Champagne Pommery is a French Champagne house located in Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

. The house was founded as Pommery & Greno in 1858 by Alexandre Louis Pommery and Narcisse Greno with the primary business being wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 trading. Under the guidance of Alexandre's widow, Louise Pommery, the firm was dedicated to Champagne production and soon became one of the region's largest Champagne brands. Pommery is currently owned by the Vranken company (located in Épernay

Épernay

Épernay is a commune in the Marne department in northern France. Épernay is located some 130 km north-east of Paris on the main line of the Eastern railway to Strasbourg...

), who also have Heidsieck & Co Monopole

Heidsieck & Co Monopole

Heidsieck & Co "Monopole" is a champagne house located in the Champagne region of France. It was founded in 1785 by Florens-Louis Heidsieck. Today, Heidsieck is owned by the Vranken company , who also have Pommery and Demoiselle in their portfolio...

 and Demoiselle in their portfolio.

Louise Pommery

Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Mélin was born March 18, 1819 in Ardennes

Ardennes

The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...

 and married Alexandre Pommery in 1839. Upon Alexandre's death in 1860, his widow Louise Pommery assumed full control of the business. She purchased 120 limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 and chalk pits, so-called crayères, carved underneath 12 miles of the city of Reims by Roman soldiers during their occupation of Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

. These unique cellars allowed her to store and age over twenty million bottles in a temperature-controlled environment. Many other Champagne houses later followed suit.