Loire wines win new fans
France's Loire Valley is its own little 300-square-mile wine country, going its own way and doing very well at it.
A half-hour south of Paris on the 200 mph Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV), it's cool and lush and green, hugging the banks of the Loire River; its soils are made of a near-mystical substance called "tufa."
The climate and soils combine to create wines that are fresh, lively and crisp with acid, pleasant as aperitifs and great with food.
"Tufa is a mixture of limestone and chalk. The white wines get their mineral qualities from it," says Marie Olivier, wine consultant for the Loire producer Domaines Rollan de By. "Our red grapes relate to the Loire's cool weather. They like it cold and humid."
The Loire has the ability to make excellent wines from grapes that elsewhere are considered second-rate. Its white chenin blancs are rich and lively, while those in South Africa and California often are criticized as bland. Its cabernet francs stand on their own as raspberry-scented, medium-bodied reds, while even in nearby Bordeaux they are mainly blending grapes adding fragrance to wines based on cabernet sauvignon.
And the Loire's white muscadet wine, made of a local grape called melon de Bourgogne that's hardly grown elsewhere, is crisp, light, bone-dry and almost prickly, called the perfect wine for oysters.
The Loire also makes excellent sparkling wines, called mousseux or cr(c)mant, from chenin blanc and chardonnay. They can't call them champagne because, even though they're French, they aren't grown in the area northeast of Paris called Champagne.
Best of all, Loire wines have friendly prices. So the next time you look up cabernet sauvignon or chardonnay on a restaurant wine list and frown at the prices, leaf over to the Loire wines and put that smile back on your face.
Highly recommended:
2007 Remy Pannier Chinon (cabernet franc), Loire Valley, France: aromas and flavors of black plums, licorice and black coffee, medium body, soft tannins; $13.
Nonvintage Bouvet-Ladubay 'Excellence' Saumur Brut Ros(c) Sparkling Wine (90 percent cabernet franc, 10 percent groslot), Loire Valley, France: myriad bubbles, sprightly flavors of tangerines, light and tart and frothy; $16.
2007 Domaine des Baumard 'Quarts de Chaume' Dessert Wine (chenin blanc), Loire Valley, France: crisp and sweet, with flavors of honey and apricots; $60.
2007 Domaine Fournier Sancerre 'Grande Cuv(c)e' (sauvignon blanc), Loire Valley, France: hearty and rich, with pink grapefruit flavors; $23.
Recommended:
2010 Vincent de Delaporte Sancerre (sauvignon blanc), Loire Valley, France: light and crisp, flavors of white grapefruit, tart finish; $24.
2010 Domaine Nicolas Gaudry Pouilly-Fum(c) (sauvignon blanc), Loire Valley, France: floral aroma, light and crisp, rich pink grapefruit flavors; $27.
2009 Chateau de la Ragotiere Muscadet Black Label 'Vielle Vignes,' Loire Valley, France" floral aromas, flavors of kiwi and minerals, tart finish; $15.
2007 Domaine des Baumard Savenni~¨res (chenin blanc), Loire Valley, France: oaky aroma, rich, honeyed quality, tart finish; $23.
2008 Domaine des Baumard Savenni~¨res 'Clos du Papillon' Single Vineyard (chenin blanc), Loire Valley, France: rich, aromatic, with nutty aromas and burnt sugar flavors; $35.
2009 Domaine Fournier Sancerre 'Les Belles Vignes' (sauvignon blanc), Loire Valley, France: light and crisp, with white grapefruit flavors; $22.
2008 Domaine Furnier Sancerre 'Cuvee Silex' (sauvignon blanc), Loire Valley, France: very crisp, with aromas and flavors of lemons and limes; $23.
Nonvintage Bouvet-Ladubay (Signature) Saumur Brut Sparkling Wine (90 percent chenin blanc, 10 percent chardonnay): lots of tiny bubbles, tart flavors of limes and kiwis; $16.