Tasting Notes
JancisRobinson.com 17
62% Cumières Pinot Noir, 38% north-facing Chardonnay in Chouilly. Disgorged early 2017. They keep the Pinot Noir at 4 °C and encourage a long maceration so it’s still juice. When the colour is right they rack and add the Chardonnay juice and then ferment them together. Lécaillon says they don’t make a non-vintage rosé because the colour is not consistent. Subtle with a dry finish. Very readable already for such a young wine.
Anticipated maturity: 2017-2024
Robert Parker 98
The 2012 Cristal Rose is showing brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with a beautiful bouquet of fresh peach, bergamot, strawberries, tangerine and blanched almonds that’s still quite reserved. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, deep and strikingly complete, its vinous attack segueing into a multidimensional core that exemplifies the ideal of power without weight, built around a racy but integrated spine of animating acidity and complemented by an exquisitely refined mousse. All the concentration of the 2012 vintage is on display, but it’s rendered with terrific finesse. Decidedly youthful and introverted—indeed, I spent several hours with a bottle to compose this note—the 2012 will really come into its own with five or six years in the cellar and displays all the attributes necessary for considerable longevity. It’s a blend of 56% Pinot Noir and 44% Chardonnay that saw no malolactic fermentation, and it was disgorged with eight grams per liter dosage.
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2065
