Tyson Stelzer’s Top Ten Champagnes of 2019

Louis Roederer Cristal Rosé

In any pursuit, it is only the most daring and courageous who succeed at the very highest level, only the trailblazers who risk everything and take the biggest gambles who define new horizons. Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon’s unique ‘infusion’ technique of rosé creation has everything to lose and everything to win and never has he won like he did in 2008. The desperate, beguiling purity of the superlative 2008 season attains a breathtaking pinnacle in Cristal Rosé. This is, singly and unequivocally, the greatest champagne that has landed since the thundering Clos du Mesnil 2002. And it just might be the greatest rosé I have ever tasted.