Sel de Guérande

Appearance & taste

Sel de Guérande is slightly greyish, while Fleur de sel de Guérande, the flower of salt, is naturally white. Because of a microalga (Dunaliella salina) and salt-loving bacteria, the salt is sometimes slightly pink; the colour disappears when the flower of salt drains. With at most 12 % water, both salts are relatively moist. The grey salt contains at most 1 % insoluble matter, the flower of salt at most 0.2 %.

Besides sodium chloride, the salts contain other mineral salts and trace elements; according to the specification, the content of magnesium, calcium, potassium and trace elements is high. They contain no additives. Because of its particular crystallisation, the flower of salt is rarer than the grey salt. According to popular rumour, Louis XIV would only tolerate salt from Guérande on his table, in which he detected a delicate scent of violets.

Production

The salt marshes are fed by the tides: at high tide with a high tidal coefficient the reservoir basins fill, and from there the water flows on by gravity. Over weeks, the salt workers increase the salinity in the concentration and evaporation basins. In the last of these, the “adernes”, they keep the brine just below the point of crystallisation. The salt crystallises in the “œillets”, which always remain covered with water. In August the clay floor stores the heat of the day and releases it to the water at night, so that evaporation continues.

During the season the salt is harvested daily as long as sun and wind allow; rain interrupts or ends the concentration. The flower of salt is skimmed off the water surface with the “lousse”, a kind of rake, before it sinks to the bottom. For the grey salt, the salt worker uses the wooden pusher “las” to move the brine so that the crystals on the bottom can be shifted without picking up clay, pushes them to the “ladure” platform at the edge of the basin and lifts them onto it. Harvesting and transport to the storage area on the embankment are not mechanised. Harvesting, storage, sorting and first packing take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area lies between the mouths of the Loire and the Vilaine. The maritime climate brings mild winters and cool summers; there are few rainy days in summer, and annual rainfall is 500 to 600 mm. The salt marshes were laid out on former seagrass meadows behind spits of land that protect them from the swell. The impermeable, workable clay made it possible to build salt pans.

The salt pans of Guérande are first mentioned in 854 in the Cartulary of Redon. From the 10th to the 14th century they experienced a first boom, and from the 16th century the number of crystallisation basins grew strongly, reaching a peak in the 19th century. Between 1840 and 1960 salt marshes were abandoned or put to other uses because rock salt and sea salt from the Mediterranean provided competition and less salt was needed for preserving. Since 1970 more salt has been produced again, with the same salt pans and techniques as in earlier centuries. In 1979 the salt workers of Guérande founded a training centre, according to the specification the only one where the profession can be learnt.

The name “Fleur de sel” appeared in the 1930s and became established at the end of the 1970s; before that the flower of salt was called “sel blanc” or “sel menu”, for example. At the end of the 1980s both salts began to take off commercially.