Monmousseau’s history
1886: Alcide Monmousseau
The tradition began with the audacity and expertise of Alcide Monmousseau who founded in 1886, this fine wine merchant house in Montrichard (Loir et Cher), He discovered one of the most important quarries of regional tuffeau stone, the ideal place for developing our Traditional Methods.
Abandoned after its exploitation for the construction of the royal castles of the Loire, this quarry offers the most beautiful wine-making cellars an amateur could imagine: a network of 15 km of underground galleries, healthy and solid, whose temperature, summer and winter, hardly varies from 12°C, the hygrometry being, as for it, ideal for the elaboration and the conservation of wines.
Justin-Marcel Monmousseau
At the beginning of this century, Justin-Marcel Monmousseau, the nephew and successor of Alcide at the head of the House of Monmousseau, discovered great similarities between the terroirs and grape varieties of the vineyards of Champagne and those of Touraine. He managed to make a Great Wine, according to the method used by Dom Pérignon, that he had had the opportunity of carefully studying. Within less than 5 years, he entered “The Fine Sparkling Wine Market” and became internationally renowned. As of 1930, the sparkling wines of Justin Marcel Monmousseau were distributed throughout Europe, including at the dinner table of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. They were notably sold in the United States and Japan, where they are still popular today.
After the death of Justin-Marcel in 1972, the family dynasty continued up until 1994.
Today, Maison Monmouseau is one of the leading producers of fine sparkling wines using the Traditional Method for Touraine, Vouvray and Crémant de Loire AOC.
