# Has anyone here ever tried Cristal champagne? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211 "2009-12-31T18:48:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/1 "2009-12-31T18:48:27Z")
The beverage of choice for rap artists everywhere. I was in the local wine store yesterday looking for a sparkling beverage with which to ring in the New Year, and spotted a few bottles of Cristal in a locked case. At about $250, it’s a little (OK, a lot) over my budget. So has anyone here ever tried the stuff? If so, what does it taste like? Does it live up to it’s reputation? Did it meet or exceed your expectations? ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/2 "2009-12-31T21:35:05Z")
Had it on a cruise once (10 years ago or so) for $150/bottle. Whoop dee do. I’ll stick to Veuve Cliquot. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/3 "2009-12-31T21:40:41Z")
At those prices, I’ll bet they don’t pour out a share for the homies. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/4 "2009-12-31T21:49:47Z")
Yup. Had a bottle back in the mid-90s or so, I think it was '89 vintage or thereabout (?). One of my husband’s customers (he’s a letter carrier) gave it to him as a Christmas present. He said that since he didn’t save the life of their dog/kid/grandma or anything, either they didn’t know the value (unlikely) or just didn’t care for the stuff (possible) and had received it as a gift themselves. I ended up drinking most of the bottle since my husband and the couple we split it with weren’t that impressed. It’s perfectly decent but I wouldn’t go out of your way to get it over something you prefer. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/5 "2009-12-31T21:49:54Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > At those prices, I’ll bet they don’t pour out a share for the homies. That’s covered in the video budget so it’s all good. As to the OP. Nope. I’ve had Cook’s every Jan. 1st when I worked at a hotel that threw New Year’s Eve parties. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/6 "2009-12-31T22:00:16Z")
My impression is that anything that rappers think is good, is basically on par with common brands, merely more expensive. The way I always saw it is that rappers are rubes who suddenly became wealthy and who have no clue what the good stuff is or how to evaluate it. As I understand it the point isn’t to drink the good stuff, but to make people who are poorer than you are BELIEVE you are drinking the good stuff. Having a bottle from some exclusive vineyard actually FROM the Champagne region wouldn’t impress the yokels back in Brooklyn or Compton. So you drink Cristal because people have brand recognition, so it actually helps the perception of big balling more than the actual good stuff. So even if Jay Z is an actual Oenophile he’s not going to confuse his fans by drinking the good stuff on camera. He’ll drink the Cristal so that he can give the ‘illusion’ of opulence. ---
**Author:** ![valleyofthedolls](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a4c791/32.png) [@valleyofthedolls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/valleyofthedolls)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/7 "2009-12-31T22:06:35Z")
Had it. Thought it was incredibly overrated. It’s a marketing thing like Veuve Clicquot. If you really want to spend a lot, I’d go for something by Krug, Bollinger or Piper Heidsieck. Me? I’ll take cheap prosseco. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/8 "2009-12-31T22:12:50Z")
Mr. Athena got me a bottle of Cristal for my birthday a few years ago, and it’s pretty good. However, I don’t think it’s anything better than most higher end vintage Champagnes. We did a comparison between pricey and less-pricey Champagnes a few years ago. We had a bottle of vintage Veuve, a $150 or so bottle, and a standard non vintage Veuve, a $50 bottle at the time. We opened the vintage one first, and thought to ourselves “this is good, but it’s not THAT different than NV Veuve.” Well, heck, seeing as we had a bottle of NV Veuve, we had to double check that premise, and so we tasted them side by side. Conclusion: the vintage was better, definitely. It was more delicate and complex, the bubbles were smaller, all that. But was it 3 times better, as it was 3 times more expensive? Nope. And that holds up across the board. Once you spend $40-$50 to get to real French Champagne, you’ve gotten the most bang for your buck. Spending more gets you better Champagne, but it’s not as huge of a difference as there is between a $15 bottle of domestic sparkling and a $50 bottle of real Champagne. There’s some GREAT buys in the $40-$50 range, if you can find them. We’ve got some Charles Heidsieck that we got a deal on a few weeks ago that is amazingly good, I think we only paid $30 for it (which, though pricey, is a deal for this bottle). If you can get some grower’s Champagne, that’s even better. Yum. Champagne. I love this time of year! ---
**Author:** ![valleyofthedolls](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a4c791/32.png) [@valleyofthedolls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/valleyofthedolls)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/9 "2009-12-31T22:15:27Z")
I can’t spell today. That should read \*prosecco. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/10 "2009-12-31T22:36:34Z")
