Writing on the wall at Pommery's

The president of Mongolia has just ended a state visit in France, and what is more natural than to put a visit at one of the big champagne houses in Reims in the official program? Since this was the personal wish of president Nambaryn Enkhbayar.

A visit of this kind helps polish the guilded frames around the name and notion of champagne. And as we all may know a regular maintenance costs a lot less than total renovation, so visits of this calibre are important. Even they probably still drink a lot more butter tea than champagne in the land of the big steppes. Whatever.

But what do you choose for a president then?

Cuvée Louise from Pommery
Since Pommery housed the event, it was the prestige cuvée of this houses, the cuvée Louise 1998, that was poured into the glasses.

Louise is named after the grande dame of this house. A lady, who in the late 19th century became a very far-seeing manager of Pommery. Cuvée Louise is only made in the best years, latest in 1998, and even after spending some years in the caves, its technical specifications has still not made it into the website of Pommmery. The latest is the1995-version.

But the wine merchants on the net write a bit about cuvée Louise 1998:

Tastings.com puts cuvée Louise in the category of "exceptional", and note its long aftertaste,

Wineandco describes cuvée Louise as fullbodied and in a perfect balance and harmony.

1855.com gives three hearts out of five obtainable.

And even the cuvée Loise is normally not mentioned next to those of Krug, Salon, Bollinger and Roederer, the chef de cave is known and acknowledged for his creativity.

Writing on the wall
The man in charge of the wines of Pommery is called Thierry Gasco. In 1999 he invented POP, that on top of being a champagne was also a new idea about who, how and when you buy and drink champagne. The new minibottle was marketed to be bought by a young club audience and drunk with a straw and not in the classic flute, used by the traditional target group of champagne: A more or less global upper middle class.

The president of Mongolia returned to Paris after having written the name of his capital on the wall of Pommery, says our regional paper, l'Union. It also mentions that the president asked many and precise questions about how you make the champagne, the quality of grapes and vintages

The writing on the wall is a tradition, that Louise Pommery herself introduced. She simply began to write the names of places, she visited, on the walls of her cellars.

You could claim that it is not quite the same. She never visited Mongolia, I guess.

But still, this kind of events help to feed the big story of champagne. It represents a new piece of information for the guided tours at Pommery, and with a bit of luck, His Excellency may even now and then talk about the day where he wrote the name of his capital on a wall in a cave in the city of Reims. It is called Ulan-Bator by the way.

På dansk

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