Bouvet-Ladubay, founded in 1851, is the second-oldest sparkling-wine producing establishment in the Saumurois, forty years the junior of its predecessor. Its founder, Etienne Bouvet, was born in 1828, son of a vigneron-sommelier who encouraged the young Bouvet in the wine trade. Recognizing the area's natural conditions of climate and soil to be extremely well-suited to the production of sparkling wines, he settled at Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent, on the bank of the Loire River just outside the town of Saumur. When Ms. Ladubay, his accountant, became his wife, Etienne Bouvet renamed his firm Bouvet-Ladubay, and until 1932 it remained a family business.

By 1895, under the joint direction of Etienne and his son, Jules, Bouvet-Ladubay had become France's largest producer of méthode traditionnelle, then known as méthode champenoise, wines, with a second, smaller facility at Epernay and a combined annual production of seven million bottles. Very few of Etienne Bouvet's contemporaries would unite so much talent and energy dedicated to the refinement and prestige their industry. Bouvet erected immense buildings to house his production; he installed an electric plant to illuminate his underground cellars, mansions and châteaux; and he built not only lodging for his personnel, but a theater. He made the region prosper, and his success was so complete that it was suspected he had discovered the treasure of the monks of the Abbey of St. Florent, who during the revolution had buried a fortune in the depths of an immense cave, which was to become the same in which Etienne Bouvet would later establish the cellars of Bouvet Ladubay.

Jules Bouvet's death, in 1905 at age 51, preceeded that of his father three years later, and control of the business was assumed by Pierre Girard-Bouvet, son-in-law of Etienne. His own untimely, premature death at the age of 33 left Bouvet-Ladubay without a capable guiding hand in 1918. Buoyed by the momentum of its former successes, the enterprise survived for a number of years, but by 1930 the Bouvet family faced financial collapse. In 1933, the Saumur branch of Bouvet-Ladubay was acquired by the firm of Justin M. Monmousseau, which maintained Bouvet's separate identity as an affiliate. Until 1936 managed by Monmousseau's son-in-law, Pierre Aubry, Bouvet-Ladubay has since been under the direction of three generations of Monmousseaus: until 1945, of Justin-Marcel Monmousseau; from 1945 to 1971, Jean Monmousseau; and since 1971, Patrice Monmousseau, present Président Directeur-Général. In September of 1972, Kobrand Corporation was named exclusive importer for Bouvet-Ladubay in the United States; and in 1974 the firm was taken under the wing of the Taittinger group as a subsidiary.

Under Patrice Monmousseau's dynamic guidance, Bouvet-Ladubay has experienced spectacular growth. Over the first decade of his presidency production nearly quadrupled, and Bouvet-Ladubay today remains one of the largest single purchasers of grapes within the Saumur appellation of origin. Over 120 growers in the region, with the supervision of Bouvet oenologists, are under technically precise supply contract to Bouvet for the purchase of grapes, pressed and delivered as fresh musts, a policy assuring Bouvet a very high degree of control over the quality of the finished wines.

Bouvet's headquarters cover 6.5 acres and five miles of subterranean cellars with a storage capacity of 7,000,000 bottles. Substantial capital investments, completed at the end of 1982, have increased production capabilities and also brought the vinification facility to the technical forefront. Temperature controlled stainless-steel fermentation tanks, computer-regulated "gyropallets," or riddling machines, highly advanced freezing and disgorging equipment, micro-wave cork heaters and computer-assisted stock management have contributed to the same concept of superlative quality that since the firm's founding has been expressed in the Bouvet signature, "Excellence."

Since the early 1980s, Bouvet Ladubay has tied the promotion of its image to the equestrian sports which are an integral part of Saumur's history and a symbol of its tradition through the firm's association with the military riding school of the Cadre Noir de Saumur. It has also affiliated itself with mechanized sports of the highest level, including the 24 Heures du Mans and the Paris-Dakar race, symbols of dynamism, technology and courage. The firm's development of public relations as an underpinning of its operations has led to the creation of a center for contemporary art: Bouvet Ladubay Art Concept, conceived to promote the image of the marque in an environment in which the art of wine, the art of living, and the contemporary arts are united. The task of the Center is to present new perspectives in thought, research and expression from a diversity of current creative disciplines. Bouvet-Ladubay has gathered four disciplines under one roof, entailing the renovation of 16,200 square feet in the 18th-century stables and electric plant. The heart of the Center is the Gallery of Contemporary Art, comprised of nine exposition halls and a library; each hall is given over to an artist of known talent and accomplishment, who installs his own exposition and makes works from his studio available to collectors. The Gallery of Journalistic Photography gives practiced photographers the opportunity to participate in documentaries filmed throughout the world which are then premiered at the Center. The Gallery of Architecture provides opportunities for architects and designers to realize special projects in both exterior and interior design. The Theater, built by Etienne Bouvet at the end of the last century and renovated in 1992, provides a setting in which the Center stages its own program of concerts, conferences and filmed presentations.

For Bouvet-Ladubay, wine is a living art which must be practiced with wisdom, uniting the tradition, experience and the most finely tuned technology in the creation of refined, handcrafted wines of impeccable quality and consistency. Bouvet's present production capacity of méthode traditionnelle wines produced according to the classi champagne method stands at 2,300,000 bottles, approximately half of which is exported to the principal markets of the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Australia and Holland, placing Bouvet-Ladubay first among exporters of the méthode traditionnelle wines of Saumur.