Deep under the cobbled streets of Saumur, miles and miles of caves wind their way through the soft limestone bedrock. […]
Keep ReadingDeep under the cobbled streets of Saumur, miles and miles of caves wind their way through the soft limestone bedrock. Carved out over the last millennium, these caverns and passages were dug by prisoners serving sentences for smuggling, most having been caught violating la gabelle – the punitive pre-revolutionary salt tax. Depending on your point of view, the l’Ancien Regime was either so lawless or so unjust that today there are far more “streets” underground than above in this picturesque town. From the banks of the Loire along the Quai Mayaud, up through its narrow and winding streets past L’Égilse Saint-Pierre, and higher still to the ramparts of the imposing Château de Saumur, centuries-worth of quarried limestone is everywhere you look.
One of the last remaining family-owned sparkling wine houses in Saumur, Louis de Grenelle, owns about 2 kilometers of these caves. All of the sparkling wine produced by the property is stored in these cool caverns, many of which were used during World War II by the French resistance. If you are lucky, you will one day get to sit in the king’s chair in the secret cave at the end of one of these caverns – only if you’re lucky.
The grapes used to produce the sparkling Saumur and Crémant at Grenelle are grown on the hillsides surrounding Saumur and in the small hamlets nearby. At the heart of the region where they source their grapes is La Durandière, a 40-hectare estate Françoise Flao owns with her brother Antoine Bodet. Growing their own grapes gives Françoise and Antoine unique insight into the varieties of the region, the terroir, and the importance of sustainable and organic farming. They use this knowledge to ensure that the grapes they purchase from their neighbors are a good as the grapes they grow themselves. Their wide range of sparkling wines relies on three primary varieties: Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Franc.
They consider Chenin Blanc the “great grape variety” of their region. Flexible in terms of winemaking styles and adaptable to a wide range of terroirs, it can make riveting dry wines, vivacious demi-secs, opulent late-harvest wines as well as age-worthy bubbles. It provides structure, freshness, and fruit to the wines of Louis de Grenelle. While grown throughout the Loire Valley, Chardonnay is viewed as somewhat of an interloper, but it takes to the soils around Saumur, providing minerality and finesse to the sparkling wines. Lastly is Cabernet Franc, a variety responsible for Saumur-Champigny, Bourgueil, and Chinon’s finest Loire Valley reds. It is used at Louis de Grenelle to make a remarkably savory and supple sparkling rosé.
The winemaking as Louis de Grenelle is quite minimalist. The fruit is pressed and flows by gravity into underground tanks at the winery. All of the wines are made in the Champagne method and are aged for their allotted time in the cellars beneath the streets of Saumur. They are bottled with little dosage to preserve the freshness of the Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc Chardonnay varieties.
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