Vouvray & Touraine, Loire Valley
Touraine sits right at the heart of the Loire Valley, surrounding the city of Tours, and it's the region that earns the area its nickname, "the Garden of France." Walk through it and you're walking through history almost as much as vineyard — this is château country, and the wine and the architecture grew up together.
Touraine takes its name from the Turones, a Celtic tribe who occupied the area around two thousand years ago, and the first written mention of local vineyards dates back to 582, with Benedictine and Augustinian monks later doing most of the work of actually structuring the region's viticulture during the Middle Ages. By the Renaissance, Touraine wine had genuinely arrived: King Francis I praised its quality, and the writer Rabelais celebrated it in his work, while the region's gloomy medieval castles were converted into the Renaissance châteaux that still define the landscape today.
One of the region's best stories belongs to its signature white grape. Chenin Blanc is believed to have originated in nearby Anjou, possibly as early as the 9th century, before making its way to Touraine by the 15th century. When Thomas Bohier purchased land around Chenonceau in 1496, he brought in grape varieties from Burgundy, Jura, and Anjou, and one of those Anjou varieties was planted at a site called Mont Chenin sometime between 1520 and 1535 — which is, by most accounts, where the grape eventually got its modern name.
Geologically, Touraine is defined by one famous material: tuffeau, a soft, porous limestone formed roughly 90 million years ago, which was quarried to build most of the Loire's great châteaux. The same tuffeau caves used as building quarries turned out to be ideal for long-term wine storage and ageing — a happy double use that's shaped both the region's architecture and its cellars. Tuffeau is considered the noblest of Touraine's soils, followed by flinty clay locally called "perruches," and finally sand and gravel, each contributing a different level of structure and ageing potential to the wine grown on it.
Touraine is really a transition zone, and that's its real character: to the west it continues the Anjou-Saumur style of Chenin Blanc whites and Cabernet Franc reds, while to the east it shifts toward Sauvignon Blanc made in a style closer to Sancerre. That breadth shows up in the wine list: Sauvignon Blanc is actually the most widely planted grape today, at 43% of plantings, with Gamay leading the reds at 21%, while the region's more prestigious sub-appellations — Vouvray, Montlouis, Chinon, Bourgueil — narrow back in on classic Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc. Sparkling wine, made by the traditional method, also accounts for around 10% of Touraine production, offering a lighter, more affordable alternative to Champagne.
In this collection you'll find crisp, easy Sauvignon Blanc and versatile Chenin Blanc alongside fresh, peppery Cabernet Franc reds — proof that some of the Loire's best everyday drinking doesn't carry a famous village name