For me and mine, it’s Cold Duck or bust. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/11 "2010-01-01T07:48:25Z")
Asti Spumanti for me! I would go out of my way to avoid buying something associated with P. Poopy or whatever his name is. But I don’t care for champagne anyway, it gives me a ferocious headache. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/12 "2010-01-01T12:22:58Z")
One way to get the benefits of expensive champagne without spending a fortune is to buy regular NV or vintage champagne and keep it for ten years or so. I’ve been doing it for years and it does impove the taste significantly. It does require patience initially, but once you’ve got it going, you’re on a roll! ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/13 "2010-01-01T13:01:45Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > The beverage of choice for rap artists everywhere. Not any more. A few years ago there was a [bit of a controversy](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article685056.ece) over some remarks by the president of Cristal and a number of rappers (including Jay-Z) have since boycotted it. > [@Times Online](#): > > The storm began when Frederic Rouzaud, the newly appointed managing director of Louis Roederer, the 230-year-old champagne house that makes Cristal, was asked if its association with hip-hop’s “bling” lifestyle could be detrimental to its image. > > Rouzaud, speaking to The Economist, replied: “That is a good question but what can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Don Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have the business.” > > Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, retorted that Cristal owed black singers millions of dollars for free publicity by linking their wine with the good life in hit songs. > > “Surely he meant to say thanks, right? Anything else but a thank you is dismissive, insulting and racist.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/14 "2010-01-01T13:02:17Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > One way to get the benefits of expensive champagne without spending a fortune is to buy regular NV or vintage champagne and keep it for ten years or so. I’ve been doing it for years and it does impove the taste significantly. > > It does require patience initially, but once you’ve got it going, you’re on a roll! Not really. According to the wine snobs I know champagne is bottled to be drunk within the next year or so. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/15 "2010-01-01T13:04:51Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Not really. According to the wine snobs I know champagne is bottled to be drunk within the next year or so. It maybe ‘supposed to’, but I can tell you from experience that bottle age helps. YMMV. Try it yourself, and let me know. (I’ll look for your post in 2020.) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/16 "2010-01-01T15:28:56Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Not any more. A few years ago there was a [bit of a controversy](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article685056.ece) over some remarks by the president of Cristal and a number of rappers (including Jay-Z) have since boycotted it. Seriously. I doubt the makers of Cristal give a shit about the Hip Hop market. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/17 "2010-01-01T17:28:12Z")
I’ve had it, I find it a bit “yeasty” to my taste, and the clear bottle reminds me irresistibly of Miller High Life. Well, it _is_ the champagne of beers. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/18 "2010-01-02T09:27:31Z")
I’ve had it, maybe about a decade ago or so. Compared it to some mod-range champagne we had. It was clearly better. Not sure it’s worth the money, but it was quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/19 "2010-01-02T14:41:49Z")
I had a bottle about two years ago. It was wonderful. Obviously, it’s not an everyday tipple, but it is (IMO) a lot better than regular Champagne. Whether it’s $100 better is an exercise for the reader. Whether it’s better than Dom Perignon is something _I_ might decide this week 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Righteous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Dr.Righteous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Righteous)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211/20 "2010-01-04T18:03:22Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Seriously. I doubt the makers of Cristal give a shit about the Hip Hop market. There’s a lot of money in that segment of the market. I used to work in a liquor store and my personal experience is that the likes and dislikes of hip hop artists carry a lot of weight with a large segment of customers (for example, since most of the singers drink Hennessy it’s pretty much impossible to get some people to try Remy). I have heard that sales of Cristal took quite a hit after this… and that is one thing the parent company does care about. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-tried-cristal-champagne/523211.md?page=2)