Few champagne houses are still in the hands of the families who founded them. The Roederer house is part of this very restricted circle, a hard-won independence, mainly thanks to relevant development and patient management of growth. Growth that has been built on 3 pillars: the quality, the vineyard and the marketing.
- The quality. No house can claim to grow without offering quality cuvées. And if the prestige cuvée is the strong symbol of a house, the quality is measured more in terms of its brut without year. The Brut Premier of Roederer champagne is therefore the master standard of the know-how of the house, and in this case, it lays the foundations for a range and a style. A signature that is developed and refined in the rest of the range, through the vintages and of course the Prestige cuvée, here the famous Cristal Roederer.
- The vineyard. Owning a vineyard is almost essential for on the one hand securing its supplies, mastering the cultivation of its grapes, but also making sure to draw from the heart of the most beautiful terroirs of Champagne for the development of its cuvées. With 214 hectares, the Roederer champagne house undoubtedly has one of the largest and most beautiful vineyards in the region. A vineyard which moreover is mainly located in the beautiful vintages and the Grands Crus: the Montagne de Reims, the Marne Valley, and the Côte des Blancs.
- The Marketing . What differentiates a great champagne house from a winemaker is, among other things, around the notion of brand. In general, each generation of winegrowers will create their own brand, often by adding their name to that of their wife. What kills the sustainability of a brand if it exists at all in the minds of consumers. Conversely, the houses invest in their image, their notoriety and make every effort to perpetuate their iconic appearance. A marketing and promotional approach which naturally emerges from communication towards sommeliers, wine merchants and journalists, all opinion leaders at various levels, but also towards the general public through advertising mainly in newspapers, and more and more on the Internet. But it is also an approach that is being worked on in terms of the price positioning of the cuvées. A delicate balance to maintain between the desire to sell and the desire to position ourselves at the top of the range. A question of margin, of course, but also and above all of image.
It is by mastering its three pillars in the development of a house and a brand that Roederer champagne has achieved the success it is known to have. A success that does not protect from resale to a group, quite the contrary, because success being there and generations succeeding, the capital is more and more fragmented, some shareholders wishing to sell to get the share value which classifies them among millionaires without necessarily having the enjoyment of them. This is what happened to the Taittinger group, which was sold to an American group, before returning to the family fold, stripped of its ancillary hotel and luxury activities (Baccarat in particular). By mastering the succession of generations, and by establishing the cohesion of shareholders, the Roederer house has remained until today a free and independent group, a major player in champagne whose account and is listened to.
