The Society's Celebration Crémant de Loire 2020

Gratien & Meyer – a jewel in the Loire Valley’s Anjou-Saumur region – was founded by Alfred Gratien in 1864, then aged just 23, and in the same year he established the well-respected Champagne house that is his namesake. The ‘Meyer’ refers to Albert Jean Meyer, an enthusiastic wine expert from Alsace with whom Alfred Gratien joined forces ten years later in 1874, the same year of course in which The Society was founded. When Alfred died in 1885, the Meyer family was entrusted with the company and has continued to uphold its excellent traditions.

The Society first discovered the wines of Gratien & Meyer in 1906 when some Saumur was shipped to our cellars in London. The company quickly became The Society’s choice for our sparkling wines, and today Gratien & Meyer are still responsible The Society’s Saumur and Saumur Rosé as well as The Society’s Celebration Crémant de Loire, all of which are bestsellers.

The Gratien & Meyer house is based on the outskirts of Saumur, in the heart of the Loire’s Anjou region. The river helps to moderate the climate, which is similar to, but less severe than that of Champagne, while the region’s hillsides store daytime heat and the cool nights provide moisture.

Gratien & Meyer buy grapes, must and wine from carefully selected growers in the region. In recent years they have invested in their own vineyards (first crop 2018!), aiming to cover around 50% of their 1.8 million bottle production in due course.

In Saumur, the region’s famous ‘tuffeau’ (limestone) soils are ideal for sparkling wine production as they provide brilliant acidity. The cool Gratien & Meyer cellars are also dug deep into these chalky soils, and haven’t changed much since the house was founded.

The winery, on the other hand, has undergone great modernisation in recent years to ensure that tradition can be balanced with the relevant technological advances. Combined with the meticulous attention of Production Manager Florence Haynes, who joined Gratien & Meyer in 2015, this has ensured Gratien & Meyer wines are better now than ever before.

The key to great Loire sparklers is the blend. While Saumur regulations on this are rather strict – a maximum of 40% cabernet franc and 20% chardonnay can be used – an advantage for Crémant de Loire is that any percentage of the permitted grape varieties can be used.

Every year, The Society’s Celebration Crémant de Loire is expertly blended by Florence, with GM Olivier Dupré and Society buyer Jo Locke. Florence and her team first sample all of the base wines they have and put together a shortlist of what they believe are the best parcels, but the final blend is made on the day. Although generally we use different portions of the typical chenin blanc, chardonnay and cabernet franc, we have in recent years used small portions of the region’s other grapes, including pinot noir. The wines then age for a year or two in Gratien & Meyer’s cellars before reaching our members.