Champagne Pommery

Champagne Pommery - a woman turns champagne upside down

Champagne Pommery is a French wine producer dedicated to the top product in the French sparkling wine world. The company traces its origins back to Louis-Alexandre Pommery and Narcisse Greno, founded in 1856 when Louis-Alexandre joined Narcisse's business. However, Pommery's breakthrough was to come with Louise, Louis-Alexandre's wife. She took over the management in 1858 after her husband's death and focused the entire production on champagne. She had selected own vineyards planted in order to achieve a high quality of the harvest material. 

The invention of Brut Champagne at Pommery

In 1874, she revolutionized the sparkling wine world with the first Brut Champagne, which at the time was only vinified sweet. Perhaps it took a woman to bring a breath of fresh air to the male-dominated world of wine production. Her next big project followed with the expansion of the chalk tunnels under Reims, which were transformed into large warehouses for the champagne of the house. Above them is built the Domaine Pommery, an English-style house with neo-Gothic architecture. Right next to the Domaine is Les Clos Pompadour, one of the best vineyards of the house.

Today, Domaine Pommery is part of the Vranken-Pommery group, which also includes other big names like Charles Lafitte or Heidsieck.

The champagne production at Pommery

The vineyards of Pommery are of course located in the Champagne region. In the spirit of Louise, the highest value is still placed on the selection of perfectly ripened grapes. The quality of the harvest and the exact location, as well as some other characteristics, are the leeway given to the cellar masters when assembling the cuvées of the house. These parameters are, by the way, more decisive for the character of the individual wines than the dosage that is added to the sparkling wine. The Brut Royal, for instance, is blended from vintages from 40 different vineyards. The vintage champagne consists of 7 wines from Pommery's Grand Cru sites, and the Prestige Cuvée, the flagship, is produced from the company's three best sites.

In the Pommery cellar

The reins in the cellar of Pommery are held by Clément Pierlot, who is the Chef de Cave. In the spirit of the inventor, the cellar blends traditional craftsmanship with modern methods to combine progress and the best quality. In Pommery's chalk cellars, the first wine is fermented to produce a slightly alcoholic still wine, which is the basis for the further craft steps. After the addition of further grape juice, the second fermentation is started in the bottle, which is the typical méthode champenoise. Finally, after the long maturation, the bottle is turned upside down to allow the yeast plug to migrate into the neck of the bottle, where it can be removed and the loss of champagne is compensated by the dosage.