Bouvet-Ladubay: Sparkling Wine Domination
Etienne’s building projects went far beyond what has been described, and the most notable construction was surely the grand warehouses built in 1905 and just down the road from Château de Moc-Baril. Here Etienne began turning out huge quantities of sparkling wine – he must have done to require such an expansive, factory-like warehouse. 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. The business grew not just locally though, as Etienne looked further afield to the Champagne region, establishing a second business there in 1886. This new Champagne house was named Union Champenoise, and was run by Fernand Mérand, an associate of Etienne. The house soon became a significant player in the Champagne region, acquiring Champagne de Castellane, but it soon developed a life of its own, and it is not relevant to the continuing story of Bouvet-Ladubay.
Closer to home, on the banks of the Thouet, 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, Etienne erected an electricity generation plant, so that he had a reliable source of electricity 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, perhaps to facilitate the transport of his wine to larger ports downstream, such as Nantes, although by this time the railways were also well established, so perhaps it was more for pleasure.
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