Beneath the towns that flank the central Loire lies another world. It is a world of caves, dug into limestone by prior generations-folks who knew that the ideal place to nurture a bottle of wine is deep within the same earth that nourishes the vines from which it came. Given the extensive German occupation they endured in World War II (frequently accompanied by gratuitous cellar pillages), this Loire old guard also had good reason to want to protect the fruits of their labor underground, and to this day many growers with deep historical roots in the central Loire hold back significant reserves of their current releases.

Fifth generation wine-maker Philippe Boucard's maternal great-grandfather Jules Lame spent four years fighting in the First World War, sustaining nearly fatal injuries, and his grandfather Lucien Lame was taken as a prisoner of war in 1939, less than a year after marrying his wife, Yvonne Delisle. Through it all, the family tended their vines and bottled the fruits of their labor.