Loire Flashcards
Didier Dagueneau
1956- 2008
French winemaker who produced exemplary Sauvignon Blanc in the Loire Valley
What is the principal grape variety of Samur- Champigny AOP?
Cabernet Franc
Where is Les Montes Damnes?
Sancerre AOP
Pellicular Maceration
Fermenting with skin contact occasionally done with white grapes (Loire Valley, NZ)
What sub region of the Loire Valley is Cote D’ Auvergne located?
Upper Loire
Where is a Cour- Cheverny and what is the grape varietal?
In Touraine, Romorantin is the grape varietal
What style of wines are produced in Reuilly, from what grapes?
Loire Valley, crisp whites and dry reds. Sauv Blanc, Pinot Noir
The sparkling tradition of Limoux pre- dates that of champagne by how many years?
150
Blanquette De Limoux
Made primarily from Mauzac with Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay as blending partners
Crement De Limoux
Blend of 90% Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay as blending partner
What is the largest Loire Valley AOC?
Muscadet
Which is the single largest producer of Loire sparkling wines?
Saumur
Arrange Rose AOCs of the Loire from Dryest to Sweetest
Rose De Loire AOC
Rose D’ Anjou AOC
Cabernet D’ Anjou
Anjou- Brissac
Not a sweet wine AOC
What Loire AOC does not make red wine?
Coteaux De L’ Aubance
Blanquette Methode Ancestrale AOC
Made with 100% Mauzac and naturally sweet
What part of the Loire Valley is dominated by soils of Gneiss?
Pay Nantays
What are the zones of production of the Loire from West to East?
Pas Nantais, Muscadet, Anjou, Layon, Samur, Touraine, Sancerre
T or F: All of the AOCs in the Loire are permitted to make Cremant?
False
Pouilly- Sur- Loire AOC
Made primarily which Chasselas
Quincy AOC
Produces only white wines
Sancerre AOC
Produces white, red and rose whites
Savennieres AOC
Produces wine exclusively with Chenin Blanc
The Vouvray region lies along which river?
Loire
Where is Les Monts Damnes?
Sancerre AOP
What are the 3 main topsoils in Sancerre?
Silex (Flint), Caillotes (Small Stones), and Terres Blanches (Fossilized Marl)
What is the grape varietal in Muscadet?
Melon Blanc
What are the key varietals of both Anjou AC and Saumur AC?
Cab Franc
Chenin Blanc
What is the most prestigious red wine of the Loire Valley (ie What AC?)
Chinon AC- Cab Franc
What varietal is always is Vouvray?
Chenin Blanc
Describe the climate of Touraine
Halfway between Muscadet and Sancerre so it’s across between Maritime and Continental
Describe the weather of the Central V/ yards region of the Loire?
Continental climate, severe winters and hot summers
Summer hail and Spring frosts are continuing hazards
Where is Sauvinneires?
Loire
What 2 regions in the Loire make sweet, sparkling and roses?
Anjou- Saumur and Touraine
Vouvray is made from 100% of which varietal?
Chenin Blanc
Sancerre and Pouilly- Fume are best known for which varietal wine?
Sauvignon Blanc
What are the most 5 most important regions in the Loire?
Muscadet, Anjou- Saumur, Touraine, Sancerre, Pouilly- Fume
What styles of wine does Savennieres make and what are the two ACs within that produces this style?
Dry white wine from Chenin Blanc
- Coulee- Du- Serrant
- La Roche- Aux- Moines
Name the two AOCs in Coteaux Du Layon known for making high quality sweet dessert wine
Quarts De Chaume and Bonnezeaux
What is the outstanding wine made in Coteaux Du Layon?
Sweet wine dessert wine made from Chenin Blanc
What is the style of the best wines from Saumur?
Crement De Loire AC- dry sparkling wines made from Chenin Blanc plus a maximum of 20% Chardonnay
Name the sub regions of Anjou?
- Anjou
- Saumur
- Savennieres
- Coteaux- Du- Layon
Name the sub districts of Touraine
- Vouvray
- Montlouis
- Jasnieres
- Bourgeil
- Chinon
- Coteaux Du Loir
- Cheverny
Pouilly- Sur- Loire produces two AC white wines, what are they and what is the difference?
- Pouilly Fume- made from SB
2. Pouilly- Sur- Loire- made from Chasselas
Name the sub regions of the Central vineyards?
- Sancerre
- Pouilly- Sur- Loire
- Menetou- Salon
- Quincy
- Reuilly
What style of wines are produced in Reuilly?
Whites- Sauvignon Blanc
Red and Rose- Pinot Noir
Describe the characteristics of Bourgueil
A red wine made of Cab Franc with up to 10% Cab. Sauv fragrant medium to light body light tannin
Reuilly
Loire, Central Vineyards
Whites from Sauv Blanc
Reds and Rose from Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris
Vouvray
Loire, Touraine
Whites from Chenin Blanc and small amounts of Arbois. Can be dry off- dry, sweet, still slightly sparkling (Petillant), Sparkling (Mousseux) famous for Tuffa (Limestone) soils
Cour- Cheverny
Loire, Touraine
Whites from 100% Romorantin
Cheverny
Loire, Touraine
Whites from Sav Blanc with up 15% Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Arbois
Reds from Gamay, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Cot
Muscadet
Loire, Nantais
Dry whites from Muscadet
Some Sur Lie Aging
Chinon
Loire, Touraine
Reds from Cabernet Franc with up to 25% Cab Sav
Whites from Chenin Blanc (Chinon Blanc)
Rose from Cab Franc and Cab Sav
St. Nicolas- De- Bourgueil
Loire, Touraine
Reds and Rose from Cabernet Franc with up to 25% Cab Sav (can be drunk slightly chilled)
Bourgueil
Loire, Touraine
Reds and Rose from Cabernet Franc and up to 25% Cab Sav (can be drunk lightly chilled)
Another name for Malbec…..
Cot, in Anjou in the Loire
What type of soil of Tuffeau
Limestone, most famous in Anjou in the Loire
Saumur
Loire, Anjou
Known for Tuffeux (Limestone) soils. Still or sparkling dry white from Chenin Blanc and up to 20% Chardonnay or Sav Blanc.
Reds from Cabernet Franc and Cab Sav.
Rose from Grolleau, Cabernet Franc, Cab Sav, Cot, Pineau D’ Aunis
Silex
Famous soil in Sancerre
Flint over Limestone
Callottes
Famous soil in Sancerre.
Small stones over limestone.
Terre Blanche
Famous soil in Sancerre
1 to 1.5 metre of sticky clay over Limestone
Sancerre
Loire, Central Vineyards
Famous for whites from Sav Blanc.
Reds and Rose from Pinot Noir.
Muscadet Cotes De Grandlieu
Loire, Nantais
Dry whites from Muscadet
Some Sur lie aging
Where is Cheverney?
Loire Valley- Southeast of Blois
Pinot Noir, Gamay
Whites- Chenin Blanc, S/ Blanc, Chardonnay
What style of wines are produced in Reuilly. From what grapes?
Loire Valley
Crisp whites and dry reds. Sav Blanc, Pinot Noir
What are the main grapes of Loire?
Chenin Blanc, Cab Franc, Muscadet, Sav Blanc, Folle Blanche, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Cab Sav, Chardonnay
What are the soil types of the Loire Valley?
Granite, Schist, Volcanic subsoil and Sand and Silt
What is the second largest sparkling wine appellation in France?
The Loire Valley (mainly around Anjou Samur), but Crement D’ Alsace is the largest appellation
Bonneaux
AOC in Eastern part of the Coteaux Du Layon (Loire). Famous for sweet wine.
Vins Doux Naturels?
Lightly fortified wine from Languedoc- Roussilon.
Grenache or Muscat grapes.
In what part of the Loire is Quarts De Chaume?
Coteaux Du Layon
Sancerre is produced in the?
Central Vineyards
What 3 appellation can mark Muscdet Sur Lie on their bottle?
Coteaux Du Loire, Sevre- Et- Maine, Cote De Grandlieu
What 3 areas of the Loire produce world class sweet Chenin?
Coteaux Du Layon, Quarts- De- Chaume and Bonnezeaux
What varietal does Quincy AOC make?
Sav Blanc
What are soils of the Central vineyards like?
Clay or Limestone, with Flint pebbles, Silex and Gravel
What are the best reds of the Loire?
Chinon, Bourgueil, St Nicolas De Bourgueil and Saumur Champigny
What are the grapes of Menetou- Salon AOC?
Pinot Noir and Sav Blanc
What are the grapes of Anjou- Saumur?
Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Cab Sav, Grolleau, Gamay, Chard, Sav Blanc
What grapes make up Anjou- Villages wines?
Cab Franc and Cab Sauv
Grapes of Savennieres?
Chenin Blanc
Saumur
Town in the Loire just upriver from the anjou district giving its name to an extensive wine district and several appellations. Saumur is effectively a south western extension of touraine, yet is more of a centre for the wine trade of Anjou–Saumur than is Angers. The grapes grown in these latter two neighbouring regions are very similar, except that Saumur does not have Anjou’s range of potentially great sweet white wines. Saumur’s most important wine (and France’s most important mousseux) is Saumur Mousseux, a well-priced white and rosé sparkling wine made from Chenin Blanc grapes, often with a mix of international and Loire varieties. These grapes can come from an even wider area than that permitted for still Saumur, and the quality of winemaking is high among the larger houses of the town of Saumur, such as Gratien & Meyer, Langlois Chateau, and Bouvet Ladubay, and also at the important co-operative at St-Cyr-en-Bourg, with its extensive underground cellars hewn out of the local tuffeau. This calcareous rock predominates around Saumur, and was much quarried, both locally and abroad (according to Duijker it was used for rebuilding after the Great Fire of London, and also extensively in the Dutch city of Maastricht). This left the Saumurois with ready-made wine cellars, perfect not just for mushrooms, one of their most important products, but also for the maturation of their acidic wines which, as in champagne, had a natural tendency to retain some carbon dioxide in spring. Ackerman-Laurance was the first producer of sparkling Saumur, in the early 19th century. The wines have enjoyed considerable commercial success, although an increasing proportion of the base material for Saumur Mousseux is expected to be fashioned into crémant de Loire, for which the criteria are rather more rigorous: yields of 50 rather than 60 hl/ha and 12 rather than nine months’ tirage. Saumur Blanc can be remarkably difficult to distinguish from Anjou Blanc, being made from Chenin Blanc and being both high in acidity and potentially long lived. Only such conscientious growers as Chx du Hureau, de Targé, Villeneuve, and Domaine des Roches manage to coax much fruit out of them, however, by picking in tries and employing oak for fermentation and maturation, resulting in a graceful, limestone alternative to the firmer dry white anjou made on schist. Saumur Rouge is a much more successful wine, made on soils similar to those of chinon and bourgueil. It is made from at least 70% Cabernet Franc with Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Pineau d’Aunis and can be a refreshing, relatively light, fruity wine. A little more Saumur Rouge is produced than Saumur Blanc, but the most significant still wine of the region is Saumur-Champigny, whose extraordinary expansion in the 1970s and 1980s was originally due to fashion, and mainly Paris fashion at that, but has been sustained by growers’ determination to maximize vineyard potential and reach full ripeness. The Saumur-Champigny zone, prettily named after the village of Champigny, is on a tuffeau plateau that lends itself well to viticulture, as in neighbouring Touraine. Its high limestone content made the Chenin Blanc vine traditionally grown here prone to chlorosis in the post-phylloxera era, but by the mid 2000s more than 1,330 ha/3,200 acres of vines were producing Saumur-Champigny. It was the dominant St-Cyr-en-Bourg co-operative in particular that encouraged the planting of Cabernet Franc vines and developed the still red wine appellation with such success. Much Saumur-Champigny is too light to be worth ageing, although it is usefully, and quintessentially, fruity and flirtatious. A small amount of light rosé Cabernet de Saumur is made, usually considerably drier and less ambitious than Cabernet d’Anjou, while Coteaux de Saumur is Saumur’s medium-sweet white, made in very small quantities from Chenin Blanc grapes.
Loire- History
Thrived early in wine trade due to proximity to Atlantic. The French Rev. and modern transport lead to a decline. After WW2 sales recovered, with a few wines going for export, but mainly domestic sales.
Muscadet struggled in export markets after severe frosts cut production in 1991. It is now regaining popularity with fruitier styles. Sancerre and Poilly Fume have been very successful, enabling prices to rise and producers to invest in improving quality in the vineyard and in the cellar. Recently there has been a focus on improving phenolic ripeness in red wines, leading to softer, less austere styles.
No regional generic appellation for the Loire such as AC Bordeaux. A Vin de Pays (VdP du Val de Loire) covers the 13 departements of the whole region. The VdP wines are easy drinking, with freshness, light body and simple in fruit flavours.
Average annual production of QWPSR is three million hectolitres, third highest in France, 50% of production white (decreasing), 20% red (increasing), 12% rose and 8% sparkling.
Central Vineyards- Loire Valley
Eastern end of the Loire, before it turns west towards the Atlantic. Closest vineyards to the centre of France. Continental with severe winters and hot summers. Spring frost and summer hail are recurrent problems. Chalky soils (sancerre) or flinty (Poilly Fume) well draining soil rich in marine fossils.
Sancerre AC
Fine white wines. Fifteen villages on low slopes facing south east and south west. Tiny vineyard holdings. Sauvignon Blanc. Herbaceous, elderflower and gooseberry characters. Certain vineyards and villages produce wine that develops a smoky minerality with ageing. Huge popularity and limited production has lead to price increases and wine being unavailable for parts of the year. 20% Pinot Noir for rose and reds. Best vineyards reserved for Sauvignon Blanc, so reds are light and fruity in style.
Pouilly Fume AC
Opposite side of the Loire from Sancerre, less steeply marked slopes. Similar wine styles, higher percentage cask ageing leads to less aggressive herbaceous characters. No red wines made under the Pouilly Fume appellation. Similar selling price point as Sancerre.
Menetou- Salon AC, Reuilly AC, Quincy AC
Located west and south of Sancerre. Sauvignon Blanc, Rose, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris (in Reuilly). Kimmeridgian clay soils similar to Chablis, hard calcaire and sandy soils. Popularity increasing as moderately priced alternatives to Sancerre and Pouilly Fume.
Touraine- Loire
200km from the coast, centred on the city of Tours. Cold winter/ summer continental climate but not as extreme as in the Central Vineyard area. Well draining limestone soils, rich in calcium and marine fossils are found around Vouvray. 3 different soil types associated with Chinon: sandy soils in Vienne River Valley, clay and gravel soils dominate the plateau north of Chinon and the hillside slopes are predominately limestone.
Touraine AC
Generic appellation, covers whole region, stretching east along the banks of the Loire and the Cher rivers. Reds produced from Cabernet Franc, Gamay and Malbec. Whites from Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc. May appear under a varietal label, e.g. Sauvignon de Touraine.
Vouvray AC
Always Chenin Blanc, wines with pure expression and high quality. Range of styles produced: still, petulant and sparkling (often majority). From dry to very sweet. Noble rot affected sweet wines also made. Predominately an off dry style with a few grams residual. adds weight, producing a user friendly, versatile wine.
Montlouis AC
Across the river from Vouvray, produces similar wines from similar soil and climate characteristics.
Chinon AC
Prestigious red wine. Almost entirely red production from Cabernet Franc, with some Rose made and 2% Chenin Blanc grown. Three styles of red wine are produced: light and fruity, grown in the Vienne River Valley 15km west of Chinon: fuller bodied wines with firm tannins are produced on the plateau north of Chinon; finest wines made for ageing are produced on the hillside slopes. Traditionally aged in large old casks, some producers are experimenting with new oak.
Bourgueil AC and Saint- Nicholas de Bourgueil AC
Across the river and North of Chinon, producing similar wines and shares Chinon’s site climate. Vines planted on south facing limestone slopes.
Anjou Samur
Heartland of the Loire. Planted on steep slopes. Climate influenced by Atlantic, but drier and warmer than the Nantais, with all day sun and facing the prevailing winds. Soils mixture of volcanic, metamorphic, schist, limestone and carboniferous rock.
