CEO of Cristal Champagne discusses the importance of creativity and long-term vision

As CEO of a company founded in 1776, a long-term vision seems inherent to his position. For Frédéric Rouzaud, seventh-generation family member and current CEO of Champagne Louis Roederer Group, which produces Roederer Cristal Champagne, both long-term thinking and creativity are crucial to the organization’s success.

“Part of my job is to ensure that creativity is at the heart 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 a family business, we have the time to make things happen. The best thing you can do to keep a business healthy is to take a long-term view, and that’s especially true when it comes to making great wine.”

Considering that a bottle of Cristal Champagne can only be produced from one of their seven Grand Cru vineyards, and that the vines must be at least 20 years old, this is an indication of the patience and high quality that goes into each bottle.

“But not only do we 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 felt that the vintage that year was not good enough for this top wine.)

This focus on long-term vision and creativity was also reflected 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 create a special cuvee. just for him.

“The best thing you can do to keep a company healthy is to have a long-term view.”

His request included the development of a transparent bottle so he could see the bubbles, but a bottle made without a punt so that a bomb could not be hidden inside (several of his predecessors were murdered). So Frédéric’s ancestors created a special clear lead crystal bottle without a point, and decorated it with a gold label and capsule. They called it Cristal and for more than 60 years it was sold only to the Tsar and his court.

With the fall of the Russian Empire and the death of the Tsar (he was eventually assassinated, but not because of a champagne bottle), Roederer finally made Cristal public in 1945 for anyone in the world to buy. Now that’s long-term thinking! The current release is the Louis Roederer Cristal Millésime Brut 2016, of a suggested retail price of approximately $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 twelve other properties around the world. Their thoughtful acquisition of each of these wine estates can be linked to their long-term vision and patience.

The features include: Château de Pez, Château Bernadotte, Château Haut-Beausejour, And Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in Bordeaux. Domains Ot in Provence, Deutz in Champagne, and Ramos Pinot port in Portugal. In California they own five wineries: Roederer Estate in Anderson Valley, Scharffenberger Cellars, Merry Edwards, Domaine AndersonAnd Diamond Creek Vineyards.

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 rarely come to market, but when they do come to market, we act quickly.”

But Frédéric and his team (now more than 1,000 employees) not only 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 overseeing winemaking for all properties. He joined Roederer in 1989, after obtaining a degree in viticulture and oenology from the famous Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie in Montpellier, France, and seems very passionate about his work.

“We have just created a new line of still wines from Champagne,” he excitedly announced during a dinner at the Louis Roederer Maison in Reims, France. “It’s called Camille, in tribute to Frédéric’s great-grandmother, Camille,” says Jean-Baptiste.

Camille was the very clever widow who led the company through the turbulent 1930s and ensured its success for the future. She retired in 1975 and today Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are still made in her name. “It is only fitting that Roederer makes some still wines from our special chardonnay and pinot noir vineyards, as the Champagne region used to be called ‘the Burgundy of the North’,” explains Jean-Baptiste.

Another example of innovation is the method that the House of Roederer uses to make their rosé champagnes. “We were the first to use a special infusion technique, where we start a cold week with Pinot Noir grapes at harvest and blend them with Chardonnay before fermenting to obtain the pink color and flavors,” says Jean-Baptiste. This is very 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 particular innovation may be why they achieved a perfect score of 100 points from wine critic Robert Parker for their 2002 Cristal Rosé, which helped usher in the era of Champagne as a collectible and shelf-stable wine. This year Roederer Cristal Rosé champagne celebrates its 50th anniversary^e birthday.

Roederer’s focus on creativity extends to the art world and their foundation that supports artists and knowledge transfer in the field of the arts.

A focus on biodiversity in the vineyards

Roederer is not only one of the few family-run Champagne houses, but also owns the largest percentage of vineyards in the region, with 593 hectares. In addition, the vineyards are mainly managed using sustainable, organic and/or biodynamic agricultural techniques.

Part of the reason for this is to promote biodiversity in the vineyards. “There was a period when the trend was to standardize the clones in the vineyard, but now we are trying to get back to ‘mass selection’ to create a diversity of clones,” explains Jean-Baptiste.

This kind of diversity allows vineyards to better adapt, especially to climate change. Moreover, says Frédéric: “We believe that diversity of clones creates more complexity and magic in the wine.”

Biodiversity also extends to planting trees and other crops, along with sequestering more carbon in the soil. “We measure our carbon footprint in every department of the company and recently managed to reduce the weight of our bottles by 10%,” says 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 major role. Indeed, he is already thinking about the succession plan to determine which member of the family will take over the eighth generation, but he doesn’t seem too concerned about that.

“I have three children, so it is possible that one of them will fulfill this role,” says 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.