Pommery Cuvee Louise Nature 2004 New Release. Price £150.00. Introduction: Pommery has launched a zero dosage Champagne with the release of Cuvée Louise 2004. The packaging is different from the standard offering, and features, in place of Louise’s white paper, a transparent label to reflect the fact that it is “naked” according to cellar master Thierry Gasco.   Brut Nature Champagne was the idea of Pommery owner since 2002, Paul-François Vranken, who wanted to pay tribute to the maison’s innovative past: back in 1874, Madame Louise Pommery introduced the first commercially successful Brut Champagne, called Pommery Nature.   However, delaying the release of a bone dry Champagne has been Gasco, who has been trying to find a base wine rich enough to be pleasant without any added sugar: “You must give to Champagne the quantity [of sugar in the dosage] that the Champagne needs – never less, and never more – and if I took our Brut Royal, which has a dosage of 10g/l, and I decreased it, I am sure … the consumer would say that the Champagne is green”.   With the Cuvée Louise 2004, Gasco reveals it was possible to create a sugarless Champagne because the wine was “mature” and it had gained richness from 10 years ageing in bottle on the wine’s lees.   Although he had tried to create a zero dosage Cuvée Louise from the 2003 vintage, he admitted that it “was not possible because it was too hard at the end,” referring to a very dry sensation as the Champagne was consumed.   Pommery’s 1990 Cuvée Louise had in fact been released with no dosage, although it was never stated on the label.   Tasting Notes: Whilst its colour remains the same with yellow shades and slightly green reflections, its nose becomes immediately tenser; it is focusing more on notes of slightly dried lemon, white flowers, all with a very nice minerality and good freshness.   On the palate it is straight as an ‘I’ and remains very tense, leaving the impression of surfing on a razor blade given its great fineness. Its final is very direct and the finish in the mouth leaves a memory of a very subtle wine.   Enjoy with seafood, Belon oysters and razor clams, but also with a crunchy cauliflower.   Unique Plots: Avize, Cramant and Ay. Cuvée Louise originates in the vineyards of Avize, Cramant and Ay, three “Grands Crus” areas that are jewels in the crown of the Champagne region.   The listed and sign-posted Cuvée Louise estates receive regular attention throughout the year. The Avize and Cramant  Chardonnay grape and Ay Pinot Noir grape have particularly high sugar content.   200 dedicated pickers, most of them with years of experience, are able to assess the best grapes at a glance.   Thierry Gasco’s Expertise: Pressing is performed in a traditional square press close to the vineyards so that the grapes arrive with their properties intact. To ensure that the juices are absolutely pure, for each marc of 4,000 kg only 1,800 litres of juice are selected instead of the authorised 2,550 litres. Pommery is the only Champagne house to have such standards in place.   Cuvée Louise is a vintage wine that reflects a single exceptional year. Thierry Gasco, Pommery’s Cellar Master, only decides to produce Cuvée Louise when the year’s harvest is worthy of this great wine. After blending which combines the purity and richness of aromas, the wine begins a period of 6 to 8 years of ageing in our constantly cool chalk cellars.   Background Information : Madame Pommery created the first successfully marketed Brut Champagne ‘Pommery Nature 1874’ at a time when most Champagnes were excessively sweetened by sugar. This set the benchmark for the rest of Champagne and it is in this spirit that the style of Pommery endures; with each unique cuvée displaying elegance, finesse and true class.   Today, all of the wines are expertly crafted by Chef de Cave, Thierry Gasco – the 9th Cellar Master at Pommery.   Pommery boasts some of the finest cellars in Reims, with over 18 kilometres of galleries hollowed out of chalk. Residing some 30 metres under the ground, these keep the maturing wine at a steady 10°c throughout the year. Pommery has continually been a generous patron of the arts and upholds this responsibility today, using the building as a venue to exhibit exciting contemporary art.