Cristal Bites The Hands That Feed
DISCLAIMER: I don’t like Cristal, will never be able to afford Cristal, have never gotten Cristal, and laugh at the big deal made over Cristal. Boozily, as I drink my Camille Savès vintage bubbles that cost 80% less.
Frederic Rouzaud, the managing director of Louis Roederer (makers of Cristal), really, truly, royally fucked up in a recent interview. No, seriously, he totally F.U.B.A.R.ed. In a special edition of The Economist, in a section called “Intelligent Life: New trends for smart living” , Freddie was less than trés intelligent and really not so smart when he pu-pued the trend of rappers drinking and singing about Cristal, Roederer’s top of the line Champagne. The offending quotation in question, near a heading in the article titled “unwanted attention,” is the Monsieur’s response to a Q about all the hip-hop attention possibly hurting the brand:
“That’s a good question, but what can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it.”
Hey Oooooooo! Clearcut elitism/racism? Not exactly, but read in context… not so innocent either. I read this about a month ago and have been waiting for the shizznit to start hitting the fan ever since. Well it just has. Because Jay-Z read the article and he’s pissed. And he’s taking it to les Rues. He’s requested that the hip hop community find other expensive Champagne on which to lavish their collective attention, and he has removed all Roederer products for sale at his 40/40 club.
Good for him. Seriously. I hope other rappers follow his boycot. No other kind of music gives that much free press and ergo SALES to so many luxury goods as hip hop. So if a brand spits in your face, show them just how much business your community throws their old-tight-white-ass way. Monsieur Rouzaud’s comments were snide, let’s see him eat ‘em.
Note to Jay-Z: Caveat a-holes and be careful when selecting a new bubbly beverage of choix. There are bigger, more elitist, and way more out of touch companies than Roederer. Shit, you should probably just switch to Cava. I can give you the names of two dozen expensive Champagnes that taste better than Cristal. But what rhymes with “grower-producer?”
…ooh, sure, …seducer, …looser, …you sir, …acid-reducer, …obtuser, …loser, …Hoosier (a stretch), …that will do, sir, …noose…er, …moose…r…
Oh well, I tried. Fat lot of less luck I had with “Krug.”
My nomination for top candidate? Bollinger. “Bollie” can rhyme with lots of stuff, and there’s that added James Bond thing. Rappers love talking about James. And of the top cuvees, Bollie’s the best.
If Jay-Z’s boycott doesn’t convince you, may I offer another NOT drink Cristal?
Oh, brother.
I’m sure he’s minutes away from his shirt off and a few cops.
**P.S. Thanks for the all all the email about the site being down. Don’t know what happened. Probably an attack by the Russian data mafia. Another day, another gangsta-nerd.
UPDATE: Through AllHipHop.com, Roederer offers this retort, “”A house like Louis Roederer would not have existed since 1776 without being totally open and tolerant to all forms of culture and art, including the most recent musical and fashion styles which — like Hip-Hop — keep us in touch with modernity.”
Tolerant???? Dude! You just semantically shot yourself in the face. Wrong word. And in this case you needed to choose yours very carefully.
Because now I’m boycotting you. Oh wait, I already did. And what exactly are you tolerating?
June 16th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
ok, it’s not so much the information that you present…it’s how you present it. you are wonderful.
June 16th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
I’m sure to a french champagne executive hip hop seems crass. shit, don’t they look down on all of us? you don’t see louis vuitton complaining. stupeeed sheet.
June 17th, 2006 at 11:40 am
This is why we love you. You’re not afraid to burn a bridge. Or in this case, nuke it.
June 18th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Cristal ain’t hip hop, just the posturing of rich hip hop moguls, but can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people in the club that you know scrapped together every last dollar just to carry one of those bottles around. Where I bounce, see it all the time. Some sad shit.
June 18th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
you managed to say it straight, without making it all about race, i don’t think it is.
it’s all about class. i don’t think those guys care about color, they jsut find it distasteful and unfortunate and all those other words rich old peopel use.
June 18th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
kbr: I try.
BZC: Not exactly a “tolerant” group, non. But I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the Donald sport Cristal on his show.
Ravi: There is plenty of Champagne in the sea.
shugee: I hear ya, I was a club bartender once, what is rapped about is what is passed about … no matter how much it puts some out.
gBtB: It’s about the sociological thing I call “those people.” Each one of us is part of a “those people” to somebody. i.e. we are all “those people” to George W.
June 18th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Who cares whether or not some rappers drink Cristal? Yeah, it sucks that the business isn’t appreciated, but I can understand Roederer’s position. Would I rather have Paris Hilton and her friends buying my purses? Or her mother and her friends. No one wants to get caught up in the pop culture maelstrom and see their brand suffer.
June 18th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Excuse me if my nerves are raw, now that I have my parents living with me. After my childhood home was destroyed from Katrina, I would have thought the light was shown on the subversive racist all around us.
These rich French dudes took Diddy and Jay-Z’S money, they got richer off of hip hop. They just don’t want the rest of white culture to know about it. They’ll take our money, but they want whitey to know that they prefer fancier clientele.
Funny thing is, I bet Diddy and Jay-Z are worth more than that French bastard.
June 18th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
I found this site through SOHH.com. The way you tell the story is good. Cristal messed up. The hip hop world should be pissed. It’s not racial, it’s business. If I was giving free props to a company, and they acted that way I would be pissed too. But I don’t think it’s racial. This site is cool. I always said I wanted to drink Cristal on my 30 birthday. What should I do now?
