If you’ve ever sipped a glass of Champagne and thought it was way too dry — there’s actually a woman responsible for that. Because before she came along, Champagne was as sweet as dessert wine. And when drier wines were growing in popularity across Europe, she set out to change everything.
Meet Louise Pommery — a widow at 39 years old, left with two children and a struggling wool and Champagne business, at a time when widowhood was one of the only ways a woman could legally own and run a business in France. She made one of the boldest decisions in wine history: she sold off the wool business entirely and went all in on Champagne.
But she didn’t just build a Champagne house — she changed the taste of Champagne itself. European markets, particularly in England, were craving something drier and more refined. And Champagne at the time was nowhere close — loaded with up to 300 grams of sugar per liter. That’s 25 times sweeter than the Brut Champagne we drink today. She recognized that the sweetness came from a practice called dosage — where winemakers added large amounts of sugar to compensate for grapes that were picked too early. So she made a financially risky decision and instructed her growers to leave the grapes on the vine one to two extra weeks to reach full ripeness — reducing the need for added sugar entirely. In 1874, she released the Pommery Nature — the world’s first Brut Champagne. A revolution that changed the style the entire world drinks today.
She also purchased 18 kilometers of ancient Roman chalk caves beneath the city of Reims, turning them into one of the most celebrated Champagne cellars in the world — today holding over 20 million bottles and attracting over 120,000 visitors a year. Pommery’s prestige cuvée is still named Cuvée Louise in her honor.
Veuve Clicquot perfected how Champagne is made. Louise Pommery changed what Champagne tastes like.
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2 Comments
Love this channel. So cool learning these facts
So interesting. Also women have been doing it all since FOREVER