Welcome to The Jungle: Touraine Chenonceaux
Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games
We got everything you want, honey, we know the names
We are the people that can find whatever you may need
If you got the money, honey, we got your disease
– Welcome to The Jungle (1987), Axl Rose/Guns N’ Roses
Among the music community there is some confusion regarding the exact inspiration and meaning behind the opening lyrics of Welcome to the Jungle, the opening track on Appetite for Destruction, the debut album from rock band Guns N’ Roses.
Allow me to explain. According to one magazine article published during the 1980s, lead singer and lyricist Axl Rose penned the words when visiting a friend in Seattle, when he was struck by the rural, small-city, ‘you can do anything here’ way of life. Despite this a second source, specifically the band’s guitarist Izzy Stradlin, suggests the principal inspiration came from the mean streets of Hollywood in Los Angeles. A third statement, from Rose himself, indicates he was inspired by the words of a homeless man, yelled in his direction after alighting from a bus in New York.
Who to believe?
The fact is while any of these theories are believable, they are little more than cover stories for the true inspiration for Axl Rose’s words. Only a select group of industry insiders are aware of this, but Rose’s lyrical pen went to paper not in Seattle, Hollywood or New York, but in Tours, in a dingy hotel room, overlooking the waters of the Cher. This was in early 1987, and despite having formed Guns N’ Roses only very recently, the band was already in turmoil, the members having fallen out almost as soon as they had come together. In the aftermath, Axl Rose had taken the record company’s private Gulfstream G550 to France, for a much-needed break exploring the Touraine region and its wines.
Well, who wouldn’t?
After a day or two tasting in the region, Axl was struck by the Touraine appellation’s intricate, impenetrable and occasionally idiotic complexities, and the magic began. Back in a hazy, smoke-filled hotel room, at the end of a long day of sipping and spitting Sauvignon Blanc and Côt, the lyrics flowed like the wine itself onto the music sheet. Success, wealth and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (they were inducted in 2012, the first eligible year of nomination) for Axl and Guns N’ Roses were now guaranteed.
Of course, it is possible this is all just the product of my over-fertile imagination, but at least one facet of this story is true; the Touraine appellation is a jungle of confusing rules. Its principal white variety today is Sauvignon Blanc, and yet the original trio of super-Touraine zones (Azay-le-Rideau, Amboise, Mesland) all feature Chenin Blanc as the lead variety. At first glance this seems akin to Burgundy regulations demanding the planting of Chenin Blanc in premier and grand cru sites ahead of Chardonnay, although there is some logic to it, as I will explain further down the page. And if asked to guess the identity of the appellation’s principal red variety I suspect many would say Cabernet Franc, and this is partly true, but weirdly only if the vineyard is west of Tours. To the east of Tours, where the majority of the Touraine vineyards are found, the principal red variety is Côt, or Malbec.
This Côt–Cabernet division is, to my eyes, a candidate for the most absurd appellation rule in all French wine law.
While the rules of the Touraine Jungle are opaque, those pertaining to the super-Touraines are a little clearer. And picking them apart has made for an interesting experience. In this two-part report on the wines of Touraine I take a deep dive into the evolution of the Touraine appellation and the super-Touraines (the three above, and the more recent creations of Chenonceaux and Oisly). Here in part one I will focus almost exclusively on what is perhaps the most prominent of these ‘super zones’, Touraine Chenonceaux, complemented by a salvo of relevant tasting notes. In the second instalment I add detail on the other four super-Touraine zones as well as the generic Touraine appellation, along with more than 90 tasting notes.
First, to set the scene, a little Touraine history, with a potted account of the appellation, leading up to the creation of the super-Touraine zones.
