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Terroir, the French wine word more laden with meaning than any other, has no direct translation, but it is usually understood to mean the natural growing environment of the vine. In France, many winemakers equate their terroir to what is going on under their vines, but the altitude, angle and aspect of the vines and the mesoclimate and microclimate can be just as important as the soil and the rocks. And then there is the human factor. A wine is not merely a product of its growing environment, but the result of hundreds of human decisions, from choosing the site and grape varieties to cultivation methods, pruning options, harvest dates, and the many choices available once grapes arrive at the winery. Compared to wine regions where grapes ripen more reliably, in the Loire there is an added emphasis on the role of the individuals responsible for tending the vines and making the wines.
THE LIE OF THE LAND
There are few wine regions as extensively connected to water as the Loire Valley, whose vineyards follow the course of France’s longest river for almost 900 kilometres. The river’s vast network of waterways covers a fifth of the nation’s land and the vineyards extend across 15 different administrative departments: this is the most spread out wine-growing area in France. Many of the vines are clustered around the slopes of the Loire itself, but more of the Loire’s appellations are influenced by its tributaries, which are often major rivers in themselves. Notable among
subsoils significantly affect the growing environment of the vine and the wines are radically different depending on where they are grown. The granite of the Clisson cru, for example, is a very warm growing medium, giving early-ripening wines with plush texture and open fruit. The neighbouring cru of Gorges has much cooler soils. The vines grow on gabbro, a dark, cool, clay-rich soil that is slow to warm. Here the fruit is slow to ripen. Compared to the wines of Clisson, Gorges wines are leaner, with more acid tension and minerality. A current proposal is to create a similar set of DGCs for the Saumur appellation for white wines.
Despite the geological complexity, the rocks that lie under the vineyards can be divided into three main categories. In the far west, the vineyards of the Nantais and the western part of Anjou (the area west of the city of Angers, known as Anjou noir, or black Anjou), are the ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Armorican Massif. This is the bedrock of all of north-west France, the source of Brittany’s rugged coastline and the complexity of the Muscadet vineyards. These acidic rocks include granites and schists, gneiss, gabbro, slate, orthogneiss, serpentinite and amphibolite, among others.
Loire appellations on volcanic and metamorphic rocks
Armorican Massif
• Muscadet appellations
• Gros Plant du Pays Nantais
• Coteaux d’Ancenis
• Fiefs Vendéens
• Anjou noir appellations: Anjou, Anjou-Villages, Anjou Brissac, AnjouCoteaux de la Loire, Cabernet d’Anjou, Rosé d’Anjou, Coteaux du Layon, Coteaux du Layon Premier Cru Chaume, Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru, Bonnezeaux, Coteaux de l’Aubance, Savennières, Savennières-Roche aux Moines, Coulée de Serrant
Massif Central
• Saint-Pourçain
• Côtes d’Auvergne
• Côte Roannaise
• Côtes du Forez
Anjou noir and blanc: black schist and white tuffeau in the massive walls of the Château of Angers
To the east of Angers (the Anjou blanc, or white Anjou), the land comprises sedimentary rocks that date mostly from the tertiary era. These are the alkaline limestones and marls formed from the compaction of sediments in the Paris Basin, a former sea that covered an area from the east of Angers through the whole of the Touraine vineyard, stretching as far north as Paris and extending east to the central vineyards in and around Sancerre (this same sea also covered the vineyards
3 WINE STYLES, APPELLATIONS AND GRAPE VARIETIES
WINE STYLES OF THE LOIRE
The Loire has a more diverse range of wines than any other region in France, made from a broad range of grapes. But for all their variety and the distance that separates the many appellations, Loire wines have much in common. For a start, they share an inherent drinkability: most can be drunk soon after bottling and most are made to be enjoyed young. Another key feature of Loire wines is that they are invariably refreshing.
Most Loire wines are made from a single grape variety. One might think this would make them easier to understand from a consumer’s perspective. In some cases this is true but, as with most French wines, the name of the grape variety rarely features on the label of the bottle. Below is a guide to the appellations where the different varieties grow.
White grapes thrive in the cool temperatures of the Loire Valley, so it is no surprise that whites are the most commonly encountered wine style, at 44 per cent of production. Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Melon are the major grape varieties, and the top Loire examples are the finest wines made from these grapes anywhere in the world.
