As someone who has been a bit of a wine obsessive for a number of decades, I find that things, in this case a more than average interest in any particular wine region, come around in cycles. The world of wine is so wide that you can either focus on one or two types of wine, and then miss out big time, or you can follow my approach, which is unashamedly eclectic. Such is the case with the very large region, one of more than fifty appellations, which we group together as “The Loire”. For me, The Loire is now taking up more cellar space than it was a few years ago (now I see I am neglecting Tuscany, oh dear!).

My early interest in The Loire was as someone just out of university, well before I began the long road of wine study and qualifications. Back then, wine was a good enough reason to go on holiday somewhere, but it had to compete with other things. In this case, it was history (all those châteaux to visit) and cycling. I have never missed the chance to cycle in wine country, and I could almost write a book on all the wine regions with good cycling routes.

Generally, the cycling paths and routes along the rivers here, at least before we hit Sancerre, are relatively flat, although I do recall from the last time I ventured on a bike in the region, in Touraine, that even a fairly gentle climb post-lunch in Candes-St-Martin to the abbey of Fontevraud proved taxing. Wine, in that case a bottle of Baudry Rosé as I recall, and a hot day, made me experience what it’s like for a pro to crack on the Alp d’Huez, except I was climbing maybe less than 100 metres over perhaps a kilometre. Then I got a puncture.

Over the years I’ve visited the Loire a good number of times, both its more tourist-saturated vineyards between Saumur and Cheverny, Sancerre (when many fewer visitors went there) and also the upper reaches at Saint-Pourçain, where the Sioule joins the Allier. I’ve never stopped over in Muscadet, only travelled through. I think it’s fair to say I have now found the pendulum has swung back and whilst I have no immediate plans to visit the region any time soon, I am enamoured by its wines once more.

Chenin has always been a variety I love, more than Sancerre et al’s Sauvignon Blanc if I’m honest. When it comes to Cabernet, modern (ie ripe) Franc is delicious. The upper reaches, making those mountain wines, really appeals to me, and Muscadet is surely now one of French wine’s best kept secrets, no longer focused on the cheap stuff which the UK used to import in the 80s and 90s.

The Loire also has some gems yet to gain wider appreciation. These include varieties traditional in the region, making local specialities worth exploring. Grolleau (Gris and Noir), Pineau d’Aunis, Sacy (aka Tressallier), Gamay Saint-Romain, Côt (Malbec) and Pinot Gris (aka Malvoisie here) all make wines we should try if we can find them, alongside more ubiquitous grape varieties found elsewhere, although my list of obscurities above doesn’t count them all, merely the ones which most appeal to me.

I don’t drink a lot of Romorantin, nor Loire Chasselas, though I’m ready to be convinced. Folle Blanche (Gros Plant) gets tasted occasionally. I’d try more varietal Loire Negrette if I saw some (we did drink a bottle in a restaurant outside Vouvray once, of all places), and Menu Pineau, point the way please. Gamay from most of the Loire can be appealing, but especially that aforementioned Gamay Saint-Romain from the mountainous volcanic vineyards in the far east.

Finally, let’s not forget that The Loire was one of the catalyst regions for “natural wine” in France. A long history of unconventional viticulture here includes one of the first and most vocal advocates of biodynamics in Nicolas Joly at Coulée de Serrant. I am otherwise unsure exactly why so many natural winemakers were drawn to make wine in the region, especially in those parts that are damp and prone to fungal diseases, but it has attracted many, and their wines always get a very popular reception from the international wine buyers and professionals who flock to the Dive Bouteille Fair (in the tufa caves of Saumur this February just passed).

They are equally appreciated in the more fashionable establishments in London and throughout the UK. The much-missed London restaurant with a Loire focus, Green Man & French Horn (a narrow, former pub in St Martin’s Lane) is however no longer with us. It closed in 2015. I’m sure I’m not the only one to miss the excellent Loire-inspired food and Loire natural wine it offered diners for what seemed like a very short time.

So much for my indulgence in Loire nostalgia. Last year Master of Wine Beverley Blanning wrote a new book called Wines of the Loire Valley. Although it has taken this long for it to come to the top of my reading pile, it does seem well-timed. I have been actively buying a few Loire wines of late, and Beverley has confirmed that the wine merchant advice I have received has been sound. I’m sure this book will help me going forward. I should add that what you really want to read in an author bio of a book on this particular region is that he or she “spends much of her spare time in the Loire Valley”.

Although there have been a number of Loire books published since the first one I ever bought (Hubrecht Duijker’s The Wines of The Loire, Alsace and Champagne, Mitchell Beazley – 1982, I think, a fascinating work of its time), here we have a book which is very much up-to-date.

The book follows a pattern established by those in the same series, the “Infinite Ideas Classic Wine Library”, now under the Academie du Vin Library imprint. You will see from the photo of the contents that we begin with a little history, followed by geography/geology, wine styles (of which the Loire gives us more than most), appellations and grape varieties.

