Coteaux du Layon

Vines have grown continuously in Anjou since the first century AD, says the specification, and in 1529 Bourdigné called the vineyard Noah's masterpiece. In 1600 Olivier de Serres noted that in Anjou grapes were left until they began to fall from the vine, so late picking is an old practice. The Plantagenets made Anjou wine known in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Layon vineyard grew in the sixteenth century with Dutch brokers who valued wines that travelled well by sea, and boomed after works in 1780 opened the Layon to large Dutch boats. In 1816 Jullien described picking in several passes, the first two kept for export.

The Chaume slope, owned by Foulques Nerra, was left to the abbey of Le Ronceray in Angers in the early eleventh century. The AOC decree of 18 February 1950 allowed six commune names; the premier cru mention followed growers' work on pruning, picking and ageing from the 1980s.

Vines occupy the slopes of the Layon valley, which runs south-west to north-east upstream and then north-west to the Loire from Les Verchers-sur-Layon. The 13 communes lie on both banks; the six whose names may follow the appellation form the core downstream, and the Chaume slope rises in a south-facing meander at Rochefort-sur-Loire. Delimited soils formed on more or less weathered schist, sometimes under Cenomanian or Pliocene detritus, with local rhyolite and spilite, gravelly soils on Carboniferous puddingstone and sandstone, and shallow soils with Silurian quartz and phtanite. Right-bank slopes are steep, up to 40% and often more than 60 m above the river; left-bank slopes are gentler and rarely rise 20 m.

Sheltered by the Choletais and Mauges, the area receives 550–600 mm of rain, about 100 mm less than the rest of the department in the growing season, and averages about 12 °C, 1 °C warmer. Holm oaks and stone pines grow there.

Shallow soils and good exposure give Chenin a regular but limited water supply. The warm mesoclimate and steep slopes favour shrivelling on the vine, and morning mists from the river allow noble rot, especially for sélection de grains nobles. The specification describes refined, elegant wines that combine sweetness and freshness, power and finesse, with complex aromas and long ageing. It notes nuances: more mineral wines from the slightly north-facing slopes of Rochefort-sur-Loire, noble-rot notes from south-facing slopes at Beaulieu-sur-Layon, Faye-d'Anjou and Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné, and powerful, harmonious wines from the gentle left bank at Rablay-sur-Layon and Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay. Chaume wines often show candied fruit and quince paste.

Coteaux du Layon is reserved for still white wine from Chenin. Grapes are picked by hand in successive passes at overripeness, concentrated on the vine with or without noble rot; the rules do not require every bottle to contain noble-rotted grapes. The plain appellation requires grapes of at least 238 g/l sugar, a base yield of 35 hl/ha and at least 34 g/l residual sugar. With a commune name (Beaulieu-sur-Layon, Faye-d'Anjou, Rablay-sur-Layon, Rochefort-sur-Loire, Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné or Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay) the figures are 255 g/l, 30 hl/ha and 51 g/l.

Premier cru Chaume requires 272 g/l, 25 hl/ha and 80 g/l, bans enrichment and ages at least until 1 July after the harvest. Sélection de grains nobles requires noble rot, 323 g/l and ageing until 1 June of the second year after the harvest. Quarts de Chaume and Bonnezeaux are separate appellations.