Shortly before the hustle and bustle of the actual birthday celebrations, this was an ideal time to get a concentrated picture of the most British of all Maisons. Inspired by family circumstances to found a champagne house in , Pol Roger focussed early on exports to Great Britain. The family history shows that Pol Roger had favoured dry champagne since Because he knew that the English had a preference for it.
Soon celebrities and the aristocracy were among the customers. The Grande Marque first became a purveyor to the British monarchy in And Winston Churchill became a customer of the Maison in After a meeting with Odette Pol Roger in Paris in at the latest, he was never to miss an opportunity to demonstrate his preference for Pol Roger. As a family business in the 20th century, it was a rock of tradition.
But the company could not completely shut itself off from modernity. At the turn of the millennium, managers from outside the family took over the operational business for the first time. This involved considerable investment in the cellar and vineyards. The production facilities were renovated between and For him, it was a step out of the world of oak and into the world of stainless steel. His successor was Damien Cambres in With Bastien Collard de Billy as Secretary General, the first member of the sixth generation has been working in the company since Winston Churchill probably appreciated the full-bodied style dominated by Pinot Noir.
This led to the bon mot that Pol Roger was the champagne of gentlemen. It was once remarked that, with the exception of the property in Cramant, the house had only average vineyard holdings. In fact, the Maison did not buy its own vineyards until and then took care of their cultivation quite late. Today, the vineyards cover 92 hectares. From these some around half of the grapes for the average of 2 million bottles produced.
In order to preserve the style, the house only buys grapes from the municipalities or neighbouring villages in which Pol Roger also has its own property. However, the real key to the quality of Pol Roger lies in the kilometre-long cellar. This is deeper and, at 9 degrees Celsius, up to two degrees colder than most other houses.
