Top Champagne Lot 2014

2 absolute favorite Champagnes

Cristal 2014 in gift box.
99 points in Falstaff
98 points Suckling.
Huge champagne, which Falstaff writes is irresistible now but which is guaranteed to grow further 🥂 read further below.

Gosset Grande Reserve
Champagne's oldest winery in their Grande Reserve version.
Their regular champagne was house Champagne at the world's best restaurant, El Bulli, where I first came across it.
Here in their Grande reserve which tastes absolutely fantastic and is a big and complex champagne.

Both come in OC gift boxes.


Falstaff on Cristal 2014:
99 points. An initially faint but distinct hint of freshly cut green but ripe apple, of lemon. Subtle florality, a mere touch of freesia, hints at more nuance to come. More time in the glass reveals a sense of still briny oyster shell. The palate is like a summer breeze, caressing the palate with the finest, creamiest foam – and again that saltiness that is utterly seductive and appetizing. There is immense vertical richness in that creamy but svelte texture. Despite the generosity, the creaminess, there is nothing superfluous to obscure the wine's essential and clear-cut luminosity. This is a model of sleekness, understatement and depth, an utterly compelling combination of briskness and emollience. Irresistible now but guaranteed to evolve.