Cristal’s New Gold Standard

As far as we’re concerned, the presence of any bottle of Cristal is a cause for celebration (or, more likely, evidence that one’s already in progress). But we’d be hard-pressed to find an occasion special enough to warrant popping the cork on one of the 200 bottles the brand’s releasing this year of its brand-new 2002 jeroboam—that’s a three-liter bottle, for the uninitiated, and it’s the first one Cristal has ever released in a limited edition. There’s good reason for the small quantity: each beautiful bottle features an intricate, 24-karat gold lattice casing designed by artist Philippe di Méo, consisting of seven meters of gold joined at over 500 delicate points of conjunction. Only 25 of the bottles will be made available in the United States—so on second thought, if you manage to snag one, you’d be entirely warranted in immediately opening it, in order to toast to your remarkable good luck.

LOUIS ROEDERER’S JEROBOAM 2002 BY CRISTAL WILL BE AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 5.