Loire Valley

Muscadet — made from Melon de Bourgogne in the Pays Nantais around Nantes — is one of the most misunderstood wines in France. For decades it was dismissed as thin, neutral, and forgettable: the house white of Parisian brasseries, drunk young and cold with oysters. But the best Muscadet — particularly the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie, aged on its lees for a year or more in the cellar — is a wine of genuine complexity and extraordinary longevity. The finest examples, from producers like Domaine de l'Écu, Luneau-Papin, and Jo Landron, develop a saline, almost waxy texture and a mineral depth that can sustain 10 to 20 years of ageing.

The three Muscadet Crus Communaux — Clisson, Gorges, and Le Pallet — represent the appellation's finest terroirs, with granite soils at Clisson producing wines of particular structure and longevity. These are wines that deserve to be taken as seriously as a good Chablis, and at a fraction of the price.

Chenin Blanc is the Loire's most important variety — a grape of extraordinary versatility that produces wines ranging from searingly dry and mineral to lusciously sweet, and from still to sparkling. In Savennières, on the steep schist slopes above the Loire south of Angers, it produces some of the most austere and age-worthy dry whites in France: the Coulée de Serrant monopole of Nicolas Joly (a single 7-hectare biodynamic vineyard) and the Roche aux Moines are benchmarks for the variety's capacity for mineral complexity and longevity.

In Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire, on the tuffeau limestone plateau east of Tours, Chenin Blanc spans the full stylistic spectrum. The best dry Vouvrays — from producers like Huet, Foreau, and François Chidaine — are wines of extraordinary tension and complexity that can age for 50 years or more. The demi-sec and moelleux styles, made in years when botrytis or passerillage concentrates the sugars, are among the greatest sweet wines in France. And the pétillant and mousseux sparkling wines of Vouvray — made by the traditional method — are among the most underrated sparkling wines in the world.

The Touraine is the heartland of Loire Cabernet Franc — a variety that, in the cooler climate of the Loire, produces wines of elegance, freshness, and aromatic complexity that are quite different from its role as a blending partner in Bordeaux. Chinon, on the Vienne river south of Tours, is the most celebrated appellation: the wines from the tuffeau limestone plateau are floral and mineral, while those from the gravel terraces along the river are more structured and age-worthy. The great Chinons of Charles Joguet and Philippe Alliet are among the finest red wines produced anywhere in France.

Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, on the north bank of the Loire, produce Cabernet Franc of similar elegance from a mix of tuffeau and gravel soils. Saumur-Champigny, further west, is perhaps the most immediately appealing: the wines are lighter, more perfumed, and more approachable in youth, with a raspberry and violet character that makes them irresistible with a slight chill in summer. The best producers — Clos Rougeard, Domaine Guiberteau — make wines of genuine depth and longevity.

The Central Vineyards — Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, facing each other across the Loire near the town of Gien — are the spiritual home of Sauvignon Blanc. The variety here, on Kimmeridgian limestone and flint (silex) soils, produces wines of a precision, mineral intensity, and aromatic complexity that no other region in the world has matched. The classic Sancerre from Henri Bourgeois or Henri Natter, or the Pouilly-Fumé from Didier Dagueneau, is a benchmark of what Sauvignon Blanc can achieve: citrus, white flowers, a flinty mineral note, and a long, saline finish.

Sancerre also produces red and rosé wines from Pinot Noir — lighter and more delicate than Burgundy, but with a genuine mineral character that reflects the limestone soils. The best red Sancerres, from producers like Henri Bourgeois and Alphonse Mellot, are wines of real elegance and complexity, though they remain overshadowed by the whites in international markets. Menetou-Salon and Quincy, neighbouring appellations producing Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir on similar soils, offer excellent quality at more accessible prices.

The Loire Valley is one of the most rewarding wine travel destinations in France, combining extraordinary wine with some of the country's finest architecture, food, and countryside. The valley is best explored by car or bicycle — the Loire à Vélo cycling route follows the river for 900 kilometres — with bases in Tours (for Vouvray, Chinon, and Bourgueil), Angers (for Savennières and the Layon), and Sancerre (for the Central Vineyards). The châteaux of Chambord, Chenonceau, Amboise, and Azay-le-Rideau are within easy reach of the wine villages, and the combination of wine tasting and château visiting makes for a near-perfect itinerary.

Many of the Loire's finest producers age their wines in caves carved into the tuffeau limestone cliffs — a distinctive feature of the Touraine landscape that makes cellar visits here unlike anywhere else in France. The caves of Vouvray and Montlouis are cool, atmospheric, and often centuries old; a tasting with Huet or Foreau in their tuffeau cellars, with a flight of wines spanning dry to moelleux and covering several decades of vintages, is one of the great wine experiences in France.