Cristal 2009: best to jump in early

The 2009 vintage of Louis Roederer’s Cristal is now being offered and with back vintages of top Champagnes rising in price it’s a good idea to jump in early.

The 2009 Cristal has already drawn praise from the likes of Antonio Galloni who has praised its “superb length” and “exceptional balance”. He rated it 94-96.

At that price it is at a similar level to the 2006 and 2007 vintages – although it is not quite as well rated. On the other hand it is cheaper than all vintages from 2005 back.

The 1999 for example is rated 92-points by Galloni but now costs a little under £2,000 per dozen, twice as expensive as it was on release in May 2005.

As reported recently there is a lot of activity around the 2000, 2002 and 2004 vintages of Champagne at present, while vintages from the 1990s are becoming increasingly difficult to find which is in turn driving up their price.

the drinks business examined the behaviour of grande marque Champagne in the secondary market last year, finding that while prices for these labels are less likely to rise in the short term thanks to a succession of recent vintages and a change in attitudes to Champagne as an investment wine, it doesn’t take too long for them to begin delivering impressive returns.

The abundance of recent vintages means there is little movement in the 2005, 2006, 2007 vintages (and now 2009 as well) from Dom Pérignon, Comtes de Champagne or Cristal. Yet as the 2000-2004 trio begin to become scarcer, attention must, inexorably, shift towards those more recent vintages.

The Champagne indices on Liv-ex appear to be marching on strongly at the moment. Last month the Champagne 50 rose 3.1% while last week Champagne accounted for 23.8% of the share of trade by value on the exchange. Salon’s 2002 and 2004 vintages took the largest shares of trade by value, while Bollinger’s 2004 was the most traded wine by volume.