In 1858, Madame Pommery took over as head of Pommery & Greno after the death of her husband. She based the expansion of her House on the creation of wines unlike any others, with one constant demand: quality pushed to the extreme. Well aware of how important the grapes’ origin was to the quality of her wines, over the years she built a collection of the finest vineyards in all of Champagne.
Madame Pommery, wanting to offer English consumers a unique, mainly “dry” wine, decided to invest in a new strategic location that brought together all of the optimal manufacturing conditions. In July 1868, Madame Pommery launched what would be the largest construction project of the century in Reims, the transformation of chalk quarries into wine cellars. French and Belgian miners dug 18 kilometres, 30 metres below the earth, of interconnected galleries formed of barrel vaults and rib vaults. It is a giant subterranean town. Gustave Navlet adorned the plazas, formed by ancient wells, with immense bas-relief sculptures that accentuates the surreal beauty of these grandiose galleries, which are cast in permanent twilight. A splendid monumental staircase with 116 steps is the sole connection between this underground world and the one outside.
In matters of taste she was ahead of her time. It was she who created Pommery Nature in 1874, the first brut champagne to meet with commercial success, thereby breaking with the tradition of very sweet wine. A woman in a man’s world, she imprinted her personality on her champagnes. The purity and the finesse of Pommery wines perpetuate this legacy.
Address:
5, Place du Général Gouraud - 51689 Reims, France
