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The Loire Valley is one of the most, if not the most diverse and value-laden areas in modern France when it comes to wine production and grape varietals. From Cabernet Franc, to Pinot Noir, and Sauvignon Blanc - Anjou, to Sancerre, and out to Nantes on the sea, this region has more stylistic variation than almost anywhere besides the Languedoc-Roussillon.
It’s striking affordability when compared with other cold-climate continental wine-producing regions such as Burgundy, Chablis, Champagne and Alsace make it an awesome area for consumers to explore, a wealth of wonderful flavors. Unfortunately, the region remains relatively unknown by the average American wine buyer, and that’s quite sad, because this region really produces some incredible wines. Despite producing 5400hl of wine annually, the tiny but prestigious appellation Savennières struggles with relative obscurity in France, much less the US.
Today we will look at some of the more prestigious names of the Central Loire valley, specifically the appellations in Anjou and Touraine producing the zippy and refreshing Chenin Blanc grape. Specifically, the best-known appellations of Savennières, and Vouvray. I will preface this by saying, these two areas make very different styles of the Chenin Blanc grape, and they also account for a great variance in size between the two. Vouvray is a lot larger in terms of production, hectares, and number of producers.
With its larger size, and more producers, Vouvray tends to be less prestigious as an appellation - and the wines are of variable quality. That being said, it does produce a number of stunning wines as well, some on par with the incredible quality of the much smaller Savennières, just somewhat different in certain aspects.
One major differentiation between the two regions is the residual sugar profile. Savennières wine is unapologetically mineralic and piercing acetic, light-bodied, and picked generally underripe. Vouvray is fuller-bodied, late-season harvested, and generally carries some residual sugar. The flavor profile, thus, is very different as well - expect to notice more tropical fruit, pineapple, and honey from Vouvray, and more chamomile, beeswax, and shaved lime peel from Savennières.
Botrytis defines Vouvray’s output, and nearly all of the wines made in Vouvray are affected in some way by Botrytis. This was one the case some time ago for Savennières as well; however, ever since the nineteen sixties, producers have been prioritizing the acid and minerality of their wines, and instead choosing to pick these grapes slightly earlier in season. Vouvray, on the other hand, generally is one of the last regions across France to see a harvest.
In Savennières, the top soils are dark and contain scattered sandstone schist, and sandy marl. They are also very thin, and give way to Tuffeau underneath, which is a white volcanic-chalk specific to the central Loire, that some insist contributes to Chenin’s minerality and acid in this region. The commune is located on the banks of the Loire, and grapes are thus planted in such a way to maximize the warming airflow from the water.
The vineyards across the Loire on the opposite side are teaming with grapes that will become Coteaux du Layon and Coteaux de l’Aubance. To the western edge of the Loire, you can find the value-region of Coteaux de La Loire. This region is responsible for a very stylistically similar Chenin Blanc that also develops a very strong acid profile. A lot of regional producers recommend decanting these white wines for forty-eight hours prior to consumption to get the full flavor profile.
Savennières is divided into two major areas, one of which is its own AOC entirely, and is a Monopole vineyard of Biodynamic pioneer Nicolas Joly: Coulée de Serrant. It shares the prestigious evaluation of Monopole AOC with only Clos de Tart in Morey-st.-Denis, Romanée-Conti in Vosne-Romanée, and Château-Grillet in Condrieu. It’s worth noting as well, that the title of this appellation changed in twenty fifteen from Savennières Coulée de Serrant, to just the above.
Joly took over the reigns of the winery after a successful career on Wall Street lead him back to his family’s estate with a desire to leave finance and pursue a simpler lifestyle. Initially he noticed that the chemical fertilizers that his family was using were harming the balance of the soil, he began to become interested in the writings of Rudolph Steiner: a philosopher, occultist and creator of the Biodynamic movement in the early nineteen-hundreds. By nineteen seventy-seven, Nicolas had total control over the winery, and by the early-eighties, he had totally transformed the vineyard into a completely biodynamic entity, as it is today.
