Intense nose of preserved lemons, salted yellow plums, walnuts, toast, salted caramel, roasted chestnuts and dried pineapple. Beautiful and complex, from 15 years, 5 years en pointe, before disgorgement in 2018. Delicious, salty toffee character. Soft, silky bubbles. Long and powerful. Thought-provoking. Unique. Will be launched in September 2022. Drink on release or hold.

The 1997 Cristal Vinothèque spent 15 years sur lattes and four years sur pointes (where bottles are stored neck-down to minimize contact between the lees and the wine, as well as ensuring a hermetic seal to the bottle) before disgorgement. It has shown brilliantly both times I've encountered it this year, unwinding in the glass with scents of sweet citrus fruit, peach, spices, iodine and fresh bread. Medium to full-bodied, racy and incisive, it's a precise, chiseled wine with a deep core and a long, saline finish.- WK

Vivid acidity and fine, pointillisme-like texture is the canvas on which flavors of dried apricot, tangerine peel, browned sugar, chopped hazelnut and fennel seed are finely layered. There’s a strong mineral presence as well, with an overtone of oyster shell and a racy streak of salinity echoing on the satinlike finish. Mouthwatering. -- Non-blind Cristal Vinothèque retrospective (June 2025). Drink now through 2040.