Loire Chenin: Dividing Lines

BY REBECCA GIBB MW | OCTOBER 19, 2023

Black and white stripes are generally reserved for zebras, but not in the city of Angers. Not only does its soccer team, SCO Angers, play in a black-and-white-striped kit, but its imposing limestone fortress, complete with fairy-tale turrets, is laced with black bands of local schist, creating an idiosyncratic two-tone façade, which exemplifies the two different rock formations of this area.

The Chenin lands of the Loire are concentrated around Angers and Saumur, and it is between these two cities that the metamorphic rocks of the Massif Armoricain meet the white sedimentary hues of the Parisian Basin. On these black schist and gneiss foundations, referred to as ‘Anjou Noir’, Chenin Blanc typically displays – using a broad brushstroke – a sense of power and a certain bitterness. In contrast, Chenin Blanc grown on the various limestones of, say, Saumur and Vouvray, display greater tenderness and chalky finesse. But when is wine ever that simple?

Just when you think you are beginning to gain some confidence in the ground beneath your feet, it turns out to be in even greater turmoil. I’m in the appellation of Savennières, a 20-minute drive from Angers, and wherever I go, the term “geological chaos” is bandied around. It’s a phrase so often cited that I have created my own game of bingo when it is mentioned. It provides some comfort when vignerons reel off a list of the many other soil types you’ve never heard of before – phtanite, rhyolite or spilite, for example. Then there’s topsoil to consider, which can be deep and sandy, making for lighter styles and a plethora of other combinations. And all this in a tiny appellation of just 140 hectares (not counting the enclaves within Savennières that have their own appellation. Roche aux Moines and Coulée de Serrant). It’s enough to make your head spin.

Saint-Aubin de Luigné lies in the heart of Anjou Noir country, which is home to Thomas and Charlotte Carsin and the Terre de L’Élu vineyards.

Chenin Blanc is a variety that can, like the region’s bedrock, metamorphose, depending on the pressures exerted on it, whether that’s the viticulture, the winemaking or the weather – of which more later. Stylistic chaos is as prevalent as geological chaos in Loire Chenin Blanc. This shy variety is interpreted in many ways, and I’m not just talking about the level of residual sugar that remains in a finished wine. Many choose to allow their musts to ferment spontaneously, a practice that’s increasingly favored among artisanal producers, along with the use of different fermentation vessels, from oak barrels to foudres and clay amphoras. There’s also a decision to make over lees – Chenin can easily become reductive if left on lees, but it is also prone to oxidation, so a careful balance has to be struck. 

Back in the vineyard, not only are growers trying to make picking decisions based on ripeness and flavor, acidity and phenolics, but they also have to decide whether to wait for the fruit to botrytize – even if they plan on making a dry wine. It’s a common component in the Joly family’s wines, but some wine producers don’t like the honeyed, exotic note that botrytis can give their wines. Moreover, botrytized fruit comes with additional risks, including premature browning and oxidation, which is caused by the laccase enzyme and more likely to cause damage when winemaking involves low or no sulfur and time on lees. Sulfur seems to have become an enemy for an unreasonably large bunch of Loire Chenin makers – and their ardent supporters.

I have no issue with low-sulfur regimes when they’re done well. Still, a noisy group of campers in the natural wine field has decided that the smell of the cows from the neighboring farm should be part of their vineyard’s expression, as displayed in glasses of cloudy wines. It is anathema to wine’s entire purpose: beyond intoxication, we drink wine for pleasure, and it is difficult to find pleasure when it smells like rough cider. For millennia, wine has been ameliorated because we did not have the know-how to make wine that would not spoil quickly. Glass bottles, corks, sulfur and many more scientific advances have allowed drinkers thousands of miles away from Vouvray or Saumur to enjoy these wines in perfect condition, months, years or even decades after they were first bottled.