Louis Roederer

Most major champagne houses source the bulk of their grapes from winegrowers across the region. The House of Louis Roederer takes a different approach. For almost two centuries, the house has quietly acquired and cultivated its own vineyards, and today it owns more ‘Grand Cru’ and ‘Premier Cru’ vineyards than any other major Champagne house. It is precisely this independence from the grape market that defines the distinctive character of its wines.

History

The house was founded in Reims in 1776 and originally operated under the name ‘Dubois Père et Fils’. A decisive phase began in 1833, when Louis Roederer inherited the business from his uncle and gave it his own name. He rapidly expanded the business, and Russia became its most important export market. By the 1870s, Tsar Alexander II had grown so fond of Louis Roederer champagne that he asked the house to create an exclusive cuvée intended solely for him. The result, first produced in 1876, was ‘Cristal’, named after the transparent, flat-bottomed crystal bottle in which it was served. It is widely recognised as the world’s first prestige cuvée.

The Russian Revolution and Prohibition in the USA dealt a severe blow to the house in the early 20th century. Following the death of Louis Roederer in 1932, his widow Camille managed the estate with great vigour until her grandson Jean-Claude Roux took over the reins and began expanding the vineyards once more. Today, the house is run by Frédéric Roux, a representative of the seventh generation of the founding family.

Vineyards

The estate currently covers 250 hectares, spread across more than 420 individual plots in the Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne and Côte des Blancs regions. Each of these plots is classified as Grand Cru or Premier Cru, and the average age of the vines across the estate is around 30 years. Around 70 per cent of the house’s total grape requirements are met from its own vineyards, and ‘Cristal’ is produced exclusively from grapes grown on the estate’s vineyards. The house began expanding its vineyard holdings as far back as 1845, at a time when owning vineyards was considered a risky and unfashionable investment for a champagne house.

Terroir

These three zones provide the house with access to very different soil types and plot orientations. Montagne de Reims yields a powerful, structured Pinot Noir, particularly from Verzenay, where the north-facing slopes and chalky soils allow for the creation of wines with pronounced freshness and a salty minerality. Côte des Blancs provides the bulk of the Chardonnay, particularly from the Grand Cru of Avize, where the plots have been selected for their intensity, richness and minerality. The Vallée de la Marne supplies Pinot Meunier and a small amount of Pinot Noir, including from the warm, sunny plots in the village of Cumières.

Grapes

The vineyards are planted with 53 percent Pinot Noir, 41 percent Chardonnay and 6 percent Pinot Meunier. All three classic Champagne varieties are used across the entire range. Cristal is made exclusively from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, typically around 60 percent Pinot Noir and 40 percent Chardonnay.

Winemaking

Two features set Louis Roederer’s approach to winemaking apart from that of most of its neighbours. Firstly, the house maintains a reserve wine library of 800,000 litres, stored in large 5,000-litre oak barrels, this is the largest cellar of its kind in Champagne and, according to the house, the only one of its kind. These oak-aged reserve wines are added to the blends each year, enabling the house to produce wines with minimal or no malolactic fermentation, whilst preserving their complexity and stability. Secondly, each of the 420 vineyard plots is vinified separately before blending decisions are made, enabling the cellar team to monitor each batch in detail.

Cristal is aged on its lees in the cellars for six years, and following disgorgement, for a further eight months before being released onto the market.

Wines

‘Collection 244’ is the flagship non-vintage blend, a multi-vintage wine that has replaced the former ‘Brut Premier’, made primarily from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with the addition of reserve wines. The range of vintage wines includes white, rosé and ‘Blanc de Blancs’, each of which is produced only in designated years.

At the top of the range is ‘Cristal’, first produced in 1876 and released for commercial sale in 1945; it is produced only in the finest years from grapes grown on the estate’s best plots. ‘Cristal Rosé’, first released in 1974, follows the same philosophy as the white wine, using grapes exclusively from a single vineyard and only from the estate’s own vineyards.

The House also owns a collection of other wine-producing estates around the world, including Domaines Ott in Provence and Ramos Pinto in Portugal.