The River Loire
“Monsieur, the wine of Vouvray, if well kept, is downright velvet.”
Confusingly there are two rivers in the Loire Valley called Loire (the longest river in France) and Loir, a relatively small tributary. There are also two rivers called Maine, both of which are also tributaries of Loire. It indicates how important rivers are to the Loire Valley, not just the main river itself. On the banks of all those rivers are vines, creating localised growing conditions for the many different styles of wine made in the region.
The river Loire is over 1,000km and travels through a whole series of climates. It begins in the south of France, just 100km north of the Mediterranean Sea, at 1,350km elevation. It falls through the Massif Central, moving down to industrial cities we don’t associate with wine, Clémont-Ferrand and St-Etienne. At much lower-lying elevation, we start to find wine regions located on slopes above the river—or other rivers. Many of these are obscure, but historic and on a small level producing wonderful wine. Côte Roannaise, adjacent to Beaujolais, has gorgeous Gamay on the volcanic slopes above the Loire.
The river continues northwards until it turns at Orléans to move towards the Atlantic. On its way to Orléans the river has passed through Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, influencing the varied soil types which produce different styles of Sauvignon Blanc. Orléans is a beautiful commuter town full of history, which used to be a major port for transporting wine to Paris. From Orléans to the Atlantic, the Loire was a battleground between the English and the French. Joan of Arc petitioned Charles VII in Chinon to break the siege of Orléans, even though she was only 14. In Savennières, further along the river there is a field on the property of Nicolas Joly, the famous biodynamic producer, where there was a battle fought in the early 1200s.
That sense of history is found throughout the Loire Valley. There are forts, like in Chinon or Amboise, which are remnants of war. And there are also châteaux, follies built by the Parisian aristocracy to demonstrate their wealth and to party. They’re beautiful, although also tourist traps, located on or near rivers.
They’re also a reminder that the Loire Valley is not just one river. Chenonceau is a château which straddles the river Cher, with its many arches reflected in the water. The river Cher has several wine regions on its banks. Quincy was the second appellation created in France, and used to be significant although only a little wine is made there now. The wines, from Sauvignon Blanc, were transported up the river to the Loire and Orléans and then to Paris. The river Vienne connects with the Loire in Chinon, where there are two main soil types: sandy near the rivers, more limestone on the slopes. The river Layon, south of Savennières, together with the Loire creates humid conditions for sweet wine. The wines of Savennières and Coteaux du Layon are completely different, even though they’re just a bridge away from each other. Savennières is on steep slopes above the Loire, receving lots of sunshine, and the wines are completely dry; across the river, the wines of Coteaux du Layon, due to the confluence of the two rivers, are sweet.
The Loire, with converging currents, is a difficult river to navigate. The wines of central Loire were transported through Orléans to Paris. Angers was built on the river Maine, a small tributary that is much calmer. The wines of western Loire were transported out of Nantes through the Atlantic. The river Loire doesn’t just dictate the styles of wine through climate, water influence, and soil types, but also through trade.
The Dutch are more important in the development of French wine than is perhaps realised. They drained the marshes of Médoc in Bordeaux and they also advanced the trade of Atlantic Loire’s wines, all the way into Anjou. The word brandy comes from the Dutch Brandtwijn (“burnt wine”) and they needed grapes to produce brandy. As it was extremely difficult to send wines to Paris, the wines around Nantes and Angers were only drunk locally until the Dutch came along. Wine production increased, and those regions developed and became established.
When the Loire runs into the Atlantic, it’s a completely different entity from when it started. It travels from a Mediterranean climate in the south of France, to a cool continental climate in central France, to a cool maritime climate towards the coast. On its way, many tributaries flow into it, all with their own growing regions. The length of the river and the number of other rivers explains why there are so many styles and why the Loire Valley is very, very different from, say, Napa Valley—which is only 8km wide and where there’s just one river.
