Christine Havens

9.5

As stately as I expected it to be (can one really expect anything less of a wine as legendary as Cristal in one of Champagne's most celebrated vintages?) glinting pale gold, the color of a freshly-minted coin. The 2002 Champagne Cristal Brut Millésimé is imbued with soaring notes of pear and smoke, brioche and chalk. Disgorged in 2009, this is a precise wine—it has a sort of crystalline weightless density, with fruit buoyed by a fine mousse, and edgy saline-tinged minerality emerging at the close. 10 grams dosage.

"You must be as precise as a Swiss watchmaker, I tell my team," our host, M. Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, Chef de Caves at Roederer stressed. Precision in spades. — 9 years ago

Robert Cunningham

Wine Educator DeVinimus, Wine Workshop

9.5

Big and rich. Solid tannin core with soaring fruit in the palate. Great nose and palate and finish. Lovely and complex. Number 2 wine of the night. A great success. — 9 years ago

Ron Siegel

9.8

Mouton Vertical dinner. This was one of the best 86 Moutons that I have tried and certainly worthy of its Perfect rating. Deep dark color with its soaring nose of red and black fruits, sweet cassis and Asian spice, cedar, mint and vanilla, a monster of a wine but tonight very complex and aromatic, almost sexy showing great intensity on the palate. — 10 years ago

Ron Siegel

9.5

Black cherry, soaring aromatics with Asian spice, dried herbs and underbrush love the tension and grip surprising for the vintage as this is showing young but very open, — 10 years ago

Christanna Honer

9.4

Nectarine, apricot and pear, evolves into spring flowers and sea salt. Palate is surprisingly complex, fruit is balanced, acidity soaring, and that bit of white pepper hits on the finish w a pleasant touch of almondy bitterness. — 11 years ago

Ben Aneff

Managing Partner Tribeca Wine Merchants

9.5

Awesome. Soaring aromatics, shocked it's drinking so well so young. — 11 years ago

Alina Ferguson

10

Hello weekend. And happy #grenache day! — 12 years ago

Martin G Rivard

9.3

@David A Lentine @Gina Sabean @Christine You know that you are drinking GREAT wines when you can say that a Realm Beckstoffer To Kalon came in last. I love this producer beyond measure!! Every wine they make is a hit. Everyone tonight agreed that drank by itself it would have been amazing. However, it still needs a few years to open up and spread its wings!! All of my bottles were decanted for 8 hours today, I began formulating thus rodeo of a lineup around 11am. The Realm had huge dark fruit but too many rough edges in comparison to the others. In all honesty, these are so good that we are splitting hairs but alas they must be ranked and that is how the Cookie Crumbled this evening. — 9 years ago

with Christine and Gina

Luis Arteaga

10

I love this wine. Discovered it while living in Omaha and went to the winery. Excellent flavor and easy to drink — 9 years ago

Kyle Schlachter

Writer Colorado Wine Press

9.2

Cherries, dried strawberries, balsamic reduction and dried rose petals. Tannins still grippy and acid still soaring. — 10 years ago

Andrew Fortgang

10

Drinking great! Mucho secondary biz with cooked fruit hiding behind. Glad to have 05 and 06 waiting in the wings. #alittlebretisagoodthing — 11 years ago

Brad Desmond

10

The secret ingredient is butterfly wings. — 11 years ago

with Nathan and Claire

Miranda Williams

9.7

This wine goes extraordinarily well with medium flavored wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. Really brings out the taste of sage. — 11 years ago

Michael Knisley

9.1

acústic gives me wings... — 9 years ago

Kim Stanbro

8.9

Great as a base for cioppino. Also great to drink alongside it! — 9 years ago

with Dave

Eric Guido

9.4

Tonight, the '06 Lagier Meredith Syrah, is showing like a top-shelf Cote Rotie. The nose is displaying intense, rich dark fruits, soaring floral aromatics, sweet spice & herbs, moist earth and crushed stone. On the palate, a mix of crushed blackberries, raisins, licorice and plum saturated the senses complemented by sweet herbs, and hints of citrus. As intense a display as it is, the textures remain refined and fresh. The finish is long with bitter dark fruit and remnants of fine tannin. Although ripe, it shows tremendous depth and energy. — 9 years ago

Erica Orr

9.0

Delish w crispy chicken wings — 10 years ago

V VanZanten

9.3

Would unquestionably be better in five years. But after five hours in a decanter? Notes of freshly opened plastic water wings and freshly killed game. #creepybutdelicious #littlekidnightmare — 11 years ago

Jeff Hackmeister

9.0

Very aromatic, earthy and floral — 11 years ago

s sashihara

9.6

soaring complexity in the nose; raisins dark plum acidity with background structure — 12 years ago