Sparkling
Cristal
Champagne
Created in 1876 for a single, security-obsessed customer - Tsar Alexander II - and still made in the same clear, flat-bottomed crystal bottle he demanded so no one could hide anything beneath the glass. It stayed a private wine for the Russian court until the 1917 revolution ended that arrangement; Cristal wasn't sold commercially until 1945.
Vintages
- 2009
A warm year producing riper, more immediately approachable Champagne than the more austere vintages around it.
- 2008
Widely considered one of the finest Champagne vintages of the 21st century: razor-sharp acidity, real minerality, and the kind of aging potential that made houses like Salon build entire mythologies around it.