Louis Roederer is one of the most representative maison of Champagne. Its Cristal wine is a myth, but the whole range is truly excellent. The business began at the end of the 1700s in Reims, but the maison took its current name in 1833 when Louis Roederer took over the management. He immediately focused on foreign markets and in particular the Russian one, becoming a supplier of the Tsars. The bottle of Cristal, of transparent glass and with a flat bottom, was born on the express will of Tsar Alexander II, who feared that explosive devices could be hidden in the bottle.
Roederer has always been - and still is today - a family-run maison. Since its foundation it began to buy land and cultivate vineyards, when the common practice for the big houses was to buy grapes from growers. Today Roederer has 420 parcels of vineyards cultivated mainly with Pinot Noir in the vallée de la Marne. They are almost all classified as Grand Cru or Premier Cru. The focus of the maison is on the care of the vineyard, managed organically and partly also with biodynamic.
The production style is based on only partial malolactic fermentation (less than half of the base wines) and conservation of the wines on the yeasts mostly in wood, to give thickness and roundness to the taste. Roederer has 240 hectares of vineyards and produces nearly 4 million bottles a year.