Cristal launches Vinothèque

Champagne Louis Roederer has released the first of its extremely limited edition, extra-aged Cristal, known as ‘Vinothèque’.

The release covers the 1995 brut and rosé, which were disgorged just over 10 years ago but then kept back in Roederer’s cellars to age.

The Vinothèque wines also have a slightly lower dosage of 7g/l compared with the usual 9g/l for the standard Cristal expression due to longer lees ageing as well, as cellar master revealed to the drinks business three years ago.

Just 400 bottles of the brut and 200 bottles of the rosé have been released meaning global allocations are extremely tight. In the UK Richard Billett, managing director of the Roederer Group’s distribution arm in the UK, Maisons Marques & Domaines, told db he expected just 48 bottles of the brut and 12-18 bottles of the rosé to be made available.

The bottles (no larger formats have been released – this time) have initially been offered to the premium off-trade and high-end on-trade.

The wines were introduced by the house at a ‘surrealist spectacular’, held at Roederer’s Reims headquarters in early October to celebrate its 241st anniversary.

Although Roederer’s executive vice-president, Michel Janneau, conceded that the amount of wine released was “infinitesimally small”, he added, “fear not – it is not without sequel; other vintages will follow this.”