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Wine Description
The Story
Cuvée Louise was created in 1979, but as Madame Pommery would have demanded, this prestige cuvee is a product of the very best plots in the Pommery vineyards, reserved specifically for it. In the tradition of Pommery Nature 1874, Cuvée Louise is the only special cuvee with so little sugar.
Thus the wine naturally expresses its exceptional purity. Behind this apparent simplicity are unique processes at each stage of its elaboration that ensure that Cuvée Louise is the quintessence of the House style.
Vintage Pommerys never let you down, and the prestige wine Cuvée Louise pays Madame Pommery the homage she deserves. Our favourite, however, is the fantastically delicate and subtly mineral Cuvée Louise Rosé, which is an unfortunately rare find. It only makes up five per cent of Cuvée Louise’s production.
The Cuvée Louise vineyard, made up exclusively of the top three Grands Crus: Avize and Cramant for the Chardonnays and Aÿ for the Pinot Noir. Vines on the mid-hillside, vines in the air and vines upland… the plots of land in the Cuvée Louise vineyard are selected both for their location at the heart of the terroir, their performance over the years and the rich aroma of their grapes. And by their nature, they most faithfully convey the subtlety of the Pommery style.
The ultimate expression of a genius woman’s personality. Cuvée Louise owes its name to the visionary, avant-garde woman who gave the world a brand-new style, a pure, fine, elegant style all Pommery’s own.
Wine Information
The legacy of the world’s second most famous champagne widow, Madame Pommery, was immense. Her husband, Louis Alexandre Pommery, passed away just two years after entering Narcisse Greno’s champagne business in 1856. Despite having two babies to take care of, Jeanne-Alexandrine Pommery took the reins of the small business and turned it into a major Grande Marque. Madame Pommery was greatly inspired by her contemporary, the widow Clicquot, despite the fact that the two women apparently did not get on at all.
In addition to creating the Pommery brand and building the monumental cellars, Madame Pommery is credited with producing the first dry champagne. The 1874 vintage of Pommery Nature was the first champagne that we would today call dry, and it immediately captivated the British market. It would pave the way for the champagne style of the future. One of these historic bottles can be seen in the Pommery cellars to this day.
Madame Pommery had a fabulous mansion built for her daughter Louise close to the champagne headquarters, and today it houses the finest hotel in Champagne, Les Crayères. Louise was married off to Prince Guy de Polignac, and the house remained in the hands of that renowned aristocratic family until 1979.
The final representative of the family, Prince Alain de Polignac, was for a long time a highly regarded cellar master of Pommery, acting as an ambassador for the house until the turn of the millennium. Despite Prince Alain’s contribution, the loss of the family’s holding in the business has proven fateful for Pommery. After a few changes of hands, Moët Hennessy took over Pommery in 1994 and started to turn it into a volume brand by exponentially increasing production. This significantly lowered quality. The final blow for Pommery, however, came when Moët Hennessy sold the house to Vranken but kept all of the best vineyards for itself.
This act surely made Madame Pommery turn in her grave, as it made it very difficult for the house to stick to her motto, Qualité d’abord: Quality First. In spite of the difficult circumstances, the estate’s valued cellar master Thierry Gasco has stayed on board and done all he can for quality. Sustainable development is particularly close to Gasco’s heart and he worked towards Pommery becoming the first house of wine to achieve the ISO 14001 environmental certificate in 1996. All of Pommery’s own vineyards are organically cultivated.
Vintage 1979
A piercingly cold winter delayed the start of the growing season and was followed by a decidedly cool spring with some frosts in May. As a result, growth was subdued but initial flowering was good. The weather improved in June and July with nice sunshine and gentle heat creating excellent conditions for ripening. Despite rainfall during harvest, sugar and acidity levels remained high and disease pressure didn't mount too much of an assault, producing Champagnes of impressive character and length.
On top of quality, great quantity was also achieved, with an average crop of 11,061 kg/ha being picked between October 3rd and 31st. The Chardonnays were particularly successful and high-yielding. Krug Clos du Mesnil is sheer perfection, going from strength to strength over the years. There are plenty of great Champagnes still in outstanding form. They include Krug Vintage, Louis Roederer Cristal, as well as Lanson Vintage Collection and Noble Cuvée.
