It was such a treat to receive an invitation to visit the Cristal Champagne Press House and Champagne Louis Roederer Maison in France this September. My friend and colleague, Xaviar Barlier, who is SVP of Marketing & Communications with Maison, Marques and Domaines, extended the invitation. So I flew to Paris for one week, inviting my friend, Lupe Leon, as companion.
One of the very fascinating aspects of the trip was being seated next to Frédéric Rouzaud at lunch. He is the 7th generation family member and current CEO of Champagne Louis Roederer Group, and he discussed how important both long-term thinking and creativity are to the success of a family wine business.
“Part of my job is to make sure that creativity is at the center of everything we do,” he told me during a recent interview over lunch at the Cristal Press House in Ay, France. “And because we are family owned, we have the time to make things happen. The best thing to do to keep a company healthy is to have a long-term view, and this is especially true in making a great wine.”
Given that a bottle of Cristal Champagne can only be produced from one of their seven Grand Cru vineyards, and that the vines must be a minimum of 20 years old, this gives an indication of the patience and high quality that goes into each bottle.
“But, we not only wait 20 years for the vines to mature, each bottle of Cristal is aged for 6 years on yeast and 8 months in bottle, and then we only make the wine in special vintages,” Frédéric continued, as we toured the vineyards. (For example, Cristal was not produced in 2003, 2010, 2011, and 2017, because the family didn’t feel the vintage was good enough that year for this top wine.)
This focus on long-term vision and creativity was also apparent in the birth of the Cristal Champagne brand in 1876, when Tsar Alexander II of Russia approached the House of Roederer (his favorite Champagne at the time) and asked them to craft a special cuvee just for him.
His request included the development of a clear bottle so he could see the bubbles, but one made without a punt so that a bomb couldn’t be hidden in it (several of his predecessors were assassinated). So Frédéric’s ancestors created a special clear bottle out of lead crystal with no punt, and adorned it with a gold label and capsule. They named it Cristal and for more than 60 years, it was only sold to the Tsar and his court.
Then with the fall of the Russian Empire and the death of the Tsar (he was eventually assassinated, but not due to a champagne bottle), Roederer finally made Cristal public in 1945 for anyone in the world to purchase. Now that is long-term thinking! The current release is the 2016 Louis Roederer Cristal Millesime Brut, with a suggested retail price of around $350.
Expansion and Creativity in the Roederer Group
Today Cristal Champagne is just one of many wines produced by Roederer. In addition to their vintage and multi-vintage Champagne Roederer wines, the family owns eleven other properties around the world. Their thoughtful acquisition of each of these wine estates can be linked to their long-term view and patience.
The properties include: Château de Pez and Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in Bordeaux. Domaines Ott in Provence, Deutz in Champagne, Delas Frères in the Rhone Valley, and Ramos Pinto Port in Portugal. In California, they own five wineries: Roederer Estate, Scharffenberger Cellars and Domaine Anderson in Anderson Valley, Merry Edwards in Sonoma, and Diamond Creek Vineyards in Napa Valley.
When asked about their acquisition strategy, Frédéric responded, “We look for very unique properties that have been producing high quality wine for a long time. These types of properties are like rare jewels, such as Pichon Longueville and Diamond Creek. They seldom come on the market, but when they do, we act fast.”
But Frédéric and his team (now over 1000 employees) don’t just maintain the estates they acquire, they invest money in the operations and look for opportunities to create new brands.
At the helm of this creativity is Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, Executive Vice-President of Operations with winemaking oversight for all of the properties. He started with Roederer in 1989, after obtaining a degree in viticulture and enology at the famous École Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie in Montpellier, France, and appears to be very passionate about his job.
“We have just created a new line of still wines from Champagne,” he announced with excitement during a dinner at the Louis Roederer Maison in Reims, France. “It is called Camille, in homage to Frédéric’s great grandmother, Camille Olry Roederer,” said Jean-Baptiste.
Camille was the very smart widow who led the company through the turbulent 1930’s, and insured its success into the future. She retired in 1975, and now a still chardonnay and pinot noir have been created in her name. “It is only fitting that Roederer create some still wines from our special chardonnay and pinot noir vineyards, because the Champagne region used to be called ‘the Burgundy of the North’,” explained Jean-Baptiste.
Another example of innovation is the method that the House of Roederer uses to create their rosé champagnes. “We were the first to use a special infusion technique where we start a cold soak with pinot noir grapes during the harvest and blend it with chardonnay before fermenting to achieve the pink color and flavors,” stated Jean-Baptiste. This is quite different from the method used by many other Champagne houses of adding still pinot noir to the finished wine to achieve the desired color.
This special innovation may be the reason they were able to achieve a perfect 100-point score from wine critic, Robert Parker, for their 2002 Cristal Rosé, which help to usher in the era of champagne as a collectible and ageable wine. This year, Roederer Cristal Rosé champagne is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The Roederer focus on creativity extends to the art world, and their Foundation that supports artists and knowledge transmission of the arts.
A Focus on Biodiversity in the Vineyards
In addition to being one of the few family run Champagne houses, Roederer also owns the largest percentage of vineyards in the region, with 593 acres. Furthermore the vineyards are primarily managed using sustainable, organic and/or biodynamic farming techniques.
Part of the reason for this is to promote biodiversity in the vineyards. “There was a period where the trend was to standardize the clones in the vineyard, but now we are trying to go back to ‘massal selection’ to create a diversity of clones,” explained Jean-Baptiste.
This type of diversity allows the vineyards to be more adaptable, especially to climate change. Furthermore, according to Frédéric, “We believe diversity of clones creates more complexity, and magic in the wine.”
The biodiversity also extends to planting trees and other crops, along with sequestering more carbon in the soil. “We are measuring our carbon footprint in every single department of the company, and have recently been able to reduce our bottle weight by 10%,” reported Frédéric.
The Future of Champagne Louis Roederer Group
So what is the future of Champagne Louis Roederer Group? According to Frédéric, creativity and long-term thinking will continue to play a huge role. Indeed, he is already thinking of the succession plan to determine which member of the family will take over the eighth generation, however, he doesn’t seem that worried about it.
“I have three children, so it is possible that one of them will move into the role,” stated Frédéric, “but there are also many aunts, uncles, and cousins. In the meantime, part of my succession plan is to drink champagne every day,” he concluded with a wry smile.
Note: Most of this story was originally published in Forbes.com. Republished here with permission.
