The Loire rises in the hills west of Valence, not far from the Rhône. It flows for many miles north before reaching the vineyards of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé which are planted with Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir vines.
On its westwards course towards the Atlantic, Chenin Blanc comes to the fore as the favoured white grape making world class sweet wines in Vouvray and Montlouis near Tours and in the Coteaux du Layon south of Angers. Excellent reds are made in this middle section from Cabernet Franc in Bourgueil, Chinon, Saumur and Anjou. Near the mouth of the Loire, around Nantes, is Muscadet country.
Our Loire list is packed with cutting edge producers, many of whom were new to Tanners after some extensive research a few years back. We are eking out stocks of moelleux sweet Chenins from top producers like Domaine du Petit Val until we get another great sweet wine vintage. We also carry a generous handful of Loire reds whose light claret style is a particular favourite of ours.
The weather pattern of Pouilly and Sancerre is closer to that of Burgundy so care should be taken with generalisations over Loire vintages. 2003 is a great vintage with the big rich, reds looking especially promising. Rich Chenins also. The quality throughout the region was excellent in 2002 although quantities were small. 2001 at last saw a good sweet wine vintage with reasonable dry whites and reds. 2000 saw good dry whites, soft, forward fruity reds but virtually no sweet wine. The dry whites in 1999 are good. Reds are soft early maturing and there will be a bit of sweet wine. In 1998 there was virtually no sweet wine but very acceptable dry whites were made. 1997 has produced superb sweet whites. The Central Vineyards have also been very successful.
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