A ‘small-fry’ London winery claim they have been threatened with legal action by a French winemaking giant, who say they’ve ‘infringed the trademark’ of their luxury Cristal champagne – despite the products being ‘entirely different.’
Renegade Urban Winery, owned and operated by Warwick Smith, 43, have been selling their £28 ‘Crystal’ Pet Nat Pink wine since 2018 which they named after their regular customer Crystal Lai, who even features on the bottle.
Last week the small business was stunned to receive a legal warning from Louis Roederer who claimed they had infringed on their £300 vintage champagne ‘Cristal’ – despite the two wines being spelt and pronounced differently.
In a letter sent to Renegade, a law firm representing Louis Roederer demanded that the Walthamstow brewer immediately cease the production and sale of all of their ‘Crystal’ products.
They cited that the only ‘the only difference between [their] client’s Cristal Marks and the mark displayed on [Renegade’s] range of wine is the interchanging of the letters, ‘I’ and ‘Y’, which sound similar anyway.’
Renegade Urban Winery, owned and operated by Warwick Smith, 43, have been selling their £28 ‘Crystal’ Pet Nat Pink wine since 2018 which they named after their regular customer Crystal Lai, who even features on the bottle
Warwick Smith described his company as ‘tiny’ in comparison to the French giant
Louis Roederer claimed they had infringed on their £300 vintage champagne ‘Cristal’ (pictured) despite it being spelt and pronounced differently
Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Smith said that this ‘third battle of Champagne’ had been intensely depressing and confusing.
He explained: ‘We are tiny, I mean, tiny. In terms of Kristal, I think they sell 300-400,000 bottles a year, you know and our maximum production capacity across our entire range is about 70,000 bottles.
‘To put that in perspective, a small winery in Italy will be about 400,000 bottles, you know, and people like Cloudy Bay are a 25 million bottle production.
‘They said that we have infringed their trademark, even though the spelling’s different. The wine colours are different. Ours is not champagne, theirs is.
‘The grapes are different, the labels different. The spelling and pronunciation is different. It’s bizarre.’
Since launching in 2016, Renegade has navigated Brexit, the Ukraine conflict, Covid and the cost of living crisis to carve out a reputation for itself.
The business now has two sites in Bethnal Green and Walthamstow and sells to established chains like Cricket and Sketch.
‘We’re doing OK’, Warwick admits, ‘but we don’t have the money to fight this sort of legal action.’
Since launching in 2016, Renegade has navigated Brexit, the Ukraine conflict, Covid and the cost of living crisis to carve out a reputation for itself
The business now has two sites in Bethnal Green and Walthamstow and sells to established chains like Cricket and Sketch
Warwick Smith poses with two of his bottles after being accused of copyright infringement
The £28 of Crystal – described as ‘rhubarb, raspberries, dry, fruity and innocent’ – at the heart of the row
French giant Louis Roederer were founded in 1776 and ship over 3.5million bottles of plonk to over 100 countries every year
Mr Smith admits his business cannot afford to fight a big multi-millionaire French company
By contrast, French giant Louis Roederer were founded in 1776 and ship over 3.5million bottles of plonk to over 100 countries every year.
The illustrious champagne house say they created their Cristal wine in 1876 ‘in order to appease the tastes of Tsar Alexander II’.
‘I think they want us to completely cease production and take all of our products that have any potential area that have any similarity at all with theirs out of the market.
‘This is a warning, I think, before they launch a more comprehensive legal kind of a plan. But yeah, I’m going to have to get some legal advice.
‘We don’t even sell the bottle in France so I don’t know how we’ve come onto their radar. It’s a bit ridiculous.
‘A company like ours cannot afford to fight a big multi-millionaire French company. I mean, I was amazed to hear that this company is actually family owned. So it’s not even like it’s not a big corporation that’s having a problem with us – it appears to be a French family!
‘Our wine is named after a girl called Crystal, maybe I’ll ask her if she can change her name too, so we can keep the wine named after her!’
MailOnline has approached Louis Roederer for comment.
The First and Second Battles of Champagne: The WWI offensives that proved costly in lives but achieved little
The First and Second Battles of Champagne were fought in the region of the same name in north-east France during the First World War.
Although the area has for centuries between synonymous with the world famous sparkling wine that it produces, more than a century ago it was a hotbed of bloodshed.
French forces were facing the might of the German army – in a conflict that would ultimately take 20million lives
The First Battle of Champagne took place between December 1914 and March 1915.
It was one of the earliest major offensives on the Western Front during the entire war.
French forces commanded by General Jospeh Joffre were hoping to make advances in the region, but the three-month battle did not achieve a major breakthrough.
The First and Second Battles of Champagne were fought in the region of the same name in north-east France during the First World War. Above: French troops wait to commence an attack in the first battle
The French were particularly troubled by faulty shells which were exploding prematurely. Others failed to inflict significant damage.
In the face of stiff German resistance, the offensive ran out of steam, having captured just a few miles of land.
By the time it was called off, there were 93,000 dead, wounded or missing soldiers on the French side.
The Second Battle came six months later, in September 1915.
This skirmish lasted until early November 1915.
This time, British troops were involved too. The plan was to break the German lines, and heavy artillery bombardments were utilised.
But, like its predecessor, the Second Battle failed to achieve any meaningful victory.
The Second Battle came six months later, in September 1915. This skirmish lasted until early November 1915
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