Pommery: Known for its Remarkable Vintages

The ingredients of a top champagne include the growth of the finest grapes, the time of the most dedicated laborers and the hard work of the best oenologists. Perhaps most of all, any great wine needs a great cellar in which to mature, and Pommery's was one of the first – part of the reason the house has earned a Luxist nomination in the best sparkling wine/champagne category.

Pommery's roots can be traced back to 1836, when Narcisse Greno first envisioned the champagne. Two decades later, he teamed with Alexandre Louis Pommery; when the latter died in 1858, his widow took over the business and ten years later constructed the Pommery chateau.

Louise Pommery's greatest contribution to the champagne house, however, was the acquisition of a network of crayeres, the subterranean limestone-chalk networks built underneath Reims by the Romans during their rule over Gaul. It was here that the most remarkable vintages of Pommery gained their character; today, more than 20 million bottles are maturing 30 meters below the surface, kept at a constant temperature of 10 degrees Celsius.

Pommery's fame extends far beyond the chilly earth beneath Reims. In 2002, the house was purchased by wine producer Vranken Monopol. Never far from its past, the Pommery chateau still stands in Reims, where it welcomes some 120,000 visitors per year.

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