Loire Valley Pétillants on Parade, 2023
The Loire Valley has a sparkling wine heritage which stretches back to the early 19th century, arguably beginning when the newly arrived winemaker Jean Baptiste Ackerman threw in his lot with the merchant Jean Pierre Apollinaire Laurance-Olivier. Ackerman came fresh and full of ideas, direct from Champagne, while Laurance’s contribution to the partnership was his rich knowledge of trading and the European markets. Setting up in the great subterranean quarries of Saumur, the pair soon latched on to the new fashion of the time – sparkling wines – and Ackerman-Laurance was thus the first of the region’s great sparkling wine houses.
Many others followed, and over the ensuing two centuries sparkling wines have become an essential part of viticultural life in the Loire Valley, and consequently the region has grown to become France’s second largest for sparkling wine, directly behind the obvious front-runner. And the style has been democratised, the production of sparkling wines no longer limited to a small number of famous houses like Ackerman-Laurance; sparkling wines are now an important facet of many grower’s portfolios in Anjou, Saumur and Touraine, with a smaller number of exponents further up and down the river.
More recent years have seen continued growth in the style, with an explosion in diversity of varieties and methodologies employed. The Loire Valley is not limited to a handful of varieties, and while familiar autochthones such as Chenin Blanc clearly dominate the blends, with a large slice of the region’s sparkling wines being made outside the confines of the appellation system anything goes; Gamay, Grolleau Noir, Folle Blanche and Pineau d’Aunis, whatever your chosen variety is, you can be sure someone out there is adding bubbles to it.
In addition an ancient methodology – the méthode ancestrale – has seen an unprecedented revival, usurping the more commonplace méthode traditionnelle. Put it all together and the result was the pétillant naturel phenomenon, wines to be drunk young rather than squirrelled away in the cellar for decades. Wines intended for fun and frivolity, rather than being obsessed over by fusty old fizz addicts.
![Loire Valley Pétillants on Parade, 2023](https://www.thewinedoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/petillants2023_labels.jpg" "Pétillant cuvées from La Bulle de Facteur, Domaine de l'Echantoir, Les Grandes Vignes and more, November 2023")