Appellation
Vouvray
Identity card
VillageAOPWhiteSweetSparkling
Loire Valley › Touraine · Recognised on 8 December 1936
- Village
- Regional
Key points
- Still wines: at most 52 hl/ha and at least 11% natural alcohol.
- Sparkling wines: second fermentation in bottle, at most 65 hl/ha.
- In favourable years, shrivelled or nobly rotten grapes make sweet wines.
Grape varieties
WhiteSparklingSweet
Accessory varieties: Orbois (5% at most of the holding's vines)
Chenin makes up most of any blend; never Orbois alone
Production rules
6,000
vines/ha
Minimum planting density
Minimum ageing: Still: until at least 15 January; sparkling: at least 12 months after tirage
- Minimum planting density
- The fewest vines allowed per hectare. For the same yield, more vines means fewer grapes on each. For reference: 4,000 vines/ha to 9,000 vines/ha across 105 Oenopia appellations of the same colour.
- Minimum ageing
- A minimum ageing period the specification requires before the wine may be sold to consumers.
Terroir
- Lie of the land: Plateau cut by valleys, tuffeau cliffs above the Loire
- Soils: Clay-limestone slopes, clay-flint soils on the plateau edge
- Climate: Degraded oceanic, continental influences; 680 mm a year
Wine style
- White
- Sweet
- Linden blossom
- Honey
- Quince
- fruity, floral when young
- from dry to sweet
- Sparkling
- Brioche
- fine, light mousse
- fruit or citrus
Boundaries: INAO, AOC vineyard plot delimitation (September 2026 edition) · Open Licence
Specification
29 November 2023
Arrêté du 29 novembre 2023 homologuant le cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée « Vouvray » (JORF n°0282 du 6 décembre 2023, texte n°23). Savoir-faire reconnu en appellation d'origine depuis 1936.
Labelling terms
- "Sec" compulsory on a still wine meeting the specification's dry standard
- The geographical name "Val de Loire" may be added
- The name of a registered lieu-dit may appear on the label
Sources
- Official sourceCahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée « Vouvray »— Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO)
- Official sourceCahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée « Vouvray » (BO du MASA du 7 décembre 2023)— Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO) / Ministère de l'agriculture
- Reference bookThe Oxford Companion to Wine— Oxford University Press
- Trade bodyVins de Loire — site officiel d'InterLoire— InterLoire — Interprofession des Vins du Val de Loire
On the Loire's right bank, some twenty kilometres upstream of Tours, Vouvray, recognised as an appellation since 1936, turns Chenin Blanc (with a small share of Orbois allowed alongside) into wines from dry through sweet and on to sparkling wines made by a second fermentation in bottle. The tuffeau slopes, a soft Turonian chalk, carry both the vines and the cellars and troglodyte dwellings cut into the rock.
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Vouvray
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