Bouvet-Ladubay: Sparkling Wine Domination
As the business grew Étienne had expansion in mind, and he looked to the Champagne region, ultimately establishing a second business there during the 1880s. This new Champagne house was named Union Champenoise, and was run by Fernand Mérand, an associate of Étienne. The house soon became a significant player in the Champagne region, acquiring Champagne de Castellane in 1907, but with time it developed a life of its own, and it is not relevant to the continuing story of Bouvet-Ladubay.
Coming back to Saumur, Étienne’s building projects went far beyond what has been described, and they included grand warehouses built in 1905, just down the road from Château de Moc-Baril. From this base Étienne turned out huge quantities of sparkling wine. As with Château de Moc-Baril, these warehouses are also no longer in the ownership of the 21st-century Bouvet-Ladubay, although they are no less impressive for that. They can still be seen today, on the Rue Jules Amiot, and were until recently at least in the ownership of the négociant Albert Bescombes.
Meanwhile the Bouvet-Ladubay empire continued to spread across the town. The principal area for development was on what is now the Rue Jean Ackerman which runs alongside the Thouet. Here, in the early years of the 20th century, Étienne built an electricity generation plant, so that he had a reliable source of power to light the many kilometres of cellars under his control, and no doubt his theatre and other buildings too. He also built stables, with an elegant cast-iron canopy overhead, as well as a small port on the river, to facilitate the transport of his wine to larger ports downstream, such as Nantes.
