Loire Valley

SNIF-NMR and/or IRMS techniques were often combined with trace element analyses (ICP-MS, ICP-OES, FAAS, ETAAS, GFFA) and chemometrics for the geographical characterization of wines. In a relatively old paper, Day et ah (1995) analyzed 165 grape samples collected in 1990 in four different production areas of France (Alsace, Beaujolais, Burgundy, and the Loire Valley). The combined use of isotopic and trace element data allowed an excellent classification of wine samples corresponding to... 

Another style of botrytized sweet wine from France involves the category of "Selection de Grains Nobles" (SGN). This legal definition was introduced in 1984 in Alsace, but similar wines are produced also in the Loire valley from grapes of different varieties and sugar contents (Table 6.2). 

The other appellations of SGN wines are Coteaux du Layon, and Coteaux de l Aubance in the Loire valley, Anjou. Coteaux du Layon produces sweet wine only, and the single variety here is Chenin blanc, a neutral, acidic grape cultivar. It is extremely prone to noble rot. The required initial sugar content of the must is 294 g/1 for SGN wines (INAO, 2007). Two individual AOCs within this region are Bonnezeaux and Chaume. Most of these SGN wines are very sweet, in comparison with the other French styles. 

The red wines of the East are less well known and in smaller demand than the whites. This is not an unusual situation. Germany is known as white wine country, though substantial quantities of red are made. The same is true of the Champagne district and the Loire Valley of France, both better known for their whites than their reds, though the latter can be very good. 

The benzenemethanethiol content of the Chardonnay wines, irrespective of their provenance, was two- or threefold higher than that of wines made from the other grape varieties studied (Fig. 8B.2). Sauvignon blanc wines from the Loire Valley and Bordeaux, as well as Semilion from Bordeaux, had comparable benzenemethanethiol concentrations (10-15 ng/L). The red Bordeaux wines analyzed, from various different vintages and appellations, had benzenemethanethiol concentrations around 10 ng/L. 

Quality of red wines depends to a large extent on their phenolic composition. In particular, sensory analyses of wines obtained, over a fifteen-year period, from Vitis vinifera var. Cabernet franc grapes grown in different Loire Valley locations. 

Wines made from Vitis vinifera var. Cabernet franc grapes harvested from different Loire Valley locations were submitted to sensory evaluation. The grapes and wines were also analysed for their phenolic composition. The three sets of data thus generated were then treated separately by mutiple factor analysis (MFA) in order to compare the wine configurations thus obtained and establish eventual... 

Comparison of the chemical and sensory data obtained when analysing 17 Cabernet franc wines from the Loire Valley suggested that procyanidin gallates and prodelphinidins show different tannin characters although the observed differences... 

Sauternes (site 2) Beaujolais Burgundy Loire Valley... 

Pages, J. (2005). Collection and analysis of perceived product inter-distances using multiple factor analysis application to the study of 10 white wines from the Loire Valley. Food Quality and Preference, 16, 642-649. 

Perrin, L., Symoneaux, R., Maitie, 1., AsseUn, C., Jouijon, F. and Pagds, J. (2008). Comparison of three sensory methods for use with the Napping procedure case of ten wines from Loire valley. Food Quality arul Preference, 19, 1-11. 

Perrin, L. and Pages, J. (2009) Construction of a prodnct space from the nltra-flash profiling method Application to 10 red wines from the Loire Valley, J Sens Stud, 24, 373-395. DOI 10.1111/j. 1745 59X.2009.00216.x. 

Pagfes, J. (2003). Direct collection of sensory distances Application to the evaluation of ten white wines of the Loire Valley. Sciences Des Aliments, 23(5-6), 679-688. 

Vezhinet et al. (1992) and Versavaud et al. (1995) have also studied the clonal diversity of yeast microflora in other vineyards. Their results confirm the polyclonal character of fermentative populations of S. cerevisiae. The notion of dominant strains (one to two per fermentation) is obvious in the work carried out in the Charentes region. As in Champagne and the Loire Valley, some Charentes region strains are found for several years in a row in the same winery. The presence of these dominant strains on the grape has been confirmed before any contact with winery equipment during several harvests. 

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