The property is divided into several different areas of varying terroir. The Grand Clos de la Coulée covers under four hectares to the western flank of Chamboureau hill, which itself is on a southern aspect facing the manor house. Clos de la Château rests under the Clos protecting the latter vineyard, and under the La Roche de Serrant, an old castle on the property. Les Plantes is the last plot which sits just to the east of the Joly residence, Château de la Roche aux Moines - on the hillside border, with the other major appellation in Savennières.
Roche aux Moines, translates to Rock of the Monks, and is the neighboring appellation to the south-west. During the revolution in 1789, a lot of land holdings were transferred from the ruling noble class, and monastic order to middle-class buyers, and in the process were often split up into smaller, more affordable parcels - this is likely the case with these two Savennières parcels.
If you head west along the Loire river, you will eventually end up outside of Touraine in a place called Vouvray, which is a small commune that gained a mighty reputation thanks to its Dutch patrons, and traders who bottled blends from all over Touraine under the commune’s name in the seventeen hundreds. Merchants from Holland during this period virtually controlled all exportable vineyards in France due to their naval prowess, and penchant for fine wine.
Today the appelation is much smaller than all of Touraine, and is limited to Vouvray proper, plus the nearby villages of Chançay, Nouzilly, Vernou-sur-Brenne and Rochecorbon. It sits on a high plateau riddled with tributaries of the Loire, and bisecting rivers, including the Cisse river, as well as moist, damp air that in the latter seasons of the harvest, can spell certain rot for grapes. The noble rot, Botrytis Cinerea, makes Vouvray what it is to consumers today: a sweet, affordable, and supple blend of refreshing honeycomb, pistachio, and pear flavor.
Vineyards are planted on the plateau above the river, and just like the latter region, soils are thin, but whereas soils in Savennières are black dirt and sandstone, soils here tend to be more derivative of clay marl not dissimilar to the right bank of Bordeaux - with scattered patches of gravel, over the obligatory tuffeau. On the other side of the Loire to the north, neighboring Montlouis AOC, can be found producing a very similar style of wine, with less overall body and honeyed flavor, and more herbaceous and spry textures.
As with other Botrytized regions, machine harvesting is impossible. The harvest must be done nearly berry-by-berry as to collect the most shriveled and raisinated berries for the moelleux or liquoreux; the most expensive of the cru here. Warmer years allow producers to churn these styles out in larger quantities, while cooler years leave a deficit in production; with the bulk going to Crémant de la Loire; the sparkling dry wine made here. Harvest in Vouvray is generally the last in the whole of France, lasting until late November, though increasing temperatures are making harvest come earlier.
There are several different levels of sweetness to be found in Vouvray. Sec is the driest, with less-than four grams of sugar per liter. Bone-dry style producers sometimes call their wines Sec-Sec. Demi-Sec can have up to twelve grams per liter, while Moelleux, up to forty-five. The sweetest style is often called Liquoreux, or Doux, which is a catch-all for any wine that exceeds forty-five grams of sugar per liter.
The most famous domaine in Vouvray is Dom. Huet, which was founded in 1928. Today the estate is totally biodynamic, just like Coulée de Serrant, and is still owned and operated by the Huet family. The estate has thirty-five acres of land composed of three different distinct parcels, acquired at different intervals in the estate’s history.
Le Haut Lieu is composed of nine hectares. The soils here are a soft clay topsoil with an underbelly of Tuffeau, this gives vines some struggle for wines that age beautifully. The next largest parcel is Le Mont to the South-West, it was the latest acquired, having been purchased in nineteen fifty-seven. Soils in this parcel are a gravel and clay marl, and the aspect is south-southwest facing, there in a calcareous marl that trails through this vineyard, giving them a sharp mineral quality. Most of the wine made in this vineyard becomes dry and off-dry wines.
Le Clos de Bourg is the most famous vineyard on the property and as the name would suggest, is fully enclosed in a cobblestone wall. The appellation makes some of the finest wines in the Loire Valley. It is an area flanked by tributaries, and is a plateau unobscured by the maritime breezes of the Atlantic. This creates a perfect environment for the development of Botrytis - which makes for the wines this area is known for. The soils here is solid tuffeau with only small plots of clay and gravel.
That's all,
~K