Champagne Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV

The company we know as Louis Roederer was founded in 1776 as Dubois Père & Fils. In 1833 Louis Roederer inherited the company from his uncle and changed the name. Crucial to the early success of Roederer was its targeting of foreign markets. The Russians in particular became enthusiasts of Roederer Champagne, so much so that in 1876 a special sweet cuvée was created at the request of Tsar Alexander II. Bottled in clear crystal, rather than ordinary glass, it was appropriately named Cristal. After the Russian Revolution, a new blend of Cristal was made commercially available and remains the original prestige cuvée for which Louis Roederer is perhaps best known today.

The wines
The grapes for the whole range of Roederer Champagnes are sourced predominantly from their own vineyards, something that is almost unique on this scale in the region. This gives Louis Roederer far greater control on the way in which the grapes are cared for and harvested. The core wine that reflects their house style is the Collection Brut Non-Vintage, although it is referred to as a multi-vintage blend by the estate. The exact blend changes each year but tends to be a blend of roughly two parts pinot noir and one part chardonnay with just a dash of pinot meunier. It often has just over 50% of the wine from the ‘base year’, with the rest of the blend coming from the reserve wines. In this case Roederer have a ‘perpetual reserve’ that is curated from a number of previous vintages as well as separate smaller proportions of oak-aged reserve wines. These are combined to maintain the elegance of Roederer’s house style year after year, offering both consistency and complexity. Each Collection blend is identified by a cuvée number so that the exact blends can be identified on their incredibly informative website. Louis Roederer also famously release Cristal in exceptional vintages, where they are able to select just the finest wines from a particular year to craft this truly luxurious vintage Champagne.

The Roederer stable also holds important wine estates in other regions, including a majority share in second growth estate, Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in Pauillac. In 1988 Louis Roederer also launched their first sparkling wine from their Californian estate in the Anderson Valley north of San Francisco. The cool climate there had been identified as an excellent precursor to the production of grapes suitable for high-quality sparkling wine and Roederer bought more than 500 acres of land to do just that. The wine is made in the same way as their Champagne, using chardonnay and pinot noir and blending from an ever-expanding selection of reserve wines.

Environmental sustainability
For the past few decades, Louis Roederer has focused its efforts on a strong commitment to sustainable practices. The company practises what it terms ‘renaissance viticulture’ using approaches that respect the living environment. Since 2006, the company has implemented a biodynamic farming process. This means that now 155 hectares of their vineyards are certified organic and farmed using biodynamic principles. The remaining land is farmed using the same methods, but it is not yet certified. In addition, the entire estate is sustainably certified Haute Valeur Environnementale Level 3 (High Environmental Value) – the highest level available, awarded on factors like biodiversity, fertilisation, phytosanitary protection and water management. Other elements of the management process include maintaining hedgerows and low stone walls, growing fruit trees and installing beehives.

Social sustainability
The Louis Roederer Photography Prize for Sustainability was established in 2021 to highlight contemporary photographers with an interest in sustainability and environmental issues. Champagne Louis Roederer have long patronised the arts. The Louis Roederer Foundation was founded in 2011 with the purpose of perpetuating Louis Roederer’s sponsorship activity which followed on from its discovery of the photography collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 2003.