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combines a silky texture with a complexity and depth of avour

to which only truly great wines can aspire - and one which,

while ready to drink now, has a long life ahead of it.

Nearly 140 years after Cristal was created, this remarkable

Champagne continues to win accolade after accolade. It was

recently named Drink of the Decade by readers of leading

industry magazine The Drinks Business, while Cristal Rosé

2002 topped the rankings of FINE Champagne magazine's

100 Best Champagnes for 2014.

In the pink

Created in 1974 almost 200 years after Louis Roederer

was established - and nearly a century after the creation

of Cristal - Cristal Rosé is made from painstakingly

selected old Pinot Noir vines in the nest Grand Cru

vineyards of Aÿ, where the unique soils yield grapes

of exceptional maturity, purity and balance.

It's the rst time that a rosé has won this top award,

and it's all the more remarkable when you consider

that the Champagne ranked third in the top 100 was

Louis Roederer Cristal 2002. It's safe to say that even

the Russian Tsars would have been impressed by that.

Cristal's memorable

methuselahs

The 2002 Champagne vintage was one to remember

for its purity, harmony and understated power -

prompting Louis Roederer, for only the second time,

to release a limited number of Cristal methuselahs

from this ve-star harvest.

Such special editions are part of the DNA of this

Champagne house: after all, Cristal was the original

bespoke Champagne back in 1876, and this release

comes 15 years after Louis Roederer released an

exceptional collection of 2,000 methuselahs of 1990

Cristal in time for the millennium celebrations.

The release of the 2002 Cristal methuselahs - only a

very limited quantity will be available in the UK, at select

luxury retailers including Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey

Nichols and Hedonism - comes hard on the heels of

another Cristal 2002 special edition.

The elegantly eye-catching Louis Roederer

Cristal 2002 jeroboam medallion bottle was

created by acclaimed designer Philippe

di Méo, with its delicate 24-carat gold

latticework armour the result of a painstaking

process involving two master goldsmiths and

four days of work. In all, 700 metres of brass

tape were dipped in 24-carat gold and pieced

together by hand using 508 silver weld-points.

'All I could think of was the light of the wine

protected in a clear bottle that was imposing

due to its size,' di Méo explains. 'No shadows

on the bottle, only re ections from a "sun".

From this idea emerged that of a delicate

lattice like a jewel against the skin.'

Only 400 of these exceptional

jeroboams have been produced for

the entire world, with the rst 200

released in 2013, and constituting an

appropriately elegant and re ned

showcase for one of Champagne's

greatest recent vintages.