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Loire Valley: the river of fresh whites, from the Atlantic to the castles

The Loire Valley follows the Loire river from the Atlantic, near Nantes, to the center of France. It's white wine country: Sauvignon Blanc in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, Chenin in Vouvray, Melon in Muscadet. Among the reds, Chinon's Cabernet Franc rules. And all of this amid the castles that helped part of the valley become a World Heritage Site.

274 labels in the search come from here186 whites · 56 reds · 15 rosés · 13 sparkling · 4 dessert or Port

Where it is and what the place is like

The vineyard follows the river from west to east: it starts at the Atlantic, in the Pays Nantais, goes up through Anjou and Saumur, crosses Touraine and reaches Centre-Loire, home of Sancerre and Pouilly. All told, it's about 57,000 hectares across 14 departments, from Vendée to Puy-de-Dôme, which makes the Loire France's third-largest wine region, according to InterLoire, the body that brings together the valley's producers. From Nantes to Vendôme alone, it's 42,000 hectares.

The climate changes along the way. In Nantes and Anjou, the ocean is in charge: mild winters, moderate summers and little difference in temperature. Further east, in Touraine, the continent comes in, with more sun and bigger temperature swings. The river, with its tributaries, helps keep the slopes' temperature steady.

The ground is a patchwork quilt. In the west, ancient rock, like gneiss, schist and granite, where Muscadet is born. In Anjou and Saumur you find tuffeau, a limestone; in Touraine, sand and clay with flint; in Centre-Loire, the limestones and flint of Sancerre and Pouilly. And the stretch of the valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes-sur-Loire, with its towns, castles and vineyards, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since November 30, 2000.

A castle with round towers and tall cones on the bank of a calm river, reflected in the water, and vines on the gentle slopes on both sides.
fig. 1Loire Valley: France's longest river, castles on its banks and vines on the gentle slopes.

The region's grapes

InterLoire counts more than 100 grapes, seven of them main ones: Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, Melon, Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, Chardonnay and Grolleau. The Loire's signature is a single grape in the bottle: Melon in Muscadet; Chenin, Cabernet and Gamay in Anjou, Saumur and Touraine; Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir in Centre-Loire. Chenin, also called Pineau de la Loire, was born there, and Cabernet Franc is the valley's number one red.

In Centre-Loire, Sauvignon Blanc accounts for 80.9% of production, and Pinot Noir for 16.4%. In Pouilly, Sauvignon has a nickname, Blanc-Fumé, because of the bloom, that fine, slightly smoky powder that coats the ripe berry. Grolleau, born in Touraine, makes an easygoing, fruity, off-dry rosé.

What wine comes from there

The Loire makes all four colors, white, red, rosé and sparkling, and white is the one it makes most. Chenin is the grape of extremes: picked at the start of the harvest, it makes dry white and sparkling wine; picked at the end, it makes the valley's great sweet wines, like those of Coteaux du Layon. Vouvray, east of Tours, is all Chenin and comes dry, off-dry, sweet or sparkling, the latter by the traditional method, with the bubbles made in the bottle. Saumur is sparkling wine country too.

Muscadet, in the west, is a dry, light white from Melon, made for oysters. Muscadet Sèvre et Maine accounts for almost 75% of the family's volume. Many carry sur lie on the label: the wine rests on its fine lees (the yeasts left over from fermentation) at least until March 1 of the following year, spends at most one summer in the tank and can keep a slight natural spritz. Among the reds, Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny are Cabernet Franc, and Rosé d'Anjou is a soft rosé, with a touch of sweetness.

What the label says

The Loire has 34 AOPs, the designations of origin, and one IGP, Val de Loire. On the label, the place name almost always already tells you the grape, even when it isn't written: white Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé are Sauvignon Blanc; Vouvray is Chenin; Muscadet is Melon; red Chinon is Cabernet Franc, alone or as the majority; and red or rosé Sancerre is Pinot Noir. Pouilly-sur-Loire, Pouilly-Fumé's neighbor, is something else: a Chasselas white.

A few words help: sec is dry, demi-sec is off-dry, moelleux and liquoreux are sweet, and sur lie is Muscadet that rested on its lees. In Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, the label can carry place names, like Clisson, Gorges or Château-Thébaud; those stay on the lees at least until October 1 of the second year after the harvest. And the dates: Sancerre became an AOC in 1936 for the white and in 1959 for the red and the rosé; Pouilly-Fumé, in 1937.

What it pairs with

Muscadet and oysters are an old marriage; it also works with mussels, shrimp, casquinha de siri (stuffed crab shells), sushi and grilled fish, as InterLoire itself suggests. Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé go with goat cheese, salad and fish with herbs. Dry Chenin takes on chicken and pork; off-dry Vouvray, Asian food and moqueca. A lighter Chinon goes with cold cuts, roast chicken and pizza; the age-worthy one, with pot roast. And Rosé d'Anjou goes from aperitif to dessert, great with sweet-and-sour snacks. All suggestions: liked another pairing? Go with that one.

Sancerre was once Pinot Noir country

Anyone who thinks of Sancerre thinks of Sauvignon Blanc, but the fame started with red. The vineyard there appears in the writings of Gregory of Tours, in 582, and grew in the 12th century with the Augustinian monks of Saint-Satur. The wine that made Sancerre's name was a Pinot Noir red, shipped by river. At the end of the 19th century, phylloxera, a pest that attacks the roots, destroyed the vineyard, and in place of Pinot they replanted Sauvignon Blanc, which did well in the climate.

Pouilly, on the other bank of the Loire, also changed course. In the early 19th century, with the railway, the vineyard started sending Chasselas as table grapes to the Paris markets, and that made the growers' fortune until competition from the South, mildew and phylloxera, in the 1880s. The area was delimited in 1929, and today only about 24 hectares of Chasselas remain, in Pouilly-sur-Loire, next to the 1,400 of Sauvignon in Pouilly-Fumé.

The grapes in the labels from here

Across the 274 Loire Valley labels in the search, the grapes that show up most. The number is how many labels use each one.

Sauvignon Blanc 137Cabernet Franc 42Chenin Blanc 35Pinot Noir 24Melon de Bourgogne 22Grolleau 8Gamay Noir 7Chardonnay 5

Top rated from the Loire Valley

Average rating from the people who drank it (X-Wines), from 1 to 5. Tap to see the wine's page.

See the Loire Valley labels in the search →

The no-fuss summary: the Loire is river, freshness and one grape per bottle. Try a Sancerre and a dry Vouvray side by side and notice how Sauvignon and Chenin change the white.

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