Chinon Vineyards
The vineyard belongs much more to the Vienne than the Loire. It descends through the countryside from Véron, including Huismes, Avoine and Savigny, via Beaumont and Chinon, as far as Cravant, Panzoult and Crouzilles. Crossing the river, it also incorporates the diverse communes of the left bank; La Roche-Clermault, Rivière, Ligré, Anché, Sazilly, Tavant, L’Île-Bouchard and Theneuil.
– Les Vins de Loire, Pierre Bréjoux, published 1956
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that about seventy years have passed since he put stylo to papier, the words penned by Pierre Bréjoux are now plainly out of date. Dramatic changes to the Chinon appellation, made real in 2016, mean that the vineyards now extend far beyond the 16 communes he listed. This is especially true of the left bank, where the appellation continues downriver past La Roche-Clermault, ultimately touching the easternmost reaches of the Saumur vineyard.
And yet the key point made by Pierre Bréjoux still stands, and that is this; Chinon is an extensive appellation (even more so today, I guess), one that incorporates a diverse range of communes, terroirs, slopes and soils. Within the pages of Les Vins de Loire Bréjoux went so far to note that St Emilion and Chinon share a common variety, but I believe there are many more parallels which can be drawn between these two appellations than the presence of Cabernet Franc, the most obvious of which is the huge diversity of terroirs available. They are both complex vineyards which provide a viticulteur with the conditions required to make every style of wine, from simple, easy drinking vins de soif to serious and concentrated vins de garde such as those from the Clos de l’Echo (pictured), which demand time in the cellar, for perhaps ten, twenty or more years, before the cork is pulled.
For this reason a detailed exploration of the vineyards of Chinon and their impact on the style of wine is warranted. And yet with approximately 2,500 hectares planted up (five times the area described by Bréjoux during the 1950s) I don’t think we have the time or the space to cover every noteworthy lieu-dit here. And so, as I did with the Vineyards of Vouvray, in this instalment of my guide to the wines of the Loire Valley I take a look at a handful of exemplar vineyards which typify the principal Chinon terroirs. These include limestone (often with superficial clay), deeper soils of clay (sometimes mixed with flint, sand, faluns or other materials) and the alluvial soils, from well-regarded gravels through to the more sandy and silty materials.
