March 2025 - Loire Valley, France

March 2025 - Loire Valley, France

March 2025

Loire Valley

France


Featuring:

Domaine Alain Robert

Domaine Fabrice Gasnier

 

We first covered the Loire Valley in August 2021, waaaaay back when our baby wine club was in its second month. This month, we’re back again with two lovely wines from the Touraine sub-region, specifically the appellations of Vouvray and Chinon. The previous writeup has a brief history of the valley, so if you’re interested definitely check it out.

This club is inspired by a family trip we made to France in January of 2024. We met and tasted with both these producers while in the Loire Valley.

The Loire is a complicated beast when it comes to French wine. Often with French regions there’s just a handful of grape varieties tied to each region. Burgundy is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Bordeaux is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. The Rhône is Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. And so on and so forth. The Loire? Not so simple. There are wine regions all along the 1000km long river with different grapes, soils, and microclimates in each area. We’ll take you on a little virtual tour that will touch only the most well-known of regions and varieties. There are about 2-3x as many but for the sake of everyone’s sanity, we can leave further studying, including the wide varieties of soils, up to you.

Starting at the terminus of the Loire - at the Atlantic Ocean - you have Pay Nantais, which contains the subregion of Muscadet. This region is cool, highly influenced by the maritime environment. The primary grape, Melon-de-Bourgogne, generally makes a light crisp white. It often shows notes of lemon, lime, and a touch of salt. Because of the lean nature of this wine, many producers will intentionally age the wines on its lees for a time, allowing for more richness and texture in the wine. This style is called Muscadet Sur-Lie. Folle Blanche, another native variety, can also be found here. It also makes a lean, white wine, but generally has more apple/pear fruit and a softer mouthfeel compared to Muscadet’s bright citrus notes.

Continuing up to the Middle Loire, the next region is Anjou-Saumur. The primary wine made within Anjou is actually rosé, accounting for roughly 50% of production. Varieties that go into Loire rose are typically Cabernet Franc, Grolleau, and Pineau d’Anis, however Pinot Noir and Gamay can also be found in some bottlings. But when it comes to the true fine wines of this region, Chenin Blanc reigns supreme. Savennières is the primary appellation in Anjou, and is quickly becoming the most sought after subregion for Chenin Blanc. Wines from this area are powerful and focused, with minerality, acidity, and complexity. Next door you have Saumur, which is typically known for Cabernet Franc production, but a few small sub regions (like Brézé, the focus of that Aug 2021 wine club) make some of the best Chenin Blancs in the world. In both Saumur and Savennières, the Chenin is typically less floral than other expressions from other regions upriver. 

As mentioned, Saumur is where Cabernet Franc starts to gain in prominence. Specifically in the subregion of Saumur-Champigny, the variety starts to showcase a lovely characteristic of pyrazine (bell pepper) alongside the usual blackberry, currant, and cherry notes. 

 This trend continues in Chinon and Bourgeuil, which are part of the Touraine region. Both make wonderfully earthy and structured reds, showcasing the savory and rustic side of Cabernet Franc wonderfully. Continuing upriver past the major city of Tours, the two subregions of Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire face one another on opposite sides of the river. (Vouvray to the North, Montlouis to the South). Both produce fantastic Chenin Blanc, often showcasing a more pretty and delicate side than the powerful, mineral-driven wines of Anjou-Saumur. Sparkling wines are also incredibly important here. Made from Chenin Blanc as well, these wines can actually be appellation labeled (ie Vouvray, rather than Cremant de Loire), which shows the emphasis they place on sparkling wine. These wines represent incredible value - traditional method sparkling from fantastic terroir at a decent price.

The last stop on the Middle Loire Tour is Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny. The latter is a rather obscure wine region that only makes whites from the Romorantin grape. It is generally lusciously textured with alluring notes of apple, honey, and lemon zest.

Moving further east in the Loire Valley brings one to the Centre-Loire (Central Loire). Sancerre is the best known region here, producing mineral-driven and sometimes fruit-laden Sauvignon Blanc. Pouilly-Fumé is lesser-known but the wines can be on par with Sancerre. The Central-Loire - this area is actually closer to Burgundy than it is to the rest of the Loire Valley. The fact that red Sancerre is made from the Pinot Noir grape illustrates this point perfectly.

Lastly, we have the Auvergne, aka the Upper Loire. This satellite region of the Loire is a rugged, mountainous area where the Loire River headwaters are. The Côte Roannaise region is perhaps the best known here, producing Gamay grown on granite soils. Located just NW of Lyon, this region is far from the rest of the valley. For reference, it is just 35 miles from Beaujolais but 100 miles from Sancerre and 300 miles (as the crow flies) from the Loire delta.


