LOIRE
A Chenin renaissance
It’s a grape variety that has the ability to produce excellent wines in many styles, and now Chenin Blanc’s Loire heartland producers are putting a renewed faith in its dry wines
If the name Anjou doesn’t ring any bells, it’s probably because until recently, there has not been very much that’s Decanter-worthy to talk about. This productive Loire region is known more for its inexpensive semi-sweet rosés than anything else. ‘People expect high-volume, standardised wine from Anjou,’ says winemaker Antoine Pouponneau of Grange Saint-Sauveur, who opts to produce his (excellent) Anjou wines under the humble Vin de France label.
But things have not always been this way. Anjou is widely considered to be the birthplace of Chenin Blanc, and the area was known for the calibre of its wines, both sweet and dry, from this grape. It was so highly regarded, in fact, that Chenin was virtually the only grape planted – and it claimed all the best terroirs. Even though Chenin’s history was overwritten throughout the 20th century to make way for more fashionable reds and rosés, the good news is that today this rich vinous heritage is being reclaimed. And it is dry Chenin that is leading the renaissance.
TWO PARTS OF A WHOLE
Anjou’s vineyards lie mostly to the south of the Loire between the riverside towns of Angers and Saumur. The region is the meeting place of geological eras hundreds of millions of years apart, which means that there is a vast diversity of soils and rocks to excite winemakers and geologists alike. For the more geologically challenged among us, these complexities can be helpfully simplified by classifying the soils according to their basic colour: dark or light.
These two divide the region more or less vertically down the middle (see map), with the dark soils to the west and paler ones to the east. The darker, more acidic soils, born from ancient volcanic and metamorphic rocks of the Armorican massif, tend to yield powerful wines that have savoury, mineral, saline flavours and often a trace of bitterness on the finish. Wines from the appellations Savennières (pictured, p32) and Anjou are found in this part of the region.
Further to the east, the paler soils are from the younger, sedimentary rocks of the Paris basin. Here, in the Saumur appellation, grapes grow on limestone, notably the pale tuffeau that was extensively quarried to build the many castles and homes found around the Loire valley. These soils give finely textured wines of bright fruit and crystalline acidity.
Comparing the styles of Chenin from these two terroirs, Thierry Germain (pictured, right) of Domaine des Roches Neuves in Saumur, says: ‘The wines are worlds apar
