What do you do when you’re a well-known Champagne house that wants to grow, but is constrained by lack of land and legal restrictions in the Champagne province of France?

Head to vineyards in the New World!

Some, including Mumm, Moët et Chandon, Roederer and Taittinger, have found success bringing their time-honored craft to the California.

Domaine Chandon was established in Napa Valley “way back” in 1973, Mumm Napa a few years later.

A more recent entry—the first bottling was released this spring—is Louis Pommery California, a Chardonnay-based wine with 4% Pinot Noir grapes. The effort yields a toasty-floral aroma and palate notes of apple, peach, and very well-balanced acidity and minerality.

At $24 a bottle, it’s affordable for holiday toasting, gifting…and year-round weekend dinners or apéritifs.

The sparkler pairs perfectly with appetizers, fish and seafood entrées, chicken dishes, pasta with white or oil sauces, lemon tart, and much Asian cuisine.

Discover more at ChampagnePommery.com.

New sparkler in town: Louis Pommery California, scion of the great French champagne house (photo courtesy Chilled Magazine).

Alexandre Louis Pommery, a retired wool merchant, co-founded his eponymous champagne house in 1856. But following his death in 1858, his widow, the former Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Melin, took over operations.

At age 38, she was the mother of two, and in charge of not only a family and household, but a vineyard and champagne house.

She had a very clear idea of the style of wine she wanted to make: delicate, fine, and very dry. In 1874 she developed the brut champagne style, steering the world away from sweet champagne to this drier style [source].

Today, brut is by far the leading sparkling wine style produced worldwide.

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