Pommery Royal Blue Sky NV is champagne made for serving with ice

Vranken-Pommery Monopole adds to its range a sweet champagne designed to be served on the rocks.

Nathalie Vranken, co-owner of Vranken-Pommery Pommery champagne house, with a bottle of Pommery Royal Blue Sky NV at Catalina restaurant in Sydney. Photo: Fiora Sacco

Champagne on the rocks? The idea is sacrilege to many but ­Nathalie Vranken believes Australia is ready.

The executive of Vranken-Pommery Monopole champagne house, which she co-owns with her husband, was in Australia last week for World Champagne Day to launch a new cuvee, Pommery Royal Blue Sky NV.

The semi-dry dosage champagne is actually a lot sweeter than Pommery’s traditional brut (dry) champagne and was created to be served over ice.

But not just any ice. Specifically, five cubes of frozen mineral water, in an outsized goblet, larger than a red wine glass.

“We don’t have to be blind,” says Vranken. “We are living in a world that is changing a lot so our question is: Why do we have to be stuck with the idea that the glass of champagne has to be ­conservative?”

Traditional brut champagne doesn’t work on ice, Vranken says. “It is not balanced to receive the ice cube, that’s why we made a new cuvee.”

The key here is sugar. Wine tastes less sweet if drunk at colder temperatures, so champagne on ice needs to be extra sweet.

The new cuvee, which Pommery spent 2½ years perfecting, is an addition to the offerings from the venerable champagne house, one of the world’s oldest, and will not replace the traditional brut. “Even difficult critics come back and say it’s good,” Vranken declares.

Pommery was founded as Pommery & Greno by a wealthy wool trader Louis Pommery in 1856. He died two years later, leaving his young widow, Jeanne-­Alexandrine Louise Pommery, to take over.

Pommery Royal Blue Sky, to be drunk on ice.

Like her successor, the widow Pommery was an innovator, ­determined to conquer overseas markets. Despite sweet champagnes being the vogue, Pommery developed the first brut champagne in 1874 for export to ­England, recognising English palates favoured a drier wine. Now 99 per cent of champagnes sold are brut.

“You don’t need to go against the mood of the moment and the mood of the time,” Vranken says.

“We thought it would be wonderful to have a glass with five ice cubes. Cubes to chill your champagne and they are playing music in your glass and a new way of toasting.”

Vraken-Pommery Monopole is the seventh largest group in Champagne. “We were presented with the option in 2002 to buy Pommery, which is something as a house in the champagne business you don’t refuse, as it has a beautiful history and amazing estate,” Vranken says.

Pommery Royal Blue Sky is a champagne made with a traditional blend of pinot noir, meunier and chardonnay grapes harvested from about 40 carefully selected vineyards in the Champagne region. But it has a higher dosage (sugar added to the wine just before corkage) than the traditional brut to give it extra sweetness, which enhances the fruit.

Pommery has more than 25 million bottles of champagne stored within the 18km of ­Pommery’s chalk cellars, which are 30m under the Pommery ­domaine itself near the French city of Reims.

It is not the first champagne house to go down such a path.

Five years ago, Moet & Chandon, part of the giant LVMH luxury group, launched Moet Ice Imperial, which was followed up by Moet & Chandon Rose, and Veuve Clicquot Rich Rose from companion LVMH champagne house Veuve Clicquot.

Vranken is non-specific about when to drink her new cuvee. The best time to drink the champagne is “if you think it is too early in the morning or too late in the evening. At that time it will be perfect. It is unconventional.”