Loire

Discover the Loire Valley appellations

The Loire Valley vineyard is actually made of different, smaller wine regions: Touraine, the Pays Nantais, Anjou and the Centre. With its very rich soil (an incredible blend of many minerals, such as sand, clay, gravel, chalk, granite, shale...), this 70 000 hectares vineyard can produce around 4,000,000 hectoliters of wine every year.

The Loire Valley vineyard was born more than 2,000 years ago, thanks to the Roman conquests. During the 4th century, a holy man named Saint Martin helped the development of winemaking in the region, since religious ceremonies often needed wine. Later, when the Middle-Ages came around, the bourgeoisie and the royal family were one of the main reasons for the boom of the Loire vineyard.

When the Middle-Ages ended, around the 16th century, Loire wines were starting to sell abroad. Once the 18th century began, many crises erupted (the winter of 1709, the French Revolution, the phylloxera crisis…) and the vineyard took a lot of blows. These incidents led to a new era: the quest for quality wine appellations. This is why, in 1936, the very first AOC saw the light of day.

The wines from the Loire Valley region are quite diverse indeed (reds, whites, rosés, sparkling wines...) and they are divided in 52 appellations, such as Saumur-Champigny, Pouilly-Fumé, Sancerre, Vouvray, Bourgueil, Muscadet, Cabernet-d'Anjou and so on. On top of that, the Loire Valley also boasts a wide array of castles and estates (7 000 total).

Discover the Pleasure Wine selection of fine wines from the Loire Valley.