Wine Tasting : Loire Valley - The Revenge of the Untamed
Wines from the Loire Valley: The Revenge of the Untamed
Let's begin our 3-part series entitled "A Contemporary Perspective of the « querelle des vins »" with wines from the Loire Valley.
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.
Other Parts of the Series: