The Third Battle of Champagne: Small London firm charging £28 for bottle of ‘Crystal’ wine is accused of copyright infringement by French winemaking giant Louis Roederer who make luxury ‘Cristal’ champagne

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.  

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