Louis Roederer, Cristal Vinotheque Brut 1997 - 150cl

Roederer kept this back for twenty years before letting it go. The 1997 Cristal spent fifteen years on its lees, then a further five en pointe — neck-down, in contact with the last of the yeast — before disgorgement in 2018. That is the whole idea of Vinothèque: identical wine to the original release, held under cork in the house's cellars rather than yours, and opened at a point Roederer chose rather than one the market forced.

What that time does is turn Cristal's usual precision into something saltier and stranger. The nose leads with preserved lemon and salted yellow plum, then walnut, toast and roasted chestnut, with dried pineapple sitting behind. Underneath it all runs iodine — a proper sea-air salinity that Cristal never entirely loses and that two decades on lees seem to sharpen rather than soften.

On the palate the mousse has gone silky and fine, more texture now than bubble. There is salted toffee, more of that preserved citrus, and a mineral spine that keeps the whole thing taut. It finishes long, bone dry and saline. The remarkable part is how young it still reads for a wine bottled in 1998.

In magnum, with this much cellar history behind it, you are buying something close to a one-off. At £1,459.99 that is a serious sum, and it buys a genuine rarity rather than a label.

How to Serve

8–10°C, and please use white-wine glasses. A flute will hide almost everything this wine has spent twenty years developing. Open it half an hour before you pour, and don't decant — the mousse is fragile now and air is all it needs.

Where to Drink It

Scott's in Mayfair, where the shellfish is good enough to meet it halfway. Wiltons on Jermyn Street for the old-school service a bottle like this deserves. Or J Sheekey, if you want the oysters and none of the ceremony.

Food Pairings

Native oysters, and not much else. The salinity in the wine and the salinity in the oyster do something neither manages alone. If you want a plate rather than a shell, roast turbot on the bone.