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- 2008 Louis Roederer, Cristal Rose
$LROE
2008 Louis Roederer, Cristal Rose
Bottle size (ML)
Current price
$809
Start Your Wine Collection with 2008 Louis Roederer, Cristal Rose
Begin your portfolio with a prestigious wine that has a history of growth.- Enjoy fully managed, secure storage facilities with insurance coverage.
- Get expert advice on when to hold and when to sell.
Vinovest 100Part of our index that tracks the 100 most investment-worthy wines in the world
11.6% of All Producers of Fine Wine
Grand MarqueMajor Champagne house with international brand recognition & undying customer loyalty
3.2% of Fine Wine Producers in Region
Top VintageBehold! One of the finest vintages of this wine ever made.
61.1% of Vinovest Wines
Top 5A top 5 wine in the region
17.0% of All Fine Wine
100-Point WineHello, perfection. This wine earned a 100-point rating from critics.
6.9% of All Fine WineCritics Scores
Wine Enthusiast
Interestingly released after the softer 2009 version of this wine, this 2008 vintage is beautifully balanced between crisp fruit and ripe maturity. With its red fruits still in place, it also has a toasty yeasty edge that is sophisticated and enticing. It is a superb wine, delicious to drink now although because of the quality of the vintage it will age for many more years.
Wine Spectator
Like fine china, this graceful rosé Champagne is all about delicacy paired with form. Vibrant acidity provides well-honed structure, fleshed out by the detailed flavor range of white cherry, slivered almond, candied ginger, pink grapefruit pith and spring blossom as this rides the satiny mousse. Minerally smoke and chalk notes echo on the finish. Drink now through 2030.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The finest rendition of this cuvée that Lécaillon has produced to date—and, indeed, one of the finest wines produced by any of Champagne's important houses in the last two or three decades—is the 2008 Cristal Rosé, a brilliant wine that derives from a mere four of the 45 plots that are candidates for inclusion in Cristal: two blocks of Pinot Noir from Aÿ, one of Chardonnay from Mesnil and another from Avize, and I suspect that its origin in the crème de la crème of Roederer's Cristal-worthy holdings has even more to do with the extra dimension it possesses above and beyond its white counterpart than the delicate infusion of Pinot Noir phenolics that give it its delicate pink hue. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of wild strawberries, tangerine, warm pastry and crisp green orchard fruit, the 2008 is medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a racy but beautifully integrated spine of acidity, a multidimensional core and a searingly chalky and laser-focused finish. Impeccably balanced and harmonious, this superb wine represents one of the qualitative peaks of this great vintage. It will be seven or eight years until it truly starts to blossom, but its benchmark quality is already glaringly apparent.
John Gilman
Like the 2008 Cristal, the 2008 Cristal Rosé is the finest young vintage of this cuvée that I have ever tasted. The vineyards used for this cuvée have been farmed entirely biodynamic since the 2007 vintage and the wine was finished with a dosage in ’08 of 7.5 grams per liter. This is simply a brilliant young vintage of Cristal Rosé, offering up a stunningly pure and precise bouquet of fraises du bois, tangerine, complex, chalky minerality, white flowers and a touch of caraway seed in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, refined and full-bodied, with a flawless, completely seamless structural chassis, great depth at the core, elegant mousse and superb complexity and grip on the perfectly balanced, refined and laser-like finish. The 2008 Cristal Rosé is still a baby and will need at least another seven to ten years to start to truly blossom, but its magic is already very easy to behold. Rosé Champagne simply does not get any better than the brilliant 2008 Cristal!
Region Summary
Champagne is the original gold standard. For centuries, this famous fizz has been synonymous with opulence, celebration, and romance. Combine that preeminent status with surging demand, and Champagne offers a surefire way to add sparkle to any portfolio.
Why We're Investing
Champagne is the most famous and lauded producer of sparkling wine in the world. While other wine regions have imitated this bubbly beverage, none have duplicated its success. Its trademark on the word has only reinforced the region’s reputation as ground zero for authentic Champagne. Unlike most prized wine regions, Champagne experiences cool temperatures that can slow ripening and leave grapes more acidic and less sugary. While the conditions contribute to Champagne’s unique style, frost poses a perennial problem. A single cold front can devastate an entire harvest. As a result, great Champagne vintages are exceedingly rare (e.g., 2004, 2008, 2012). The solution: a reserve stock system. The region’s governing body requires that Champagne producers store 20 of their wine during bountiful years to meet demand during lean ones. This uniquely Champagne safety net provides a hedge against poor vintages and allows houses to manage supply and prices. That way, buyers see less volatility in price performance than in other regions. Stability isn’t the only reason we’re investing. Champagne has been the best-performing wine region over the last five years. It also ranks second best since 2003, behind only Burgundy. That’s not all. According to the Liv-ex Champagne 50, an index that tracks top Champagnes, the region has appreciated every year since the index’s inception, save for 2015. While glitzy brands like Dom Pérignon, Krug, and Louis Roederer dominate the headlines, Champagne’s hallowed grounds are also home to the humble yet equally compelling grower Champagne. This name typically refers to Champagne made and bottled by the same person. By contrast, most Champagne houses use a blend of grapes from dozens or even hundreds of regional growers. Only produced in small batches, these eclectic wines have made stars out of Jacques Selosse, Ulysse Collin, and Cédric Bouchard and have brought more demand to the region. Here’s the most important part. While the most expensive Burgundies will cost you a small fortune (re: tens of thousands of dollars), Champagne has relatively affordable entry prices, on par with those from Napa Valley and Bordeaux. With this blend of performance and accessibility, it’s easy to see why Champagne is the toast of the fine wine industry.
What's the Latest
If there is a limit to the global demand for Champagne, we have yet to reach it. Clever marketing and shifting consumer tastes have fueled continued growth despite headwinds, including rising inflation and a sluggish global economy. In 2021, Champagne exported a record 179.6 million bottles. That figure marked a 37.31 increase from the previous year, and a 15.1 increase from 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. The surge in demand has cascaded into the secondary market. A decade ago, Champagne accounted for only 2 of trade share by volume. Today, it is the third most traded region at 8.4, trailing only Bordeaux (38.8) and Burgundy (21.4). Buyers are also becoming more adventurous. More than 570 different Champagnes were traded on the secondary market, a sevenfold increase in the past ten years. The strongest demand has come for large format bottles, which are rarer than the 750 mL format and a uniquely Champagne offering. According to Liv-ex, big bottles have risen from 5.9 to 18.0 of Champagne’s trade share over the last three years.
Looking Forward
The white-hot performance makes Champagne a coveted region amongst any wine enthusiast. With the prestigious brands, relative value, and global demand, there’s reason to think this trend is here to stay. Even though trade is concentrated among a few well-known houses, the region has more than enough depth to appease all degrees of connoisseurs. The numerous strengths should buoy Champagne even in choppy economic waters. That’s in part because of Champagne’s reputation as a luxury good and connections with French luxury holding companies like LVMH and EPI. Luxury goods tend to fare better than other sectors during downturns thanks to steady demand from high-net-worth clients. The extra layer of recession resistance will serve Champagne collectors well no matter what the future has in store.