Anjou AC
Generic appellation for red, white and rose wines, from the west border of Muscadet in the east, to 10km beyond the town of Saumur. Broad range of varieties grown. Best wines are white and made from Chenin Blanc. Groileau (Grosset) only found in Anjou; red grapes with high yields used for Rose d’ Anjou AC and base for sparkling wine. Anjou AC divided into three appellations for Rose:
Cabernet d’ Anjou- medium sweet and a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabenet Franc
Rose d’ Anjou- less sweet and made from a blend of Groilleau, Cabernet Franc and Gamay.
Rose de Loire AC (which can also be produced outside of the Anjou area), dry with at least 30% Cabernet grapes.
Saumur AC
Chenin Blanc, ranging from dry to lusciously sweet, in the best years. Also important producer of sparkling wine. Red wine also produced from Cabernet Franc, labelled as Saumur- Champigny AC. These are rich, fresh wines with great concentration. Caves for cellaring are cut into steep banks of tuffeau on the river banks.
Coteaux du Layon AC
Chenin Blanc. Stylistically share fresh fruit character and acidity of sweet German wines but with more body and alcohol, often grapes have 20% potential alcohol.
Quarts de Chaume AC and Bonnezeaux AC
Are top sites and produce some of the world’s greatest sweet wines.
Chaume AC
Extremely high quality and long lasting sweet wines from Chenin Blanc.
Savennieres AC
North bank of the Loire. Good air circulation impedes botrytis development so style is generally dry, full bodied and complex late harvest Chenin Blanc. Develop honey smoky- mineral flavours when aged decades in bottle. Recent change by innovative producers is to produce riper wines which are drinkable when young while retaining their mineral complexity.
Nantais
Both banks of the Loire, where the river ends at the Atlantic, centred on the city of Nantes. Temperate, damp and humid due to proximity to Atlantic. Mild winters and mild summers, frost damage is rare. Diverse soil range, predominately well drained schist and gneiss with some granite and sandy soils.
Muscadet AC
The basic regional appellation. One permitted grape variety, Melon de Bourgogne (Muscadet). Resulting wine is dry, rather natural with green apple, grassy aromas and crisp acidity. Chaptalisation permitted up to 12%. Traditionally fermented in oak cask, now stainless steel more common. Traditional accompaniment to seafood.
Muscadet de Sevre et Maine AC
Vineyards on rolling hills, with some very high quality sites. Vallet and Saint Flacre where the wines are suitable for ageing.
Muscadet Cote de Grandieu AC
Recently established AC. Melon de Bourgogne production only. Region located closer to the Atlantic than Muscadet AC and its climate is influenced by the proximity to Lake Grandlieu.
Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire AC
Located on the right bank of the river, longest established vineyards in Muscadet. Wines tend to be fuller bodied and less acidic.
Sur Lie
Control of vilification by Ac rules; One racking to remove gross lees permitted. Wine must stay in contact with the fine lees after fermentation for at least the winter following vintage, until bottling. Filtering is permitted immediately before bottling. Wine has more flavour and richness imparted from autolysis and more freshness due to limited handling. Bottling must take place during two set periods 1st March- 30th June or 15th October- 30th November (1 year after vintage). Wine released for sale after third Thursday in March.
Second bottling date for wines benefiting from longer lees contact. Sur lie must be bottled in winery where made, negotiants therefore must buy grapes or must, rather than finished wine.
Some new terroir wines are aged for longer on the lees and these fall outside the limits for labelling as sur lie.
Vouvray
The most important individual white wine appellation in the touraine district of the Loire. The wines of Vouvray vary enormously in quality, thereby offering a true representation of the grape variety from which Vouvray is exclusively made. Vouvray is chenin blanc and, to a certain extent, Chenin Blanc is Vouvray (although up to 5% menu pineau grapes are theoretically allowed into Vouvray too). No other wine made only from this long-lived middle Loire grape, often called Pineau de la Loire, is made in such quantity, from more than 2,000 ha/5,000 acres of vineyard. (The proportion of sparkling wine produced increased during the 1990s.) Only Coteaux du layon can begin to rival Vouvray for the total area of Chenin Blanc planted. Vouvray itself is a particularly pretty small town on the northern bank of the Loire just east of Tours, whose wines owe much to the monks and monasteries who refined local viticulture from the Middle Ages. It was not until the creation of the Vouvray appellation in 1936 that Vouvray established an identity of its own; before then most of it was shipped out for blending by the energetic dutch wine trade, and much of the wine sold as Vouvray came from anywhere in Touraine. Houses, and wine cellars, have habitually been created out of the tuffeau on this right bank of the wide river, with vines planted in the clay and gravel topsoil over the tuffeau on the plateau above, dissected by small rivers and streams so that many vineyards have an ideal sheltered southerly aspect. The locals claim that this is where the Atlantic climate meets the continental climate. Making top-quality Vouvray moelleux is as hazardous as making any top-quality sweet white wine which owes its sweetness to noble rot or extreme ripeness. The vine-grower is entirely at the mercy of the weather, and the harvest in Vouvray is one of France’s last, usually lasting until well into November, often involving a number of tries through the vineyard. An increasing number of producers have mastered the art of making top-quality dry Vouvray in less ripe vintages however. Winemaking here is distinguished by the need to bottle pure fruit and its naturally high acidity as early and as unadorned as possible. Thus, this is one of the few wine regions of the world of little commercial interest to the cooperage business. Neutral fermentation vessels such as large old oak casks or stainless steel tanks are used, malolactic conversion is generally avoided, and the ageing process is expected to occur, extremely slowly, in bottle. In the least generous vintages, only dry and possibly sparkling wines are made. The best years yield very sweet, golden nectars that are naturally moelleux, or even liquoreux, but are so high in acidity that most are almost unpleasant to drink in their middle age between about three years old and two to three decades. Some of the finest Vouvrays can still taste lively, and richly fruity, at nearly a century old. A relatively high proportion of demi-sec (medium dry) is also produced in many years, and it too has demanded a considerable amount of bottle ageing before the acidity has muted and the wine can be served as a fine accompaniment to many savoury, richly sauced dishes. Better vineyard management, however, is resulting Vouvrays of all sweetness levels that are more broachable in youth. The leading producer, Huet, changed hands in 2003 and has been accused of changing direction towards a higher proportion of dry wines. Commercial Vouvray also exists, on the other hand, as simply a medium-sweet, reasonably acid, white wine that has little capacity for development. Vouvray Mousseux can often offer more interest than other Loire sparkling wines, to those who appreciate the honeyed aromas of Chenin Blanc, at least. The wines have weight and flavour, and are suitable for drinking with as well as before meals.
Rosé de Loire
General, and relatively important, appellation created in 1974 for rosé wine made from a blend of any dark-skinned grape you are likely to find in the Loire, including Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pineau d’Aunis, Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Grolleau Noir. The wine may be produced anywhere within the anjou, saumur, and touraine zones and usually lies, in quality terms, somewhere between Rosé d’Anjou and Cabernet d’Anjou, with the distinction that it is always dry.
Liquoreux
French term meaning ‘syrupy sweet’, used for very rich, often botrytized, wines that are markedly sweeter than moelleux wines.
Anjou
Important, revitalized, and varied wine region in the western Loire centred on the town of Angers, whose influence once extended all over north west France. Anjou was the birthplace of Henri II, and its wines were some of France’s most highly regarded in the Middle Ages. It was the dutch wine trade, however, that developed the sweet white wine production of the region in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it would be some centuries before the citizens of Paris rather than Rotterdam had the pick of each Angevin vintage. White grapes predominated until the 19th century, when the Anjou vignoble reached its peak and phylloxera arrived. Subsequently a wide variety of less noble grape varieties were planted, including a number of hybrids, although Chenin and Cabernet Franc with some Cabernet Sauvignon are now the lynchpins, with the total vineyard having shrunk by a half from its peak. Rosé is by far the most important of the wines with Anjou in their name, then red, with Anjou Blanc produced on a relatively small scale. The region is relatively mild, being influenced by the Atlantic and protected by the woods of the Vendée to the south west. Rainfall is particularly low here, for the land between here and the ocean is unremittingly flat, with annual totals of just 500 mm/19 in. The grolleau vine, and the sickly Rosé d’Anjou it all too often produced, are in retreat, although better vineyard management and an increase in the proportion of wine vinified by the négociants has resulted in an improvement in average quality. Much more refined, and incredibly long-lasting, is rosé Cabernet d’Anjou, made from Cabernet Sauvignon or, much more likely, Cabernet Franc. It can be quite sweet but usually has very high acidity which can preserve it for decades and makes it an interesting partner for a wide range of savoury dishes. Cabernet Franc represents about one vine in three in Anjou and is increasingly favoured by growers there, encouraged by the creation in 1987 of the serious red wine appellation Anjou-Villages. The best area for such reds immediately south of Angers in the Coteaux de l’Aubance was given its own appellation Anjou-Villages Brissac in 1998. Lighter reds are produced as Anjou Gamay, from the Gamay grape of Beaujolais, with Anjou Rouge as the catch-all appellation for lighter, often quite crisp, red wines, although some excessively tannic wines result when growers draw off too much juice—and fruit—to make rosés. Of dry white wines, Anjou Blanc is the most common, and is most successful when produced on the schist and carboniferous rock close to the river. The wine must contain at least 80% Chenin Blanc, but Chardonnay, and Sauvignon, are allowed in the blend. Tiny amounts of sweet white Anjou-Coteaux de la Loire, made exclusively from Chenin Blanc, are also made. A significant and exciting development since the late 1990s has been the emergence of a new, high-quality style of dry Chenin Blanc in the Anjou, often using prime Layon sites to produce healthy, golden Chenin that is picked by hand in successive passages through the vineyard at full maturity before being fermented and then aged in 400 l double-barriques with a partial malolactic fermentation. Within the Anjou region are certain areas which have produced white wines of such quality that they have earned their own appellations—Coteaux de l’aubance; bonnezeaux; Coteaux du layon; quarts de chaume for sweet wines and savennières for dry wines—many of them very fine indeed.
Savennières
Distinctive and much celebrated dry white wine appellation in the Anjou region of the Loire, immediately south west of the town of Angers on southeast–facing schist and sandstone slopes on the north bank of the Loire. Total production of the appellation has increased from the under 30,000 case norm at the turn of the century as these examples of dry chenin blanc display such an unusual combination of nerve, concentration, and longevity that they attracted winemakers from outside the 6-km strip itself, notably from Coteaux du layon across the river. In its Napoleonic heyday, Savennières was a sweet wine, but today, although demi sec, moelleux, and doux versions have become more common in this era of climate change, most of it is dry or, if between 4 and 7 g/l residual sugar, described unofficially as Sec Tendre. The best are unusually concentrated and can last for several decades, even if some are unappetizingly tart at less than seven years old. Within Savennières are the two subappellations Savennières-Coulée de Serrant, a single estate of just 7 ha/17 acres run by the Joly family on biodynamic lines, and the 33 ha of Savennières-La Roche-aux-Moines, in which several different producers struggle to make a living in this frost-prone corner of the Loire valley. More recently better vineyard management and selective picking techniques are achieving much higher ripeness levels which result in wines with both accessibility and complexity in youth, even if they may not last as long as more traditional Savennières. The appellation is bidding to become the Loire’s second Grand Cru after quarts de chaume.
Coteaux du Layon
Large appellation with more than 1,000 ha/2,500 acres of Chenin Blanc made generally medium-sweet white (much richer from the best independent vignerons) in the anjou district of the loire. The communes of Beaulieu (-sur-Layon), Faye (d’Anjou), chaume, Rablay (-sur-Layon), Rochefort (-sur-Loire), St-Aubin (de Luigné), and St-Lambert (du Lattay) may append their names to the appellation if yields are restricted to 30 hl/ha (as opposed to 35 hl/ha for Coteaux du Layon). Two small areas within the area produce wines of such quality that they have earned their own appellations, bonnezeaux and quarts de chaume. They, and most of the best vineyards of the Coteaux du Layon, are on the steep slopes on the right bank of the Layon tributary of the Loire. terroir is all here, for Coteaux du Layon should be an intense wine made ideally from several tries through the vineyard, selecting botrytized grapes, or those that have begun to raisin on the vine. Producers such as Claude Papin of Ch Pierre Bise vinify grapes picked on slate, schist, clay, and sandstone separately to demonstrate the variation in style and potential longevity. Yields vary enormously according to the conditions of the vintage, but are officially limited to 35 hl/ha and 30 hl/ha for wines labelled Coteaux du Layon plus the name of one of the villages Beaulieu (-sur-Layon), chaume, Faye (d’Anjou), Rablay (-sur-Layon), Rochefort (-sur-Loire), St-Aubin (de Luigné), and St-Lambert (du Lattay). The appellation that includes the seven village crus is spread along about 20 km/12 miles of south-west facing slopes, in an extremely narrow strip of vines, above the Layon tributary of the Loire, together with a few slopes around St-Lambert, on buttes that catch drying winds straight off the Atlantic. After a period in the late 1990s when maximum possible sugar levels were sought at all costs, growers today tend to pick between 18 and 23% potential alcohol, producing wines with residual sugar of around 100 g/l, perhaps up to 200 g/l from the finest tries, which are sweet but not too rich to drink with gusto. In favourable vintages, some great wine is produced in this appellation, but producers are dogged by the depressing effect on selling prices of a substantial quantity of extremely ordinary just-sweet wine sold under the name Coteaux du Layon. Botrytized, particularly sweet wines may be labelled Sélection de Grains Nobles. Wines may be sold as demi-sec, moelleux, and, sweetest of all, liquoreux.
Quarts de Chaume
Extraordinary small enclave within the Coteaux du layon appellation producing, only in the best vintages and usually only as a result of noble rot infection, sweet white wines from botrytized Chenin Blanc grapes or, increasingly, such grapes dried on the vine. Total annual production can often be as little as a few thousand cases, from just over 30 ha/74 acres of vineyard, supposedly the finest quarter, or quart, of the Chaume part near Rochefort-sur-Loire of Coteaux du Layon (see france, history, for details). The vineyards here have the advantage of a southerly exposition within a sort of amphitheatre. The brown schist and carboniferous soils are distinctive and result in powerful wines, particularly since the average vine age is high. The minimum grape sugar level in the must is 298 g/l, which is only rarely achieved, so few new investments are being made in this minuscule but potentially glorious appellation. The naturally high acidity of the Chenin Blanc grape endows these wines, similar to but rarer than those of nearby bonnezeaux, with impressive longevity. Domaine des Baumard has tried to secure permission for its continued use of cryoextraction but in 2014 it was decreed that this freezing technique will be outlawed from 2019, and that Quarts de Chaume is officially the Loire’s first grand cru.
Bonnezeaux
Particularly well-favoured enclave for sweet white wine production within the Coteaux du layon appellation in the anjou district of the Loire. In this respect Bonnezeaux resembles quarts de chaume to the north west but, perhaps because of its greater extent (just under 100 ha/247 acres) spread across three south-facing buttes (small hills) of schist and quartz and much more exposed situation, it has not enjoyed such fame. A Bonnezeaux from a producer as reliable as Ch de Fesles can be a deep green-gold nectar at 10 to 20 years old. The wines are made exclusively from Chenin Blanc grapes grown on steep slopes near Thouarcé. These grapes should ideally be attacked by noble rot, sometimes concentrated by shrivelling on the vine, and at the very least have been picked only after several tries through the vineyard. Yields average only about 22 hl/ha.