Then we move through the wines of France’s longest river and its tributaries, from the eastern vineyards closest to the sea, the Pays Nantais, through Anjou, Touraine, the so-called Central Loire (around Sancerre and Pouilly-sur-Loire), and finally a decent number of pages devoted to the vineyards and wines broadly grouped as “The Auvergne”, where we have four pockets of vineyards in Saint-Pourçain, Côtes d’Auvergne, Côte Roannaise and Côtes du Forez.

For each appellation Blanning not only covers all the factual information needed to understand the styles of wine being made, but she also covers what is happening today in terms of new developments etc. Plenty is happening, from the classification of certain sites in Anjou as Grand and Premier Cru (which will surely open the flodgates elsewhere in the region) to the renaissance of Cabernet Franc wines in Saumur-Champigny, Chinon and elsewhere. She doesn’t shy away from certain controversies, which occasionally arise from inter-appellation jealousies, and she also gives adequate space for the new and experimental. You certainly feel that where a minor grape variety is gaining a little bit of a profile it will be covered, even when production of such wines is still low.

Following on from each sub-region and appellation’s introduction, which can vary from a few pages to just a paragraph, we get treated to a profile of what the author considers the “notable producers” who make wine there. I would say that pretty much all of the important classical producers are profiled along with plenty whose wines I have never tried. There are some exciting names for me to lookout for.

François Chidaine is one of Montlouis’s leading lights

If I have one gripe about the book, I would say that these profiles show first of all good local knowledge, but secondly a little bias in taste…potentially. Very few of the “natural” wine producers whose wines we can buy quite easily in the UK get an individual profile. Some do, and some appear after the main profiles in a list of “other producers to try”. But many don’t. A good few of the winemakers who do get an extended entry do not appear to have UK distribution, though I would not suggest that this is important, far from it. It merely suggests that all you wine importers out there should have read a copy.

Natural wine as a whole does get some general coverage, but I feel the author is wary of those especially who eschew the addition of sulphur. I too was quite wary of some early Loire natural wines, say back in the 1990s and early 2000s, but I think that natural winemakers have over the ensuing decades learnt that 100% healthy grapes and very high standards of cleanliness in the winery are essential to lower the risk of spoilage, and I find faulty natural wine a rarity these days, albeit not completely eradicated.

I also find that many wine faults, including the infamous mouse taint, will in many cases dissipate over time. The old and conservative dictum that natural wine doesn’t age is not only wrong. In some cases, age can be its best friend. That, at least, is my own experience over the twenty-five-or-so years I have been open to low intervention wines.

However, I have dwelt over long on the one case where I perhaps diverge in views and taste from the author, although I might be wrong. In no place is she overtly negative about natural wines. Indeed, Blanning does highlight one area where the Loire has changed over its whole great length, in the increase in organic viticulture. As Beverley rightly points out, most of the so-called notable producers profiled along with their wines are working organically, and many have been doing so for a long time.

The pages have a smattering of photographs, some in colour. There are maps for every appellation and these are at the very least adequate. For a region like the Auvergne, you get a broader location map (see photo), but some smaller sub-regions get a more focused map, like that of the Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru and the Coteaux de Layon Premier Crus in Anjou. The book ends with a useful glossary and appendices on vintages (c. the past twenty years) and production figures, plus a bibliography.

If you want to reacquaint yourself with a region whose time has finally come, not least because warmer temperatures benefit a number of the Loire’s autochthonous grape varieties (despite unseasonal rain, hail and frost), along with a new generation of exciting vigneron(ne)s who often have obtained wide experience overseas before coming home to work the family vines, then this book will fulfil your need.

Coverage can reasonably be called comprehensive, a major achievement for such a large wine region, one which extends to around 500 kilometres west to east. This book is timely for Loire wines of all types, but especially those from artisan winemakers, which are definitely appearing in greater number on the shelves of independent retailers once more.

You will also read up-to-date information about the Loire Valley’s top producers, many whose estates have undergone a recent change in generation or, in a few cases, have completely new owners who have to live up to the legacy created by their famous predecessors (Domaine Huet in Vouvray is just one standout example among several).

If you want to read about many of the region’s more famous natural wine makers, then you might need to look elsewhere (as much as any books I would suggest UK readers look at the list from Les Caves de Pyrene, who import around forty-five natural wine stars from The Loire, some of whom you can read about in this work, others who you can’t).

But that only goes to show that such knowledge is easily obtained through a trusted wine merchant. What Beverley Blanning has written is essential reading for any Loire fanatic, or for any wine lover wanting to know more about this varied and now very exciting part of viticultural France. If you are interested in The Loire, you probably need this book.

I for one am so glad I now know about producers like Grange Saint-Sauveur, totally “media-shy” but making ethereal, fresh and balanced wines with minimal inputs in a remote corner of Anjou, along with others who, like Antoine and Alice Pouponneau at Saint-Sauveur (Antoine boasts a roster of work experience and consultancies most would envy) have greatly expanded my list of wines to seek out.

Wines of the Loire Valley by Beverley Blanning MW was published in 2024 by the Académie du Vin Library, priced £35. The publisher will often offer a discount code, but it is also currently available from a large multi-national vendor which you may know for just £26.87.

The Académie’s web site for direct sales can be found here:

http://www.academieduvinlibrary.com

The rear cover with its book publicity