Savennières

Vines first grew beside the great abbeys of Angers, then around the city and, in the fourth century, on the slopes of Pruniers and Bouchemaine. Around 1130 monks of Saint-Nicolas abbey in Angers planted a slope above the Loire that took the name La Roche aux Moines, and in 1140 Benedictine nuns built a priory at La Possonnière, surrounded by vineyards. In the fifteenth century King René of Anjou called the wine of a plot west of the village a "goutte d'or", the origin of the Clos de la Goutte d'Or. The vineyard grew in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; a treatise of 1749 judged the south-facing right-bank slopes to give better, stronger wine. Jules Guyot described short pruning and late picking in 1865.

The AOC decree of 8 December 1952 defined mainly sweet wines. Later revisions, pressed by the growers' syndicate, moved it towards dry wines while keeping sweeter ones.

The zone is a band of south and south-east facing slopes on the Loire's right bank, 500 to 1,500 m wide and about 6 km long, with a colder, windier plateau to the north given over to livestock and cereals. The bedrock is Upper Ordovician to Lower Devonian schist and schist-sandstone, with local volcanic veins of rhyolite and spilite and some Quaternary windblown sand where the plateau begins. On the slopes the rock is usually close to the surface. Small side valleys, locally called coulées, give parcels different exposures.

The climate is oceanic, sheltered by a foehn effect from the Mauges: about 650 mm of rain a year against more than 800 mm on the Mauges, and a mean of about 12 °C. Under the prevailing winds the Loire keeps night temperatures high and brings morning mists at harvest that favour noble rot. InterLoire describes a setting less humid than Loire-Atlantique and less continental than Touraine.

The delimited parcels are sheltered, south-facing slopes with shallow, very stony soils on schist or windblown sand, which drain well and hold little water. The specification says these sites call for strict pruning and picking by selected bunches, even for dry wines, and that Chenin finds its full character there. The wines are pale to golden yellow, with acacia and lime blossom and fruit that recalls pear, peach, quince, toasted almond, raisin and honey, with a touch of minerality. The palate is broad and rich and ends with freshness, minerality and slight bitterness. They open fully after several years in bottle, and sweeter wines age remarkably well.

Savennières is reserved for still white wine from Chenin only. Most wines are dry. In favourable autumns, helped by the Loire's warmth, river winds that dry the berries or morning mists, moelleux and doux wines are made from grapes concentrated on the vine or affected by noble rot; check the bottle rather than assume one sweetness. Base yields are 50 hl/ha for dry and demi-sec wines and 35 for the others, and wines age in vat at least until 15 March after the harvest.

The zone covers Bouchemaine, La Possonnière and Savennières; 34 operators worked the vineyard in 2009. André Jullien placed the wines in his first class in 1816. Published area and producer totals are moving snapshots.