June 18th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
fucking awesome
June 18th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
This is totally racist! You said it above “them.” Anytime there’s a “they” there’s a shit load of prejudice packed into it. I’ve never bought a bottle of Cristal in my life. Guess I never will.
June 18th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
You write about wine, so are you just adding your opinion? Plenty of those out there, like assholes. If you can do something about it. Do it. Me and my friends are asking all the clubs we go to to take that shit off the menu.
June 18th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
You just can’t help yourself. I knew you’d write about this. And better than anyone else as usual. I agree, it’s not about whether I can afford Cristal or not, it’s the corporate greed. Hip hop money was OK, but let’s not let everyone know we’re taking it. I mean, how’d you think they got all those bottles for some of the videos??? I have a hard time getting 6 bottles, never mind a fridge full. The distributors were playing the game, for the money. Now all of a sudden it’s not the right shade of green? I just removed all Roederer and Maison Marques and Domaines products from my shop’s data base. Not anything I’ll really miss. I’ll just buy more Becky Wasserman, right?
Awesome rhyming and Bolli references!
June 18th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
fuck Cristal! fuck rich people!
June 18th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Cristal is just like Silver Joke or Puke-us One. Once people know the name, it’s hard to get their nouveau riche asses off the stuff. Personally, in my place of employ, I sell Cristal to more hooptie white boys and wanna be ghetto white girls than anything. I’d say 10 to 1. But they still get the impression from those same said videos and album covers. I don’t think it’s racist either, it’s about culture. But they’re still looking down their nose at hip hop culture, so the impression is that it’s racist. But I agree that it’s elitist. Kill the rich.
June 18th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
That picture of K-Fed looks like he just crapped his pants. Bwah hahah! Yeah, Cristal is really cool, every inbred, white trash, star fucker drinks it.
June 18th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
OK, wine bitch–there has got to be something as cool as champaign, right? Lay it on us.
June 18th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
“Dude! You just semantically shot yourself in the face.”
That’s my Maggie, always the nerd.
June 18th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Oooooh Kaaaaaay, I get it. You guys like controversy. Well, I try my ever fucking best. Lots of email on this one. (You know, you can comment anonymously by using a bogus email.)
Why is no one in the wine business/press commenting about this you all ask? The reason you don’t hear tell many distributors, stores, etc. weighing in on this little gem of a topic is because everyone is so goddamn fucking scared shitless they might accidentally pardon-me-sir-but-oh! burn a bridge that they do their Sunday best not to even tread on said bridge, or look at it, or breathe on it, or acknowledge its existence. Oh, and old white dudes feel about as comfortable talking about hip hop as I would the new Medicaid prescription bennies.
AND! When so many wine companies/publications don’t even stoop to address the consumers they might have under the age of 30, what rightful attention do you think they, their PR lackies, or wine bloggers will pay the hip hop community, which is heretofore foreign to them other than having taken a liking to the aforementioned bubbly?
So fucking blind and polite, this gated community called Winetown. That’s why I moved the fuck out and got a place across the tracks.
(( Sorry, just watched two episodes of Deadwood. I love that fucking show. ))
June 18th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
I think the Feuillatte Palmes d’Or has more, uh, “bling”, than the Crissy anyway. Way cooler bottle, better bubbles, less $.
June 18th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
this fucking rocks! J, is the Palm the one that looks like a pretty glass grenade??? Then I vote for that, too. I love it when the snobs at the top have to confront what they consider we at the bottom. They’ll learn to love hip hop pretty fucking quick when their sales tank, huh?
June 19th, 2006 at 9:46 am
First when I heard this, I was kinda annoyed. But now that I read this and all these comments, I get it. Consider one white guy emlightened. So it’s a good day now, right?
June 19th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
I’m boycotting too! Wait, can I still boycott even if I could never afford Cristal in the first place?
June 19th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
So what’s your stake in this? You say you never liked Cristal, but do you sell a competitor or what? Why don’t you come clean with your affiliations
June 19th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
I second Jameson’s vote for the Palm d’Or…Feuillatte’s a new company that treats growers well.
And Brian, no affiliations, sorry. But I was a buyer, for many years. I am a wine rogue, and treat everything as fair game (though I do have some very good friends that sell Roederer). So if anything I have insentive to not speak up.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:29 pm
It’s ironic that the recent AP story about the Miami Heat NBA victory notes that “the team drank 22 bottles of the high-end Cristal champagne on the flight [home]…” I wonder how much Cristal’s sales might increase over this brief blurb about a group of basketball players happily enjoying their champagne (probably much more than if the story was about the French World Cup soccer team drowning their sorrows in Cristal after their latest loss). When little more than a photograph of Angelina Jolie’s baby can result in increased sales of the tee shirt the baby was wearing, the stupidity of Rouzaud’s comments – and the repugnance of his apparent belief that some consumers are preferable to others — become even more apparent.
July 28th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
The word “tolérance” and the adjective “tolérant” in French do not have the same sense that the English words “tolerance” and “tolerant”.
I hate racists. But in this case I think you are blowing things out of proportion and even showing a typical american anti-French ressentment. Which is not far from racism.
December 9th, 2006 at 2:39 am
Why should they want to be associated with misogynistic “artists” who for the most part produce unoriginal videos and music?