Pommery

Just mentioning the name Pommery ruft ein Funkeln in den Augen zahlloser Champagner-Liebhaber weltweit hervor. Der Grund hierfür ist einfach: Es geht um einen vortrefflichen Champagne! Das Haus Pommery & Greno bleibt dem ursprünglichen Credo der Madame Louise Pommery „La qualité d’abord! (Die Qualität über alles!)“ bis heute treu – und das, obwohl inzwischen 6 Mio. Flaschen pro Jahr in alle Welt ausgeliefert werden.
The house of Pommery & Greno looks back on a long history. According to the author Tom Stevenson, the Dubois-Gosset house was taken over by Narcisse Greno in 1836, with the name being changed to N.Greno & Cie at the same time.

A Mr Louis Alexandre Pommery became a partner in the company in 1856. Apparently he had made a substantial investment in the company. Now it gets exciting! Louis Alexandre Pommery was married to a lady named Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Pommery, who had the sometimes arduous task of raising her two children, Louis and Louise.

Tragically, Louis Alexandre Pommery died just two years later. This is astonishingly reminiscent of the fate of the famous Madame Clicquot - but some 70 years later. A relatively young widow and mother was now faced with the not inconsiderable responsibilities of running a business.

She also decided to take the reins. She, too, targeted exports with enormous personal commitment. This time, however, it was not Russia, as was the case with Widow Clicquot, but England. Some insiders refer to her as 'the mother of brut', as she produced a champagne with a dosage of just 6 to 9 g of sugar per litre, which enjoyed great popularity in England and was far removed from the high residual sugar content of the champagnes preferred by the Widow Clicquot's customers in Russia. Similar to the Widow Clicquot, Louise Pommery also catapulted a fine Champagne house in Champagne into the dimension of the prominent world class.

Louise Pommery partly converted the fruits of her success into large purchases of vineyards in the very best locations. Only Moët & Chandon could boast more vineyards. She also bought a very large plot of land around Reims, which contained an enormous number of limestone shafts (crayeres) from Roman times. According to the author Nicholas Faith, she persuaded the famous house Ruinart to sell this land. Lime shafts of this type are the ideal storage place for champagne both during and after the second fermentation. A seemingly endless staircase (116 steps!) leads directly down into the depths of the shafts, where the champagnes feel most comfortable in terms of temperature during storage. Around 1900, a kind of 'cable railway' with baskets for the bottles was installed (picture: a postcard, ca. 1940). One of the shafts also served as the location of the American military radio station AFN in 1944. Hidden deep in the limestone, the transmitter in the Pommery camp not only enjoyed ideal protection, but presumably also the opportunity for extensive 'tasting'.

Madame Louise Pommery had an imposing building erected above these Crayeres, which many tourists from all over the world still consider a must-see when visiting Champagne. Stylistically and architecturally, it is unusual and interesting for the region with its towers and spires, which are rather reminiscent of old England. Louise Pommery also apparently had shrubbery deliberately planted to hide the view of unsightly areas of Reims and allow visitors to focus on the most beautiful parts of the city, such as the famous Reims Cathedral. One could surmise that this remarkable woman not only wanted to delight connoisseurs with her fantastic champagne, but also sought to extend this beautiful experience to everything around Pommery. She herself merely lived in a relatively modest country house away from these imposing sites.

In 1979, Xavier Gardiner, already owner of the equally famous house Lanson, bought the house Pommery. The house was then taken over by the large food group BSN. In 1990, the well-known LVMH group took over the company. Today it belongs to the famous company Vranken.
Even today, Pommery honours this remarkable lady with a fantastic cuvée called Louise.

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