THE LOIRE VALLEY

The Loire Valley: fresh, fruity and friendly

In June, Brydie Allen visited the Loire Valley in France, to understand what makes the region special and such a great area of opportunity in Australian retail.

Stretching across the heart of France is the country’s longest wine region, the Loire Valley, home to around 57,000ha of vineyards and a flourishing wine industry.

The valley follows the longest river in France, the Loire River, and its tributaries, flowing past castles, vineyards and other crops in the region’s beautiful and fertile backdrop. It’s this rich soil and history that has helped earn the Loire Valley both UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and a nickname as ‘the garden of France’.

The Loire Valley is the third largest winegrowing area of French appellation wines, split up into four distinct vineyard regions –Pays Nantais, Anjou-Saumur, Touraine and Centre-Loire. Within these regions are more than 50 ‘appellation d’origine contrôlée’ (also known as AOC or AOP).

Some AOCs were formed when the system began in France in 1936, like Sancerre, Saumur and Vouvray, but others are more recent, like Touraine Chenonceaux (separate to the Touraine AOC), which has been officially recognised as an AOC since 2011.

Winemakers and growers adhere to differing regulations of each AOC in order to list it on the bottle. The goals behind them have one thing in common – to protect the quality, standards and best practice of the area. And this commitment to quality is something that runs through the core of any Loire Valley winemaker.

Diverse influences

Being such a long region, stretching from the Atlantic coast to the centre of France, the Loire Valley has great diversity in growing conditions. Each area has a slightly different climate that changes as you move east and away from the ocean. Beneath the surface it’s also diverse, with soils varying between region, and even vineyard sites.

At Domaine Bernard Baudry, 32ha of organic vineyards are spread across a variety of soils in the AOC region of Chinon in the slopes and plateaus of the Vienne River, a significant tributary off the left of the Loire River.

Château de Saumur.

Images on this spread courtesy of InterLoire

Owner and Winemaker, Mathieu Baudry, comes from generations of winemakers like his father Bernard, who started the domaine in 1975. He knows exactly which vineyards and plots will allow him to create low-intervention wines with certain character, and chooses to harvest and vinify each plot separately to let the specific terroir shine. This is how he is able to create a number of different ranges of monovarietal wines under the same AOC.

Even the rosé is a symbol of the area, as Mathieu explained while pouring his latest vintage rosé for a tasting.

“Every year we make a rosé, but it’s still a rosé of terroir. It comes from a specific soil, located on the plateau… I like to make the rosé with this kind of soil, because that gives it the texture I am looking for,” he said.

The Loire Valley’s diversity is carried through from the array of conditions and soils into the wines themselves, with such an array of styles available. However, like Domaine Bernard Baudry indicates, it’s a region of just a few key varietals.

After the phylloxera scourge swept through France in the late 19th century, the country began replanting French varietals onto naturally resistant American rootstocks. When this happened, the Loire Valley chose to replant varietals that were most suited to each area’s conditions.

The main white varietals are Melon de Bourgogne, Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc, while the main red varietals are Cabernet Franc, Gamay and Pinot Noir. What may be small in quantity at the start becomes large in variety by the end, with winemakers using these key grapes (and other minority plantings) to produce a huge range of wines – dry, semi-sweet and sweet; red, white, sparkling and rosé.

One of the most well-known AOC areas and wines in the Loire Valley is Vouvray, which uses one main grape – Chenin Blanc.

At the historic and iconic Vouvray institution, Marc Brédif, Chenin Blanc is used to make a number of wines of different kinds, from dry, still and sparkling, to the sweet ‘Nectar’, which the domaine has been producing in the most optimum vintages since 1874.

Winemaker, Jean-François Marchalot, has been at the Marc Brédif domaine for decades, with his very first vintage in 1986.

“[I’ve stayed here] because I make a lot of different wines. There is not a lot of areas that offer you the chance to work on sparkling wine, still wine, dry and sweet, and also red – I make some reds in Chinonand work with some other winegrowers in different areas,” Marchalot said.

“I could work for other areas, but so often you just make one or two wines. Here, we make really great wine that you can't find everywhere.”

Tradition and innovation go hand in hand

The Loire Valley is steeped in history, with origins dating back more than 2000 years.

The Romans are said to have been the first to grow vines there, then after things really kicked off in the fifth century, the valley lived through war, revolution, extreme weather and of course, phylloxera. After such devastation, it began focusing simply on that core goal of quality.

Many wineries in the Loire Valley are led by people who also have a strong family history in the region’s wine industry, carrying on legacies and passing tradition, technique and passion through the ages.

