Dr. David Muhleman

The-Wine-Educator    WINE & SPIRITS EDUCATION AND CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE CONSUMER AND THE PROFESSIONAL

The Loire Valley

The Loire Valley makes more types of wine than any other winemaking region of France.

It produces the tricouleur of red, white and rosé wines; much sparkling wine; and a raft of (mostly white) wines with sugar levels that range from as dry as a hot stone to as sweet as honey.

The Loire, like Champagne, pushes the upper geographic limit where wine grapes profitably can grow. But also like Champagne, the cool climate gives to most of the wines of the Loire a pronounced acidity that frames them with a combination of verve and stylishness that few other French wines can emulate.

The Loire has always done something that winemakers all over the globe (including many in France) have caught onto just recently, that is to allow both the grapes and the soil on which they grow to express themselves in wine in the purest way possible.

Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé & Quincy

Nary a bistro in Paris lacks for a Sancerre on its wine list. Like the other white wines made at the eastern end of the Loire, Sancerre is all-Sauvignon Blanc. Here, chalky limestone and flint make for Sauvignon Blanc that is intense in Sauvignon’s brash aromas and flavors, marked by very zesty acidity and, again, tastes of minerals.

Across the river from Sancerre, the soils are even more rich in limestone and flint. Here, Pouilly-Fumé makes Sauvignon Blanc that may be considered slightly more powerful than Sancerre in flavor, though the two wines are very similar.

Traditional holds that Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé be made in a manner that shows off the pure, open flavors of Sauvignon Blanc and accentuates its native acidity (cool fermentation in neutral wood or steel, for example). However, some sought-after wines from the area also are made in a more Burgundian way, with fermentation in new wood, for instance, resulting in rich, concentrated wines.