Wines from Loire
What’s so Unique about the Wines from Loire?
The Loire Valley along the Loire River is one among the most famous wine producing regions of France. The history of the wine production in Loire region can be dated back to the first century.
With as many as 87 current appellations, this region alone has around 185,000 acres of planted vineyards.
The Loire Valley is found to be important in wine production in terms of quality, as well as quantity.
This single region itself is contributing around four million h/L of wine each year.
Key Strengths of Loire Valley Wine Region
What is so unique about the wines from the Loire Valley of France? One could mention the diversity of the region as one of the key strengths of this region. Because of the diversity, we get a wide range of wine styles from the Loire Valley.
When you can get lighter tart Muscadet here, you can also get other varieties like sweeter honeyed Bonnezeaux, sparkling white range like Vouvray, and even red-colored Chinon, Saumur, and much more.
Apart from diversity, this region has other key strengths like marginal climate. Because of the unique climatic conditions, this region could give a dramatic effect with regards to the quality of vintage from this region’s wines.
This makes the vintage quality of Loire wines superior to several other wines that are obtained from the other regions of France.
During the cool vintages, the wines that are produced from the Sauvignon Blanc grape variety have lighter colors, lesser fruitiness, and stronger mineral notes.
On the other hand, the wines that are got from the grape variety Cabernet Franc have lighter colors and stronger weed-like aromas.
A particular type of Cabernet Franc is producing aromas of raspberries and lead pencil shavings in ripe vintages. These are found to be the key strengths of the Loire Valley wine region.
Winemaking Process also makes the Wines Unique
In the Loire Valley region of France, the winemaking process is generally characterized by the avoidance of both the barrel aging, as well as the malolactic fermentation. However, today some of the wine producers started experimenting with both these steps.
In this wine region, a unique step called chaptalization is allowed which will be able to compensate for the under ripeness of the vines in the coming years.
In the Loire Valley wine region, more emphasis is being placed on the extension of the duration of maceration for bringing out more colors and tannins into the wines.
In addition, the temperature control is being considered as an important factor during the cold autumn seasons during which the heat is required for completing the fermentation process.
After the grapes have grown through all these harder steps only we get the world-famous product in our hands all the way from the Loire Valley of France.
Grapes make the Job Well Done!
When the unique climatic conditions and unique winemaking join hands with the following great grape varieties the resultant wines should definitely be unique.
This is what is happening in the Loire Valley wine production. A majority of wine production in this region is white wine.
The important grape varieties that are being utilized in the production of white wines are:
- Chenin blanc
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Muscadet
- Chardonnay
- Melon de Bourgogne
Apart from white wines, red wines are also being produced here. The red wines are produced from the following grape varieties:
- Cabernet franc
- Gamay
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Pinot Noir
Not only the still wines, Loire region also produces rosé, sparkling, and dessert wines.
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Tharani Rajamanickam
Winewriter
I am Tharani, I have Bachelors degree in Biotechnology. I am passionate about the wine industry and continue to explore, learn and share and I bring in a wealth of knowledge and expertise to help you keep updated with best wines in the world. Stay tuned..
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