Pommery Cuvee Louise 2002 Champagne 75cl

Champagne Pommery's prestige cuvée was first produced in 1979. Named after her daughter and a tribute to Madame Pommery's personality and vision, Cuvée Louise is a champagne with a very low sugar content, reflecting the origins of Brut Nature 1874. Containing wine from three Grand Cru plots: Avize and Cramant for the Chardonnay and Aÿ for the Pinot Noir, Cuvée Louise is aged on the lees for a minimum of eight years. The aim is to strike the perfect balance between the vintage and Pommery's unique tyle.

Weather: The 2002 vintage shaped up magnificently over the spring, with no significant frost and near-perfect flowering. Then followed a summer marked by long, sunny periods interspersed with regular cloudy and rainy spells. The vines were in good health and the dehydration of the grape berries helped them reach new heights of ripeness. Generally considered one of the best harvests in the last twenty years.

News Article: Pommery Cuvée Louise 2002 placed sixth in our comprehensive Prestige Cuvées from 2002 blind tasting in October 2016 with Jancis Robinson MW. Read the full write-up here.

Technical Information:
Vineyards: 100% Grand Cru | Chardonnay: Avize, Cramant | Pinot Noir: Aÿ
Grape Varieties: 60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir
Ageing: 8 years on the lees
Dosage: 5 g/l
Drink: Now to 2030

Tasting Note: A vibrant yellow hue with slight hints of green. On the nose aromatic hints of lemon and grapefruit lead to citrus fruits and berries on the palate. This fruity flavour continues through the delicate long-lasting finish. A tremendous expression of a near-perfect vintage.

When Madame Pommery discovered she was pregnant at the age of thirty-eight, her retired husband decided to go back into business. At the time, the Champagne industry was booming, so he purchased Narcisso Greno's business and founded Champagne Pommery. When he passed away less than two years later, Madame Pommery took over the reins and transformed this small estate into a Grande Marque. She perhaps most famously developed the first brut champagne in 1874. Pommery Nature seduced the English market and paved the way for the future of Champagne.

Despite numerous takeovers and the loss of family ownership, long-time Cellar Master Thierry Gasco has remained with the House, ensuring Pommery's high-quality production remained unaffected. The House has a wide range and their champagnes offer a reductive, fresh, pure and fruity style. Green values and sustainability are at the heart of Gasco's winemaking and Champagne Pommery were the first wine estate in the world to be granted environmental management certification. Pommery have also recently started producing sparkling wine in England, alongside Hattingley Valley.

Cellar Master: Thierry Gasco
Winery Location: Reims | Champagne, France
Champagne Region: Montagne de Reims
Annual Production (bottles): Undisclosed

Vintage Overviews Grand & Premier Crus Explained

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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.