1979 Louis Roederer Cristal

A totally breathtaking Champagne, the 1979 Cristal (magnum) is exotic and stunningly beautiful. Remarkably vivid for a wine of its age, the 1979 is simply emotional. White flowers, orchard fruit, graphite, tangerine oil, spice, dried fruit and citrus confit are some of the many notes that emerge from this spectacular, vibrant Champagne. From magnum, the 1979 is quite a bit fresher than bottle, which is hard to believe, as the bottles are magnificent. The 1979 is just a life-affirming wine. Moreover, it clearly harkens back to another era in Champagne, a time when vineyards were older and before the arrival of new clones and heavy fertilization strategies aimed at increasing production. On paper, 1979 should not have been a great year,” Lécaillon said. “It’s a super complicated vintage. When I went back to the vin clair notes from just after harvest, which I did recently, they all read ‘bitter, bitter, green, bitter.’ And then the wine ends up like this. I can’t explain it. You know, back then we used a lot of taille (second pressing), 10-15%, and it worked. Today, everyone says ‘I just bottle the cuvée, the taille is not interesting. I am using taille more and more. You know, taille is the juice you get closer to the skin, and in some years, it carries a lot of aromatics,” Lécaillon explained. “I think the future of wine is coming back to what is classic. The perfect imperfections,” he adds. This is the original disgorgement from 1985, with dosage of 12 grams per liter, typical of the era.