Caves Louis de Grenelle - Saumur Brut

Plan du site | Mentions légales

Louis de Grenelle

A family story

The cornerstone Cuvées

The Spirit of Grenelle

Château de la Durandière

Request for
information

access map

Links

Never to be forgotten : the active underground world

Since 1859, in the very heart of an underground city, the Caves Louis de Grenelle have elaborated wines by traditional method with respect for a traditional know-how.

Precious stones

The tour will take you 12 meters underground in former tuffeau (limestone) quarries dug in the XVth century.
Your guide will describe the technics used by “bagnards” (prisoners of labour camps) to extract the white stone, used to build houses and the chateaux of the Loire valley.

In 1859, quarries were converted into aging cellars for our Saumur and Crémant de Loire sparkling wines. Due to the “puisards” (ventilation shafts), our cellars are at a constant temperature of 12 degrees all year long and a hygrometry of almost 80% : that creates ideal storage condition for the maturation of our sparkling wines.

An ancestral know-how

Today, almost 4 million bottles slowly handle the second fermentation process in our galleries. Along the tour, our guide will introduce you to the secrets of making sparkling wine (bottling, riddling…). You may have the chance to meet one of our cellar men. Watch him reproducing gestures inherited from our ancestors; you will feel the weight of tradition.

A tour under the city

	This fascinating labyrinth, made of 2.5 km of galleries, will allow you to walk through Saumur’s underground world. What a wonder to be able to walk under the “Pressoir (wine press) street”, or under Saumur’s former hospital. “Like a city under the city”. You will also discover surprising and unique stairs dated XIXth century.
The tour in the cellars ends up with our jewel : the underground tasting cellar with Bacchus throne carved in the stone.