Pommery Cuvee Louise 2002 Champagne 75cl

Pommery History

Champagne Pommery was founded as Pommery & Greno by Alexandre Louis Pommery and Narcisse Greno in 1858. After making a fortune in the wool industry, Mr Pommery was in fragile health and decided to retire from business and enjoy a quiet life, until Madame Pommery discovered she was expecting a child at the age of 38. This miraculous pregnancy, more than 17 years after her first, would change their lives forever. To provide for his baby daughter, Mr Pommery decided to go back into business – but the wool industry was in crisis. The Champagne trade however, was booming.

In the inventory on 31st December 1856, all of Pommery's wines were Grands Crus. The company changed its name, but it gained great strengths and talents. Henry Vasnier, the 24-year-old financial and administrative director and Adolphe Hubinet, the 23-year-old business director, joined the team. When Mr Pommery died on 18th February 1858, his wife looked at baby Louise, who was not even a year old and mustered up the strength to set out on an incredible journey. Under the guidance of Alexandre's widow, the firm was dedicated to Champagne production and soon became one of the region's largest brands.

Madame Pommery purchased 120 limestone and chalk pits, so-called crayères, carved underneath 12 miles of the city of Reims by Roman soldiers during their occupation of Gaul. Louise commissioned sculptor Gustave Navlet to carve 4-metre-long bas-reliefs of Bacchus celebrating wine into the walls and busts by Leon Joseph Chavaillaud. These unique cellars allowed her to store and age thousands of bottles in a temperature-controlled environment (a constant 10'C). Many other Champagne houses later followed suit.

Offices and other buildings above the cellars were modelled after the great English country houses. In ode to her most loyal clients, the British, Madame Pommery built a Tudor Elizabethan domain in Reims. She would later change the face of Champagne for her English customers, by making the first ever 'brut' Champagne, with no added sugar in 1874.

Pommery is currently owned by the Vranken-Pommery Monopole Group (located in Reims), which also owns Heidsieck & Co Monopoleand Vranken, Château la Gordonne, Domaine Royal de Jarras, and Rozès.