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Madame Pommery by Rebecca Rosenberg

Publication Date: March 21, 2023

Lion Heart Publishing

Genre: Historical Fiction

Champagne, France, 1860. Madame Pommery, an etiquette teacher and orphanage founder, loses her husband and is forced to support her family. With no experience, the forty-year-old widow decides to make champagne. Her unique vision is to change it from a sweet dessert beverage to a dry, crisp wine to be enjoyed anytime. When champagne makers refuse to teach her their craft, she forges ahead on her own and secretly begins the excavation of champagne caves under the Reims city dump.

Soon after, her son and her entire crew are conscripted to fight the Franco-Prussian war, leaving Madame Pommery alone to struggle with her champagne dreams. After Napoleon and a hundred thousand French troops are captured, the Prussians invaded France, and Prussian General Frederick Franz occupies Madame Pommery’s house as his army headquarters. Undaunted, Pommery uses her secret wine caves to hide the Francs-Tireurs, resistance fighters for France, while she plans to build a spectacular castle winery above the caves.

But when her former lover, a Scottish Baron, unexpectedly proposes marriage, Madame Pommery must choose between nobility and her passionate quest for fine champagne and the most beautiful winery in the world.

Based on a true story, Madame Pommery is a heroic novel about a mother and widow who fights the Prussians, the social class system, champagne patriarchs, and champagne tastes to create a champagne legacy.

"The sun-drenched vineyards of France, a real-life heroine who against all odds refuses to give up her dreams... and champagne. What's not to love?” Barbara Davis, Best-selling author of The Echo of Old Books

Amazon

 

California native Rebecca Rosenberg lives on a lavender farm with her family in Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon, where she and her husband founded the largest lavender product company in America. A long-time student of Jack London’s work and an avid fan of his daring wife, Charmian, Rosenberg is a graduate of the Stanford Writing Certificate Program. Her books include: GOLD DIGGER, the Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor, The Secret Life of Mrs. London, Lavender Fields of America, and the Champagne Widows series.

For more information, please visit Rebecca's website and blog. You can also find her on Amazon, BookBub,  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

My Thoughts

Madame Pommery by Rebecca Rosenberg is the story of  Madame Pommery, Jeanne Alexandrine Louise, who has founded an orphanage and also teaches etiquette, and some of her teachings are scattered throughout the book.

She loses her husband at a young age, and she is left with a young daughter and a teenage son. Her husband had operated a wool business and a small winery on the side. She is only 40 when her husband dies so she has to support her family.  She decides to use the winery for making champagne and not wine. She is told by the villagers that it can't be done because she is a woman. In France at this time, women can only inherit if they are a widow. 

She learns the trade from whomever she can just not from fellow champagne makers and once her business is off the ground, she now needs somewhere to store all the champagne that has been made. She starts excavating under the dump in the caves in Reims. She purchased 120 limestone and chalk pits, called crayeres which were carved underneath 12 miles of the city of Reims by Roman soldiers during their occupation of Gaul.

Soon France is involved in the Franco-Prussian war, after Napolean and his troops are captured, Prussian General Frederick Franz takes over her home and insists that she and the women in town serve his troops. She does, only to keep her champagne safe from them. Franz and his men are cruel but Madame soon is able to befriend him, although unwillingly. She will protect her winery at all costs.

Then her past lover proposes marriage but she turns him down as she has feelings for another. She struggles to make the champagne that she wants, dry champagne and not the surgery ones that England and France are used to. 

This story is based on a true story of a woman who revolutionized the art of champagne making. Changing it to Brut champagne, she had opposition along the way, even from her own son. But she persevered and created a remarkable product for the world to enjoy!

I always love a good story about strong women and this is a good one. Great research, and great writing all make a great story! 

I give it 5 stars.

I received a copy of the book for review purposes only.

Giveaway

Enter to win a Champagne Swag pack including champagne earrings, champagne jellybeans, and champagne ornament.

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on April 21st. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Madame Pommery