Cellars of Monmosseau

One of the leading sparkling producers of the Loire Valley, Monmosseau in the Touraine AOC, began its family tradition in 1886. It might not be owned by the Monmosseau family anymore (although they remain in the wine industry elsewhere), but its operation continues thanks to other families of wine. Oenologist, Thomas Ragot, followed in the footsteps of his grandparents and uncle and aunty (all of whom are winegrowers at their own domaines), and has worked at Monmosseau now for 15 years.

Emma Fontaine, Export Market Manager for InterLoire, explained: “This is common - most of the winegrowers you’ll see will very often have wine in the family, and it’s always been in the family. You can get five or six generations of winegrowers.”

But despite the prevalence of family and heritage brands, progress is incredibly important – since the 1970s, technological advancements and innovations have been embraced in the region.

At Clos Roussley in the Touraine Chenonceaux AOC, you can see the evolution from tradition to technology in the cellar, located in a 250 year old troglodyte cave. Shafts still connect the cellar to the vineyards above it - originally used to drop grapes directly from the field into the winemaking equipment below. Today, Owner, Winemaker and fourth generation family member, Vincent Roussley, uses more advanced equipment and experiments with different things like concrete eggs to create a wide range of styles.

While there are still strict rules around AOCs, the Loire Valley is certainly in agreement that these rules need to adapt and evolve to changing times so quality can be maintained. The Touraine Chenonceaux appellation’s association has already done this in its relatively short history, with its members understanding that innovation is in the best interest of everyone.

This idea of innovative adaptation also includes a commitment to being more environmentally responsible, something which began at the end of the 1990s. By 2021, 65 per cent of Loire Valley vineyards were sustainably or organically farmed, a number which is constantly increasing towards the region’s goal of 100 per cent sustainable or organic certified vineyards by 2030.

It’s well known that consumer demand for sustainable or organic wine is on the rise, but for many sustainable growers in the Loire, these practices are driven first and foremost by a deep respect for the land.

The domaine of Arnaud Lambert, run by the second generation winemaker of the same name, is an example of how the region has embraced organics. Certified organic for more than 12 years, Lambert has a serious appreciation for the soil and vines, as he says that is where all wine quality begins.

The Aussie appeal

With great diversity in the wines, there’s a lot that Australian consumers can enjoy about Loire Valley wines. Because despite some differences between the drops, they all do have one thing in common – their mantra, to be fresh, fruity and friendly wines.

Pierre-Jean Sauvion, President of the Communications Commission at InterLoire and Oenologist at Sauvion, explained: “You can drink whatever you want – sparkling, still, off-dry, sweet, red, whatever – but it needs to be fresh, fruity and friendly.

“Friendly doesn’t mean a simple wine, it means a wine with some drinkability. That comes from balancing fruit and acidity and not being too big with 14 per cent alcohol… it’s wine you could drink all day long, and drink with pretty much everything.”

This is also why the Loire Valley’s quality-based approach is important, because as Sauvion says: “At the end of the day, a bottle of wine needs to be drunk and needs to be empty.”

It’s no use spending time, effort and money on technology and process changes if the wines at the end aren’t worth drinking, so the Loire Valley’s wine industry seeks to make every bottle an enjoyable experience.

A key export focus

A number of Australia’s importers and distributors already engage with wine brands big and small in the Loire. Sometimes only a few products of a brand’s portfolio will make it to Australia, but they are ones that are intended to meet the requirements and tastes of Australian consumers.

In some cases, wineries have made specific adjustments to the wines going to Australia, for example, with different label designs, vintages more prominently displayed, and wines put under screwcap instead of cork (even though French consumers largely reject the use of cork for wines sold domestically).

The annual total turnover of the Loire Valley wine region is €1.3 billion, with 26 per cent of the 280 million bottles sold to the export market. Exports are soaring, up by 18 per cent in five years, and symbolising a solid opportunity for wine labels.

Australia is the fastest growing export market for the Loire Valley, up by 90 per cent in the same period. Although this comes from a relatively small base in comparison to countries like the USA, Sauvion calls Australia “the most important export market” for the Loire, noting it will be a country of focus, particularly with the off-premise industry.

Arnaud Lambert

The key areas that Loire Valley winemakers are focusing on with the Australian market are rosé and white, with red being a secondary consideration. AOCs like Rosé d’Anjou, Cabernet d’Anjouand Rosé de Loire are already amongst the highest performing in the country, but whites and sparklings such as Vouvray and Crémant de Loire are also showing promise with Aussie wine drinkers.

Export plans in general are ambitious and strong. According to InterLoire, a saturatedFrench market means export markets are the next frontier for the Loire Valley – by2030, the goal is to reach 30 per cent of sales exported. This is why Australia is a key focus, given roughly only 100 winemakers out of the thousands of wine sellers in the region currently export to Australia.

With the number of exporters in constant growth, such solid support from InterLoire, and incredibly competitive prices, the Loire Valley is certainly a region to look out for in-store.