See detail map on p. 239
See detail map on p. 296
See detail map on p. 154
See detail map on p. 71
See detail map on p. 40
2 THE GROWING ENVIRONMENT
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
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
• Major grape varieties: Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Melon
• 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,
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
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
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