Tag Archives: Loire Valley

Prestige de Loire Sparkling Wines

  By admin | March 7, 2018 - 9:20 pm | ,
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At last month’s Vinovision show in Paris, the InterLoire organization (Interprofession des Vins du Val de Loire) announced a new quality designation known as Prestige de Loire. The Prestige de Loire title is designed to recognize sparkling wines of the Loire Valley that meet certain specifications indicating ultra-high quality and Loire Valley-specific typicity.

Like the Grand Eminent designations allowed for Crémant de Bourgogne, Prestige de Loire is not a new AOC nor a revision to an existing AOC, but rather a branded designation allowed for use on the sparkling wines produced under the existing AOCs of Anjou, Crémant de Loire, Saumur, and Vouvray. Wines certified as Prestige de Loire will be designated by a gold crown emblem affixed to the neck of the bottle. The gold crown is a nod to the Loire Valley’s reputation as a “royal river,” earned through centuries of serving as the homeland of many royal families—and royal châteaux—of Europe.

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The specifications for attaining the Prestige de Loire designation are an interesting study in the parameters of high-quality sparkling wine production in the Loire Valley. The requirements include the following:

  • Only fully sparkling white wines produced under the existing requirements of the Crémant de Loire, Saumur, Vouvray, Anjou, and Touraine AOCs are eligible. These include the use of the Traditional Method of sparkling wine production as well as a minimum of 9 months aging on the lees and a total of 12 months of aging in the bottle. The total aging requirement for Prestige de Loire wines is raised to 24 months.
  • The allowed grape varieties are limited to Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir; single-varietal and any combination in a blended wine is permitted. Red grapes must be vinified in the style of a white wine.
  • The wines must have 12 g/L or less of sugar (in some cases this may be increased to 15 g/L or less). As such, these wines must be designated (or equivalent to) Brut Nature, Extra Brut, or Brut levels of sweetness.
  • Wine estates using the Prestige de Loire designation must strive to be certified as Haute Valeur Environnementale (“High Environmental Value”) within 5 years of the use of the mark.
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In order to earn the Prestige de Loire designation, wines must be approved by a five-member tasting panel. Wines are eligible to earn a maximum of five points on each of five specific aspects of quality. In order to qualify, a wine must earn a minimum of 15 points (out of a possible 25). The five aspects are as follows:

  • Aromatic intensity
  • Bubble finesse
  • Balance
  • Richness
  • Finish/length

Interestingly enough, wines are considered disqualified if two or more members of the tasting panel note any of the following faults in the wine:

  • Reduced
  • Coarse bubble texture
  • Geranium fault
  • Mold aroma/flavor
  • Overly dry/harsh
  • Acescence
  • Overly herbaceous

Some of these wines, as announced at Vinovision, are already on the market in Europe and should find their way to other parts of the world in short time. Have you seen one?

References/for more information:

A Bitter Battle over Sweet Wine in the Loire

  By admin | October 18, 2013 - 2:12 pm | ,
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Quarts-de-Chaume is just one of the famous sweet wine appellations in the Loire.  A slightly larger region, surrounding Quarts-de-Chaume and somewaht less prestigious, is known as the Coteaux du Layon. The Coteaux du Layon includes the area of Quarts-de-Chaume as well as the equally famous AOC of Bonnezeaux. A third, larger area, encompassing the entire commune of Rochefort-sur-Loire, is known as the Coteaux du Layon Rochefort-sur-Loire AOC.

Quarts-de-Chaume, with its long history stretching back to the Middle Ages, was expected to be the wine that led the wines of the Loire into the future. Despite the fact that the Loire is one of the largest quality wine producing areas of France, the fame and fortune of the Loire lags far behind the other large wine producing areas in France.  One possible reason for this was determined to be that the vineyards of the Loire do not have an official ranking system such as those in Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne, and a plan for ranking the vineyards was created.

Photo Credit: Jim Budd of the "Jim's Loire" Blog

Photo Credit: Jim Budd of the “Jim’s Loire” Blog

The ranking of the Loire’s vineyards got off to a rocky start in 2003, when the Coteaux du Layon AOC was granted the Loire’s first Premier Cru designation, to be known as Chaume Premier Cru des Coteaux du Layon.  The designation did not last for long, however, as the committee for the Quarts de Chaume appellation felt that this title caused confusion with their own name and created an unfair advantage for the new designation. Thus, the Premier Cru title was suspended.

The Premier Cru title for Coteaux du Layon-Chaume was ultimately reinstated in November 2011, after the Quarts-de-Chaume appellation was awarded the first Grand Cru title in the Loire.  Even this has not been without controversy, as one of the largest producers of Quarts-de-Chaume, Domaine des Baumard, has filed a lawsuit with the Conseil d’État challenging the new law.

According to many sources, the Baumards’ main issue with the new AOC is the revised, more stringent regulations that accompany the “Grand Cru” ranking, which would prohibit certain vine-growing and winemaking practices long employed by the estate. One such practice, for example, is cryoextraction (freezing the grapes before they are pressed). Under the new laws, cryoextraction would be banned in the Quarts-de-Chaume Grand Cru as of 2020.

Other producers in the Loire are upset that the Grand Cru and Premier Cru status applies only to sweet wines and excludes the dry wines of the region.

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It seems vineyards classification in France, with so much prestige and money on the line, is a tricky business. I seem to recall reading that the same sort of bickering plagued the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux—and more recently, the 2012 classification of St. Émilion.

As of now, the Quarts-de-Chaume Grand Cru along with Coteaux du Layon Premier Cru Chaume AOCs still stand…and we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds.

References/for more information:

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Post authored by Jane A. Nickles, CWE – your SWE Blog Administrator – jnickles@societyofwineeducators.org