Saumur
Town in the Loire just upriver from the anjou district giving its name to an extensive wine district and several appellations. Saumur is effectively a south western extension of touraine, yet is more of a centre for the wine trade of Anjou–Saumur than is Angers. The grapes grown in these latter two neighbouring regions are very similar, except that Saumur does not have Anjou’s range of potentially great sweet white wines. Saumur’s most important wine (and France’s most important mousseux) is Saumur Mousseux, a well-priced white and rosé sparkling wine made from Chenin Blanc grapes, often with a mix of international and Loire varieties. These grapes can come from an even wider area than that permitted for still Saumur, and the quality of winemaking is high among the larger houses of the town of Saumur, such as Gratien & Meyer, Langlois Chateau, and Bouvet Ladubay, and also at the important co-operative at St-Cyr-en-Bourg, with its extensive underground cellars hewn out of the local tuffeau. This calcareous rock predominates around Saumur, and was much quarried, both locally and abroad (according to Duijker it was used for rebuilding after the Great Fire of London, and also extensively in the Dutch city of Maastricht). This left the Saumurois with ready-made wine cellars, perfect not just for mushrooms, one of their most important products, but also for the maturation of their acidic wines which, as in champagne, had a natural tendency to retain some carbon dioxide in spring. Ackerman-Laurance was the first producer of sparkling Saumur, in the early 19th century. The wines have enjoyed considerable commercial success, although an increasing proportion of the base material for Saumur Mousseux is expected to be fashioned into crémant de Loire, for which the criteria are rather more rigorous: yields of 50 rather than 60 hl/ha and 12 rather than nine months’ tirage. Saumur Blanc can be remarkably difficult to distinguish from Anjou Blanc, being made from Chenin Blanc and being both high in acidity and potentially long lived. Only such conscientious growers as Chx du Hureau, de Targé, Villeneuve, and Domaine des Roches manage to coax much fruit out of them, however, by picking in tries and employing oak for fermentation and maturation, resulting in a graceful, limestone alternative to the firmer dry white anjou made on schist. Saumur Rouge is a much more successful wine, made on soils similar to those of chinon and bourgueil. It is made from at least 70% Cabernet Franc with Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Pineau d’Aunis and can be a refreshing, relatively light, fruity wine. A little more Saumur Rouge is produced than Saumur Blanc, but the most significant still wine of the region is Saumur-Champigny, whose extraordinary expansion in the 1970s and 1980s was originally due to fashion, and mainly Paris fashion at that, but has been sustained by growers’ determination to maximize vineyard potential and reach full ripeness. The Saumur-Champigny zone, prettily named after the village of Champigny, is on a tuffeau plateau that lends itself well to viticulture, as in neighbouring Touraine. Its high limestone content made the Chenin Blanc vine traditionally grown here prone to chlorosis in the post-phylloxera era, but by the mid 2000s more than 1,330 ha/3,200 acres of vines were producing Saumur-Champigny. It was the dominant St-Cyr-en-Bourg co-operative in particular that encouraged the planting of Cabernet Franc vines and developed the still red wine appellation with such success. Much Saumur-Champigny is too light to be worth ageing, although it is usefully, and quintessentially, fruity and flirtatious. A small amount of light rosé Cabernet de Saumur is made, usually considerably drier and less ambitious than Cabernet d’Anjou, while Coteaux de Saumur is Saumur’s medium-sweet white, made in very small quantities from Chenin Blanc grapes.
Touraine
The most important Loire region centred on the town of Tours. This is ‘the garden of France’, and Loire château country par excellence, a series of playgrounds for France’s pre-revolutionary aristocrats, and now the Parisian weekender’s rural paradise. The local tuffeau was quarried extensively to build these and more distant châteaux, leaving caves ideal for winemaking and wine maturation. Touraine’s most famous wines are the still red wines from the individual appellations of bourgueil, chinon, and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and its still and sparkling, dry to sweet whites from vouvray and montlouis. Wines called simply Touraine AOC come from a much larger zone, incorporating about 3,683 ha/9,097 acres of vineyard (much less than in the 1990s) in total extending from saumur in the west as far as the city of Blois in the east, encompassing very varied soils which may include clay, sand, tuffeau, and gravel. Viticulture is concentrated on the steep banks of the Loire and its tributary the Cher east of Tours. Cereals predominate on the cooler soils of the plateaux between river valleys. The climate of the region also shows considerable variation, with that of the most eastern vineyards being distinctly continental and affected by seriously cold winters, while vineyards at the western extreme are tempered by the influence of the Atlantic. If soil and climate vary considerably throughout Touraine, there is an enormous range of grape varieties too. White Touraine, the most important colour, must be made substantially from Sauvignon Blanc with only Sauvignon Gris, up to 20%, allowed as a blending partner. The best of these can provide a less expensive alternative to sancerre and pouilly-fumé. Touraine Rouge should be based on Cot (Malbec) and Cabernet Franc, with the latter favoured in the Atlantic-influenced sector west of Tours, although varietal Gamay is also allowed within the Touraine appellation, especially for primeur wines. Rosés have to be blends from the wide range of dark-skinned grapes grown in the region. About 600 ha of vines are dedicated to the production of the Touraine Mousseux that is so much less important than saumur Mousseux. Five communes may attach their name to Touraine. From its 187 ha/462 acres of vines on both banks of the Loire close to the famous château of Amboise, Touraine-Amboise produces mainly rosé wines from Gamay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cot. The appellation’s white wines, dry to medium dry (or even moelleux—notably produced by Amboise’s excellent viticultural college Domaine de la Gabillière) depending on the year, are made exclusively from the long-lived Chenin Blanc. By 2013 Touraine-Azay-le-Rideau comprised just 36 ha of vineyard on both banks of the Indre, south of the Loire between Tours and Chinon on soil that is superior to that of the general Touraine appellation. It produces roughly equal quantities of crisp whites from Chenin Blanc and light rosés mainly from Grolleau, rather sprightlier than Rosé d’anjou. Touraine-Mesland in 2013 comprised about 110 ha of vineyard on a sand and gravel plateau immediately above the right bank of the Loire between Amboise and Blois. Chenin and Gamay are responsible for wines of all three colours. Touraine–Chenonceaux and Touraine–Oisly in Sauvignon Blanc country were authorized in 2011, the latter for whites only. The Chenonceaux reds depend on Cabernet Franc and Cot. Touraine-Noble Joué is an unusual appellation of barely 30 ha just south of Tours for pink wines made from at least 40% Pinot Meunier with Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir.
Chinon
Significant red wine appellation in the touraine district of the loire (see map) in which a small amount of rosé, and satisfying dry white from Chenin Blanc grapes, is also produced. The total vineyard area was about 2,300 ha/5,683 acres in 2014. The vineyards extend south of the Loire on the banks of the Vienne, not far east of the fashionable red saumur-champigny, another product of mainly cabernet franc grapes, here often called Breton. No more than 10% of Cabernet Sauvignon is allowed. The region’s most famous son, the early-16th-century writer Rabelais, promulgated the wines of Chinon. In modern times, it is the gastronomic writers of Paris who have done much to increase demand for Chinon, and increase the extent of the vineyards that produce it (which had fallen to a few hundred hectares in the 1950s). Two distinct styles of Chinon are made. A fuller, long-term bourgueil-like wine comes from sites on the clay and tuffeau limestone slopes and plateaux, most notably the south-facing slopes of Cravant-les-Coteaux, and the plateau above Beaumont. Lighter wines are made from sand and gravel vineyards near the river (in effect the old flood plains of the Loire and Vienne), with the most elegant examples coming from the gravel beds around Panzoult. These wines are closer to St Nicolas-de-Bourgueil in style. Chinon is quintessentially a wine of refreshment, being light to medium bodied, often extravagantly scented (lead pencils is one common tasting note), and with an appetizing combination of fruit and acidity. The wines have become markedly richer and more satisfying as growers grass over their vineyards and use higher trellises, de-budding, and deleafing to ripen grapes more successfully. The best wines can benefit from bottle ageing, but that is not the point of the wine, which keeps the Chinon market free of foreign speculation on the part of collectors. Chinon is essentially a Frenchman’s wine, and it takes some local knowledge to seek out the best, often artisanal, bottlings. A high proportion of the wine is sold to merchants, whose blends vary considerably in quality.
Bourgueil
Potentially captivating red wines made on the north bank of the Loire in the west of the touraine district. The climate here is particularly gentle and rainfall is low, as in much of anjou to the immediate west. Of the 1,300 ha/3,200 acres of vineyard well over half are on the south-facing slopes of limestone and gravel which lead west from St-Patrice almost on the river to St-Nicolas, where fewer than a third of the vineyard is on the slopes The cabernet franc grape is mainly responsible for these medium-bodied wines, which are typically marked by a more powerful aroma (reminding some of raspberries, others of pencil shavings) and slightly more noticeable tannins than the wines of chinon to the south. As in Chinon, the proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon allowed in the wine has been reduced from 25 to 10% of the blend. Bourgueil can be aged for five or many more years in really successful, fully ripe vintages while St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, produced on about 900 ha of often lighter soils in the west of the region, is generally a lighter, earlier maturing wine. These fragrant wines are extremely popular in Paris and northern France but have yet to be discovered by most non-French wine lovers. A little dry rosé Bourgueil is also made, but the appellation does not, unlike Chinon, encompass white wines.
Montlouis
Overshadowed white wine appellation in the touraine district of the Loire that exists across the river from the much larger and more famous vouvray, although it has its own characteristics. As in Vouvray, the chenin blanc grape is grown exclusively for Montlouis, which is made in all degrees of sweetness and fizziness, according to each vintage’s peculiarities. An increasing proportion of still wine is bone dry and aged in oak. Although tuffeau also forms a base from which many a house and cellar is hewn, topsoils here on the south bank just downstream of Touraine-Amboise are lighter and sandier than in Vouvray, and the wines are less sharply defined, tending to mature considerably earlier (which can be a great advantage). About a third of the wine produced from Montlouis’s 400 ha/1,000 acres of Chenin Blanc is the usefully sturdy and characterful Montlouis Mousseux, or Montlouis Pétillant Naturel, the first aoc for a gently sparkling, fruity pétillant naturel wine made by the méthode ancestrale.
Sancerre
Dramatically situated hilltop town on the left bank of the upper Loire which lends its name to one of the Loire’s most famous, and famously variable, wines: racy, pungent, dry white Sauvignon Blanc, which enjoyed enormous commercial success in the 1970s. The town’s situation on such a navigable river, and the favourable drainage and topography of the rolling countryside around it, assured Sancerre’s long history as a wine producer; the suitability of the site for viticulture was obvious from Roman times. Until the mid 20th century, however, Sancerre produced red wines, and white wines from the Chasselas table grape. Sancerre’s dramatically simple, piercing Sauvignon flavours of gooseberries and nettles were initially introduced into the bistros of Paris as a sort of white wine equivalent of Beaujolais, but, by the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sancerre was regarded as the quintessential white wine for restaurants around the world. The average elevation of the Sancerre hills is between 200 m and 400 m/655–1,310 ft. The Sauvignon has adapted well to many of the varied terroirs around Sancerre, where, in 14 different communes, vines are cultivated, particularly on south-facing slopes. There are three distinct areas: the ‘white’ western vineyards are made up of clay and limestone soils with some Kimmeridgean marne, especially in the cru of Chavignol, that produce quite powerful wines; those between here and the town of Sancerre are high in gravel as well as limestone and produce particularly delicate wines; while those close to Sancerre itself are rich in flint (silex) and yield longer-living, particularly perfumed wines. Comparisons with pouilly-fumé, made just a few miles upstream on the opposite bank, are inevitable, although both are relatively large, heterogeneous appellations, Sancerre even more than Pouilly. The total area given over to the Sancerre appellation, which had declined to about 700 ha/1,730 acres in the 1960s, had reached almost 3,000 ha by 2012. A wide range of agricultural activity takes place on this terrain, and in many of the outlying villages the vine plays a subordinate role, but viticulture is particularly important in Bué and in nearby Chavignol, where the meticulous grower Henri Bourgeois is based and which is famous for its goat’s cheese. The climate here is distinctly continental, and the vineyards are easily subject to spring frosts, but the river to the east and the forests to the west moderate low temperatures. Vines are generally cordon or single guyot trained. Sancerre’s popularity has brought with it the inevitable increase in the proportion of mediocre wine produced, sometimes over-produced, within the zone. In particularly cool years, even the best producers have to work hard to avoid excessive vigour, resulting in unpleasantly herbaceous aromas and a lack of fruity substance but techniques such as grassing, de-budding, and leaf plucking result in healthier grapes and more concentrated wines. Most Sancerre is ready for drinking almost as soon as it is bottled, and rarely improves beyond two or three years, although the best certainly keep. There have since been attempts to marry Sancerre fruit with oak, with varying degrees of success. In years as ripe as 1989, some sweet vendange tardive wine was produced by the likes of Alphonse Mellot and Henri Bourgeois. Sancerre also exists in light, often beguiling, red and rosé versions, made from Pinot Noir grapes and representing approximately 10 and 6% of total production respectively. These wines enjoy a certain following, mainly in France, but need very high standards of winemaking and good weather to imbue them with a good core of fruit. climate change is helping.
Pouilly- Fume
Also known as Pouilly Blanc Fumé and Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, one of the Loire’s most famous wines, perfumed dry whites that epitomize the sauvignon blanc grape (along with nearby menetou-salon, quincy, reuilly, and, most notably, sancerre). All Sauvignon here is Sauvignon Blanc (no Gris allowed) and was often called Blanc Fumé, because wines made from this variety when grown on the predominantly limestone soils, with some flint (silex), supposedly exhibit a ‘smoky’ flavour, or whiff of gunflint (pierre à fusil). The wines are certainly perfumed, sometimes almost acrid, and it takes extensive local knowledge reliably to distinguish Sancerres and Pouilly-Fumés in a blind tasting of both. Pouilly-Fumé is arguably a more homogeneous appellation than Sancerre, which is not surprising since less than half as much Pouilly-Fumé is made as white Sancerre. Unlike that of Sancerre, the Pouilly-Fumé appellation applies only to white wines. The best Pouilly-Fumé (such as the range produced by Didier Dageneau) is perhaps a denser, more ambitiously long-lived liquid than Sancerre, for drinking at two to six years, for example, rather than one to four (although there are, as always with wine, exceptions). At the most historic estate, de Ladoucette’s magnificently turreted Ch du Nozet, are bottles which prove that Pouilly-Fumé can last for decades, although whether it actually improves is a matter of taste. Some producers began experimenting with oak for both fermentation and maturation in the mid 1980s and the wines of the region have become more complex. The appellation takes its name from the small town of Pouilly-sur-Loire on the right bank of the Loire in the Nièvre département. The name Pouilly-sur-Loire is given to the zone’s less distinguished wine, a usually thin and short-lived liquid made in very much smaller quantities from the chasselas grape, grown here in the 19th century for the tables of Paris. In the 1970s and 1980s, Pouilly-Fumé was much favoured by fashion, and the total area planted with Sauvignon Blanc increased considerably. By 2012 it totalled 1,273 ha/3,144 acres. Some of the finest vineyards are on the slopes of St-Andelain north of Pouilly.
Reuilly
Small but expanding French appellation so far inside the bend of the Loire that it is often described as coming from central France. Its most useful manifestation is as a less expensive and sometimes purer version of the sancerre appellation to the east made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes in one of the riper vintages. Considerable amounts of red and rosé wine are also made, from Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris (the local Gamay is sold as igp). Pale pink Reuilly has its devotees. Unlike nearby quincy, Reuilly is not just a sleepy viticultural centre, and the best wines yielded by its 215 ha/531 acres of vineyards scattered on the limestone base around the village of Reuilly can be impressive. This Loire aoc (which consisted of just 30 ha in the early 1990s) is not to be confused with that of rully in the Côte Chalonnaise.
Quincy
Rapidly expanding, historic white wine appellation in the greater Loire region producing racy dry wines from Sauvignon Blanc (with up to 10% Sauvignon Gris) grapes from a total area of vines that had grown to 269 ha/664 acres by 2012 of sand and gravel on the left bank of the Cher tributary. Its long history (it was the second appellation created, after châteauneuf-du-pape) and early popularity owe much to its proximity to river transport (especially in comparison with the much smaller nearby appellation reuilly). The wines tend to be a little more rustic, less delicate, than those made in Menetou-Salon and Sancerre to the east.
Menetou- Salon
Is just west of, and very much smaller than, the much more famous sancerre, near the city of Bourges, producing a not dissimilar range of red, white, and rosé wines which can often offer better value—from 535 ha/1,321 acres of vines in 2012. Sauvignon Blanc grown here is capable of making wines every bit as refreshingly aromatic as Sancerre. Soils in the appellation are mainly limestone and can be very similar to those in the more famous zone to the east, although Menetou’s vineyards are flatter and less compact, resulting in a less favourable mesoclimate. The best zone is around the village of Morogues, a name used on the labels of producers such as Henry Pellé. The village of Parassy also has a high concentration of vineyards. Sauvignon Blanc represents about 60% of the appellation’s total production, while Pinot Noir grapes are responsible for scented, light reds and pinks for early consumption, this lightness owing much to relatively high permitted yields—yet more evidence of the similarity between Sancerre and Menetou-Salon.
