The Loire Valley

The Loire valley (La Vallée de la Loire) – one of the 12 major wine regions of France. Located on the West of the country, along the river Loire: from the hills of the Auvergne (Auvergne) in the heart of the continent to the plains of the French Atlantic coast near the city of Nantes (Nantes where Muscadet).

The Loire valley is an important wine producing region, and from the point of view of quality and from the point of view of quantity. It produces huge amounts (about 4 million HL per year) simple everyday wine, but also the best samples of French wine.

Variety is another strong point of the region. Local wine is a wide spectrum of styles, from light acidic of Muscadet (Muscadet) and sweet honey Bonzo (Bonnezeaux) to sparkling whites of Vouvray (Vouvray) and juicy tannin red wines of Saumur (Saumur) and Shannon (Chenon). And that’s not counting the stars of the region:

The most famous wines of the Loire Valley – a white Sancerre (Sancerre) and Pouilly fumé (Pouilly-Fume).

White wine is an absolute horse of the Loire. And volume it’s leader. A significant part of it is part of class Loire IGP (before the introduction of European wine classification, this was the category VDP – Vin de Pays du Jardin de la France).