Chenin Blanc is the most emblematic white grape variety of the Loire, where it displays its versatility in producing a wide variety of styles at every level of quality, from sparkling to botrytized and all levels of sweetness in between. Chenin is a wonderful variety for transmitting terroir, and it
The Loire at a glance
• Number of appellations: 53
• Area under vine: 56,000 hectares
• Area classified AOC: 45,600 hectares (81 per cent of total)
• Styles (2023): 44 per cent white, 22 per cent rosé, 18 per cent red, 16 per cent sparkling
• Number of grape varieties permitted for IGP (regional) wine: 33
• Number of individual producers (2021): 3,700, plus 21 cooperatives and 450 négociants
• Production (2023): 320 million bottles
• Markets: 74 per cent domestic, 26 per cent export
• Top three export markets: USA, UK, Germany
finds many different expressions in the Loire. It is the sole grape of the Loire’s only grand cru and premier cru appellations, Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru and Coteaux du Layon Premier Cru Chaume, as well as the only permitted grape for all of the other sweet wine appellations of the Layon Valley and Montlouis-sur-Loire. In practice, it is almost always the sole grape for the wines of Vouvray as well. Much of the Loire’s Chenin harvest is destined for sparkling wine, whether from Vouvray, Saumur or Montlouis, or as a key component in Crémant de Loire wines.
The crisp, mineral Sauvignons from Sancerre are by far the Loire’s most successfully exported wines, with almost two-thirds of production leaving the country every year. As well as Sancerre’s immediate neighbour, Pouilly Fumé, Sauvignon is also the mainstay of white production in the various Centre Loire and Touraine appellations.
Melon, an old variety that has found its home in the vineyards of Muscadet, where it is grown almost exclusively, produces drinkable and food-friendly wines. But in some locations, and in the right hands, these understated wines are transformed into some of France’s finest. Melon is slowly being recognized as an excellent vehicle for interpreting the complex terroirs of Muscadet. With careful handling and extended ageing on lees, these are unique wines that display some of the best
GROS PLANT DU PAYS NANTAIS
This appellation covers an area encompassing the entire Nantais region. Gros Plant, usually known by the more attractive name of Folle Blanche, used to be the dominant grape variety back in the 1700s, when its abilities as a productive, high-acid grape were prized by the Dutch to produce a neutral base for brandy to be shipped to Holland. Even though Folle Blanche plantings have now diminished and are tiny compared to those of Melon, the area nonetheless produces nearly three million bottles of this fragrant, brisk, light white every year. Permitted yields are as for generic Muscadet, at 70 hectolitres per hectare. The acidity of Folle Blanche can be eye-watering, but in the right hands (in other words, those of a skilled Muscadet producer) and in the right vintage, it can be an uplifting and attractively floral wine. An especially good match for the briny local oysters, it also benefits from having even less alcohol than the average Muscadet.
Gros Plant du Pays Nantais – key facts
• AOC granted: 2011
• Hectares in production: 383
• Annual production volume: 19,000 hectolitres/2.5 million bottles
• Grapes: Folle Blanche
• Styles: dry white, some aged sur lie until the spring following the harvest.
• Soils: gneiss, mica schist, greenstone (gabbros and amphibolite)
Notable Muscadet producers
Domaine Brégeon Gorges www.domainebregeon.com
On the side of a fermentation tank at Domaine Brégeon is a quotation from the late oenologist and philosopher Jacques Puisais: ‘Un vin doit avoir la tête de l’endroit où il est né et les tripes de celui qui l’a fait.’ It means, ‘A wine should have the face of the place where it was born and the guts of the person who made it.’ It seems an appropriate metaphor for the wines of Fred Lailler, and indeed the man himself,
The impenetrable gabbro rock of Gorges
a Gorges native who sports a bushy beard as black as the gabbro rock of his home.
