Wine Tasting : Loire Valley - The Revenge of the Untamed

Speaker

Eric Sautedé
WSET Advanced Certificate L3


Less well known than the châteaux of Bordeaux, which have been brought to the fore by the skill of the great wine merchants, much less sought-after than the divine beverages from the climats of Bourgogne, and obviously less festive than the light bubbles of Champagne, Loire Valley (la Vallée de la Loire) wines nevertheless have character and make a strong claim to their unsubdued diversity, inspired by the capricious flow of the river that gives the region its name.

More than 600 kilometres separate Roanne from Pornic, and there are at least 60 appellations from 22 grape varieties that follow one another in four major sub-regions. More red upstream, sometimes sparkling or rosé - the two regional AOCs (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) are Crémant de Loire and Rosé de Loire, while the generic Val de Loire appellation is a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) - the wine becomes more exclusively white the closer you get to the Atlantic.