Gros Plant
Or, to give it a name that is more of a mouthful than the wine usually is, Gros Plant du Pays Nantais, is the country cousin of muscadet . Made from folle blanche vines, called Gros Plant here, with Colombard occasionally playing a minor part, it is grown in a wide arc east but mainly south of the city of Nantes on the Loire. Gros Plant is one of the most acidic-tasting wines made anywhere, and its aggressively dry style serves only to accentuate its inherent tartness—exacerbated by the grapes’ tendency to rot here before they ripen. The Folle Blanche vine responsible was introduced to this region by the dutch wine trade, and outnumbered the Muscadet vine until the ravages of phylloxera in the late 19th century. Gros Plant was promoted from vdqs to aoc in 2011. About a third as much Gros Plant is made as Muscadet, although a much smaller proportion ever leaves the region. As in Muscadet, it may be described as ‘sur lie’ if aged with lees contact until at least March.
Tuffeau
A common rock type in the central loire. Tuffeau blanc is calcareous but provides much better drainage than most limestones. This is the rock used to build many of the châteaux of the Loire and remaining hollows in the rock have been adapted for winemaking and storage. The overlying tuffeau jaune is more sandy, and is particularly suitable for the Cabernet Franc vine, underlying some of the best vineyards in chinon and saumur-champigny. It is distinct from both tufa and tuff.
Coteaux d’ Ancenis
Small aoc zone in the loire around the historic town of Ancenis between Nantes and Angers for light whites from Pinot Gris (occasionally called Malvoisie) and reds and rosés from Gamay.
Fiefs Vendéens
Small, oceanic aoc zone south of the Muscadet zone near the mouth of the Loire, qualified by one of the communes Brem, Chantonnay, Mareuil, Pissotte, or Vix, each with its own permitted encépagement. Most wines are red, from Cabernet Franc, Négrette, and Pinot Noir but there are rosés, often with Gamay, and some whites based on Chenin Blanc.
Coteaux de l’ Aubance
Small (barely 200 ha/500 acres) but sometimes excellent sweet white wine appellation in anjou on the left bank of the River Loire just south of the town of Angers and immediately north of Coteaux du layon. It takes its name from the Aubance, a tributary of the Loire. Total production is rather more than that of savennières across the river to the west, but the best results come from Chenin planted on outcrops of heat-retaining slate. The standard of winemaking is high, and a high proportion of the racy, sweet white Chenin Blanc wines made here is snapped up locally or in Paris. Red and dry white Anjou make up the bulk of production in this zone, with some red Anjou Villages Brissac, but in exceptional years Coteaux de l’Aubance can be just as noble, if not always as long-lived, as the Loire’s more famous sweet whites, and must owe their sweetness to a succession of tries through the vineyard, picking only the ripest grapes, a discipline, unusually, overseen by the inao. According to the vintage, the wines may be botrytized, and may carry the term Sélection de Grains Nobles on the label, or the grapes may be partly raisined on the vine.
Coteaux de Loir
Northerly wine outpost of the greater loire region on the confusingly named Loir tributary about 40 km/25 miles north of Tours in the Sarthe département. Viticulture seriously declined here, but enthusiasts such as Joël Gigou at Domaine de la Charrière have invested in a bright future for the varied wines of this small, 70-ha/173-acre area, of which jasnières is the most famous appellation. All three colours of wine are made, with pineau d’Aunis the principal dark-skinned grape, even though acidity can be very high in less ripe years. Cabernet Franc may stiffen reds and Grolleau is allowed into its light, dry rosés. Gamay and Cot (Malbec) are allowed in both. Dry white wines are made from Chenin Blanc but tend to lack the concentration of Jasnières.
Jasnieres
White wine appellation of just 50 ha/124 acres in an enclave within the less favourably exposed Coteaux du loir district in the northern Loire. The appellation all but expired in the 1950s but Joël Gigou at Domaine de la Charrière and others such as Domaine Renard-Potaire have injected new passion into the making of these traditionally dry wines from the Chenin Blanc grape. Locals see Jasnières as ‘the savennières of Touraine’, so dry and steely are these traditional wines in their youth, and so well do they respond to bottle ageing. In particularly ripe vintages since the late 1980s, however, extraordinarily rich, appley, botrytized wines have been fashioned, either dry or sweet according to the extent of noble rot infection. The soils are characterized by their high flint content, on the south-east-facing slopes on the north bank of the Loir. Annual production of Jasnières is about double that of white Coteaux du Loir.
Coteaux du Vendomois
AOC producing a wide range of light wines between the Coteaux du loir and the city of Vendôme in the greater loire Valley. The wines are necessarily crisp, this far from the equator, but a pale pink vin gris from the pineau d’aunis grape can be an attractive local speciality. Pineau d’Aunis must also constitute at least half of any blend for the slightly more solid reds, while Chenin Blanc is the principal white wine grape, often aided and abetted by Chardonnay, for some particularly tart white wines which represent about one bottle in six.
Cheverny
In the middle loire was promoted to full aoc status in 1993 and produces a wide range of wines in an enclave in the north east corner of touraine near Blois whose vineyards had grown to 632 ha/1,561 acres by 2012. Light reds and rosés may be made from Pinot Noir with some Gamay. But most Cheverny is based on Sauvignons Blanc and Gris, typically blended with a little Chardonnay and/or Chenin Blanc, which can offer a good-value northern riposte to Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Wines made from the local romorantin grape have their own 53-ha appellation Cour Cheverny.
Valençay
Small aoc region on the south bank of the Cher tributary of the Loire in northern France with about 180 ha/444 acres in production by 2013. Limestone, flint, and silt are planted with a wide range of loire grape varieties. Whites must be at least 70% Sauvignon Blanc (Valençay is only about 20 miles/30 km from quincy and reuilly) but crisp reds and some rosés are made from a mix of grapes dominated by Gamay.
Orleans
AOC created in 2006 for wines produced around the city of Orléans where the River Loire turns west. Burgundian influence is evident in the choice of grape varieties, principally Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. At one time this was an important wine region but the development of the railways changed all that and today fewer than 100 ha/250 acres of vineyards remain. They are too close to Paris to be of much practical interest to wine drinkers outside France, for the light, pale, fragrant wines have many devotees in the French capital. Orléans-Cléry is an even smaller AOC (just 32 ha in 2012) zone south west of the city on the left bank of the Loire for Cabernet-based reds.
Coteaux du Giennois
Small aoc which extends on both banks of the Loire from just north of pouilly-fumé in the upper Loire to the town of Gien. Although the zone is quite extensive, and encompasses both calcareous and flint soils, it comprised only just over 200 ha/495 acres in 2012. Most of the wines are crisp, pale whites made exclusively from Sauvignon Blanc but some light red and rosé are also made from a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir. Joseph Balland-Chapuis is one of the most dedicated producers in this region, where spring frosts are a perennial threat.
Saint Pourcain
Sometimes called St-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, small appellation in the greater loire region in cereal- and oak-producing allier département almost precisely in the centre of France. (Because of this St-Pourçain cannot be found on maps of French wine regions; only on detailed maps of the whole hexagone—see map under france.) It was an important site in Roman times, near river transport and offering suitable hillside vineyards. White St-Pourçain was one of the most respected wines in France in the Middle Ages (see loire, history, and medieval literature) but is today more of a cool climate curiosity. From about 550 ha/1,358 acres of vineyard on varied soils of limestone, granite, and gravel, a wide range of wine colours and flavours are made, being typically dry, light in body, and relatively high in acidity. The traditional vine variety was sacy, but today the whites must be 50 to 80% Chardonnay with Sacy the minor blending partner. gamay is the most common grape used for pink and light red St-Pourçain, although some pinot noir is also allowed in the reds. The increasingly effective co-operative in the town of St-Pourçain-sur-Sioule itself dominates production.
Haut- Poitou
AOC zone almost due south of saumur in which a few hundred hectares of vines on limestone and marl produce crisp, well-made red, white, and rosé wines. Whites are mainly Sauvignon Blanc although up to 40% Sauvignon Gris is permitted. Reds are mainly Cabernet Franc with various Gamays, Merlot, and Pinot Noir allowed to make up the rest. The co-operative at Neuville dominates production.
Chateaumeillant
Small, isolated aoc in central France around the town of Châteaumeillant between st pourçain and touraine (see map under france). Mainly Gamay with some Pinot Noir and a little Pinot Gris produce red and vin gris from fewer than 100 ha/250 acres of volcanic soils. One co-operative dominates production.
Cotes d’Auvergne
AOC which is administratively considered part of the greater loire region, and basin, but these Massif Central vineyards, around Clermont-Ferrand, are in fact closer to the vineyards of the northern rhône than they are to the river Loire itself. From fewer than 300 ha/750 acres of mainly Gamay, occasionally Pinot Noir, and some Chardonnay vines, light reds and some pinks and whites are made with considerable skill from some of the many small enterprises here. Gamay has long been grown here and this was one of the most important wine regions of France in the 19th century, before which Pinot Noir was grown in preference to Gamay. The names of the communes Boudes, Chanturgue, Châteaugay, and Madargue may be appended to Côtes d’Auvergne for reds, Corent for rosés. Most wines are consumed locally; none is expensive.
Loire Valley (161,561 acres / 65,383 hectares)
Sauvignon Blanc: A lean and herbal style of Sauvignon Blanc with flavors of thyme, lime peel, honeydew melon, and grass. Wines are labeled Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, Touraine, Reuilly, Quincy and Cheverny (for classic 100% Sauvignon Blanc).
Chenin Blanc: In the middle Loire Valley is where you’ll find awesome Chenin Blanc wines that range in style from dry to sweet and still to sparkling. Flavors range from delicate notes of flowers and apricots from Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire, to rich applesauce-like flavors from aged Savennières.
Muscadet (white): The perfect white for shellfish, clams, and mussels hailing from the western maritime region of Nantes in the Loire. Wines are bone-dry with subtle notes of sea shell, lime, green apple, and pear skin. Muscadet Sèvre et Maine is the most popular appellation for Muscadet.
Cabernet Franc: A very herbaceous and rustic style of Cabernet Franc with spicy notes of bell pepper, tart red cherry, and gravelly minerality. Look for wines labeled as Chinon and Bourgueil.
Loire Valley: History
- 13AD: Romans planted vineyards in Pays Nantais but viticulture seem to started later on.
- 5th: written records of established winemaking on the upper Loire valley in Auvergne
- 11th: Loire wines exported to NL and UK thanks to great river & port connections; Sancerre already reputed. Also very popular in France thanks to the great links to Paris esp. St Pourcain.
- 18-19th: better transport links to Bordeaux, Rhone & S. France meant sales declined
- 1709: terrible winter (down to -20C) destroyed most of the vineyards
- 1789: French revolution had a disastrous effect on the vineyards esp. in Vendée.
- 1870s: phylloxera outbreak wiped out huge proportion of the vineyards
- 1936: Muscadet, Quincy, Sancerre and Vouvray become ACs; followed by Anjour, Saumur and Touraine.
- Post WWII: wine industry picking up again
Loire Valley: Climate and Weather
• Northern limit of Atlantic France for vine cultivation with various climates:
- Continental in Centre Loire (Pouilly-Fumé/Sancerre)
- Maritime w Gulf stream warming effect from Orléans to Pays Nantais
- Generally cool – 19C avg temp in July; 750mm rainfall
- Unstable climatic conditions -> much more pronounced vintage variation (e.g. 2012: harvest -50% in Muscadet)
- Spring frost is the main viticultural hazard
Loire Valley: Soils and Typography
- Centre Loire: kimmeridgian limestone soils (//Chablis soils)
- Touraine: sand, clay, gravel, tuffeau
- Anjou-Saumur: sandstone, tuffeau (limestone)
- Pays Nantais: schist, granite, gneiss, sand
Loire Valley: Red Grape Varieties
- Cabernet Franc – 18,000ha
- Black grape
- Co-parent of Cabernet Sauv with Sauvignon Blc
- Well suited to cool inland climates (e.g. middle Loire)
- Buds, matures earlier -> easier to ripen fully vs. Cab Sauv
- Less susceptible to poor weather at harvest
- Lighter in colour, the wines have berry fruits flavours, unobtrusive tannins and higher acidity vs. Cabernet Sauvignon - Cabernet Sauvignon
- Small-sized thick blue berries with concentration of phenolics and tannins
- Extremely vigorous vine but susceptible to powdery mildew, eutypa and excoriate
- Ripens slowly
- Often blended with Merlot & Cabernet France
- Produces deep coloured, age-worthy reds with aromas of blackberries
- Slowly gaining ground in Loire - Grolleau
- Everyday red grape of Touraine
- Hi yields for thin, acid wines
- Being replaced with Gamay or Cabernet Franc
- Banned from Anjou, Saumur & Touraine ACs (only Rosé d’Anjou AC)
- Blended with Gamay in Rosé d’Anjou - Gamay
- Early budder and ripener (-> prone to spring frosts)
- High yields -> usually grown in goblet
- Gamay de Touraine: light, slightly acid, cheaper alternative to Beaujolais
- Also used in VdP du Val de Loire
Loire Valley: White Grape Varieites
- Chenin blanc / Pineau de Loire
- Most versatile grape in the world
- Early budder, later ripener
- Hi natural acidity & susceptible to botrytis
- Mostly vinified as varietal but up to 20% Sauvignon or Chardonnay allowed in Anjou and Saumur
- Appley, floral & honeyed flavours
- Mainly grown in Anjou - Sauvignon Blanc
- Vigorous vine (-> use of low vigour rootstock + canopy management)
- Grassy, musky, green fruits, gooseberries w fresh acidity & mineral undertones
- Most designed to be drunk within 2 years but some examples of long lived Sancerre & Pokily Fumé - Melon de Bourgogne
- Imported from Burgundy in 17th
- Resisted the 1709 harsh winter
- Regular and high yields
- Importance only due to Muscadet - Folle blanche
- Produces acidic & neutral wines
Loire Valley: Viticulture
- 50,000ha of vines (1/2 of Bordeaux; similar to Rhone)
- Avg holdings 20ha with hi density planting at 4-5,000 plants/ha (up to 10,000plants/ha in Sancerre)
- Biodynamic farming on the rise but spraying vs. fungal disease frequent
- Mechanical harvesting common (excl. sweet wines of middle Loire)
Loire Valley: Winemaking
- Traditionally: no MLF, no new oak but wines in inert containers and bottled early with some lees contact (e.g. Muscadet). Reds usually lacked colour extraction.
- Since 80s: experimentation with
- barrel maturation and sometimes barrel fermentation for reds & whites
- MLF for whites; pre-fermentation maceration introduced for some Sauvignons
- longer skin contact, temperature control and pumping over to facilitate colour & tannins extraction for reds
• Chaptalisation common for both reds & whites to a max of +2.5% alcoholic strength of the finished wine
• Sur lie ageing consists in leaving the wine on its fine lees for min 4-5 mths over the winter in the tank or barrel where fermentation took place with only 1 racking allowed (to remove gross lees).
Wine then bottled directly at specific dates: 1st March->30th June or 15th October ->30th November.
Controlled by AC rules. Some ‘terroir’ wines go beyond required time & fall outside ‘sur lie’ labelling rules.
Centre Loire- Loire Valley
- Eastern end of the Loire, on S-N axis, before river turns towards Atlantic; closest to the centre of France
- Continental climate with sever winters (spring frost) and hot summers (hail)
- Vines trained in Cordon or Guyot systems
- Key ACs:
A. Pouilly-fumé (W) – 1,000ha - Eastern bank of Loire river; facing Sancerre; slightly flatter vs. Sancerre
- Limestone soils -> flinty, mineral notes
- Higher proportion of cask ageing makes for less herbaceous character & more rounded vs. Sancerre.
B. Sancerre (R/W/R) – 2,600ha
- 15 villages on low south-east or south-west facing slopes w 3 different terroirs:
i. Extreme west: clay soils & chalk marls -> strongest wines
ii. West of Sancerre: gravel and limestone
iii. Around Sancerre: flinty soils for flinty, mineral wines - Mostly fermented and aged in stainless steel; rarity and international success since 70s -> high prices
- Pinot Noir grown on lesser vineyards for light reds & rosés
C. Menetou-Salon (R/WR)
- Just west of Sancerre with limestone & flatter landscape
- Whites from Sauvignon blanc (60% of production) and Reds & Rosés from Pinot Noir.
