Louis Roederer Cristal 2014

A bottle for a tsar

Louis Roederer began as Dubois Pere & Fils in 1776. Louis Roederer inherited the business in 1833, gave it his name, and set out to sell abroad, above all to Russia. In 1876 the house created Cristal, the first prestige cuvee, for Tsar Alexander II.

The bottle is the story. Wary of assassination after his 1867 visit to Paris, the tsar is said to have asked for a clear bottle so he could see what was inside. Roederer had a Flemish glassmaker make a transparent lead-crystal bottle with a flat bottom, a revolutionary design for the time. The house later became official supplier to the Russian imperial court under Nicholas II.

For nearly seven decades Cristal was not sold to the public. It first became commercially available in 1945.

2014: continental spring, oceanic summer

The 2014 season in Champagne began well, with a sunny, dry spring and a heatwave in June. Then the weather turned. Cellar master Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon described a 'beautiful, dry, continental' spring followed by 'a very oceanic summer with lots of rain.' September rescued the vintage, turning hot, sunny and very dry.

Roederer used 39 of the 45 plots available for Cristal in 2014, up from 30 in 2013. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from seven villages: Verzenay, Verzy, Beaumont-sur-Vesle, Ay, Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Cramant. About 32% was fermented in oak, and the wine did not go through malolactic fermentation.

The 2014 was the first Cristal made using a technique the house calls 'jetting' to manage oxygen. It spent seven to eight years on its lees and was disgorged on June 3, 2021, with 7 grams per liter of dosage from organic cane sugar. Lecaillon called it a 'wine of character, elegance and freshness,' perfumed and refined.

The family and the farming

Louis Roederer is one of the few large Champagne houses still family-owned and independent, run by the Rouzaud descendants of the founding family. It farms about 240 hectares across three zones of Champagne and makes about 3.5 million bottles a year, 70 to 80 percent of it the non-vintage Brut Premier.

Roederer is also the largest biodynamic estate in Champagne, with about 75 hectares farmed that way. Since the 2012 vintage all Cristal has come from biodynamically farmed fruit, making 2014 the third fully biodynamic Cristal. The house received a green emblem from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate in 2021 for its sustainability work.

Cristal's fame spread far beyond wine circles. In the 1990s and 2000s it became a fixture of hip-hop culture. In 2006 managing director Frederic Rouzaud said he viewed rappers' enthusiasm with 'curiosity and serenity,' and Jay-Z responded by announcing a boycott, yet Cristal's sales doubled between 2004 and 2010. Production grew from 300,000 to 400,000 bottles a year in the early-to-mid 2000s to about 800,000 by 2010.

How it was received

One critic, writing in February 2022 under the headline 'does it match all the hype?', scored the 2014 99 points, describing a pale lemon wine with citrus, oyster shell and chalk and fresh, green-apple acidity. Wine Spectator scored it 98 and named it number 10 in its 2022 Top 100; Jeb Dunnuck also gave 98. Vinous and Wine Enthusiast scored it 97, with Wine Enthusiast naming it the top wine of its 2022 cellar selections; Wine Advocate and James Suckling gave 96 and Decanter 95.

Vinous called it 'a dark horse,' built along linear lines rather than opulence, with energy, tension and strong saline accents. Wine Advocate called it 'a terrific effort that transcends the vintage.'

The bottle today

Cristal is made in far larger numbers than the rarest prestige wines; one U.S. retailer's listing reports 9,181 cases of the 2014 brought into the United States alone. At release in the United Kingdom it was quoted at about 275 to 300 pounds a bottle.

In October 2026 a U.S. merchant listed the 2014 at $339.99 a bottle. That is an asking price, not a sale.

The numbers

Blend

60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay

Plots used

39 of 45 available

Oak fermentation

32%

Dosage

7 g/l

U.S. imports

9,181 cases, per one retailer listing

Wine Spectator

98 (No. 10, Top 100 of 2022)

Jeb Dunnuck

98

Vinous

97

Wine Advocate

96

Timeline

1. 1776

   The house is founded as Dubois Pere & Fils in Reims.

2. 1833

   Louis Roederer inherits the business and gives it his name.

3. 1867

   Tsar Alexander II visits Paris amid fears for his safety.

4. 1876

   Roederer creates Cristal for Alexander II in a clear, flat-bottomed crystal bottle.

5. 1945

   Cristal goes on sale to the public for the first time.

6. 2006

   Frederic Rouzaud's remarks about rappers prompt a boycott call from Jay-Z.

7. 2012

   Cristal becomes fully biodynamic from this vintage.

8. Jun 2014

   A June heatwave caps a sunny, dry spring; a cool, rainy summer follows.

9. Sep 2014

   A hot, sunny, very dry September brings in the 2014 harvest.

10. Jun 3, 2021

    The 2014 Cristal is disgorged after about seven years on lees.

11. Feb 2022

    A critic scores the newly released 2014 at 99 points.

12. 2022

    Wine Spectator ranks the 2014 No. 10 in its Top 100.

13. Oct 2026

    A U.S. merchant lists the 2014 at $339.99 a bottle.

The world in 2014

• Feb 7, 2014

  The Winter Olympics open in Sochi, Russia.

• Mar 8, 2014

  Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears with 239 people aboard.

• Mar 18, 2014

  Russia formalizes its annexation of Crimea.

• Jun 29, 2014

  ISIS declares itself a caliphate.

• Jul 13, 2014

  Germany beats Argentina 1-0 to win the World Cup in Brazil.

• Jul 17, 2014

  Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing 298.

• Sep 18, 2014

  Scotland votes to remain in the United Kingdom.

• Nov 12, 2014

  The Philae probe makes the first landing on a comet.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Louis Roederer Cristal 2014 is number 82 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (75 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Cristal's clear bottle was reportedly designed so Tsar Alexander II could see that nothing was hidden in his wine.
• Cristal was made for a private client for almost 70 years before it went on public sale in 1945.
• Cristal's original crystal bottle had a flat bottom, a revolutionary design in 1876.
• The 2014 skipped malolactic fermentation entirely, and only about a third of it saw oak.
• Sales of Cristal doubled between 2004 and 2010, despite a 2006 boycott call from Jay-Z.
• The 2014 used 39 of Cristal's 45 possible plots, nine more than the year before.