… my true love sent to me seven bottles of Louis Roederer’s Cristal 1988. For New Year’s Eve Champagne is clearly the only option – and this is Champagne with bells on.
While footballers and D-list celebrities are making do with the current release 2002 (delicious but a mere baby at only eight years old) this 1988 is a far more serious proposition. Properly mature top level Champagne is an extraordinary drink. Delicately sparkling, creamy yet taut, ripe, nutty, utterly delectable.
Established in 1776, Champagne Louis Roederer is one of the few remaining completely independent family owned, great Champagne houses. By 1886 the House had achieved such a reputation for quality that the second Louis Roederer was asked by Tsar Alexander II to create Cristal for the exclusive use of the Russian Tsars, and in so doing created the first Cuvée de Prestige. The bottles were made of crystal, hence the name, while the wines would have been considerably sweeter than their modern counterparts.