❦ Curated

Sel du Ponant

Atlantic Sea Salt IGP

€17.50

Hand-harvested from Atlantic clay basins using a method unchanged for centuries - no pumps, no additives, just sun, wind, and patience.

Origin Île de Ré, Francia

Producer Sauniers de l'Île de Ré

Volume 250 g

Appearance

Coarse grey-tinged crystals, irregular, robust grain structure.

Aroma

Faint marine, mineral, gentle Atlantic iodine.

Taste · Primary

Robust mineral salinity, structured.

Taste · Secondary

Magnesium and calcium minerality, faint Atlantic iodine, clay-trace character.

Texture

Coarse grain, persistent crunch, slow dissolution.

Finish

Long mineral-saline, slightly oxidative.

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The salt marshes of the Île de Ré were first worked between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the monks of Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm. By the nineteenth century the marshes covered nearly a fifth of the island, worked by a thousand sauniers. Industrial pressure in the twentieth century pushed the producers to organise, culminating in 1942 with the founding of the Coopérative des Sauniers de l'Île de Ré, which today unites most of the island's producers across more than four hundred hectares of marsh. In 2023, the island's salt and Fleur de Sel received IGP status from the European Union.

The method has not changed in a thousand years: coarse salt forms at the bottom of natural clay basins, harvested by hand with a simoussi, piled into pyramids to dry, and packaged each September. No chemical weedkillers, no washing, no additives.

The Producer

Coopérative des Sauniers de l'Île de Ré

The salt marshes of the Île de Ré were first worked by monks in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. By the nineteenth century, a thousand sauniers worked marshes covering a fifth of the island. Industrial pressure in the twentieth century pushed producers to organise, culminating in 1942 with the founding of the Coopérative des Sauniers de l'Île de Ré, which today unites most of the island's producers. In 2023, the island's salt and Fleur de Sel received IGP status from the European Union.

Cooperative founded 1942

Marshland Over 400 hectares

Certification IGP, since 2023

Method Hand-harvested, sun and wind only

The Process

Sun. Wind. Clay basins.

Brine flows by gravity through wooden aqueducts into thousands of stone-and-clay evaporation terraces called eras. Coarse salt forms at the bottom of the basins as the water evaporates under sun and wind alone - no pumping, no electricity, no post-harvest additives. It's harvested by hand with a simoussi, piled into pyramids to dry, then packaged each September.

Harvest tool Simoussi (hand tool)

Evaporation Sun and wind only - no pumping

Basins Stone-and-clay eras, gravity-fed by wooden aqueducts

Season Harvested and packaged each September

“The sea gave up its salt centuries ago. We only wait for the wind to finish the work.”

Sauniers de l'Île de Ré · Île de Ré, Francia