Soil & Climate

Beneath Saumur's vines lies tuffeau, a soft, pale limestone from the Cretaceous period. Despite the name's resemblance to volcanic tuff, it has nothing to do with volcanic rock. It's a fine, sandy limestone that can be dug out with a simple pick and hardens slowly once exposed to air.

This soil stores water and releases it gradually through dry summers. For Chenin, that's a real advantage, since the grape retains its acidity as long as it doesn't suffer from drought stress. West of town, the slopes shift to dark slate, the Anjou noir, which yields wines with an entirely different character.

The climate here is oceanic, with a touch of continental influence, since the Atlantic lies fairly far away by this point. That matters greatly for sparkling wine: the grapes ripen unhurried, are picked early, and yield base wines with crisp acidity and moderate alcohol. Good sparkling wine isn't born from sunshine alone—it needs freshness.

But the real asset lies underground. The old quarry galleries hold a nearly constant, cool temperature year-round, around twelve degrees Celsius. Bottles age slowly here without anyone needing to heat or cool anything, and the humid air in the rock keeps corks from drying out.

Some of these cellars are vast. Gratien & Meyer and Bouvet-Ladubay both speak of many kilometers of galleries, and at Bouvet-Ladubay one chamber houses the installation 'Sunken Cathedral,' complete with monumental sculptures. Because the rock is so soft, the old tunnels opened up into chambers with pillars and soaring ceilings that visitors can scarcely believe are part of a cellar.