Louis Roederer Cristal Rose 2014

A tsar's clear bottle, a century later in pink

Louis Roederer began in Reims in 1776 as Dubois Pere & Fils. Louis Roederer inherited the business from his uncle in 1833, put his own name on it and went after foreign markets, Russia above all. Cristal, widely called the first prestige cuvee, was created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II. The story goes that the tsar, who lived in fear of assassination, wanted clear bottles with flat bottoms, so he could see the bubbles and so nothing could be hidden in the deep punt of an ordinary dark bottle. Roederer had a Flemish glassmaker make a clear lead-glass bottle, and the wine was named for it.

After the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917, the house kept making Cristal and took it to the wider world; it became commercially available in 1945. The rose came much later. In 1974, almost 200 years after the house was founded and about a century after the first Cristal, Jean-Claude Rouzaud decided to make a Cristal Rose. He chose old-vine Pinot Noir, propagated by massal selection from the best plants in the vineyard, from the house's top grand cru sites in Ay.

Rouzaud had come into the business in 1967 after studying viticulture, persuading his mother's side of the family, who owned Roederer, to give him a chance. He worked alongside the veteran vineyard manager until he took over as winemaker in 1973. Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, who would later run the cellars, said he believed it was the first time a chef de cave had come from the vineyards, and that this is why Cristal Rose was the first prestige cuvee to speak so loudly of terroir. The first vintage, 1974, came from a difficult year.

Not a blend but an infusion

Most rose champagne is made by adding a little red wine to a white blend. Rouzaud wanted skin contact instead. Roederer calls its method 'infusion': Pinot Noir grapes macerate cold, with no fermentation and no punching down, and after the juice is drawn off, a small amount of Chardonnay juice is added and the two ferment together. The fermentation never happens on the skins, which keeps the wine fresh and mineral, a champagne rather than a red wine. Lecaillon likens it to cold-brewing tea, and has traveled to Japan to learn from tea masters. 'We are not in the business of winemaking; we are perfume-making,' he has said.

The technique has been refined over the years. With the 2008, Lecaillon lengthened the skin contact from two or three days to between five and eight, at a cooler temperature, for a more delicate profile. The 2007 was the first Cristal Rose from biodynamically farmed fruit, which one writer describes as a first for any prestige cuvee in Champagne; the rose went fully biodynamic before the regular Cristal, which followed with the 2012 vintage. Lecaillon has said that biodynamic treatments suit sunny years while in cooler years organic farming is preferred, and one critic's note on the 2014 describes it as made from organically grown grapes.

Rouzaud's original Pinot Noir came from three plots in the Bonottes area of Ay: Bonotte Pierre Robert, Gargeotte and Cote du Moulin. This side of Ay, toward Dizy, is very chalky, and Pinot Noir there grows on what is essentially Chardonnay soil, which writers credit for the wine's lightness and minerality. The Chardonnay comes from the Cote des Blancs, from a parcel called Pierre Vaudon in Avize and one called Montmartin in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

The 2014 'weather waltz'

Roederer calls 2014 a 'weather waltz' of sharp contrasts. Spring was sunny and dry and ended with a June heat wave. Summer turned autumnal, cool and rainy; Lecaillon said some areas got twice the usual rain, mostly in the Cote des Blancs and the Marne Valley, with much less in the Montagne de Reims. Then came a hot, very dry September that he said 'changed everything,' and the house picked as late as it could to capture the extra ripeness. The house credits the well-drained chalk of the lower-middle slopes for carrying the summer's excess water away.

The 2014 Cristal Rose is 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay, from Ay, Avize and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Nineteen percent of the wines were vinified in oak, there was no malolactic fermentation, and the dosage is 8 grams per liter. One critic who tasted it wrote that it comes from two plots of Chardonnay and two of Pinot Noir; another noted it derives from just a handful of the more than 39 blocks that went into the regular Cristal 2014.

The house's own tasting note describes a pink wine with coppery tints and a texture that unfolds in two stages, silky and broad at first, from the late ripeness, then firm and fresh, from the cool summer. It was on the market by June 2023, when one merchant noted that Vinous was then the only major critic to have rated it.

What the critics said

William Kelley of the Wine Advocate scored it 97, writing that it 'has turned out beautifully' and that, comparatively open from the start, it would drink well while its 2013 counterpart sleeps in the cellar. Stuart Pigott, for James Suckling, gave it 98 after tasting it at a Cristal vertical at the house on July 6, 2023, calling it a sparkling rose masterpiece just beginning to open up, built to age well.

