LOIRE IN FOCUS: What to Expect from the Loire Valley’s Famous Vineyards of Chinon & Vouvray – Guest Post by Chris Garry

Chris Garry, guest writer and owner of Elite Wine Tour in the Loire Valley, continues her fascinating series about the diversity of the region. In this article, Chris focuses on the nuances of Chinon and Vourvray with an exploration of the soils, varieties cultivated and their styles.

Chinon – Cabernet Franc

Locally known as Breton; the Cabernet Franc variety of red wine has long flourished in Chinon. Since the 11th Century there exist records of this grape growing throughout the Anjou and Touraine regions. Today, the Cab Franc produced in Chinon (and nearby Bourgueil & Saint- Nicolas-De-Bourgueil) range in style from light, fresh, fruity, vibrant, easy-drinking summer sippers that are best consumed young to austere, age-worthy, tightly wound and highly structured oaked wines that develop and improve for thirty years or more.

The diversity of Chinon’s terroir, its various soil types and the vast differences of opinion between its winemakers on how best to tend to, harvest and treat the Cabernet Franc vines have led to there being more atypical bottles of red Chinon produced in recent years, than typical ones. Some red Chinon evokes imagery of chunky fresh green bell peppers, with secondary notes of barnyard, forest floor and leather, or tobacco pipes. Other red Chinon is deliberately tannic, overtly stylish and swanky, whilst some red Chinon is soft, smooth, plump, generous and juicy.

 

Great examples of the various styles can be found in abundance, and yet due to the explosion in popularity of Cabernet Franc over the last 30-40 years, the amount of low quality wine being produced in Chinon frustratingly increases, year on year. To an extent, the name of the producer is as key here as anywhere, although the producers with the most valuable parcels are also prone to making far larger amounts of rather basic, uneventful wine too. Prices of their entry level bottles are often too high, whereas the price of their top cuvee can be unbelievably low, given its capacity to improve with age.

Fortunately, winemakers here are as approachable and affable as they are skilled.

Extended wine tastings in Chinon are something of the norm. During a wine tasting, buyers can generally be assured that winemakers (or members of their family) will go to great lengths to explain the differences between the various cuvees offered. During a tasting session, it is not unusual to indulge in sampling a range of vintages from various parcels. Prices, based solely upon the sum cost to the winemaker, do not necessarily reflect the quality of wine on offer. Therefore, wine from the greatest vintages often present far greater value than one might ever anticipate.

Chinon’s red wine might not carry the power of Bordeaux, nor be as rich as Chateauneuf-du-Pape, nor have quite the nuance of a great Burgundy. However, where Chinon excels above any other region is its propensity to pair perfectly with a myriad of French dishes. Despite exhibiting a multitude of various guises, Chinon’s Cabernet Franc is often so charming it takes to pairing with food like a duck takes to water. Neither too neutral, nor overpowering, red Chinon’s ability to thoroughly cleanse the palate with a small sip, yet allow the next mouthful of food to hold centre stage, is unparalleled.

It could be argued that it is more of a task to find dishes that Chinon does not pair with, than it is to find a dish with which it does. For a country producing wine that simply must be consumed with food, the notion that this town might represent the optimal harmony in this regard, asserts Chinon as a contender for France’s greatest wine making community. On one hand: exact, particular, refined and on the other: welcoming, compliant and generous.

To a large degree the wine imitates its winemakers.. or on second thought, perhaps it is the winemakers of Chinon who imitate their wine. Vintages to look out for are 1989, 1990, 1996, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2018 and 2019.

Chinon Blanc

One could certainly draw parallels between Chinon Blanc and Sancerre Rouge. Nothing alike in terms of the style themselves, however; the way with which Chinon’s white wine is overlooked, and considered an obscurity, absolutely mirrors how Sancerre’s Pinot Noir is framed.

Chinon Blanc is exclusively made from Chenin Blanc. Easy to remember, right!? Unlike in Vouvray, only one style of white wine is made in Chinon – still dry. The clay limestone parcels of Chinon are where the vast majority, and the finest, of the region’s Chenin Blanc are found. Wine made from these vineyards is generally oaked in old barrels. The consequent cuvees demonstrate a textured, waxy quality which, despite aggregating very little sugar (and therefore no sweetness whatsoever), somehow suggest a nectar-like quality.

These wines can sometimes be bright, crisp and refreshing. More often, the finer examples of Chinon Blanc are medium bodied and can be quiet or closed in their youth, making them somewhat uninteresting to begin with. The key here is to wait a while, as after some years in the cellar, good bottles can evolve into generous, stewed orchard flavoured wines, with floral supporting notes with good length. Given the relatively low price of Chinon Blanc, for those patient enough to wait, the metamorphosis that takes place over time to reveal Chinon’s signature terroir is fairly astonishing. Vintages to look out for are 1990, 2010, 2015 and 2018.

