Champagne Pommery & Greno

Champagne Pommery traces its founding to 1836, when Narcisse Greno took over an existing Reims trading house; Alexandre Louis Pommery, a former wool trader, later became his partner, forming Pommery & Greno. By September 1857 the young company was already shipping bottles to New York and had opened warehouses in Rotterdam, Antwerp, London and Liverpool. Alexandre Pommery died in 1858, and his widow, Louise Pommery (born Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Mélin), took over as head of the house. She redirected it toward quality Champagne, insisting on grapes left longer on the vine to reduce the need for dosage, and in 1874 released Pommery Nature, widely credited as the first commercially successful brut Champagne, breaking with the era's tradition of very sweet wine. In July 1868 she had launched what the house calls its 'construction site of the century': French and Belgian miners converted chalk quarries beneath Reims into 18 kilometres of interconnected galleries 30 metres underground, and sculptor Gustave Navlet carved bas-relief sculptures into the walls; a 116-step monumental staircase remains the only link between the cellars and the surface. Above ground, Louise Pommery commissioned an Elizabethan neo-Gothic mansion built on an open, H-shaped plan, completed in 1878. She died on March 18, 1890, and became the first woman to receive a French state funeral: 20,000 people filled the streets of Reims, and the French President renamed her country home Chigny-les-Roses in tribute to her love of roses.

• House traces its founding to 1836 (Narcisse Greno's Reims trading house, later joined by Alexandre Louis Pommery); by September 1857 the firm was already shipping wine to New York.
• Alexandre Pommery died in 1858; his widow, Louise Pommery, took over the house and released Pommery Nature in 1874, the first commercially successful brut Champagne.
• Crayère excavation launched July 1868: 18 km of galleries cut 30 metres underground by French and Belgian miners, with bas-relief sculpture by Gustave Navlet and a 116-step staircase.
• Louise Pommery died March 18, 1890, and became the first woman to receive a French state funeral; the French President renamed her home village Chigny-les-Roses in her honor.

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton owned Pommery from 1991 (acquiring it from the company now known as Danone) until 2002, when it sold the Pommery brand, its Reims site, cellars, Champagne stocks and supply contracts to Vranken Monopole for an undisclosed sum estimated at the time near 150 to 180 million euros; LVMH kept the bulk of Pommery's own vineyards, about 741 acres (roughly 300 hectares) across seven grand cru villages. Group founder Paul-François Vranken had launched his own Champagne brand, Vranken, in 1976, later acquiring Heidsieck & Co Monopole in 1996; Charles Lafitte, another of the group's Champagne brands, was created in 1983. On December 16, 2024, the Vranken-Pommery Monopole board split the chairman and CEO roles effective January 1, 2025: Paul-François Vranken remained Chairman, Nathalie Vranken (previously Deputy CEO) became CEO, and Clément Pierlot (who joined the group in 2004 and became Head Cellar Master in 2017) and Julien Lonneux (who joined in 2014 and became International Director and head of the UK subsidiary in 2018) were named Deputy CEOs alongside her. As of this fetch, the group's own executive-committee listing still shows Pierlot as Deputy CEO and Cellar Master of Maison Pommery, while Lonneux is now titled CEO of Vranken-Pommery UK & International Director. In October 2025 the group agreed to sell Heidsieck & Co Monopole to Lanson-BCC for 50 million euros, transfer effective January 1, 2026, framed as part of a strategic refocus on the Champagne Pommery & Greno brand and a previously announced debt-reduction objective; the parent group adopted the trading name Maison Pommery & Associés the same day, timed to Champagne Pommery's 190th anniversary. The renamed group's estates now span Champagne (Pommery, Vranken, Charles Lafitte), Château La Gordonne in Provence, Domaine Royal de Jarras in the Camargue, Terras do Grifo and Rozès in Portugal's Douro Valley, and Louis Pommery sparkling wine ventures in England and the United States.

• LVMH owned Pommery 1991-2002; sold brand, Reims site, cellars and stocks to Vranken Monopole in 2002 (est. 150-180 million euros), keeping most of Pommery's own vineyards (about 300 hectares, seven grand cru villages).
• Nathalie Vranken became group CEO January 1, 2025 (board decision December 16, 2024); Paul-François Vranken remained Chairman; Clément Pierlot and Julien Lonneux were named Deputy CEOs.
• As of this fetch, Pierlot still holds the Deputy CEO title; Lonneux's current title is CEO of Vranken-Pommery UK & International Director.
• Group sold Heidsieck & Co Monopole to Lanson-BCC for 50 million euros and renamed itself Maison Pommery & Associés, both effective January 1, 2026, marking Champagne Pommery's 190th anniversary.

Cuvée Louise, the flagship prestige cuvée created as a tribute to Louise Pommery, draws exclusively on three grand cru villages: Avize and Cramant for Chardonnay, and Aÿ for Pinot Noir; the current release is the 2008 vintage. The entry-point Brut Royal blends fruit from around 40 selected villages across the Côte des Blancs, Montagne de Reims and other parts of Champagne. Within the walled Domaine Pommery in Reims, the house farms Les Clos Pompadour, 25 hectares of vines named for Madame de Pompadour and planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; the resulting wine is released only in magnum. The current range beyond Louise and Clos Pompadour includes the Brut Pommery line (Brut Royal, Royal Blue Sky, and Grand Cru Royal), Cuvée Apanage (described by the house as a confidential cuvée for fine dining) and its Apanage 1874 sub-range, created to mark the 150th anniversary of brut Champagne in 2024 and now including a Blanc de Blancs alongside the original Brut, with a Rosé added to the range; and Pop, a 20cl nomadic format blending all three Champagne grapes. Across the range, cellar master Clément Pierlot, the house's 10th, blends a range of vintage reserves aged over a long period in the cellar, where a constant 10°C is maintained, rather than relying on dosage to shape the Pommery style of finesse over power.