Alison Napjus of Wine Spectator gave it 96, with flavors of peach tart, poached apricot and mandarin orange, and a drinking window to 2038. Jeb Dunnuck's site scored it 97 and advised holding it a few more years and then drinking it over the following 30. Wine Enthusiast gave 97 and La Revue du Vin de France 96.

The Vinous score is reported two ways. At release in June 2023, a merchant quoted Antonio Galloni's score as 97+; retailers in 2026 list the Vinous score as 98. Both are shown here as reported.

How to know what you are holding

Cristal Rose is made only in exceptional years. In the 50 years from 1974, Roederer released 25 vintages: 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Asked what makes a Cristal Rose year, Lecaillon said it has to be a year of perfumes, and that he never knows until the grapes have infused.

The bottle is the clear, flat-bottomed Cristal bottle, and the wine shows through it as a pale pink with coppery glints. The 2014 is a vintage wine labeled Brut Rose Millesime; the regular Cristal 2014 is a different wine, 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from 39 plots, with 32% oak fermentation and a dosage of 7 grams per liter. With Cristal, Roederer has also adopted 'jetting,' a burst of wine injected into the bottle just before corking to drive out oxygen, which it used on the rose before the 2014 Cristal brought it to the white.

In fall 2026 a New York merchant listed a single 750 ml bottle at $690, and a national online retailer listed one at $839.99. At release in June 2023, a European merchant offered it at 400 euros a bottle, ex-duty and by the case.

The numbers

Roederer vineyards

About 240 hectares, covering two thirds of the house's needs

Cristal plots

45 plots on about 80 core hectares; 39 used for the 2014 Cristal

US imports of the 2014 Rose

719 cases (Wine Spectator)

Wine Advocate (William Kelley)

97

James Suckling (Stuart Pigott)

98

Vinous (Antonio Galloni)

97+ at release; listed as 98 by retailers

Jeb Dunnuck / Wine Enthusiast

97 / 97

Wine Spectator (Alison Napjus)

96

Timeline

1. 1776

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

2. 1833

   Louis Roederer inherits the business from his uncle and renames it.

3. 1867

   At the Three Emperors Dinner in Paris, Alexander II asks for clear champagne bottles, by the traditional account.

4. 1876

   Cristal is created for Tsar Alexander II.

5. 1917

   After the fall of the Russian monarchy, Roederer keeps making Cristal for the wider world.

6. 1945

   Cristal becomes commercially available.

7. 1967

   Jean-Claude Rouzaud joins the house and starts in the vineyards.

8. 1973

   Rouzaud takes over as winemaker.

9. 1974

   First vintage of Cristal Rose, from old-vine Pinot Noir in Ay.

10. 1998

    Lecaillon replants the lieu-dit La Villers in Ay with massal selections from Rouzaud's plots as a future Cristal Rose site.

11. 1999

    Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon becomes chef de cave.

12. 2007

    The first Cristal Rose from biodynamically farmed fruit.

13. 2008

    Skin contact is lengthened to five to eight days.

14. 2012

    The regular Cristal becomes fully biodynamic with this vintage.

15. Jun 2014

    A heat wave ends a dry spring; a cool, rainy summer follows.

16. Sep 2014

    A hot, dry September rescues the vintage; Roederer picks late.

17. Jun 2023

    The 2014 Cristal Rose is on the market.

18. Jul 6, 2023

    The 2014 is tasted at a Cristal vertical at the house and scored 98.

19. Sep 2024

    Cristal Rose's 50th anniversary is marked with a vertical tasting in Reims.

The world in 2014

• Feb 7, 2014

  The Winter Olympics open in Sochi, Russia.

• Mar 8, 2014

  Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears en route to Beijing.

• Mar 21, 2014

  Russia formally annexes Crimea.

• Jul 13, 2014

  Germany beats Argentina to win the World Cup in Brazil.

• Sep 18, 2014

  Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom.

• Nov 12, 2014

  The Philae probe lands on Comet 67P, the first landing on a comet.

• 2014

  The West African Ebola epidemic becomes the most widespread outbreak of the disease on record.

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 Rose 2014 is number 58 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 (46 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Cristal Rose has been made in only 25 vintages since 1974.
• At the 50th anniversary tasting, only 58 bottles of the 1976 Cristal Rose were said to remain in Roederer's cellars.
• Cristal Rose's cellar master compares its making to cold-brewing tea, and went to Japan to study with tea masters.
• Cristal Rose went biodynamic before the regular Cristal did.
• The Pinot Noir for Cristal Rose grows in Ay on chalk so pure that it is essentially Chardonnay soil.
• In 2006 Jay-Z announced he would no longer drink or serve Cristal; production of Cristal doubled between 2004 and 2010 anyway.