Fred took over the domaine from Michel Brégeon in 2011. He farms 9 hectares of Melon and a single hectare of Folle Blanche. A small proportion of the vines grow on the granite of Clisson, but the rest are on gabbro, the defining face of the Gorges cru. Fred explains the qualities of the rock: ‘It is denser, harder and less friable than Clisson granite. The topsoil has more clay, which makes it a cold soil. Gabbro soils don’t suffer from water stress so the wines have more acidity.’ These cool sites create some of the longest-lived Muscadets, but the wines can be austere, firm and uncompromising in their youth. ‘Gorges wines should be like gunflint,’ says Fred, clenching his fist. His approach to winemaking is as strict as his wines. Viticulture is organic, yields are low and everything is harvested by hand. The berries are pressed within two hours of picking and intervention is minimal. He says he aims to make wines that are
5 ANJOU: SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Anjou means different things to different people. It is a contradictory place, simultaneously perhaps the most and least interesting region of the Loire Valley. Here, the most refined and sublime wines can be found, including world-class Chenins and the only real cult red wine of the Loire, Clos Rougeard. But alongside such vinous highlights are many uninspiring wines that have, over the years, eroded the region’s historic reputation for quality. But today, there is much to be both hopeful and excited about from the artisanal producers in the vineyards and villages of Anjou, whether from historic domaines or newly created enterprises. In recent years, some notable newcomers have moved into the area, taking advantage of Anjou’s under-the-radar status and inexpensive land. New terroirs are being discovered (or rediscovered) and there is now growing interest in the truly excellent wines that are coming out of the region. Although are still many wines of limited interest in Anjou, in a way this makes unearthing its treasures a more rewarding pursuit. And today there are plenty of jewels to be found in the cellars of Anjou.
A third of all the wine produced in the Loire Valley comes from this large area, which covers land in 151 communes across three departments: Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne. Most of the vineyards are to the south of the Loire, following the broad sweep of the river from the edges of the Nantes conurbation eastwards to Saumur. The most concentrated section of wine growing is between the riverside towns of Angers and Saumur. It is an area that spans a
Anjou-Villages Anjou-Brissac Coteaux de l’Aubance
Anjou Rosé d’Anjou Cabernet d’Anjou
Saumur-Champigny
Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame
Coteaux de Saumur
Coteaux du Layon
Coteaux du Layon Villages
*see detail map, p. 111 **see detail map, p. 82 Map 5: Anjou, Saumur and Haut-Poitou
Coulée de Serrant
Savennières Roche aux Moines Savennières*
Coteaux du Layon 1 er Cru Chaume Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru **
Anjou-Coteaux de la Loire
Les Sables d’Olonne
Vines growing on purple schist, Savennières
newcomers, such as Eric Morgat and Thibaud Boudignon, have revived interest in planting some of these abandoned areas.
Unlike the appellations across the river in Anjou, the vignerons of Savennières have never lost the option to make both sweet and dry wines. Although it had historically been known for its dry wines as well as sweeter ones, the original INAO regulations did not specify that wines needed to be dry or sweet. At the same time as the sweet appellations of the Layon were required to commit to making sweet wines only in 1996, the INAO requested that Savennières commit in a similar fashion to making dry styles only as, by then, this was the style for which the appellation was best known. But the Savennières producers were having none of it. Led by Evelyne de Pontbriand’s mother, the late Michèle Bazin de Jessey (who was at the time owner of Domaine du Closel and president of the appellation), the growers said ‘non’ to giving up the rights accorded to them on the creation of the appellation. So, although it is not so common to see sweet, demi-sec and even moelleux or doux, Savennières wines can still be made under the original appellation rules today.
Savennières – key facts
• AOC granted: 1952
• Hectares in production: 140
• Production volume: 4,300 hectolitres/570,000 bottles
• Styles: still white, mostly dry but may be demi-sec (8–18 grams per litre of residual sugar), moelleux (18–45 grams per litre), or doux (more than 45 grams per litre)
• Grapes: Chenin Blanc
• Soils: shallow schists, volcanic rock, veins of quartz, wind-blown sand
Savennières Roche aux Moines – key facts
• AOC granted: 2011
• Hectares in production: 18
• Production volume: 370 hectolitres/49,000 bottles
• Styles: still white, mostly dry
• Grapes: Chenin Blanc
• Soils: as Savennières, but tending to be stonier
Coulée de Serrant – key facts
• AOC granted: 2015
• Hectares in production: 7
• Production volume: 160 hectolitres/21,000 bottles
• Styles: still white, mostly dry
• Grapes: Chenin Blanc
• Soils: as Savennières, but stonier
While Nicolas Joly, owner of La Coulée de Serrant, is probably the French vigneron best known for his vigorous promotion of the virtues of biodynamic viticulture, 80 per cent of winegrowers in Savennières are, in any case, organic. Evelyne de Pontbriand says, ‘When I took over from my mother, she told me I’d never need insecticide, but nobody knew why. Now we know it’s because we have a very high population of bats.’ These bats thrive in a succession of green corridors known as
best growers of the region.) The grapes are picked relatively early (‘If you wait for the seeds to be ripe you lose the aromas in the wine’) and extractions are gentle, to preserve the fruit delicacy and avoid bitterness, to which he professes to be very sensitive.
