Champagne Part 3: History - When Champagne Became Bubbly (the Contributions of Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Mélin Pommery)

When we left the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Part 3: History - When Champagne Became Bubbly (the Contributions of the Veuve Clciquot), the year was 1866. The Grande Dame Clicquot was at the Château de Boursault, when on July 29, 1866, she died at the age of 89.
The Veuve Clicquot's many contributions included the creation of the vintage Champagne, the first known blended rosé champagne made by blending still red and white champagne wines, and the critical step in the creation of clear, bubbly Champagne, remuage or riddling to remove the dead yeast and other fermentation debris from the bubbly wine.
At this time, Champagne, while bubbly and clear, was very sweet and was something that people drank at the end of the meal.
Our next leap in the creation of bubbly Champagne is the contribution of Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Mélin Pommery, born on April 13, 1819. Her story is similar to Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin's, but instead of being 28 when she was widowed, Madame Pommery was 40 years old and had a 2 year old child. Upon her husband Alexandre's death in 1860, Madame Pommery assumed full control of the Pommery business.¹
When Madame Pommery took over the Pommery business, Champagne was not the primary focus of the business. While Pommery was also in the winemaking business, they were making red wine and not sparkling Champagne. Madame Pommery sold off the wool trading portion of the business and so impressed her husband's business partner, Narcisse Greno with her business acumen that he ceded the business over to her.² Imagine yourself back in the mid 1800's, this might be the scene that you would encounter in Madame Pommery's cellar.³

Madame Pommery presided over the expansion of the vineyard and winery operations throughout the Franco-Prussian War. One of the things that Madame Pommery put off while the war raged, was her experiments to make a dry Champagne.
Here is how this story goes. As early as 1848, an English merchant named Burnes tried to convince sweet Champagne makers to make their product in a dry style. This would be quite the gamble because:²

• Dry Champagne was more expensive and difficult to make
• Better, riper grapes needed to be used
• Dry Champagne required an aging time of 3 years instead of 1
• Most people knew Champagne to be sweet and liked it that way

In 1874, a vintage heralded as the best in the century, Madame Pommery tried something a little different. Instructing her head winemaker to create "a Champagne that is lighter, fruity, elegant". The result, with a dosage of just a few g/L, was a dry Champagne, in the brut style. The British went crazy for it, and the rest is history.
Reference:
1. Wikipedia, Louise Pommery.
2. Don and Petie Kladstrup, Champagne How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times, HarperCollins, 2005, pg. 99-119.
3. Henry Vizetelly, CHAMPAGNE: with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of France, 1882, pg. 192.