Biodiversity is something many of us think of in the abstract: flowers, bees, polar bears – all nice if you’re a poet or nature lover, but not really part of the serious conversation. Which is wrong, because the Earth is a system, including humans as part of it, and biodiversity underpins it. We do not live in silos, much as some who would rule over us would like us to.

Louis Roederer’s biodynamic work – from natural regeneration of the soil to maintaining pollinator-attracting hedgerows, from gentle plowing in the vineyards by horse to preserving the diversity of its plant heritage through massal selection – combines to create nuance and complexity in its wines

The food we eat comes from nature, and if nature doesn’t work food doesn’t grow. This is as true for luxuries, like wine, as it is for staples like wheat or corn.

There is no wine more luxurious than Louis Roederer’s Cristal, and the company’s investment in biodiversity is an exemplar, not because it is philanthropic, but precisely the opposite: they know that to make the best wines, you need healthy land with a healthy ecosystem; and to continue to do so, you need the land to continue being healthy.

The Earth is a system, including humans as part of it, and biodiversity underpins it

In the words of Louis Roederer Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, the man responsible for the grapes, the habitat and the winemaking, “I see the estate as something I cultivate not just for myself, but for the land. I take from it, but I also give back.”

There are other luxury-goods purveyors that share this attitude. But too many do not. In the world of LUX, it’s the power of you, the consumer, that can change that – over a glass of Cristal, or perhaps our editor’s favourite, the Louis Roederer Rosé Vintage. Good health to you and your planet.