- Similar style to Sancerre & better prices -> fast growing area
D. Quincy (W) – 170ha
- South-West of Sancerre; Sauvignon blanc grown on sandy gravel soils for fruity, aromatic & soft whites
- Slightly more rustic vs. Sancerre & better prices -> fast growing area
E. Reuilly (R/W/R)
- Produces fine austere whites from Sauvignon blc; light reds from Pinot Noir and rosés from Pinot Gris
- Gamay sold as VdP red.
Touraine- Loire Valley
- Around Tours, 200km from Atlantic coast; ‘Garden of France’, Chateau country & most important Loire area
- Continental climate with cold winters & warm summers (less extreme vs. centre Loire)
- Variety of soils from tuffeau to sand, clay and gravel.
Well draining limestone soils, rich in calcium & marine fossils around Vouvray - Variety of less typical grapes also cultivated: Arbois, Pinot Gris & Chardonnay, Pineau d’Aunis & Grolleau
- Key ACs:
A. Touraine (R/W/R) – 5,300ha - Large area stretching from Blois (east) to Chinon & Bourgueil (west)
- Considerable climate variations w eastern vineyards continental & very cold winters; western vineyards more influenced by Atlantic (closer to Maritime climate)
- Large array of grapes allowed:
1. Whites: Chenin blanc, Arbois, Sauvignon blanc & Chardonnay (max 20%)
2. Reds: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauv, Pinot Noir, Cot (Malbec), Gamay, Grolleau & Pineau d’Aunis
3. Rosés: same as reds + Pinot Meunier. - 50% of the Touraine production; 50% whites (usually from east); 40% reds and 10% rosés
- 4 sub-ACs: Touraine-Amboise, Touraine-Azay-le-Rideau, Touraine-Mesland & Touraine-Noblé-Joué.
B. Vouvray (W) – 2,000ha
- Named after town on Northern bank of the Loire; northeast of Tours
- Mid-continental, mid-maritime climate -> considerable vintage variation
- Unique feature: cool cellars carved in tuffeau allow for wine 2nd fermentation for sparkling.
- Largest and most recognised Chenin blanc appellation; comes in dry, medium dry, sweet & sparkling
- Appley, honeyed + hi acidity with more weight & intensity vs. Montlouis; 2-3 years to reach potential
- Sparkling 40% of production; produced in larger quantities in leaner years. Still = 60%.
C. Montlouis (W) – 400ha
- Southern bank of the Loire; other side of Vouvray
- Lighter, sandier soils for less defined and earlier maturing wines.
D. Chinon (R/W/R) – 2,100ha
- South of Loire river, on the Vienne river, South-west of Tours.
- 25% Cabernet Sauvignon theoretically allowed but usually 100% Cabernet Franc; some use of new oak
- 3 styles of red:
i. Light & fruity in the sand & gravel soils of the Vienne River Valley, west of Chinon
ii. Fuller bodied w firm tannins on the plateau north of Chinon
iii. Finest on hillside slopes - 2% of whites from Chenin Blanc
E. Bourgueil (R) -1,400h
- South facing slopes on Loire’s northern bank; sand & gravel w chalky substratum
- Gentle climate w low rainfall
- 25% Cabernet Sauvignon theoretically allowed but usually 100% Cabernet Franc
- More powerful and tannic wines vs. Chinon
F. Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil (R/R) – 1,000ha
- Most westerly red AC; norther bank of the Loire
- Lighter soils for fruity reds and rosés best drunk young.
Anjou- Samur: Loire Valley
- Heartland of the Loire valley, mostly around and south of Angers
- Steep slopes made from a mixture of volcanic, metamorphic, schist, limestone & carboniferous rock
- Maritime climate but drier (only 500mm rainfall) & warmer vs. Pays Nantais. Sheltered by Vendée woods
- Key ACs:
A. Anjou (R/W/R)
- Very large AC stretching from the borders of Muscadet to the town of Saumur
- Most of the production is rosé, whites represents 15% and reds continue to rise in quantity & quality
- Cabernet Franc = 1/3 of plantings. Only appellation that allows Grolleau.
- Key sub-ACs:
1. Cabernet d’Anjou (Rosé): medium-sweet from Cab Sauvignon & Cab Franc; hi acidity -> age-worthy
2. Rosé d’Anjou (Rosé): medium-dry from Grolleau, Cab Franc & Gamay blend; quality improving
3. Rosé de Loire (Rosé): dry, min 30% Cabernet grapes; can be produced in Touraine & Saumur too
4. Anjou blanc (W): most common & most successful when produced on schist & carboniferous rock close to the river. Min 80% Chenin blanc w Chardonnay & Sauvignon blanc increasingly used in the blend.
5. Anjou-Coteaux de Loire (W): 100% Chenin blanc; sometimes aged in 400l barriques with partial MLF
6. Anjou-Villages (R): most serious red wine AC; created in 1987. Brissac – best area with its own suffix AC
7. Anjou-Gamay (R) / Anjou Rouge (R): Gamay-based and catch all for lighter, crisp red wines.
B. Saumur (R/W/R)
- Directly south of the town of Saumur; western extension of Touraine with Tuffeau soils
- Saumur Blanc from Chenin blanc w hi acidity & ageing potential; slightly lighter vs. Anjou due to chalky soils
- Saumur Rouge can be made from Cab Franc, Cab Sauvignon or Pineau d’Aunis but usually 100% Cab Franc for refreshing, relatively light fruity wines.
- Key sub ACs:
1. Saumur-Champigny (R/W) -1,300ha: named after Champigny village; on a tuffeau plateau (hi limestone content); rich, fresh wines with great concentration.
2. Cabernet de Saumur (Rosé): drier & less ambitious vs. Cabernet d’Anjou
3. Coteaux de Saumur (W): medium-sweet made in small quantities from Chenin blanc.
C. Coteaux du Layon (Sweet whites) – 1,400ha
- Fresh fruit character and acidity of sweet German wines but with more body & alcohol.
- Key sub ACs:
1. Quarts de Chaume (W) / Bonnezeaux (W): top sites for some of the world’s greatest sweet whites
2. Chaume (W): extremely top quality & long lasting sweet wines from Chenin blanc
D. Savennieres (W)
- North bank of the Loire; immediately South-west of Angers
- Dry area with schist soils that slope to the river’s edge; restrictive yields
- Dry, minerally Chenin blanc that can be perceived as steely & tart young; requires 4-5 yrs to mellow
- 2 sub-ACs:
La Roche-aux-Moines (W) / Coulée de Serrant (W): south facing schist slopes near Angers; intense, complex & age-worthy whites. CdSerrant monopoly of Nicolas Joly, leading champion of biodynamics
Pays Nantais- Loire Valley
- Region around Nantes, both sides of the Loire before it enters the Atlantic; 90km wide
- Maritime climate w high humidity, mild winters & summers
- Well drained soils of schist, granite, gneiss with some granite & sandy soils
- Key ACs:
A. Muscadet (W)
-Basic regional appellation. Only Melon de Bourgogne authorised. Chaptalisation up to 12% - Wines are dry, rather neutral with green apple, grassy aromas and crisp acidity
B. Muscadet Sevre et Maine (W)
- Directly South-east of Nantes; largest AC with 80% of production; monoculture area
- Vineyards on rolling hills w some hi quality sites.
- Ambitious wines from clay soils of schist & granite slopes. Vallet and Saint Fiacre are suitable for ageing.
C. Muscadet-Coteaux de la Loire (W)
- On Norththern bank of the Loire, northeast of Nantes; fuller bodied less acidic wines
D. Muscadet-Cotes de Grandlieu (W)
- On Southern bank of the Loire, Southwest of Nantes, close to the Atlantic; influence of Lac Grandlieu
E. Non-Muscadet ACs: Coteaux d’Ancenis (R) / Fiefs vendéens (R)
Loire Valley: Production and Business
- # 3 wine production area with 4million hl; #1 producer of AC white wine; 87 ACs + 1 VdP
- 55% whites; 21% reds; 17% rosés; 7% sparkling. 13,000 family estates but growing consolidation of family holdings
- Examples of producers:
- Domaine Yannick Amirault – Bourgueil – 80,000btls
- 18ha of Cabernet Franc only; different cuvees, all w purity of fruit. Top wines: Les Malgagnes, La Petite Cave. - Clos Rougeard – Anjou-Saumur – 20,000btls
- Owned by Foucault brothers; from old Cab Franc vines + low yields + oak barriques ageing -> concentrated Saumur-Champigny. Top wines: Les Poyeux, Le Bourg. - Chateau La Roche-aux-Moines- Coulée de Serrant – Savennieres -14.5ha
- Acquired by ex-banker Nicolas Joly in the 70s; became the leading champion of biodynamic viticulture by applying Rudolf Steiner principles from 84 in his vineyards & publishing the results in 1997. - Domaine de l’Écu - Muscadet – 120k bals
- Guy Bossard’s biodynamic domain; full fragrant complex Muscadets that can be aged.
- Top wines: regular Muscadet Sevre et Maine sur lie; cuvée ‘terroir’ wines e.g. Expression de Gneiss
Loire Valley- 2015
Very promising across the region, with the same warm, dry summer that many other French regions enjoyed. In Muscadet, some rain towards the end of harvest resulted in a little rot, but nothing too concerning. Touraine saw very low yields but excellent quality, as did Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Pinot Noir reached full ripeness, and very promising quality, for all those growers prepared to wait. Chenin Blanc also fared well, with the potential to make good wine at all sweetness levels.
Loire Valley- 2014
Lots of top quality wine was produced from the Loire in 2014. Cabernet Franc is garnering particular praise, but there are some excellent whites made from the Muscadet grape Melon de Bourgogne, Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc (from dry to sweet) too. The only bad news was that, once again, yields were lower than the long-term average.
Loire Valley- 2013
An annus horribilis for the producers of Vouvray and Montlouis whose crops were almost entirely wiped out by a June hailstorm. Elsewhere a sound vintage with good acidity, though the cool spring and mild conditions in August and September meant many reds struggled to achieve full ripeness.
Loire Valley- 2012
Despite a challenging growing season, 2012 was the year that Muscadet really shone, producing some of the best examples ever. Yields were around half the average, however. Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé fared better for whites and reds, with good, uniform ripeness, no rot, and yield in line with the norm. Delayed flowering early in the season proved tricky for Cabernet Franc, because autumnal rains made for diluted fruit as growers waited for ripeness. There were very few botrytised Chenins made in Anjou, Vouvray and Montlouis, but dry wines are promising in a lighter style.
Loire Valley- 2011
Pretty rotten. Muscadet and Touraine were both blighted with fungal disease. Cabernet Franc only flourished in the best sites and with suitable selection. Chenin Blanc had a much better year, with Anjou and Coteaux du Layon being particularly impressive.
Loire Valley- 2010
Good ripeness and concentration for Muscadet. Delightful Sauvignons too with good concentration and freshness. Late September rain created a bit of rot for the Cabernet Franc, with only the bravest growers waiting for full ripeness to occur – which it did, thanks to two lucky weeks of late sunshine. Chenins fared better in Cotreux du Layon than Vouvray, with the full range of sweetness being made.
Loire Valley- 2009
A great vintage. Healthy fruit in Muscadet produced superb quality, especially from those growers prepared to keep yields under control. Touraine Sauvignon Blanc performed similarly well, with full phenolic ripeness and very little chaptalisation requirement, if any. Yields were slightly reduced in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, and some July hail decimated much of Quincy, Reuilly and Coteaux du Giennois - but what was produced is excellent. Cabernet Franc enjoyed a late, dry harvest to make fully ripe reds, and Chenin was also very promising, although there botrytis was scarce.
Loire Valley- 2008
A bad start to the growing year – cold and wet in early summer – with a dry but still cool July and August. Frost in Muscadet devastated yields, making for a very hard year for all growers. Sauvignon across the Loire experienced lower yields too, but displays good varietal typicality.
Loire Valley- 2007
Early flowering then a cool, wet summer led to a very uneven vintage, although a dry, warm September helped rescue quality. Even so, rot was a problem and required meticulous selection to avoid. Despite that, results were surprisingly good, with dry whites from all varieties performing especially well.
Loire Valley- 2006
Very difficult: a July heatwave was followed by cold, wet weather for the rest of the season. Not a write-off, but certainly not a good year.
Loire Valley- 2005
Hot, dry and very good quality. A certain degree of drought meant reduced yields, but cool nights retained freshness, and an early vintage led to fine, healthy grapes at harvest. Especially good in Savennières.
Loire Valley- 2004
High yields, with good uniform ripeness and good concentration. Nothing to get unduly excited about, but reliable and classic.
Loire Valley- 2003
A famously atypical vintage across Europe, which resulted in a great harvest in the Loire. Muscadet is rich and full, but with good natural balance. Cabernet Franc reached full ripeness with ease, giving particularly expressive fruit character. Chenin Blanc was similarly generous, although there was less botrytis than normal. Perhaps the only casualty was Sauvignon Blanc, which was routinely reaching 14% alcohol, resulting in overripe wines without their usual delicacy.
Loire Valley- 2002
A successful if somewhat cool year, characterised by classic balance and structure for all varieties. The opposite in style to the opulent 2003.
Loire Valley- 2001
Good for Muscadet, but bad for Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé where late rain caused rot. Anjou enjoyed fine, late summer warmth allowing the production of particularly good sweet wines.
Loire Valley- 2000
Despite a wet July, quality turned out very well for dry whites and reds. Yields were marginally below average, and there was insufficient ripeness to create any moelleux styles.
Loire: Wines Produced
Of all French wine regions, the Loire produces the greatest diversity of wine styles: from still through all types of sparkling wine, including the generic crémant de Loire; from bone dry and searingly tart to unctuous liquoreux (although still with a high degree of acidity); and all hues from water white to (quite) deep purple. Rosés are a speciality of the Loire, whether the various vins gris made well upstream, the famous Rosé d’Anjou, various pink Cabernets, or the generic rosé de loire. The most common igp wine produced in the Loire is known as Val de Loire.
Loire: Vine Varieties
At the mouth of the Loire, melon de Bourgogne and folle blanche predominate. The upper Loire is, in the early 21st century anyway, the terrain of Sauvignon Blanc for white wines and Pinot Noir for reds and rosés. The majority of the most successful sites in the middle Loire have proved themselves suitable for either cabernet franc or chenin blanc, but in the thousands of hectares of vineyard planted around them, there is a greater diversity of vine varieties than anywhere else in France, including a mix of cabernet sauvignon, malbec, gamay, meunier, pinot gris, chardonnay, and of course seas of Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. This is usually explained in terms of spheres of Bordeaux and Burgundy influence, but it indicates that, outside its most famous appellations, the regions of the Loire have been searching for their own wine identities. The vineyards of the Loire were particularly badly hit by phylloxera. The heavily calcareous soils in many regions meant that chlorosis was a common problem when vines were replanted grafted on to resistant rootstocks. The Loire, with its relatively cool climate, persisted with a higher proportion of hybrids longer than any other French wine region. The limits on the role of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon included in the rules of so many Loire appellations show that the authorities at least are aware of the danger of the Loire losing its own identity and there are signs of a revival of some varieties that are exclusive to the Loire such as pineau d’aunis, menu pineau, romorantin, and Meslier-St-François although the distinctly ordinary grolleau is in retreat.
Loire: Winemaking
White winemakers of the Loire traditionally followed very similar principles to their counterparts in Germany, assiduously avoiding malolactic conversion and any new oak influence, preferring instead to ferment and store wines in inert containers, and to bottle wines early, possibly after some lees contact in the case of Muscadet. For years, Loire reds suffered from a lack of extraction.
