Social responsibility has made its headway into the wine industry, with wine producers both large and small adopting sustainable winemaking methods. Biodynamic winemaking — a method of viticulture where vineyards are operated in a self-sustaining manner — has risen in popularity, with Louis Roderer joining the fray and releasing an entirely biodynamically made champagne, the Cristal 2012.
Naming it the “first-born from this new viticulture”, the 2012 vintage is said to be the very first champagne made from 100 percent biodynamically-farmed grapes by the house.
For the past 10 over years, Louis Roederer has been implementing biodynamics into its vineyards, having converted half its vineyard to adhere to biodynamic farming methods, and the other half being made entirely organic. As not all of Roederer’s vineyards are biodynamic plots, it’s yet to be fully certified as such.
A breakthrough in terms of champagne formulation, the 2012 vintage was described in a statement as “one of the most challenging and complicated years ever experienced in Champagne”. While yields were low, warmer weather towards the end of the season led to “unusual levels of maturity” and with that, “full-bodied and structured wines”.
So far, both the white and rosé Cristal has been released. The white is a blend of 60 percent Pinot Noir and 40 percent Chardonnay with a dosage of 7.5g/l.
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