The domaine’s vineyards include multiple sites in the Brézé area, and Arnaud is one of the vignerons driving the proposal for recognition of six crus for the white wines of Saumur, including Brézé. White wines were historically recognized as being of superior quality to any others, and little else was grown here. The hill of Brézé was the most famous site in the area. The suggested crus would have the usual requirements for higher status, such as lower yields and longer ageing. ‘We want to return to the eighteenth century,’ says Arnaud. His whites are some of the best in the region. ‘It’s easier to make great white than red,’ he says, ‘because the reds really need to age.’ He sees the future of the domaine as being more focused on whites, with the reds aged for longer before
Arnaud Lambert with a core of pure tuffeau rock
release. The whites have little to no malolactic fermentation, and are pure and vibrant. They typically age for a year in oak and are often not released for three to four years after the vintage, ‘to show the minerality of the terroir’. But there is no recipe; Arnaud explains that the ageing will depend on the site exposure and soils. While all the wines of this domaine are of excellent quality, the Brézé whites La Rue and David are particular highlights. These show linear precision and minerality combined with detailed texture from lees ageing and complex, clear fruit, all put together with the lightest of touches. The reds also show restraint and elegance. Clos de L’Etoile, from vines planted in Brézé, has very light extraction (‘this is white wine territory,’ says Arnaud); it is bright, fresh, fruity and mineral-tinged. Moleton is a denser, ripe style, with a confit black cherry character and sooty tannins, all freshened by the beautiful acidity that comes with the terroir here.
Château de Targé
Parnay
www.chateaudetarge.fr
Château de Targé is a handsome turreted edifice that blends seamlessly into the tuffeau rock. This is the same rock that lies beneath the Saumur-Champigny vineyards above it – it’s easy to see why the winery was built here. The caves for vinification and storage disappear into the rock face, and it is but a short walk up the (admittedly rather steep) slope to get to the vines of La Côte overlooking the Loire. Once in the vineyard, a 20-hectare section of the plateau, chimneys can be seen here and there. These openings, dug into the soil and carved from the rock beneath allowed harvesters in times past to drop their pickings through the hole and directly into the winery below.
Over the 350-plus years of ownership of the domaine by the PisaniFerry family the château has been used as a meeting place for politicians, as the family had many political connections. But today the focus is purely wine, under the management of Paul Pisani-Ferry, who has taken over the day-to-day management of the domaine from his father, although the latter remains involved as well. Paul has Loire and SaintEmilion experience and also trained overseas at Raats in South Africa and Zuccardi in Argentina.
It is interesting to see the evolution of style between father and son. Paul jokes, ‘Whenever my father receives visitors, they always end up buying different wines from when they see me.’ Such is the power of suggestion
Domaine Sébastien Brunet
Chançay
www.sebastienbrunet.fr
Sébastien Brunet explains his approach to winemaking thus: ‘I like dry wines, vins de gastronomie. When I eat, I like there to be something happening on the plate; with wine, it’s the same. I want acidity, bitter flavours, something to wake up my tastebuds. I’m not interested in making wines that are flat.’ When one tastes Brunet’s wines, this all makes perfect sense. They are anything but flat – and they certainly wake up the taste buds.
Brunet farms 17 hectares of vines in the eastern part of the Vouvray appellation, in the villages of Reugny, Chançay and Vernou. He began to work on a few hectares with his father in 2003 and took over in 2006. Since then he has built up the domaine-bottled wines (much of the production was formerly sold to négociants), bought back vines from
Room without a view: Sébastien Brunet’s atmospheric tasting room
family members and converted everything to organic viticulture. Soils are ploughed mechanically and the grapes are harvested by hand. In the cellar, he uses indigenous yeasts, ferments and matures his wines in 400to 500-litre casks, and typically leaves the wines to mature on gross lees for eight months. The wines have intriguing texture and salinity, bitterness and freshness, richness and finesse. Some of the vines are more than 80 years old and create wines that can send a shiver down your spine. Fosse Rouge is a wine from red clay soils: mineral, with sweet and sour flavours, it is full of personality. Les Pentes de la Folie is like a meal in itself: sweet and salty, full but with acid tension. Brunet is a jovial sort with the air of a man who enjoys life to the full and doesn’t take himself too seriously; his wines, though, are seriously good.
