Vranken-Pommery Monopole, a dynamic group
Driven by the spirit of conquest and leadership, Paul-François Vranken founded the Group in 1976. As Europe's leading winegrower, we have more than 2,500 ha of our own vineyards as well as a portfolio of international brands that are distributed in more than 87 countries.
The Vranken-Pommery Monopole group is currently the no. 1 producer of Rosés worldwide and no. 2 for Champagne. Every one of our brands originates from a unique terroir that embodies the quintessence of our vineyards.
Since the company was founded by Paul-Francois Vranken in 1976, Vranken-Pommery Monopole has continuously developed our Champagne houses in complementary harmony with the estates we have acquired over the years. Today, ‘Heritage and Creation’ go hand in hand, but has it always been that way? To answer that question, we need to look back. At Vranken-Pommery Monopole, more than anywhere else, time is of the utmost importance. In the beginning, there was only the Vranken champagne house. When the house was founded, Paul-Francois Vranken invented the shaped bottle for his first Brut cuvée, with the wonderful name ‘Demoiselle’.
The revolutionary shape and the bursts of colour on the label - at a time when champagne labels were sober and muted - made a major impact, but that wasn't enough. There was work to be done on the wine's quality. The company stepped up to the challenge, first by removing cognac spirit from the blend, and then by creating the tête de cuvée designation. The first-pressed juices were isolated by a bailiff directly on the presses, a profound development in Brut champagne making. This designation gives the consumer an immediate qualitative distinction. This revolution envisioned by Paul-Francois Vranken was the greatest breakthrough in champagne in recent years. This method is now used by other champagne houses, an incontestable sign of recognition of our savoir faire. The house's fast expansion and development in the late 1980s inspired us to found a second champagne house, Charles Lafitte. Demoiselle was one of the biggest champagne success stories of recent years, and it is the most easily identifiable champagne, one that could not be substituted by any other.
This was the inspiration for Charles Lafitte, the gentleman explorer. It was the first champagne with a long black neck and a deep red label. It is now ahead of Demoiselle in its conquest of the champagne market. The Group later bought Heidsieck et Co. Monopole, the original Champagne house which was founded by Florens-Louis Heidsieck in 1785. It endowed the group with 70 hectares of vines and a remarkable oenological heritage with century-old wines. This house also had a global presence in more than 100 countries, dating back to the 1920s, and an inestimable gourmet and gastronomic heritage. Finally, in June 2002, the Group bought Pommery, which would become the largest and most spectacular champagne house in our history.
Defining Pommery in just a few words
Pommery is above all the heart and soul of a passionate woman, a woman with an avant-garde spirit, who, all by herself and before anyone else, set the foundation for modern champagne.
She built a 55-hectare estate encompassing every step of making Pommery champagne, from the grape to the glass. She revolutionised the champagne taste with the creation of Brut champagne in 1874. Madame Pommery invented the concept of cellar tours, allowing visitors from around the world to learn about the house's work.
Pommery is characterised above all by its excellent savoir faire that relies on its exceptional vineyard. Extremely well-known around the world, Pommery is one of the top five global champagne brands. It is distributed in more than 116 countries. The Pommery acquisition also contributed to a delightful case of serendipity. At the foot of the Pommery estate sat a magnificent villa built by Henry Vasnier, an associate of Madame Pommery, unoccupied for over three decades. This Art Nouveau masterpiece was unique in size and in splendour, but it had seen better days. Paul-François Vranken purchased the villa to save it from a sad fate and began renovations that lasted more than five years, driven by passion. It became a beautiful setting for his ‘Demoiselle de Champagne’, the perfect home he could not have dreamed of 20 years earlier when he designed the Demoiselle bottle in homage to the Art Nouveau movement. Wines, other than champagne that is, first entered into the house's history in 1985. The creation of the Quinta de São Pedro das Aguias vineyard, in Portugal's Douro Valley, was the first step in setting up Vranken Estates as we know it today.
According to Paul-Francois Vranken, for a wine to be labelled ‘Vranken Estates’, it must have the following qualities:
- It comes from one of our winemaking estates.
- It represents remarkable oenological savoir faire.
- It has strong historical connotations
- It reassures consumers about their selection.
Above all, Vranken Estates embodies the aspiration to make wines that resemble the places they come from. When you really know a place, you know which way the wind blows, how the sun shines, and what kind of grapes grow there, You like to take walks in the vines and listen to nature in all her majesty, whether it is in the sandy soil of Aigues-Mortes or near Château La Gordonne in Provence, You imagine wines like no other, perhaps wines made using non-grafted Grenache, perhaps wines aged in acacia barrels, or perhaps a wine that can only truly express itself in a magnum bottle. Whatever these wines, we have chosen them, imagined them, made them, and tasted them to get the best possible expression out of our vines. A unique collection of masterpieces of French and Portuguese winemaking. Wines by Vranken Estates, They are the fruit of the agricultural, oenological, production and marketing work accomplished every day by the men and women who work for us and who uphold our values around the world.
Empress Eugénie's flamboyant 19th century
The Empress Eugénie reigned from 30 January 1853 to 4 September 1870. Her seventeen-year reign made its mark on history and hearts. How formidable then a responsibility it is to pay her a fitting tribute. It was the spirit of the times that we sought in the creation of this cuvée. Napoleon III proclaimed that this would be the century of scientific and social progress, of industry and the arts, of the renewed grandeur of France. It was the century of photography, the ‘Salon des Refusés’, the birth of Impressionism, Eugene Labiche’s theatre, of Haussmannian Paris, Offenbach’s operas and the Paris Opera house designed by Charles Garnier, winner of the Prix de Rome in 1848.
This would also be the century of gastronomy as an art form, of Alexandre Dumas’ dictionary on cuisine, and the creations of the finest French chefs including Carême, and later Escoffier. The era was also marked by the joyful spirit that prevailed in Parisian restaurants, driven by festivity and Champagne-tastings. The most famous champagne at the time was the Dry Monopole. There was a certain spirit, a certain style during the Second Empire, known as the ‘Napoleon III’ era in the decorative arts.
And it is the reinvention of this spirit that makes the creation of the Imperial Cuvée so complex: it had to be absolute modernity blended with rare elegance to become, in a word, as unforgettable as the empress who inspired it. Empress Eugénie was a stunning beauty. The spirit of freedom that inhabited her was new: it paved the way for women’s liberation. She was elegant and refined, and she left behind a lasting impression in her political acts, such as awarding the Legion of Honour to Rosa Bonheur, which gave women in civil society access to this prestigious distinction; or her decision to build an orphanage in Paris, in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, rather than accept from Paris a jewel for her coronation.
Her elegance has gone down in history. She started the trend for crinoline gowns, which were divine on her, and collected jewellery with such taste that, upon her death, Tiffany’s acquired her collection. It became a basis for its designs and its reputation far and wide. Cuvée Impératrice delightfully combines the beauty of its bottle, like Eugenie’s crinoline gown, with the fine quality of Heidsieck & Co. Monopole champagne.
Its brand-new gold and silver label and its new box were designed in 2013 for the 160th anniversary of Empress Eugénie's coronation.
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