“Welcome to Bar Crenn. This place is an extension of who I am. In the 20s and 30s, there was this moment in time where people were coming together, great conversation would happen, and there was lots of creativity. Fashion, art—everything was happening at that moment. So this is a space where people can come here and create and have a great conversation and maybe think about the future of the world,” chef Dominique Crenn recently said while welcoming a stylish crowd of Champagne lovers to an exclusive event at Bar Crenn.
The party, which was organized by beverage director Courtney Olson, was in celebration of the latest release from the legendary Champagne house, Louis Roederer. After ten years of aging, Louis Roederer has debuted the 2008 vintage of Cristal, a 100% biodynamic sparkler. The family-owned company has been making Cristal using the same formula since 1876.
Cristal was the world’s first Cuvée Prestige, an ultra-high-end bubbly that was created for Alexander II, a Russian Tsar. He asked Louis Roederer to make the world’s best Champagne and to put it in a crystal bottle, rather than the green bottles that were popular at the time so that he could see the beautiful color and delicate bubbles. It was called Cristal for this reason and was strictly made for Russian royalty until it was made commercially available in 1945.
According to Claude Rouquet, the district manager for Maison Marques & Domaines USA, the company that owns Louis Roederer, “the production of 2008 was very small and the quality extremely high. If you look it up online, you’ll see that Cristal 2008 has been designated as the best Champagne ever produced or almost getting there, 100 points all across the board. Champagne speaks for itself.” The production was so small that it almost completely sold out in the U.S.
At Crenn’s party, guests were treated to an endless supply of Cristal and luxurious snacks prepared by the two Michelin-starred chef. Crenn’s bone marrow custard with smoked creme fraiche and caviar (it’s served in an egg shell) is rich and indulgent appetizer that paired perfectly with Cristal.
Bite-sized crispy potatoes with onion cream tasted like an upscale version of Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. Golf-ball sized fluffy gourgeres were served with a heavy sprinkling of freshly grated aged comte and oysters on the half shell came with a creamy glee. Crenn harvests caviar with Deborah Keane, the founder of the Caviar Company, and partygoers enjoyed bumps of Keane’s sustainable sturgeon eggs.
Photos courtesy of American Express.
