Widow Louise Pommery took over the champagne house in 1858 and invented brut in 1874

Louise Pommery became a widow in 1858, a year after her husband Alexandre-Louis had invested in the champagne business, leaving her with two children aged 17 and 18 months. She stepped into the firm at a time when champagne was a sweet dessert wine that needed heavy sugar to be drinkable.

Her first decision was to move the house away from red wines to make only champagne. She then pushed her growers to leave grapes on the vine far longer, reducing the need for added sugar, and in the 1870s expanded the cellars into 120 Gallo-Roman crayères carved in chalk.

In 1874 she made the decision that changed champagne: a much drier wine aimed at the British market, with sugar cut from around 150 grams per litre to 30. British drinkers loved it, the style became known as brut, and champagne was never the same again. Pommery still keeps a bottle of that 1874 in its cellars.

The 1874 brut won the British market and set the modern champagne style; Pommery became one of Champagne's great houses, with its famous crayères cellars.

The British market wanted a drier wine than the sweet champagnes of the day.

Riper grapes let her cut sugar without sacrificing quality.

Focusing only on champagne concentrated the house's capital and skill.

Building her own chalk cellars gave the house storage and prestige.

A non-specialist successor can see the customer better than the trade: Madame Pommery cut sugar from about 150g to 30g per litre for British drinkers and created the brut category.

Pommery became one of the largest and most respected champagne houses; Madame Pommery died in 1890 and received a state funeral with 20,000 attendees. The house she built stayed a leading brand and is now part of Vranken-Pommery Monopole.