Go to Chinon

We have been believing for a long time that Chinon wine, nicknamed 'Breton', came from Bretagne. But at the sixteenth century, Rabelais, born near Chinon, stopped the legend, which told that Abbot Breton had flooded the region with this variety of grape and had left his name to it. Chinon actually grows 'in true Véron country', a soil between the Vienne and Loire rivers, land of the 'Dive bottle' much praised by Balzac himself in his Contes drolatiques. Today the appellation spreads over 5,400 acres cultivated by two hundred wine growers. The gravely terraces give birth to tender and fruity wines which can be drunk as from May following the harvest. The clayey and siliceous hills exude full bodied wines, with a good ageing potential. Among the tenors of this appellation, we can quote Bernard Baudry's domains (Les Granges, Les Grézeaux) and Philippe Alliet ones (Coteaux de Noiré). At last, red wines could not totally oust the very fruity Chinon rosé wines. And its elegant white wines, with intensive flower aromas like Les Chanteaux from Couly-Dutheil's domain, one of the principal merchants of the appellation, are among the most beautiful examples.

2005, October 28 - © Le Monde

Other information :
• Chinon
• Loire Valley
• Couly-Dutheil
• Bernard Baudry
• Philippe Alliet