidedly youthful and introverted—indeed, I spent several hours with a bottle to compose this note—the 2012 will really come into its own with five or six years in the cellar and displays all the attributes necessary for considerable longevity. It's a blend of 56% Pinot Noir and 44% Chardonnay that saw no malolactic fermentation, and it was disgorged with eight grams per liter dosage."


Vinous - "The 2012 Cristal Rosé is magnificent. When Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon started to move Roederer towards organically farmed fruit, he started with Cristal Rosé, Roederer’s smallest production cuveé. Because of that, Cristal Rosé is the wine in this range that shows the current Roederer style in its fullest expression. Rich, vivid and crystalline in the glass, the 2012 Cristal Rosé is a Champagne of tremendous gravitas. Chalk, white flowers, sweet red berry fruit, mint and blood orange are all beautifully delineated. The 2012 is 55% Pinot from Ay and 45% Chardonnay from Mesnil and Avize. The Pinot fruit gets a 7-10 day cold soak an is the infused into the fermenting Chardonnay musts. Readers who can find the 2012 should not hesitate, as it is truly magical. Dosage is 8 grams per liter. 98+"


John Gilman - "The 2012 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Rosé is a magical wine in the making. It is composed this year of a blend of 56% Pinot Noir and 44% Chardonnay, with 15% of the vins clairs having been barrel-fermented in this vintage. None of the vins clairs underwent malo this year and the finishing dosage for the 2012 is eight grams per liter. The wine is superb and just a bit more accessible out of the blocks than the regular 2012 Cristal, wafting from the glass in a very refined constellation of apple, white peach, gentle smokiness, chalky soil tones, a nice touch of fresh-baked bread, caraway seed, incipient smokiness and a top note of dried flowers. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, racy and bottomless at the core, with lovely mineral drive, refined mousse, impeccable focus and grip and a very, very long, very pure and nascently complex finish."


Wine & Spirits - "The energy in Cristal Rosé converts the umami power of its black-skinned grapes into bright raspberry freshness; it transforms the earthiness of those grapes into a limestone veil, creating delicacy out of pale rock. The energy extends the flavors of the wine so that each time you return to the glass, the transparent fruit continues to deepen, from thimbleberry to strawberry and raspberry, gaining intensity while remaining transparent. It’s the kind of dynamic energy that can survive in an eight-year-old wine if the fruit is farmed in a sweet spot—in the case of Cristal Rosé, pinot noir planted in the 1960s in Aÿ, and chardonnay from Avize, all from midslope parcels, all from chalk soils. The wine’s color comes from the grape skins, macerated just long enough to infuse the juice without adding perceptible tannins. Concentrated and ripe, this is a nourishing vintage of Cristal Rosé."


Wine Enthusiast - "Years in the making, this is the first fully biodynamic Cristal rosé. The very fine 2012 vintage is a good starting point for this new era. The Champagne is just right, beautifully rich and showing some maturity while also having tension and crispness from the golden-apple and spice flavors. The wine could be drunk now but its future is assured. Organic and biodynamic. "

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