The result of the particularly competitive wine market of the 1980s and a drop in demand for sweet wines in the late 1990s, however, was to stimulate a rash of experimentation in cellars along the length of the Loire. barrel maturation and in some cases barrel fermentation were introduced for both reds and whites (see anjou, specifically). Some producers encouraged their white wines to go through malolactic conversion, while red winemakers worked hard to extract greater colour and tannins from their red wine musts, by the use of prolonged skin contact, temperature control, and pumping over regimes. (It should be said that, in many a Loire autumn and winter, temperature control is just as likely to include heating the must as cooling it.) Skin contact prior to fermentation was also introduced for some white wines, especially Sauvignons.
chaptalization has been the norm in the Loire, for both reds and whites, except in exceptionally hot vintages.
Loire: Viticulture
The Loire is essentially a region of increasingly consolidated family holdings; the average holding has increased from 10 to 25 ha in recent years and many farmers have abandoned their other crops to concentrate on viticulture. In the middle Loire, rainfall is relatively low, but spraying against fungal diseases is still frequent elsewhere. vine density is relatively high, between 4,000 and 5,000 plants per ha (1,600–2,000 per acre) on average, and up to 10,000 plants per ha in some Sancerre vineyards. Excess vigour was a problem in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and resulted in herbaceous flavours in many of the red wines, although canopy management has generally resolved this. cover crops have long been the norm, and crop thinning was introduced in the early 1990s. mechanical harvesting is relatively common, but cannot be used for the sweet white wines of the middle Loire, where successive tries through the vineyards are needed to select only the ripest grapes.
Loire: Geography and Climate
So long is the extent of the viticultural Loire that generalizations are impossible. The Loire’s vineyards vary from the continental climate which produces Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, to the Muscadet region warmed by the Gulf Stream. Loire wine regions represent today, however, the north western limit of vine cultivation in Europe (with the exception of england’s vineyards). Spring frost can be a serious problem, as it was in 1991, when it destroyed up to 90% of the crop in some of the Loire’s wine regions. The character of Loire wines can vary considerably from vintage to vintage, since in a cool summer the grapes may struggle to reach full ripeness, while a particularly hot year such as 1989, 1990, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2009, and 2011 may result in some exceptional sweet white wines, some of them botrytized in the middle Loire, but can rob the Loire’s dry white Sauvignons of their nerve, and leave some Muscadet dangerously limp.
The region is sufficiently far from the equator, however, that few of its red wines can be accused of being tannic, and the naturally high acidity associated with these latitudes, and some of its grape varieties, make much of the Loire’s produce ideal base wine for sparkling wines.
Loire: History
We know little about the early history of viticulture in the Loire valley, but recent archaeological discoveries suggest that it was extant at least in the upper Loire in the 1st century ad (see gaul), and it was certainly well established by the 5th century. In a letter to a friend, probably prepared for publication c.469, Sidonius Apollinaris (c.430–c.480), who was born in Lyons but spent a large part of his life in the Auvergne, praises the country of the Arverni (the Auvergne) for its landscape, its fertile fields, and its vineyards. In 475, rome was forced to cede the Auvergne to the Visigoths, but the depredations of the barbarians left vine-growing safe.
In the next century, Gregory of Tours (c.539–94) makes frequent mention, in his History of the Franks, of viticulture in the Loire region. As bishop of Tours, he took a great interest in the wine of his diocese (modern touraine). He tells us that, in 591, drought was followed by rain so that the grain harvest was ruined but the vines yielded abundantly. He also tells in detail of the Bretons’ often successful attempts to seize the vineyards and/or grapes of the Nantes region (modern muscadet) in the 6th century.
The wines of the Loire continued to be held in high regard, and not only by the Bretons, who gave up plundering and bought the wines they wanted. The inhabitants of west Brittany had grown some wine themselves, but in the 13th century they gave up viticulture in favour of growing grain and instead purchased their wines from Nantes. Like Nantes, Touraine produced wine of export quality, and by the end of the 11th century the wine of sancerre was already well reputed. In the 12th century it was exported to Flanders and sold via Orléans.
From the late 11th century onwards, the aspiring bourgeoisie of the newly rich Flemish cities wanted more and more of its chief status symbol, which was wine (see dutch wine trade). With its excellent river connections, the Loire region was especially well placed to meet this growing demand. Some of its wine was shipped to Flanders, or further north, or to England: some of it was carried to paris by river to be consumed there or sold on. Angers in particular grew rich on the Flemish guildsmen’s desire for social advancement, and vines were planted even just outside its city walls. The count of anjou granted Angers the monopoly of carrying wine on the rivers Maine and Loire as far as the Breton port of Ingrandes; in addition, merchants could not buy their wines direct from the vineyards but had to buy them at Angers. These two privileges put the producers of saumur at a disadvantage. The wines of Saumur were not fashionable in France, and Saumur was badly placed for overseas trade. In England in the late 12th century, before the rise of bordeaux, Anjou was the only wine to rival Poitou, shipped from la rochelle, in popularity. Anjou remained highly esteemed in England throughout the Middle Ages.
In France itself, the Loire wine that was most prized was one that has now all but disappeared from public regard: st-pourçain, made on the river Sioule in the Loire basin. King Louis IX served it at a banquet in Saumur to celebrate his brother Alphonse’s 21st birthday. St-Pourçain fetched high prices during the 14th century and was a favourite with the papal court at Avignon. The wines of the Coteaux de layon did not become famous until the 15th century.
Loire
France’s most famous river and name of one of its most varied wine regions which produces France’s third biggest volume of wine after bordeaux and the rhône. Loire wines are greatly appreciated locally and in Paris, but—with the famous exceptions of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé—are still widely underrated outside France. This may be partly because the Loire’s best red wines are often distinguished by their freshness and delicacy rather than by their weight and longevity, and because so many of its finest white wines are made solely from Chenin Blanc, a grape variety associated with some rather ordinary wine outside the middle Loire: Anjou-Saumur and Touraine.
Tannins
Diverse and complex group of chemical compounds that occur in the bark of many trees and in fruits, including the grape. Strictly speaking, a tannin is a compound that is capable of interacting with proteins and precipitating them; this is the basis of the process of tanning animal hides (hence the name tannin) and is also a process that is believed to be responsible for the sensation of astringency. Tannins in wine come predominantly from the grapes and, to a much lesser extent, from the wood in which the wine is aged. See also oak flavours.
The natural tannins of grapes, or condensed tannins, also called proanthocyanidins since they release red anthocyanidin pigments when heated in acidic media, are flavonoids consisting of oligomers and polymers of catechins. Formation of proanthocyanidins occurs under the control of enzymes as part of the metabolism of the grape but they may rearrange to longer or shorter molecules in the acidic wine medium. Other catechin polymers can be formed in wine as a result of enzymatic or chemical oxidation reactions. These polymeric flavonoids that can range from colourless through light yellow to amber, as well as pigmented tannins resulting from reactions of anthocyanins with catechins and tannins, may also be regarded as tannins. Wine may also contain hydrolysable tannins, deriving from gallic acid and ellagic acid, extracted from oak cooperage in the course of barrel ageing, from oak chips, or added as oenological tannins.
Tannins play an important role in the ageing of wine, particularly red wines, where pigmented tannins are crucial to the colour and sensory properties. Handling tannins during red winemaking is one of the most critical steps in optimizing the quality and character of a red wine, yet the process is based almost totally on experience and intuition because our understanding of the principles involved is still incomplete.
The tannins in grapes are predominantly in the skins and seeds of each berry and also the stems, the amount of tannins in grape pulp being much lower. Thus, the more skins, seeds, and stems are involved in the winemaking process, the higher the possible resultant level of tannins. Tannin levels in white and rosé wines, which are made largely by excluding or minimizing these grape components, are therefore lower than in reds. Although white wines contain structures similar to the pigmented tannins of a red wine, the absence of anthocyanins condensed into the tannins of white wines accounts for how different they look.
Tannins are most often encountered by the human palate in over-steeped tea, and by wine drinkers in young reds designed for a long life in bottle and in whites made with prolonged or excessive skin contact. They produce the taste sensation of bitterness and the physical tactile ‘drying’ sensation of astringency. Catechins and small tannins are said to be responsible for bitterness, while larger ones elicit the astringency sensation, presumably by interaction with the proteins of the mouth but also by the adherence of the tannins to the oral mucous membranes (see below).
Traditional methods for measuring tannins report them as if they were all gallic acid, and such analyses, including the widely used Folin Ciocalteu method, are popular because of their analytical convenience. Alternative methods for measuring the phenolic compounds of grape tannins more directly and as other than gallic acid are time consuming and require considerable analytical expertise. Gallic acid or GA equivalent concentration averages about 300 mg/l in white wines, but 1,800 mg/l in reds. The tannin types and their extraction rates vary considerably with vine variety and winemaking methods. Varieties notably high in tannins include cabernet sauvignon, nebbiolo, syrah, and tannat.
Since the late 1980s, much research into red winemaking has been aimed at minimizing the bitter and astringent impression made by tannins on the palate while enhancing the texture and ageing properties which they confer on a wine. These studies have involved, among other variations, ever more refinement of maceration techniques and deliberately controlled exposure to oxygen at various points during the winemaking process (see micro-oxygenation, for example). It is also widely recognized that the influence of such viticultural factors as grape ripeness and grape composition on the properties of tannins is not yet understood.
Different wood types contain different sorts of tannins, but these have most effect on wine when the cooperage is new. The tannins of the various species and varieties of oak, the most common wood used in winemaking, vary among themselves, and according to how the oak was seasoned (see barrel making). Oak tannins differ in significant ways from grape tannins, although the consequences of such differences on the stability of wine colour and on the sensory properties (including mouthfeel) of barrel-matured red wines in particular are yet to be scientifically rationalized. For more details, see oak flavour. Wine consumers may experience a certain amount of wood oak flavour in a wide range of wines, including some relatively immature wines, both red and white, whether the result of genuine barrel maturation or the use of oak chips. They are therefore often exposed to the effects of tannin on the palate, which can be considerably mitigated by the right choice of accompanying food.
Winemakers can adjust excessively high tannin levels by fining with casein, gelatin, or albumin, which selectively precipitate large-sized astringent tannins. Formation of soluble complexes with macromolecules such as proteins may also prevent tannins from interacting with salivary proteins and eliciting astringency. Given sufficient time, tannins are removed naturally, however, during wine ageing. The tannins polymerize and form aggregates that eventually precipitate as sediment so that they no longer have any bitter or astringent effect on the palate. Depending on the wine composition and ph, reactions of tannins can also yield smaller tannins and pigmented tannins, thus resulting in lower astringency.
Tannins: Tasting Tannins
Tannins cannot be smelt or tasted; they cause tactile sensations. A significant development of the 1990s was a keener appreciation of the different sorts of sensory impact of tannins on the palate (see texture). In Australia, this led in particular to the development of a mouthfeel wheel rather like the aroma wheel. Tannins may be variously described as hard, bitter (if accompanied by bitterness), green, ripe (if perceptible but only after the impact of fruit that has reached physiological ripeness has been felt on the palate), coarse, grainy, wood (if obviously the effect of cask ageing), long chain (an American expression for polymerized), short chain, and polymerized. Research in the US by Revelette et al. has shown that it is not just the quantity of tannins in a wine that determines its astringency but also the quality of those tannins, specifically their tendency to ‘stick’ to another surface such as the mucous membranes.
Vigour
In a viticultural sense is the amount of vegetative growth, an important aspect of any vine. This may seem of unlikely interest to wine drinkers but it is a vital factor in wine quality. Very low-vigour vines do not always have sufficient leaf area to ripen grapes properly, while high-vigour vines typically produce thin, pale, acidic wines often wrongly thought to result from overcropping. Vigour changes through a vine’s lifetime, as discussed in vine age.
Vines of high vigour show a lack of balance between shoot and fruit growth. Vigorous vineyards show rapid shoot growth in the spring, and shoots continue to grow late into the growing season, even past veraison, the beginning of fruit ripening. Shoots on vigorous vines have long internodes, thick stems, large leaves, and many, usually long, lateral shoots. Vigorous vineyards are generally, but not necessarily, associated with high yields. Rank vegetative growth may produce so much shade that fruitfulness declines, leading to even more vegetative growth and a loss of varietal character, colour, body, and general wine quality.
Vine vigour is easy to quantify using pruning weights and other vine measurements as outlined by Smart and Robinson, and these approaches, along with scoring, can be used as a form of quality control. For an alternative but related approach to the assessment of vine vigour using remote sensing, see normalized difference vegetation index.
The vigour of a vineyard is essentially dependent on two features: the size and health of the root system, and the pruning level. First, what grows above ground is some sort of mirror of what grows below. A vine with a large and healthy root system will have the reserves of carbohydrates and balance of hormones to support considerable vigorous shoot growth. On the other hand, a vine with a small and/or unhealthy root system, be it due to shallow soil, drought, root pests such as phylloxera, or diseases such as trunk disease or armillaria root rot, will support only low-vigour growth.
Vines should be pruned to bud numbers relative to the amount of early shoot growth they can support. This is the concept of balanced pruning, and one criterion used is to retain at winter pruning about 25–30 buds per kg of pruning weight. Use of this sort of rule means that the subsequent shoot growth will be in balance with the vine’s carbohydrate reserves, ensuring balance between shoot and fruit growth, and moderate vigour.
High vigour is a common problem of modern vineyards, for many and varied reasons. The vines may be planted in a region with a benign climate on too deep a soil, which is well supplied with water (from rainfall and/or irrigation) and nutrients, especially nitrogen (from natural fertility or fertilizers or added compost). Such soils are said to have high soil potential in that they promote excessive vine vigour. Modern control methods can also keep vines free of stress associated with weeds, pests, and diseases. canopy management techniques are used to maintain yield and wine quality in such situations.
An alternative approach is to devigorate the vines, most commonly by controlling the water supply, which is of course easier to do when irrigating in an arid climate than when vineyards are supplied by rainfall alone. cover crops that compete for the available water are another useful tool. Other techniques include nutrient stressing, increasing crop load by leaving more buds at winter pruning, or by growing shoots downwards as in the geneva double curtain training system.
Tri
French for a sorting process, notably postal but, in a winemaking context, it means the selection of suitable grapes. This usually takes the form of a triage on reception of the grapes at the winery or cellar, using a sorting table or table de tri. However, in the production of botrytized wines a trie (note the feminine form), or several tries, is made in the vineyard whereby the pickers proceed along the rows selecting only those clusters, and occasionally only those berries, that have been successfully attacked by noble rot.
Paris
Capital of france, once the centre of a thriving wine region and still one of the few capital cities in which vineyards of any size may be found (although see also vienna). Rueil, Suresne, Nanterre, Coulombe, and Argenteüil were all renowned for their wine in the 17th century. Today there are still several suburban vineyards, of which only one, in the IGP Suresnes created in 2013, is commercial. There is even a small vineyard on the slopes of Montmartre, whose meagre produce, from 2,000 vines originally densely planted in 1933, is auctioned for charity. More IGPs are being sought for Île-de-France, or greater Paris.
Paris: History
Wine was grown around Paris in the 4th century, and its fame as a wine-growing area dates from long after the Roman empire. Clovis, king of the Franks 481–511, made Paris the capital of his kingdom and from the 8th century onwards Frisian, Saxon, and English merchants sailed up the river Seine to Paris to buy wine. Under the Merovingians and the Carolingians, Paris was an important centre of trade, and much of the wine sold there would have been produced locally.
A document from the beginning of the 9th century shows that viticulture was a major part of the local economy. The Roll of Irminon, named after the abbot of St-Germain-des-Prés who instigated this survey of his monastery’s lands, is the only document of its kind dating back to the time of charlemagne. Vineyards at Rambouillet, Dreux, Fontainebleau, Sceaux, and Versailles were cultivated not only by monks but also by laymen, and it is clear from the amounts produced that there must have been a surplus to sell on the open market. Documents from the Abbey of St-Denis, near Paris, show that St-Germain-des-Prés was not unique in this respect. In the 9th century, St-Denis had vineyards in the abbey precincts and possessed wine-growing estates in the Île-de-France, as the Paris basin was known; many smaller monasteries in the area also produced wine for sale (see monks and monasteries).