Domaine Vincent Carême
Vernou-sur-Brenne
www.vincentcareme.fr
Vincent Carême could be considered a self-made vigneron, establishing himself as one of the stars of the Vouvray appellation since he returned to his native home in 1999. His parents passed on 5 hectares of family vines which they farmed alongside other crops, such as asparagus, strawberries and potatoes, but his was not a winemaking family. Vincent studied viticulture and oenology, and travelled widely to learn his craft. He gained broad experience in France (in Sancerre, Muscadet, Champagne and Alsace) and in the ‘other’ Chenin Blanc Mecca, South Africa, before returning home to make his mark.
Starting with his 5 hectares, he gradually built the domaine up to 24 hectares today. ‘It’s the maximum,’ he says, although he does vinify other grapes in a négociant operation he runs with his business partner, ex-wife Tania Carême. In 2004 he bought and restored a house in Vernou-sur-Brenne, complete with cellars hewn into the rock for winemaking and storage. Overhead on top of the rock grow the vines of the 2.3-hectare vineyard he acquired with the property and that is the source of his top wine, Le Clos.
Visiting 70-year-old vines in his Peu Morier vineyard, Vincent points out newer vines propagated by marcottage, or layering, by burying a cane from an existing ‘mother’ plant to create a new young plant. ‘It’s quite common here,’ says Vincent, ‘and it works well for replacing old vines. He says they don’t have problems with phylloxera. ‘A bigger fear is that you will plough up the new vine by mistake,’ he says. A proponent
7 CENTRE LOIRE: LAND OF SAUVIGNON BLANC
The Centre Loire vineyards are located in the heart of the country, not far from the city of Bourges. This is also the centre of the Loire itself; the bridge across the river to the village of Pouilly marks the halfway point of the Loire’s journey to the Atlantic Ocean. The river flows close to the major appellations of Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, which face each other across the water, and the vines of the Coteaux du Giennois grow on the right bank of the river north of Pouilly. Menetou-Salon is a natural extension of the Sancerre vineyard area, continuing to the south-west. The vineyards of Reuilly and Quincy are clustered around the Cher and Arnon tributaries of the Loire, a little further south. Châteaumeillant is a little-planted and little-known red wine appellation at the edge of the Massif Central.
White wines make up 86 per cent of production. These vineyards are dominated, both in quality and quantity, by the Sauvignon Blanc grape. Other than the tiny Chasselas appellation of Pouilly-sur-Loire, Sauvignon is the sole permitted variety for white wines in any of the appellations of the Centre Loire. Perfectly suited to the limestone-clay and flint soils of the Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé hills and valleys, the grape achieves an intensity of mineral expression found nowhere else, and the top growers here are making truly exciting, terroir-focused wines. Sancerre is the appellation driving the quality of the wines, which has surged in recent years. It is the most highly demanded, most-exported and best-known of the Loire Valley’s AOCs. Pouilly Fumé, slightly less successful than its larger neighbour, is nevertheless a source of similarly sublime Sauvignon when it is in the right hands. Less obviously mineral but still appetizing
*see detail map, p. 242
expressions of the grape can be found in the satellite appellations of the Centre which, with less renown and lower prices, can offer good-value alternatives to Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé. In most of the appellations of the Centre, yields for Sauvignon can be as high as 65 hectolitres per hectare, but the better growers restrict yields to well below this level.
The only other grape of significance in the Centre Loire is Pinot Noir, which accounts for 15 per cent of plantings. In Sancerre, Menetou-Salon
Fumé*
Châteaumeillant Reuilly
IGP Coteaux du Cher et de l’Arnon
Coteaux du Giennois
IGP Côtes de la Charité
IGP Coteaux de Tannay Sancerre*
Map 9: Centre Loire
Fiefs Vendéens 68
grapes 35
Montlouis-sur-Loire 173–6
Pouilly Fumé 276, 279
Saint-Pourçain 305 Sancerre 259, 264, 269
Touraine 230
Vin de Pays 25
Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieur (VDQS) 66
Vin Méthode Nature see natural wine vinegar 3
Vins de la Madone, Les 316–18 vins ligériens 15–16, 107 vintages 323–9
