Monmousseau

Alcide Monmousseau founded the house in 1886 in Montrichard, in the Cher valley.

What made it possible was a find. At the end of the nineteenth century he came upon one of the largest tuffeau quarries in the area. The stone had been taken out over centuries for building; what was left once it was emptied is a labyrinth of nearly fifteen kilometres of galleries and alcoves.

That is why sparkling wine is made there. Inside, the temperature hardly moves from 12 °C in summer or winter, and the humidity is right. A traditional-method wine needs a cool, steady cellar for its second fermentation and for the months it spends on lees: here the rock supplies it, without a single machine.

At the start of the twentieth century his nephew Justin-Marcel Monmousseau brought the house into the traditional method. It has been devoted to Loire sparkling wines, and Touraine in particular, ever since.