The Loire River with its tributaries is the largest and wildest river system in France. Much of French history played out along its banks, including the very birth of modern France in 1429 at Chinon when Jeanne d’Arc persuaded future Charles VII to accept the crown and go to war against the English.
French culture, too, has roots in its watershed, recorded by writers like François Rabelais, a great gourmand as well as the inventor of the novel, and Honore de Balzac who castigated bourgeois French society in La Comedie Humaine.
Many of the loveliest wines in the country grow in vineyards along the Loire. From Gamay Noir and Côt in Touraine, Sauvignon and Pinot Noir in the Sancerrois; from Chenin in Vouvray, and Cabernet Franc in Chinon; and from Muscadet in the Pays Nantais, a river of wine flows through the Garden of France.
The wines share familial characteristics of elegance and symmetry. And while they’re not generally wines of “power” or “full body” (which may be the reason for their relative obscurity in a world where wines seem to be designed to bully their way into the limelight, whether or not they deserve it), Loire wines can be the most versatile and food–friendly in the world, which makes sense – the Loire is also home to much of what is at the root of classical French cuisine.
Sancerre
A little upriver beyond Orléans in the vineyards of the Sancerrois, Sauvignon Blanc is the only grape permitted for the exuberant, racy white wines of the famous appellations, Pouilly-Fumé, Sancerre, Quincy, and Ménetou-Salon. What often surprises many wine lovers is learning that the classic wine grape of Sancerre is none other than the Pinot Noir of Burgundy, and that most of the wine made there before the twentieth century was red.
One of our favorite producers in Sancerre is Dominique Roger, who makes consistently excellent wine from his vines in the hamlet of Bué. Dominique is one of a few producers who still makes excellent Pinot Noir wine, both red and rose. Sauvignon Blanc, on the other hand, which dominates the vineyards today, is a late arrival, planted after phylloxera came to Sancerre in the early 1900′s. Most of the vineyards had been planted to Chasselas, which was grown to provide table grapes for the Paris market; not to make white wine (except when sold to unscrupulous producers in Champagne).
When the solution to the phylloxera plague was finally implemented, and the vines were being replanted, the bottom had already dropped out of the table grape market (the new railroad from the Midi was bringing better fruit to Paris), so the growers reinvented themselves as wine producers. Along the way, they also invented one of the most striking and distinctive wine types in the world. Sauvignon Blanc is clearly the voice of the chalky marl and silex-streaked soils of the area, giving wines not quite like any other Sauvignons in the world. Again, of course, there are the underachievers, but the best wines are nervy and cutting, and sleek with “breed.” Dominique Roger’s wines are the best of the best.
Muscadet
Near the mouth of the Loire, in the Pays Nantais, Melon de Bourgogne, locally called Muscadet, dominates the encépagement. Here is the classic accompaniment to oysters. One of the best producers is Pierre Luneau, in the heart of the Appellation. Pierre and his wife Monique are the eighth generation to farm their holdings in the villages of La Chappelle Heulin, Vallet, and Landrea. The vineyards average age is nearly 45 years, with many small plots as old as 70 years. The parcels are generally vinified separately.
His “Cuvée Vieilles Vignes” is full of lime citric, almond, honey, and pine scents, with a lovely mineral finish.
The single vineyard “Clos du Poyet” is richly concentrated, ageworthy wine, with a deep middle palate. According to Luneau, Muscadet is “a wine of the terroir, not of the grape; and above all, finesse.”
Vouvray
In the middle-Loire, one of our most important sources is Prince Philippe Poniatowski – great, great, great, great grandnephew of the last king of Poland – and one of the best producers of Chenin Blanc in the world. Philippe was CEO of Massey-Ferguson France until 1970 when he left the corporate world to take over operations at his beloved “Clos Baudoin” in Vouvray.
This ancient estate, which Philippe’s grandfather bought in the early 1900′s, produces some of the most aristocratic white wines made anywhere in the world. In fact, before the 1930′s, when the INAO (dominated by producers and partisans of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne) codified the principles of Appellation Controlée, the “Clos” was regarded a Grand Cru of France. As part of his investment in what had been essentially a Poniatowski summer home, Philippe began adding vineyards and improving the winery.
The “Prince” always insisted on making “the wine of the vintage,” so that in some years the wines would be dry, and in others sweet, depending on what the weather provided. This style of idiosyncratic wine has virtually disappeared, but there are still a number of bottles of the dry 1998s, and the classic moelleux from the 1989 and 1990 vintages here at Moore Brothers.
Touraine
The 2006 harvest is the twelfth for young (26 years-old) winemaker Vincent Ricard. His family has been growing grapes in the little village of Thésée sur Cher in appellation Touraine for nearly 300 years, and his grandfather was one of the founding members of the Oisly-Thésée wine cooperative. Vincent started his winemaking career when was 14 as an apprentice to Philippe Alliet in Chinon, and never looked back.
In fact, when it came time to take on the responsibility of his family’s holdings (a little over 35 acres), one of the first things he did was institute sustainable farming, cutting the yields in the vineyards (his father was not amused), and estate bottling wines. The prices for estate bottled wine, being much higher than prices for grapes did, however, make his father feel better.
There are usually four or five different wines from Vincent in the store at any one time. Most are whites from different parcels, each vinified separately. All are beautiful renditions of Sauvignon. A couple of reds complete the lineup; a single-vineyard, old-vine Gamay, and a deep red from Côt (Malbec), named Le Villain Petit Rouge (the nasty little red) which is deep and earthy wine.
Red Loire Wine
While best known as a source of fine aromatic white wines like those above, the real story of the Loire is that its vineyards regularly produce a wide variety of succulent, versatile, dry red wines made from Cabernet Franc. In 2005, the Appellations, Bourgueil, and Chinon produced juicy, deeply fruity, Cabernet Franc wines that perfectly accompany the abundant game available to local hunters. These are Cabernets for Merlot lovers, who like rich sleek wines without too much tannin or wood. In Sancerre, the Pinot Noir is fine and elegant.
We’re all sommeliers here at Moore Brothers, and we have fun recommending wine and food pairings for our customers. More often than not, the wines that work best with the varied menus we’re shown are wines which come from the Loire Valley, the wine region appropriately named the “Garden of France”.