A Short History of Cristal

Cristal was created in 1876 by Louis Roederer as a private commission for Tsar Alexander II of Russia, who was already the Champagne house's biggest client — the Russian imperial court was buying hundreds of thousands of bottles of Roederer a year by the early 1870s. Fearing assassination and wary that a poison or explosive could be hidden in the deep punt (indentation) of a standard dark-glass bottle, the Tsar asked Roederer to bottle his personal cuvée in clear lead crystal with a flat bottom — so he could see the wine's color and bubbles and confirm nothing was concealed beneath it. Roederer commissioned a Flemish glassmaker to produce this bottle, and the wine took its name, Cristal, from the crystal glass itself. It's generally regarded as the first prestige cuvée in Champagne history. The original version was quite sweet, reflecting the Russian court's taste, with sugar levels reportedly as high as 100 g/L. In 1908, Tsar Nicholas II granted Roederer the title of official supplier to the imperial court, after which Cristal bottles began carrying the Romanov coat of arms in medallion form.