• Cuvée Louise: exclusively Avize and Cramant Chardonnay plus Aÿ Pinot Noir; current release is the 2008 vintage.
• Brut Royal draws on grapes from around 40 selected villages across the Côte des Blancs, Montagne de Reims and other Champagne areas.
• Les Clos Pompadour: 25-hectare walled vineyard inside the Domaine Pommery in Reims (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier); released in magnum only.
• Apanage 1874 launched 2024 for brut Champagne's 150th anniversary; range now spans Brut, Blanc de Blancs and Rosé.

Since 2004, when Paul-François Vranken set out to source sparkling wine from vineyard sites around the world, the Pommery name has extended beyond Reims. The Louis Pommery brand, created in 2015, now produces sparkling wine in both Napa Valley, California, and Hampshire, England. In England, the group purchased the 40-hectare Pinglestone Estate near Alresford, Hampshire, in 2016, chosen by Clément Pierlot and Paul-François Vranken for its south/south-west-facing chalk slopes, part of the same chalk seam that runs through Champagne; a further 10 hectares were purchased nearby at Lovington in 2019. Louis Pommery England Brut was first released in spring 2018 using bought-in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire fruit made at another Hampshire winery, before the estate's own vines, planted mainly in 2018 and 2019 (30.5 of the 40 Pinglestone hectares planted by 2019), came fully online; the first Pinglestone harvest was in 2020. As of the estate's own current account, around 35 hectares are now planted at Pinglestone, farmed under regenerative practices alongside woodland and grazing land left for biodiversity, with an on-site winery about 200 metres from the vines and a Grade II-listed 17th-century oak-framed barn, Pinglestone Barn, serving as the visitor centre.

• Louis Pommery brand created 2015; produces sparkling wine in both Napa Valley, California, and Hampshire, England.
• Pinglestone Estate, Hampshire: 40 hectares purchased 2016; a further 10 hectares purchased nearby at Lovington in 2019.
• Louis Pommery England Brut first released spring 2018 from bought-in fruit; estate's own vines mainly planted 2018-2019 (30.5 of 40 ha by 2019); first Pinglestone harvest 2020.
• As of the estate's current account, about 35 hectares are planted at Pinglestone under regenerative farming, with an on-site winery and a Grade II-listed barn as visitor centre.

Pommery holds a singular place in Champagne history as the house that made the dry brut style commercially viable, work credited to Louise Pommery's 1874 Pommery Nature and marked in 2024 by the group's Apanage 1874 tribute cuvée. Its Reims cellars, 18 kilometres of galleries dug through chalk quarries, are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site and have doubled as a contemporary-art venue since 2003 through the Experience Pommery exhibition series, which the house says now draws close to 200,000 visitors a year and opened its 19th edition in spring 2026. For WSET and CMS study, Pommery is a standard reference point for the invention of brut Champagne and for the influence an individual proprietor, Louise Pommery, had on an entire appellation's style. As of fiscal year 2024, the wider Maison Pommery & Associés group reported around 634 employees across 10 international subsidiaries, with the Pommery and Vranken brands together accounting for 68% of the group's Champagne revenue, underlining the commercial scale that now sits behind the historic Pommery name.

• Credited as the house behind the first commercially successful brut Champagne (1874), marked by the 2024 Apanage 1874 tribute cuvée.
• UNESCO World Heritage-listed cellars host the Experience Pommery contemporary art programme, launched 2003, drawing close to 200,000 visitors a year (19th edition opened spring 2026).
• Standard WSET/CMS reference for the invention of the brut style and for one proprietor's influence on an entire appellation.
• As of fiscal 2024, parent group Maison Pommery & Associés reported about 634 employees across 10 international subsidiaries; Pommery and Vranken together are 68% of the group's Champagne revenue.

Primary sources (producer's own sites): https://www.champagnepommery.com/home, https://www.champagnepommery.com/pommery-house, https://www.champagnepommery.com/art-of-champagne/, https://www.champagnepommery.com/wines/apanage-1874, https://www.champagnepommery.com/wines/brut-pommery, https://www.champagnepommery.com/wines/brut-pommery/cuvee-brut-royal, https://www.champagnepommery.com/wines/pompadour/cuvee-les-clos-pompadour, https://www.champagnepommery.com/wines/louise/cuvee-millesime-2008, https://www.maisonpommery.com/en/la-maison/, https://www.maisonpommery.com/en/chiffres-cles/, https://www.maisonpommery.com/en/executive-committee/, an official Maison Pommery & Associés governance press release (PDF, Dec 2024), https://www.louis-pommery.com/our-history, https://www.louis-pommery.com/our-cuvees, https://www.louis-pommery.com/sparkling, https://www.louis-pommery.com/wine/england, https://www.louispommery.com/ourstory. Secondary sources: Wikipedia ('Louise Pommery'), Quill & Pad (Cuvée Louise and the invention of brut, 2020), The Drinks Business (2025 board reshape; 2022 Pinglestone harvest report; 2026 rebrand coverage), Lanson-BCC (2026 Heidsieck & Co Monopole sale notice), Wine Spectator (2002 LVMH-to-Vranken Monopole sale). Last verified 2026-09-09. Where the producer's own site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.