In the 10th century, Paris was well established as a centre of the wine trade. The main trade route was down the Seine to Rouen (today an important wine bottling centre for northern European markets) and thence overseas. In the late 10th century, merchants from England, Ireland, Flanders, and Picardy visited Rouen, and later Henry II (king of England, including Normandy, 1154–89) gave Rouen the monopoly of transporting wine to England. The other, later (from the 13th century onwards), trade route from Paris was down the Seine or up the Oise as far as Compiègne, where the wine would be loaded on to carts and carried to Flanders by road. By then the merchants of Paris had managed to acquire for themselves privileges similar to those of their Gascon counterparts (see bordeaux). In an edict of 1190, Philip Augustus, king of France, declared that only the merchants of Paris, who were themselves usually wine producers as well (see climate change for details of the warmer macroclimate prevailing then), had the right to sell wine in Paris. They were able to prevent the sale of any wine they wished: thus they regulated the import of wines from outside the region and they controlled the quality of the wines sold as ‘vins de France’. The wines of auxerre, chablis, and Tonnerre had to pass through Paris before they were permitted to be transported further, and wines from other regions were not to be offered for sale before the ‘vins de France’ had all been sold. The wines of the loire were also put on the market in Paris.
The ‘vins de France’ included not only the wines of Paris up to Vernon in Normandy but also those of champagne (Rheims, Épernay, Châlons-sur-Marne): this usage continued among wine producers until just after the French Revolution. The Capetian kings of France, who reigned from 987 to 1498, were particularly fond of the wines of Paris, but some of what they drank must have been from Champagne, since no distinction was made. In those days the region grew more than it could drink. Some of it was sold to the neighbouring areas of Normandy, Picardy, and Artois; the principal foreign export markets in the Middle Ages were England and Flanders. The ‘vins de France’ were highly esteemed both at home and abroad: in 1200 they fetched higher prices in London than the wines of anjou.
How long is it believed that wine has been made in the Loire Valley?
About 2000 years
Loire Valley- Soils and Subsoils
The Loire Valley vineyards are distinctive for the diversity of their natural environments, a result of the wide range of soils and subsoils present.
- The Pays Nantais is made up of igneous and metamorphic rock from the Massif Armoricain, with chiefly gneiss, mica schists, greenstone and granite.
- In Anjou the subsoil is mainly slate, sandstone and carboniferous schists as well as volcanic rock, all originating from the Massif Armoricain.
- Between Angers and Saumur we see the transition between the older bedrock to the west and the sedimentary basin to the east.
- In the Saumurois and Touraine, the subsoil is made up of tuffeau limestone, sand and siliceous clay from the Paris Basin. The terraces bordering the Loire and the Vienne comprise sand and pebbles, smoothed to roundness by the action of the water and deposited here over the years.
This geological diversity contributes to the presence of a wide range of different soil types, all with varying exposures. This influences both the grape variety grown and the growers’ choice of agricultural practice. It also touches on the idea of terroir, which is so very important in the Loire.
Loire Valley- Microclimates
The Loire and its many tributaries have a significant moderating effect on the vineyards. By creating a large range of microclimates all of which promote vine growth, they contribute to the wide diversity of the region’s wines. They also have a buffer effect, which is crucial notably for the production of rich, sweet wines.
- In the Nantes vineyards, oceanic influences temper seasonal variations. Autumns and winters are mild, while summers are hot and often very humid.
- The Anjou vineyards enjoy an oceanic climate with mild winters, hot summers, plenty of sunshine and small variations in temperature. Some of the very dry microclimates promote the growth of Mediterranean plant life.
- In the Saumur vineyards, the hills provide a barrier to winds blowing from the west; the climate becomes semi-oceanic and seasonal variations are more pronounced.
- The vineyards of Touraine are at the crossroads of oceanic and continental influences.
Loire Valley- Melon De Bourgogne
Commonly called: Melon de Bourgogne
Native to: Burgundy (Bourgogne). Introduced by monks in the 17th century.
Principal AOCs: Muscadet, Muscadet-Coteaux-de-la-Loire, Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine, Muscadet Côtes-de-Grandlieu. Muscadets Crus Communaux: Gorges, Clisson, Le Pallet
Did you know? The crystalline rocks south east of Nantes give the grapes more finesse than those grown in areas of sedimentary rock. Muscadets are the only wines in the world made from Melon de Bourgogne.
Loire Valley- Chenin
Commonly called: Chenin
Also known as: Pineau de Loire
Native to: The Loire Valley. Around the 10th century, this variety was known as “Plant d’Anjou.” The current name was popularised by Rabelais in the 15th century.
Principal AOCs: Anjou-Blanc, Bonnezeaux, Quarts-de-Chaume-Grand-Cru, Coteaux-du-Layon, Coteaux-Du-Layon-Premier-Cru-Chaume, Savennières, Savennières-Roche-Aux-Moines, Coteaux-de-l’Aubance, Anjou-Coteaux-de-La-Loire, Coteaux-de-Saumur, Crémant-de-Loire, Saumur-Blanc, Saumur-Brut, Touraine, Touraine-Amboise, Touraine-Mesland, Chinon, Jasnières, Coteaux-du-Loir, Vouvray.
Did you know? Chenin is the Loire Valley’s iconic grape variety. It is the region’s third most widely grown varietal, and expresses the richness of its Loire terroirs to the full. Chenin is a late ripener, adapting well to the various microclimates of Anjou and Touraine to produce a stunning range of wines, including the famous Loire Valley sweet wines.
Loire Valley- Sauvignon
Commonly called: Sauvignon
Native to: Loire Valley
Principal AOCs: Touraine, Touraine-Mesland, Touraine-Oisly, Touraine-Chenonceaux.
Did you know? Sauvignon is a fairly delicate grape, very sensitive to the prevailing soil and climate. It is one of the more aromatic varietals with many different nuances, all strongly influenced by the terroirs in which it grows.
Loire Valley- Chardonnay
Commonly called: Chardonnay
Native to: Burgundy. This excellent continental varietal has been known in the Loire Valleyfor a long time, under the name of Auvernat.
Principal AOCs: Anjou-Fines-Bulles, Crémant-de-Loire, Saumur-Brut, Saumur-Blanc, Touraine, Touraine-Mesland
Did you know? Grown in poor, stony soils made up of siliceous clay and chalky clay, Chardonnay is at its best blended with other Loire Valley white grape varieties - particularly when used to produce Crémant-de-Loire and Saumur-Brut.
Loire Valley- Folle Blanche
Commonly called: Folle Blanche
Native to: the south-west.
Principal AOCs: Gros-Plant du Pays Nantais.
Did you know? This rustic variety was first planted here in the Middle Ages, and adapts well to a wide range of soils and climates.
Other Loire Valley white varietals worth noting: Malvoisie, Chasselas and Romorantin.
Loire Valley- Cabernet Franc
Commonly called: Cabernet Franc
Also known as: Breton
Native to: the Nantes region, but thought to come from the Basque Country in Spain. It is the Loire region’s chief red varietal, introduced in the 11th century.
Principal AOCs: Anjou-Rouge, Anjou-Villages, Anjou-Villages-Brissac, Cabernet-d’Anjou, Cabernet-de-Saumur, Rosé-d’Anjou, Rosé-de-Loire, Crémant-de-Loire, Saumur-Rouge, Saumur-Champigny, Saumur-Puy-Notre-Dame, Saumur-Brut, Touraine, Touraine-Amboise, Touraine-Chenonceaux, Touraine-Azay-le-Rideau, Touraine-Mesland, Coteaux-du-Loir, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, Chinon.
Did you know? Commonly made into a single-varietal wine, Cabernet Franc finds its true expression in the Loire Valley. François Rabelais mentioned it in his work Gargantua and Pantagruel: “I mean of the good Breton wine, not that which grows in Britain, but in the good country of Verron.”
Loire Valley- Gamay
Commonly called: Gamay
Native to: The Centre-East region of France.
Principal AOCs: Anjou-Gamay, Rosé-de-Loire, Rosé-d’Anjou, Touraine, Touraine-Azay-Le-Rideau, Touraine-Mesland, Coteaux-du-Loir.
Did you know? The white-juiced black Gamay grape is particularly widespread in Touraine, where it often makes a single-varietal wine. It prefers siliceous clay and granite soils to limestone, and can give surprisingly good results, especially when blended with Cabernet or Côt.
Loire Valley- Grolleau
Commonly called: Grolleau
Also known as: Groslot
Native to: Touraine.
Principal AOC: Anjou-Rouge, Rosé-d’Anjou, Rosé-de-Loire, Touraine-Azay-Le-Rideau, Coteaux-du-Loir.
Did you know? Grolleau gives fruity, semi-dry rosés. After Cabernet Franc and Gamay, it is the most widely grown red varietal in the Loire Valley and is a vigorous, resistant grape, accounting for one sixth of the region’s total production.
Loire Valley- Pinot Noir
Commonly called: Pinot Noir
Native to: Burgundy.
Principal AOCs: Touraine, Touraine-Noble-Joué.
Did you know? This variety can adapt to almost any climate, and is at its best growing in limestone soils. It can also be found in the east of Touraine.
Loire Valley- Cabernet Sauvignon
Commonly called: Cabernet Sauvignon
Principal AOCs: Anjou-Rouge, Anjou-Villages, Anjou-Villages-Brissac, Cabernet-d’Anjou, Saumur-rosé, Rosé-d’Anjou, Rosé-De-Loire, Crémant-De-Loire, Saumur-Rouge, Saumur-Champigny, Saumur-Puy-Notre-Dame, Saumur-Brut, Touraine, Coteaux-Du-Loir.
Did you know? This traditional Médoc and Graves variety expresses its personality particularly well in schist soils, giving an interesting tannic structure. It is often used to complement Cabernet Franc.
Loire Valley- Pineau D’Aunis
Commonly called: Pineau d’Aunis
Also known as: Chenin Noir
Principal AOCs: Anjou-Rouge, Rosé-d’Anjou, Rosé-de-Loire, Crémant-de-Loire, Saumur-Brut.
Did you know? Like Grolleau, Pineau d’Aunis (or Chenin Noir) was originally grown for its high yields. However, it is difficult to cultivate and has a low alcohol content, and has gradually been replaced by the Cabernet Franc. Production is now fairly limited.
Loire Valley- Cot
Commonly called: Côt
Also known as: Malbec
Principal AOCs: Rosé-de-Loire, Touraine, Touraine-Amboise, Touraine-Azay-Le-Rideau, Touraine-Chenonceaux, Touraine-Mesland, Coteaux-du-Loir.
Did you know? Tourainehas proved to be an ideal growing area for Côt, especially the Cher Valley as far as Montlouis, where it has become a serious competitor to Grolleau.
Pinot Meunier and Négrette are two more Loire Valley red varietals worth noting.
What is the longest river in France?
The Loire River. It is the last wild River in France. It is 629 miles and starts at the headwater in the Massif Central to the mouth of the Atlantic Coast.
The Loire is an unbroken chain from____________ to the ____________________ of the Upper Loire which stands at the __________________of France.
Pays Nantais on the Atlantic Coast to the Central Vineyards of the Upper Loire, which is the exact geographical centre of France.
The Loire Valley is also known as?
The Jardin De La France, it is a patchwork of agriculture, history and natural beauty.
When was the Loire Valley named a world heritage site?
2000
When does Winemaking date back to in the Loire Valley?
To at least the 1 century CE. Viti dates back to the 6th Century in Touraine. Chenin B may have appeared in Angers in 845. But conclusive evidence of the grape wasn’t found until the 16th Century.
Cabernet Francs origins in the Loire?
It has a long history. Although it may have originated in Basque Country, it was confirmed by French writer Francois Rabelais in 1534. But it could have arrived in the 11th Century.
The Loire Valley today produces more white wine……..
Than any other region and is second only to Champagne for sparkling wine production
What are the main white grapes of the Loire Valley?
Chenin Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc
Melon De Bourgogne
In the Loire Valley there are also some secondary white grape varietals and international varieties. These are?
Chardonnay
Orbois
Romorantin
Gros Plant (Folle Blanche)
Chasselas
True or False: The Loire Valley’s white wines overshadow their reds?
True to some extent but the light red wines of the Loire are also seen as a highlight.
What is Cabernet Franc known as in the Loire Valley?
Breton
What are the red grapes of the Loire Valley?
Cabernet Franc (Breton) Pinot Noir Gamay Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec (Cot) Pineau d'Aunis Groslot (Grolleau)
Pays Nantais vineyards….
Sweep south toward the Ntheast of the city of Nantes near the Atlantic Coast.
What is the main white grape of the Pays Nantais?
Melon De Bourgogne
What is the background of Melon De Bourgogne in the Pays Nantais area?
Arrived in the 17th Century as a distillation grape for the Dutch. It gained promancance after the notable 1709 frost and the ensuing moratorium on red grapes that transformed the Nantais into a white wine region.
What are the four appellations for Muscadet in Pays Nantais?
Muscadet AOP
Muscadet Coteaux De la Loire AOP
Muscadet Cotes De Grandlieu AOP
Muscadet Sevre et Maine AOP
At what alcohol level does Muscadet show best?
It shows lighter, fresher character at 12% or below
Muscadet country in Pays Nantais is?
A cool, wet maritime region planted primarily to the Melon De Bourgogne grape.
What are Melon De Bourgogne wines like from Muscadet AOP?
The wines are neutral, bone dry to dry, high in acid and designed for youthful consumption.
The Muscadet AOP appellation…..
Is rarely used as most producers want to qualify for the three other appellations
Muscadet Sevre- et- Maine wines….
Account for 80% of production for Muscadet, they are sourced from a collection of 23 communes near the confluence of the Sevre and Maine rivers.
What are the soils of the Muscadet Sevre-et- Maine AOP?
They are complex soils of gneiss, silica, clay and granite.
Nearly half of the Sevre-et-Maine production is…..
Sur Lie
In order for a Muscadet to be Sur lie………..
The wine must originate from land qualifying for one of the the three sub appellations. Sur lie wines are aged on their lees over the winter, and are bottled directly off the fine lees (without filtering) between March 1 and November 30 of the year following harvest. The process adds complexity, richness and a slight sparkle to the finished wines.
Muscadet Coteaux De la Loire AOP is….
A more northerly appeallation in Pays Nantais. The wines as much leaner. In warmer vintages the area is an excellent source of wines.
Muscadet Cotes De Grandlieu AOP is….
Is the newest appelation created in 1994. The wines struggle to achieve quality beyond basic Muscadet.
Hermine d’Or?
Is an unofficial label term in Muscadet Sevre- et- Maine producers including Guy Bossard for better quality wines. It promotes terroir and stresses age ability.
A Cru Communaux designation was proposed in Muscadet Sevre-et- Maine in……
- It required eleigble wines from specified schist soils to spend a minimum of 18 months sur lie- longer than the actual sur lie term allows. In 2011 this bare fruit creating three more subzones in Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine; Clisson, Le Pallet, and Gorges.
When the VDQS level of appellation was eliminated in 2011 three new regions gained AOC status.
Gros Plant Du Pays Nantais
Coteaux D’Ancenis
Fief Vendeens
Will Gros Plant Du Pays Nantais produce a sur lie wine?
Yes, but it will require some serious effort on the part of the regions producers to improve perceptions, lees aging or not
Where does Anjou lie in the Anjou- Saumur region of the Loire?
It lies between Pays Nantais and Touraine.
It is the most diverse and most dynamic region of this area.
Although Anjou and Saumur are discussed collectively….
Saumur is an eastern sub region of Anjou, adjacent to Chinon in Touraine.
What type of wine is Saumur famous for?
It is the Loire’s centre of sparkling wine production.
Anjou produces both sweet and dry interpretations of?
Chenin Blanc which is known locally as Pineau De la Loire.
45% of Anjou production is?
Devoted to Rose, a blended wine dominated by Grolleau grapes.
What are nearly 1/3 of Anjou’s plantings?
Cabernet Franc
Anjou AOP is a designation of?
Red, white, and sparkling wines. It is the umbrella appellation for the region. Many Saumur wines may be bottled as Anjou AOP, but not vice versa.
A Cru Communaux designation was proposed in Muscadet Sevre-et- Maine in……
- It required eleigble wines from specified schist soils to spend a minimum of 18 months sur lie- longer than the actual sur lie term allows. In 2011 this bare fruit creating three more subzones in Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine; Clisson, Le Pallet, and Gorges.
What characters does Chenin Blanc show in Northerly climates like Anjou?
It is slow to ripen. This means it will possess persistent, high acidity in the finished wine. Astringency from high levels of extract is also common.
