Ch 2 The Lower Loire History, Terroir, Grapes

• Boundaries settled after battles with the Francs in 9th century
• Nantes became capital in 925
• Remained independent for 600 years
• Became part of France in the 16th century after Anne de Bretagne married two successive kings of France, Charles VIII and Louis XII
• Forbidden to trade with England by Louis XIV (1643-1715)
• Fully assimilated (and Ingrandes tax ended) after the French Revolution (1789-1799)

• True: many Britons settled here and developed an independent culture
• Note: The war was over claims to the French throne between the English Plantagenets and the French Valois; the French won

Ships carrying products to the port of Nantes stopped at Ingrandes to pay customs tax; wines made inside Brittany were exempt from this tariff

• Anjou and Touraine winemakers raised the quality of sweet wine to absorb the tariff
• Pays Nantais winemakers increased quantity of Folle Blanche base-wine for brandy

• Lease to plant sharecropping arrangement was widespread in the Pays Nantais long after other regions abandoned it
• Landowner leased land to a farmer in exchange for 25% of the crop

False: It was second to Bordeaux

True: France abolished slavery in the 19th century

The Great Winter began January 5, 1709 when temperatures across Europe plunged to -20°C/-4°F, the coldest in 500 years. Suffering from hypothermia, hunger, disease, and floods was long-lasting. It was discovered that Melon de Bourgogne was cold-hardy and frost-resistant.

• War in the Vendée: vineyards became battle fields and a generation was slaughtered during this Royalist insurrection (1793-1796)
• Industrial Revolution: developments in chemistry increased vineyard yields and newly built railroads created new markets
• Phylloxera: spread to Vendée in 1875 and Loire-Atlantique by 1884

• After phylloxera winegrowers in the Lower Loire replanted the traditional Gros Plant (Folle Blanche) and Melon de Bourgogne.
• Sèvre et Maine winegrowers banded together to promote the wine industry after disease and difficult vintages.
• France created the AOC system for wines in 1936 and the VDQS catregory in 1949

• 1936: Muscadet Sèvre et Maine
• 1936: Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire
• 1937: Muscadet (regional)
• 1994: Muscadet Côtes dr Grandlieu
• 2011: Coteaux d'Ancenis
• 2011: Fiefs Vendéens
• 2011: Gros Plant du Pays Nantais
• 

True: producers hurried to compete in growing worldwide markets for easy drinking wines which let to a surfeit of thin uninteresting wine

True: Number of winegrowers has fallen from 1,000 in 1991 to <500 by 2014. Efforts to increase quality include grubbing up unsuitable sites, planting good quality clones, and investing in new equipment.

10,000 ha/24,711 acres farmed by <500 domaines

• Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure
• Category between AOC and Vin de Pays (VDP) categories
• Eliminated in 2011

• 2007
• Lower Loire: Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins de Nantes
• Middle Loire: InterLoire

• False: Within the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine AOC, Clisson, Le Pallet and Gorges were awarded "cru" status in 2011 and Goulaine, Château-Thébaud, Monnières-Saint-Fiacre, and Mouzillion-Tillières followed in 2019. Other villages including Vallet have initiated the "cru" process.
• 

True

• Atlantic Ocean to Ingrandes, part of the Armorican peninsula, later known as Bretagne (Brittany in English)
• 

False: It is known as the Lower Loire as it is located near the mouth of the Loire

• All: Maine et Loire
• Part: Loire-Atlantique, Vendée
• 

• Marais Breton-Vendéen: coastal marsh, oyster and wind farms, border between Brittany and Poitou, 45,000 ha/111,197 acres
• Pay de Monts: forest just south of the marsh
• Bocage Vendéen: plains south of Muscadet
• Mauges Hills: separates the Lower Loire from Anjou
• 

Maritime: mild and rainy winters, warm and dry summers

• Lac de Grand-Lieu: southwest of Nantes, diverse flora and fauna
• Marais de Goulaine: southeast of Nantes, bird reserve
• Note: Sea winds blow away rain clouds from most Lower Loire vineyards

• Earlier harvest
• Muscadet Sèvre et Maine: impacted by Marais de Goulaine
• Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu: impacted by Lac de Grand-Lieu

• Hand-harvested salt renowned since the Iron Age
• The peninsula is just north of the Loire mouth in the Loire-Atlantique département

True: varies from 4m/13ft near the coast to 90m/295ft east of Nantes

• Acidic rocks have more silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2)
• Acidic rocks: granite, schist, gneiss
• Basic rocks: gabbro, amphibolite

• A dark, coarse-grained igneous rock containing little quartz
• Grabbo is intrusive (magma cooled underground) whereas basalt is extrusive (lava cooled on surface)

• A coarse-grained metamorphic rock containing amphibole minerals such as iron and magnesium
• It is very hard

• Both are metamorphic rocks formed from igneous or sedimentary rocks
• Gneiss forms at higher temperatures and pressures than schist
• Mud-> Shale(sedimentary)-> Slate(metamorphic)-> Schist

Based on the Massif Armoricain - Precambrian bedrock of volcanic origin

• Lower Loire: schist and gneiss = powerful wine
• Grand-Lieu (Grand Place) Lake: red sands with quartz and flint atop clay = drink young
• Sèvre et Maine (middle): loam and clay atop granite = structured, ageable wine with floral and flinty aromas
• Sèvre et Maine (NE, around Gorges): silt and sand atop gabbro = very ageable wine

True: 6,500 vines/ha (2,600 vines per acres) since vigorous grape varieties and reliable rainfall

True

False: flat vineyards are well-suited to machine harvesting

simple Guyot

Aging on lees releases polysaccarides, mannoproteins and glutathione. These contribute to smooth mouthfeel, stability, and protection from oxidation respectively.

• Remnants of winemaking: dead yeast cells, grape skins, pulp, seeds, and tartrates
• Gross lees: solids from macerated grapes like skins, seeds, and stems (primarily from red winemaking)
• Fine lees: dead yeast cells

Prevent hydrogen sulphide from forming

True: they generally do not go through malolactic fermentation

Barrels used for sur-lie aging of grapes from the best plots

• Must be bottled between March 1 and November 30 of the year following harvest
• Can be released after 1 week of sur-lie aging

Extended aging periods are past the mandated bottle by date

True: Estate bottling is mandatory

aka Muscadet primeur, it is wine made to be drunk soon after harvest and is released on the third Thursday of November (just like Beaujolais Nouveau)

• Melon: 74%
• Chardonnay: 7%
• Folle Blanche (Gros Plant): 6%
• Gamay: 5%
• Cabernet Franc 3%
• All others: 5%
• Chenin Blanc
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Grolleau Gris
• Colombard
• Montils
• Pinot Gris
• Pinot Noir
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Négrette