🍾 Pommery Apanage Brut 1874

Pommery Apanage Brut 1874 is a non-vintage white Champagne in the Brut style from the house Pommery in Reims (Marne).

According to the house, the grapes come from 17 crus; among them the Clos Pompadour in Reims; the blend is mainly 2018 with touches of 2015 and 2012; the wine ages 48 months in the Butte Saint-Nicaise chalk pits and has a low dosage.

The house Pommery is based in Reims; according to the house, its wines mature in 18 kilometres of galleries in old chalk pits.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

It is sold under the protected designation of origin Champagne: the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, and the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage). Brut on the label is an EU sugar term: less than 12 g of sugar per litre.

Why it matters to you. No year on the label means it is not a vintage wine: the house may blend wines from different harvests. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.