These traits are common in Anjou Blanc AOP (aggressive acidity and bitterness)
What traits do the wines of Savennieres AOP possess?
Complex flavours and honeyed richness with age.
They are produced from 100% Chenin Blanc and generally dry. They are austere and rigid in youth.
Where is Savennieres AOP located?
On the north back of the Loire, Savennieres enjoys a steep southern exposure and a unique soil structure of blue schist mixed with volcanic debris.
What are the two sub- Appellations of Savennaires?
Both were seen as unofficial Grand Crus until getting their own AOCs in 2011.
Roche aux Moines
Coulee De Serrant (a monopole from Nicholas Joly)
South of Angers and the Loire, Chenin Blanc is harvested….
Later in the season as producers want botrytis in the sweet wine districts of;
Coteaux Du Layon AOP
Coteaux De L’Aubance AOP
Several tires is mandatory. This results in wines either healthy grapes with pure late- harvest flavours or the selection of grapes gripped by noble rot.
What is the r/ s on a wine produced in Coteaux du Layon AOP and Coteaux de L’Aubance?
34 grams per litre
What are the two sweet wine appellations within Coteaux Du Layon?
Bonnezeaux AOP (Thourace commune)
Quarts De Chaume AOP (Rochfort- sur- Loire commune)
Both are south facing appellations
Which sweet wine village of Anjou- Saumur is entitled to Grand Cru moniker from 2010?
Quarts De Chaume, consists of a small band of sandstone and schist hillside on the banks of the Layon River.
Quarts De Chaume is protected from?
Prevailing winds and touched by morning mists from the Layon. The small appellation is a good incubator for pourriture noble, and like Sauternes, it’s regulations require manual harvests conducted in successive tries.
How big is Quarts De Chaume and how many cases does it produce a year?
54 hectares (is just a few hectares bigger than Clos De Vougeot) and under 10,000 cases of wine.
What are two highly regarded producers of Quart De Chaume?
Domaine des Baumard and Chateau Pierre- Bise
What is a famous producer of Bonnezeaux that is hard to find?
Chateau des Fesles
When the VDQS level of appellation was eliminated in 2011 three new regions gained AOC status.
Gros Plant Du Pays Nantais
Coteaux D’Ancenis
Fief Vendeens
Will Gros Plant Du Pays Nantais produce a sur lie wine?
Yes, but it will require some serious effort on the part of the regions producers to improve perceptions, lees aging or not
Where does Anjou lie in the Anjou- Saumur region of the Loire?
It lies between Pays Nantais and Touraine.
It is the most diverse and most dynamic region of this area.
Although Anjou and Saumur are discussed collectively….
Saumur is an eastern sub region of Anjou, adjacent to Chinon in Touraine.
What type of wine is Saumur famous for?
It is the Loire’s centre of sparkling wine production.
Anjou produces both sweet and dry interpretations of?
Chenin Blanc which is known locally as Pineau De la Loire.
45% of Anjou production is?
Devoted to Rose, a blended wine dominated by Grolleau grapes.
What are nearly 1/3 of Anjou’s plantings?
Cabernet Franc
What characters does Chenin Blanc show in Northerly climates like Anjou?
It is slow to ripen. This means it will possess persistent, high acidity in the finished wine. Astringency from high levels of extract is also common.
These traits are common in Anjou Blanc AOP (aggressive acidity and bitterness)
Seven Villages are entitled to add their names to the basic Coteaux Du Layon AOP. What are they?
Beaulieu- sur- Layon
Rochefort- sur- Loire
Faye d’Anjou
St- Lambert Du Lattay
St- Aubin De Luigne
Rablay- sur- Layon
Chaume
These wines must reach higher minimum must weights. But are harvested at lower minimum yields. At a minimum 80 grams per litre of r/ s
While the Cabernet Franc based wines of Anjou AOP are good value, Anjou- Villages AOP, red wine only appellation provides?
Some of the finest red wines.
Which grape variety do Anjou- Village producers use to bolster and give sturdier wines?
They combine Cabernet Sauvignon with the regions Cabernet Franc
Anjou Villages Brissac AOP?
Is a more recent appellation which covers the 10 communes that are authorised for Coteaux De L’Aubance.
Gamay gives Anjou’s lightest reds…..
(Anjou Gamay varietal wines) but the grape may not be blended in standard Anjou rouge bottlings
Although regulations call for a move to pure Chenin Blanc in Saumur AOP….
Currently they can combine an optional addition of 20% Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc- A recipe identical to Anjou Blanc
What are the grape varietals allowed in Saumur Rouge?
Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pineau d’Aunis
What type of wine is not authorised in Saumur Rouge?
Rose wines
What are over half of Saumur’s grapes destined for?
Saumur AOP sparkling wines or methode traditionelle Cremant De Loire AOP
Cremant De Loire AOP allows blending across Touraine and Anjou- Saumur while permitting fewer restrictions on grape usage.
What is the soil type of Saumur?
Tuffeau limestone. The same as Touraine.
However near the commune of Champigny- the “field of fire”- the limestone is harder, iron rich and inflicted with shale.
How many Villages may produce the red wine Saumur- Champigny?
8
What sort of wines does Saumur- Champigny produce?
Light, bright and elegantly floral expressions of Cabernet Franc
Haut- Poitou?
Is about 50 miles due south of Chinon and the eastern edge of Saumur, achieved AOC/ AOP status in late 2011 with the dissolution of the VDQS category.
What area in the Loire produces the most age worthy and interesting examples of Cabernet Franc?
Chinon AOP, Bourgueil AOP and St- Nicolas- De- Bourgueil AOP
What are the characteristics of Chinon, Cabernet Franc?
Brimming with raspberry and green tobacco aromatics and framed with silky tannins.
Chinon soils?
They are divided into three parts: tuffeau, clay and varennes.
Varennes (Sandy and alluvial) is closest to the River Vienne (a tributary of the Loire)
Tuffeau is more common on the slopes.
Vins De Tuff?
Are apart of the slopes in Chinon.
Limestone south- facing slopes carry the most promise for depth and ageworthiness.
What area in the Loire produces the most age worthy and interesting examples of Cabernet Franc?
Chinon AOP, Bourgueil AOP and St- Nicolas- De- Bourgueil AOP
What are the characteristics of Chinon, Cabernet Franc?
Brimming with raspberry and green tobacco aromatics and framed with silky tannins.
Vins De Tuff?
Are apart of the slopes in Chinon.
Limestone south- facing slopes carry the most promise for depth and ageworthiness.
Chinon soils?
They are divided into three parts: tuffeau, clay and varennes.
Varennes (Sandy and alluvial) is closest to the River Vienne (a tributary of the Loire)
Tuffeau is more common on the slopes.
Bourguiel soils?
Divided between sand and limestone, but St-Nicolas- De- Bourguiel is situated almost wholly on lighter alluvial soils, with a corresponding lighter style of wine.
Chinon AOP, Bourguiel AOP and St- Nicolas- De Bourgueil AOP allow the addition of 10% of what?
Cabernet Sauvignon
What white wine can Chinon produce?
A little bit of Chenin Blanc. Bourguiel and St- Nicolas- De- Bourgueil are only allowed to make red wines.
Vouvray and Montlouis- sir- Loire are situated on__________ banks of the Loire.
Opposing
Vouvray is what?
Touraine’s largest and most important white win district.
What has made the impressive underground cellars of Vouvray?
Tuffeau limestone, which is easy to cut through.
What grapes varieties are used for a Vouvray?
Chenin Blanc (and/ or Orbois, Menu Pineau, which seldom encounted)
Vouvray can be produced in a number of different sweetness styles?
Sec, sec- tendre (off- dry), Demi- sec, Moelleux and liquereux
Vouvray producers can produced what in cooler years?
Sparkling wine. They are made according to methode traditionelle and may either be pettilant or mousseux
Montlouis- sur- Loire AOP?
Used to be apart of Vouvray, very similar in style and may be made across the same spectrum of styles. Orbois is not permitted in Montlouis- sur- Loire.
Touraine AOP?
Can make ‘charming’ but just as often generic wines from the local grapes. Chenin Blanc still dominates, but a new encepagement mandates Sauv Blanc and a maximum of 20% Sauvignon Gris, replacing the older style entirely by 2016. Red and rose= Gamay, Groslot, Pineau d’Aunis, and Cabernet Franc. Gamay is sold locally as premieur, in the style of Beaujolais noveau.
What are the five Villages that are allowed to add to the Touraine AOP?
Mesland, Azay- Le- Rideau, Amboise, Oisly and Chenonxeaux.
Chinon AOP, Bourguiel AOP and St- Nicolas- De Bourgueil AOP allow the addition of 10% of what?
Cabernet Sauvignon
What white wine can Chinon produce?
A little bit of Chenin Blanc. Bourguiel and St- Nicolas- De- Bourgueil are only allowed to make red wines.
Vouvray and Montlouis- sir- Loire are situated on__________ banks of the Loire.
Opposing
Vouvray is what?
Touraine’s largest and most important white win district.
What has made the impressive underground cellars of Vouvray?
Tuffeau limestone, which is easy to cut through.
What grapes varieties are used for a Vouvray?
Chenin Blanc (and/ or Orbois, Menu Pineau, which seldom encounted)
Vouvray can be produced in a number of different sweetness styles?
Sec, sec- tendre (off- dry), Demi- sec, Moelleux and liquereux
Vouvray producers can produced what in cooler years?
Sparkling wine. They are made according to methode traditionelle and may either be pettilant or mousseux
Montlouis- sur- Loire AOP?
Used to be apart of Vouvray, very similar in style and may be made across the same spectrum of styles. Orbois is not permitted in Montlouis- sur- Loire.
Touraine AOP?
Can make ‘charming’ but just as often generic wines from the local grapes. Chenin Blanc still dominates, but a new encepagement mandates Sauv Blanc and a maximum of 20% Sauvignon Gris, replacing the older style entirely by 2016. Red and rose= Gamay, Groslot, Pineau d’Aunis, and Cabernet Franc. Gamay is sold locally as premieur, in the style of Beaujolais noveau.
What are the five Villages that are allowed to add to the Touraine AOP?
Mesland, Azay- Le- Rideau, Amboise, Oisly and Chenonxeaux.
Touraine also makes?
Petillant and mousseaux wines, plus a seperate rose appellation exists for Touraine Noble- Joue.
Created in 2001, Touraine Noble- Joue AOP recreates a historical style of vin Gris, a blend of Gris Meunière (Pinot Meunier), Malvoise (Pinot Gris) and Pinot Noir.
There are several outlying appellations in Touraine….
North of the Loire Valley is awkwardly named Loir tributary and the Coteaux Du Loir AOP (red blends and roses from Pineau d’ Aunis, whites from Chenin Blanc).
Jasineres is bottled alone as Chenin Blanc. It is the sub- appellation of Coteaux Du Loir’s best wines. The Chenin is very similar to a Vouvray. But more green and herbaceous.
Ntheast of the Coteaux Du Loir is Coteaux du Vendomois, a newer appellation specialising in dry roses of Pineau d’ Aunis
Cheverny AOP and Cour- Cheverny AOP are on what edge of the Touraine?
Eastern edge
Cheverny wine style?
Pinot Noir and Gamay based, lean whites are dominated by Sav Blanc
Where is Romoratin vareitally bottled?
Cour- Cheverny
Valencay AOP?
Predominately Sauv Blanc. Red and rose wines from this appellation is based on Gamay, Pinot Noir and Cot
Loire’ central vineyards?
Noncontiguous stretch of vineyards in the centre of France. Climate is mainly Continental: cold winters and brisk days during harvest and budbreak during dangers of frost an short summers do not assure easy ripening.
Sancerre AOP and Pouilly Fume AOP?
Sauvignon Blanc.
The appellations straddle the River and provide the classic Loire style: steely, pungently herbaceous, mineral laden Sauvignon Blanc.
Youthful drinking. Vibrant but not lean.
Best examples have subtle complexity and a focused lengthy finish.
Sancerre has three main soil types…..
Silex, Terres blanches and Coillottes
Terres blanches?
Is the same continuation of the Kimmeridgian Clay that extends into Chablis
Caillotes?
Stony soil, littered with fossils in Sancerre
Silex?
More Flint, is found more in Pouilly- Fume
Most Sancerre and Pouilly- Fume wines are made?
With stainless steel, but some winemakers like Didier Dagueneau famously experimented with new oak in the wine,along process.
Pouilly Fume must be white, however Sancerre Rouge….
Can be vinified Pinot Noir as still or rose. Very light style, less body, higher acid.
Pouilly- sur- Loire AOP?
Is named after the central commune of Pouilly- Fume, which is reserved for white wines made from Chasselas.
Mentou Salon AOP?
Central Vineyards, Loire
Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir
Reuilly AOP, Quincy AOP and Coteaux Du Giennois AOP?
Produce varietal Sauvignon Blanc.
Coteaux Du Giennois= red and roses, Pinot and Gamay
Reuilly= pure Pinot Noir, the best roses from vin gris, Pinot Gris
Quincy= white wine only, 2nd demarcated appellation in France- following Chateaunerf Du Pape
Orleans AOP?
Loire Valley
Promoted from VDQS in 2006, east of Touraine, all three colours of wine. Pinot Meunièr and Chardonnay.
Orleans- Cleary AOP?
Loire Valley
Red Wines solely from Cabernet Franc
Cote Du Forez AOP and Cote Roannaise AOP?
Near the Loire
Gamay, similar to Beaujolais
Closer to Lyon and Beaujolais than Central Vineyards
South west of the Cher department?
Near the loire, Chateaumeillant AOP produces reds and roses, Gamay.
Cotes De Auvergne AOP and St Pourcain AOP, the former is the southernmost and most remote Lore region, and latter is just to the north, in Allier departement
Loire Valley
- General Appelaltions of Loire Valley (Cremant de Loire AOP, Rose de Loire AOP)
- Pays Nantais
- Anjou- Saumur
- Touraine
- Central Vineyards
- Appellations of Central France
Pays Nantais
- Coteaux d’Ancenis AOP
- Fief Vendeens AOP
- Gris Plant du Pays Nantais AOP
- Muscadet AOP
- Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire AOP
- Muscadet Cotes de Grandlieu AOP
- Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine AOP
Feifs Vendeens AOP- Subzones:
Brem Chantonnay Mareuil Pissotte Vix
Muscadet Sevre-et- Maine AOP- Subzones:
Clisson
Gorges
Le Pallet
Anjou- Saumur
Anjou AOP Anjou- Villages AOP Anjou-Villages Brissac AOP Anjou-Coteaux de la Loire AOP Bonnezeaux AOP Cabernet d'Anjou AOP Cabernet de Saumur AOP Coteaux de l'Aubance AOP Coteaux du Layon AOP Coteaux de Saumur Haut- Poitou AOP Quarts de Chaume AOP Rose d'Anjou AOP Saumur AOP Saumur-Champigny AOP Savennieres AOP Savennieres Coulee de Serrant AOP Savennieres Roche Aux Moines AOP
Bonnezeaux AOP- Commune of Production?
Thouarce
Savennieres AOP- Subzones:
None (In 2011, Coulee de Serrant and Roche-aux-Monies, formerly considered geographic designations of Savennieres, each received their own AOCs)
Touraine
Touraine AOP Touraine Noble-Joue AOP Chinon AOP Bourgueil AOP Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOP Vouvray AOP Montlouis-sur-Loire AOP Cheverny AOP Cour-Cheverny AOP Jasnieres AOP Coteaux du Loir AOP Coteaux du Vendomois AOP Valencay AOP
Touraine AOP- Subzones
Amboise Mesland Azay-le-Rideau Oisley Chenonceaux
Central Vineyards
Orleans AOP Orleans-Clery AOP Sancerre AOP Pouilly-Fume/Fume de Pouilly AOP Pouilly-sur-Loire AOP Menetou-Salon AOP Quincy AOP Reuilly AOP Coteaux du Ciennois AOP
Appellations of Central France
Chateaumeillant AOP Cotes d'Auvergne AOP Cotes de Forez AOP Cote Roannaise AOP Saint-Pourcain AOP
Cotes d’Auvergne AOP- Subzones
Rouges Only:
- Boudes
- Chanturgue
- Chateaugay
- Madargue
Rose Only:
- Corent
