This latest incarnation of the famous brand is a superb wine. It is on par with, maybe even better than, the already legendary 2002. Its balance is impeccable: Apple and citrus flavors working with the tight minerality to give a textured yet fruity wine. Produced from Roederer's own vineyards which are mainly biodynamic, the wine has its own intense purity and crispness. It has amazing potential and is likely to age for many years.

100 points, Wine Enthusiast (January 2017)

This is truly a magnificent wine and a great Cristal. Unusual for it to have any malolactic, but this had 16% , and whereas Cristal is normally disgorged after eight years on lees, this had 10, and was released after the '09. It's a very precise, refined, tensioned wine which echoes the chardonnay and chalk much more than the 2002, which was tasted beside it, the '02 being a more pinoty style (although both are 60% pinot). With aromas of small flowers, mineral and almost alarmingly fresh, it has penetrating flavour and tremendous length. A wine of magnificent harmony, dexterously combining finesse and power.

99 points, The Real Review (June 2019)

A scintillating, exciting wine. Tight, penetrating, very long and complex, with terrific palate line and tension. The balance is outstanding and the energy and drive impressive. A great vintage of this wine. (60:40 pinot noir chardonnay; 20% barrel aged, 20% malolactic. 8 grams/litre dosage)

98 points, The Real Review (September 2018)

A beautiful vintage of Cristal, which was released after the 2009, in reverse order. It's a tight, fresh, youthful wine, which is undoubtedly slow developing and will be long living. It is refined and subtle but at the same time it has the richness contributed by its 60% pinot noir. Great balance, refinement, persistence and panache.

98 points, The Real Review (August 2018)

The 2008 Cristal is a wine that takes over all the senses and never lets up. The brilliance and cut of the Chardonnay finds an extra kick of resonance from the Pinot Noir to carry the mid palate and finish in this stunningly beautiful, chiseled Champagne. Lemon oil, almond, flowers, dried herbs and Mirabelle plum are some of the many aromas and flavors that develop as the 2008 shows off its pedigree. The 2008 is a regal, towering Champagne from Roederer. That’s all there is to it.

98+ points, Vinous (July 2018)

The 2008 Cristal is a real head-turner. Powerful, ample and explosive in all of its dimensions, the 2008 takes hold of the sense and never lets up. There is a crystalline purity to the flavors that is simply remarkable. Although still a baby, the 2008 looks like it will soon take its place alongside the greatest Cristals. Today, it is breathtaking.

98+ points, Vinous (July 2017)

Cristal 2008 is on a roll to yet higher levels of exquisite purity and precision of fruit in a paradoxical balance of weightlessness and depth of flavour, permeated with minerals and a salinity reflecting the greatest terroirs of the Roederer estate. Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon believes that 2008 is his best effort to date, and it's easy to see why. It's from a cooler, maritime vintage that came right in the end, with one of the longest harvests ever, running from mid-September to early October. The colour is a stylish pale gold flecked with green. Aromas of white flowers are joined by a cleansing citrus vigour and richer tones of peach and mirabelle. The palate is still quiet, but a tender creaminnes shows through, and there's so much concentration to come if you drink if after 2021. The greatness of the wine owes everything to the influence of organic and biodynamic precepts in the field - and Lecaillon's sleepless perfectionism in the cellar towards finer fruit and a careful brake on too much yeasty expression. The acidity is vibrant but better integrated in the 2008 than in the 1996. Magnificent. Dosage 7.7g/l.

98 points, Michael Edwards, Decanter (June 2018)

So, here is how it tastes as a "young" cuvée: The 2008 Cristal opens bright, super clear, fresh and pure on the exciting, absolutely fascinating nose with its fine, complex and elegant bouquet of gorgeously ripe and matured fruits, brioche and chalk expressions. This is the finest you can get from Champagne. The palate is pure, lean, fresh and filigreed but concentrated, highly complex, full of tension and enormously vibrant. This is a great vin de terroir, a dense and elegant Super-Cristal that goes straight and precise as a laser beam over the palate but also has texture in the form of sensually fleshy fruit. The dosage, however, is the lowest ever: just 7.5 grams. The endless and highly tensioned finish is complex, citrusy fresh, full of chalk and crystalline finesse. The 2008 Cristal is a vitalizing drug, "the Chevalier Montrachet of Champagne," as Jean-Baptise Lécaillon puts it. It is the most exciting 2008 Champagne I have tasted thus far (May 2018).

97+ points, Wine Advocate (June 2018)

There's a sense of focus and vibrancy to the overall structure, while the palate is all grace and charm. A fine, lacy texture carries a tapestry of ripe white cherry, toast point, blood orange zest, honey and ground ginger notes, with a minerally, mouthwatering finish. A stunning Champagne with a long future ahead of it.

97 points, Alison Napjus, Wine Spectator (November 2018)