Vouvray – Chenin Blanc

The world’s premier purveyor of Chenin Blanc, a grape variety native to this region is known locally as Pineau de Loire. Vouvray’s history is somewhat chequered. Enthusiasts have been falling in and out of love with wine of the region, east of the city of Tours, for hundreds of years. Once thought of as the capital of semi-sweet white wine, prior to the establishment of the AOC, the region fell victim to having its name used on more bottles of wine made outside of Vouvray than from within it. For this reason it is no surprise that for some time, Vouvray was considered as nothing more than an alternative to German Hock.

Given its unique, varied terroir and incredible propensity for producing emphatic white wine in good vintages, the region of Vouvray fought back. A handful of brilliant producers saved Vouvray during the 1980s and early 1990s by meticulously selecting and hand harvesting grapes on multiple ‘tries’ in their vineyards. Whilst this method had long been established, the diligence exhibited in rejecting all but the very finest bunches went up during this period by several notches. These fastidious vineyard ’tries’ ensured that each year there was a variety of Vouvray styles – all of high quality and all as important as one another. Buyers became afforded great choice, excellence and precision when it came to the sweetness levels of the various styles of Vouvray.

 

Sparkling Vouvray developed to the point of becoming a reliable value stand-in for entry level Champagne. Young dry Vouvray’s freshness and balanced acidity offers a profile of refreshing, juicy green apples. Dry still Vouvray competes directly with the Sauvignon Blanc of The Central Loire vineyards and elsewhere throughout the valley. Vouvray’s demi-sec style remains unparalleled. So few white grape varieties have the propensity to produce the middle ground between dry and sweet, that Chenin can only be rivalled by Riesling for wine containing between 4 and 12 grams of sugar per litre.

For many connoisseurs, the outright treasure of all Vouvray styles are its sweet wines labelled molleux, doux or liqueroux. Examples from great vintages are gaining such ground on sweet wine from Sauternes and Barsac, that Bordeaux winemakers are cutting their losses when it comes to late harvest Sauvignon, Semillon and Muscadelle and turning their attention back to making dry wine.

Since the 1990s, with renewed credibility, many other of Vouvray’s winemakers became invigorated and willing to push the boundaries of just what their signature parcels could achieve. The success that the finest wines of the region were experiencing was abundantly apparent and several other domains began taking greater care of their vineyards in pursuit of making fine wine of their own, too.

As the trend of bottling truly outstanding Chenin caught on, the region’s wine, and its reputation, increased to previously unparalleled levels. With the popularity of Chenin Blanc continually on the rise and with winemakers determined to move their practices in a positive direction, Vouvray is today as popular and as well placed as ever before.

In no other wine growing region can one grape variety be harvested at various points during its maturity, to produce such a diverse and illuminating array of styles – still dry, off-dry, demi-sec (semi-sweet), sweet, dry sparkling and demi-sec sparkling. Winemakers of Vouvray have mastered their winemaking techniques along with the ability to know their vines so intimately, as to instinctively know which parcels will best produce which style and levels of sweetness, at varying points throughout the harvest.

Timing is everything. In some years, due to weather conditions, it is impractical to produce still, dry wine and in other years, impossible to produce sweet molleux or doux wines. For Vouvray, the specific conditions that each harvest encounters is fundamental to its overall success. Rarely are winemakers in disagreement over whether any given year is good, great, legendary or poor. No two years can ever create the same collection of wines. Vouvray’s winemakers must be fully in tune with their vineyards in order to react accordingly to all and any weather changes they detect.

Grapes destined for sparkling wine are picked first. Often these are sourced from vines in their relative infancy; acidity, freshness and youthful flair generally being deemed more desirable features than complexity and structure, for sparkling wines. The next to be harvested are grapes for still dry, then still demi-sec and finally, sweet moelleux/doux/liquoreux wines, often being picked as late as early November – or not at all. The outcome of such detailed, selective winemaking is evident. In a region where wine production is taken as seriously, by a small number of producers, as anywhere else in the world, there are some absolute gems to be found, and at prices that are still nowhere near where they ought to be.

Vouvray wine ages and develops both famously and fabulously. Its greatest sweet wines are sure to outlive its winemakers. Bottles from the legendary 1947 vintage still show no signs of being anywhere near past their best, even when opened today. Dry Vouvray can also be cellared, and the finer examples are easily capable of ageing in excess of twenty years, in good vintages.

Chenin Blanc is truly a remarkable and divergent grape variety. Vouvray has some of the most varied and exceptional terroir, dotted about and criss-crossed by various tributaries of the Loire river. Such expressive, distinctive, vivid white wine emanates from nowhere else on earth; no-one does it better, and prices are still not reflective of the quality concealed within the very finest of bottles labelled Vouvray. Inspired? Vintages to look out for are 1989, 1990, 1997, 2002, 2010, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Cheers! ~ Cindy

WRITER’S PROFILE

Chris Garry is Tour Coordinator for Elite Wine Tour, providing luxury bespoke, fully customisable, client-led wine experiences across the Loire Valley.

To experience Chinon, Vouvray and other Loire wines and for 20% off all bookings, use coupon code GRAPEXP20 at checkout. Click here to view your options and book your experiences.