Is Cristal now a grower champagne?

My brother sent me a note by wine enthusiast that stated the 2012 Cristal was made entirely from vineyards owned by the house. First time the house has done it

He posed the question - is Cristal now a grower champagne?

It’s made and bottled by the same people that own the land.

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In the same way that Bugatti is a small hot rod shop.

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By that logic, Clos des Goisses, Clos de Mesnil, Clos d’Ambonnay, and a whole host of other tete-de-cuvees would be grower champagnes too.

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I expect that Cristal would probably run from that label rather than towards it. It’s a bit like some people calling Fourrier “natural wine” - he has thoughts on that subject, lol.

Why aren’t they?

There are grower champagnes we know and love that also make negotiant wines. Are Prevost facsimile and beguines no longer grower champagnes because Prevost Ampersand now exists?

I mean, they are technically. I think it’s more about self selection and identification than purely purely whether the vines are fully owned.

This is like trying to define “craft beer”.

I’ve been calling Roederer a grower for a while. My understanding is everything but a portion of the parcels for the NV is estate owned. And typically each vintage wine comes from specific estate-owned parcels every year.

Also to your point Charlie, if Bereche is grower still, I don’t see why we wouldn’t view Roederer the same way.

Or we need different terms. Like in Burg. There is domaine wine and negoce wine. In Champagne some wines are mixed.

That’s kind of my point. Bereche is a grower, Prevost is a grower, Vilmart, Savart etc etc. Outside of the NV from Roederer, they are basically a grower. All their vintage wines are from vineyards owned by Roederer.

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Not saying they ought to be or not. In my mind grower maps onto the RM designation on the bottle, which is an outdated mode of thinking about champagne at best.

Cristal is a grower’s cuvée, I guess, but Roederer isn’t grower champagne.

Depends how much of a hard liner you personally are about a producer controlling all of their vineyards. If Prevost starts buying grapes for just one bottling, it’s up to you whether they’re still a grower Champagne house.

It would meet the only definition of “grower” I’ve ever heard. What would Cristal have to be that it isn’t to qualify? (Not that the label is some accolade Roederer needs to be striving for).

DRC is natural wine, so Cristal can be grower.

In my mind growers are people.

Yeah, that’s kind of how I view it.

I don’t think they would, and I don’t think the analogy really holds!

And in Burgundy, too. Many négoce wines from e.g. Jadot, Bouchard have a domaine-fruit base. And many domaines will buy a little fruit to complement holdings they have in a particular site.

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I might be wrong but I thought Cristal had been made entirely from owned vineyards for a while (as is everything but the NV).

Interesting! I guess it depends on the perspective - I would think Cristal’s image as a luxury good* would be at odds with branding themselves as a “grower” champagne. It’s discordant to me in the same way that I think some producers of Burgundy who don’t see themselves as avant garde would prefer not to see themselves as “natural wine” producers - that’s where I was making the analogy, which I agree is imperfect.


*I like Cristal a lot, so this isn’t a criticism.