To summarize the most important regions and varieties:

  • Pay Nantais (aka Lower Loire)

    • Muscadet, from the Melon de Bourgogne variety

  • Anjou-Saumur (western part of Middle Loire)

    • Anjou Rosé, Cabernet Franc, Grolleau and Pineau d’Anis

    • Savennières, mineral driven Chenin

    • Saumur, Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc

    • Saumur-Champigny, Cabernet Franc

  • Touraine (eastern part of Middle Loire)

    • Chinon, Cabernet Franc

    • Bourgeuil, Cabernet Franc

    • Vouvray, still and sparkling Chenin Blanc

    • Montlouis-sur-Loire, still and sparkling Chenin Blanc

    • Cour-Cheverny, Romarantin

  • Centre-Loire (Center Loire)

    • Sancerre, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir

    • Pouilly-Fumé, Sauvignon Blanc

  • Auvergne

    • Côte Roannaise, Gamay

This month, the focus is two producers from the Middle Loire, opposite sides of Touraine - Chinon and Vouvray.


Alain Robert, ‘Les Charmes’ Vouvray 2023

Christiane and Alain Robert founded their family estate in 1973 in the town of Chançay. The couple started with just 5 acres in their village, however over the last 50 years they have slowly acquired more acreage to bring their total to 91 acres today. Vineyards are primarily split between Chançay and Noizay just to the south.

In 2000, their son Cyril joined the family business to assist wine winemaking and farming. In 2013 their daughter, Catherine returned to help with the family business after working across the river in Montlouis-sur-Loire with the late Jacky Blot (Domaine de la Taille-aux-Loups). A year later, the parents retired, leaving full control of the winery to the siblings.

The estate makes 11 wines. Five of the bottlings are sparkling white or rosé, from Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Grolleau, and Pineau d’Anis. Six of these are still Vouvray, all Chenin Blanc, in dry, semi-sweet, and sweet styles. 

Vines are grown using the principles of lutte raisonnée (translation: reasonable struggle). This is a typical French method of farming that is adjacent to organic agriculture, however does not confine a grower to organic practices if a certain disease, pest, or climactic pressure necessitates the use of a treatment outside the organic certification realm.

The cellar is a cave dug within the tuffeau (limestone) under a bluff. Here the siblings and their five employees make the wine with gentle care, using no additions or subtractions other than light sulfur dioxide. The resulting wines are clean and precise, but still have character and typicity of terroir.

This wine, ‘Les Charmes’ comes from a plot of 40-50 year old vines on a bluff in Chançay, overlooking the Loire. The name, Les Charmes, comes from the name of a small forest along a ridgeline that protects the vineyards from northerly wind. The vines are bush trained (pictured on the label), which is rather rare in the Loire. Soils are clay and flint, with deposits of marine fossils from prehistoric era. In the cellar, the grapes are sorted, gently pressed, and fermented in stainless steel. It is aged for 6 months before being bottled summer before the next harvest.

The wine is fresh and vibrant with notes of stone fruit, citrus, and linalool. (This last aroma is a terpene with a sweet, citrusy aroma that’s very common in Chenin Blanc. It can often be described as a sweet, wet wool smell.) On the palate it has high acid, a medium/full body, and a touch of residual sugar. The wine would go fantastic with smoked fish, roast meats, and even some lighter spicy food like a green curry dish. 

 

Fabrice Gasnier, ‘Les Graves’ Chinon 2023

Domaine Fabrice Gasnier is a fourth generation winery in the one-stop sign ‘village’ of Chèzelet. Their estate straddles both sides of the Vienne River (a tributary of the Loire), but the home vineyard and winery is about 6 miles upriver of the medieval town of Chinon.

While Fabrice grew up on the property, he officially started working at the family winery at the ripe age of 21. Fresh off internships in Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne, he returned to the family estate with verve and fresh ideas.

The estate was originally founded in the early 1900s, by Fabrice’s Great-grandfather, Aimé Gasnier. It was originally a simple farm, with farm animals, barley, corn and about 7 acres of vines all interplanted. Hubert, Fabrice’s grandfather, took over in 1935. He continued to farm mixed agriculture throughout WW2 and the postwar era, expanding the family vineyard holdings significantly in the process. Fabrice’s father, Jacky, took over the estate in 1966. His efforts were focused on converting the remaining corn and barley fields/rows to vineyards - officially making the estate a vineyard monoculture. Fabrice officially joined the business in the 90’s, and by the 2000’s he had successfully converted all of the family’s holdings to certified organics. Since 2009 the entire estate is certified by Demeter for biodynamic viticulture - all 61 acres.

In the cellar, the estate maintains the same attention to detail that they employ in the vineyards. Grapes are carefully sorted before a gentle pressing (whites) or destemming (reds). Fermentation happens in a variety of vessels depending on the wine - everything from stainless steel to concrete to new & old barriques. Biodynamic principles are applied in the cellar too: native yeast fermentation, limited additions, and gravity flow when possible. 

This wine - Les Graves - is their entry-level Chinon. It comes from a 30-45 year old parcels of Cabernet Franc vines around the winery in Cravant-les-Coteaux. The soil here is primarily small pebbles and granite pieces, aka ‘Les Graves’ (or Gravel). After a manual harvest, the grapes are fermented / macerated for 20 days in concrete vats with indigenous yeasts. After fermentation, the wine is pressed off and aged in stainless steel for the remainder of the winter/spring before bottling in late summer.

This wine is classic Chinon - plenty of blackberry, plum, and cherry aromatics over a spicy, herbal pepper flavor. Perfect for a mixture of grilled/roasted vegetables and red meats, pasta dishes or even simple pizza!



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