The Wine Appellations of Anjou-Saumur in the Loire Valley
Some Facts on the Wines of Anjou-Saumur
The overall size of the combined appellation is 15,100..hectares, making around 182,260 hectolitres of wine per year (1hectolitre=100 litres). Saumur itself makes over 104,000 hectolitres of Saumur Brut, (sparkling wine).
Red wine is relatively new in the region, in fact California has made red wine in commercial quantities for far longer than here. It was only after the demise of the great rosé boom that winemakers began to look at the possibilities of using the cabernet franc grape to produce fine reds.
The appellation is the largest in France for the production of dry whites.
The great sweet wine appellation "Coteaux de Saumur is one of the smallest in the whole Loire region at just 17 hectares.
The Loire has the longest wine routes in France. Together they traverse practically the whole 630 miles of the Loire Valley. In Anjou the wine route runs from the vineyards of Muscadet in the west to the red wine regions of Chinon and Bourgueil in the East.
An overview of the Appellation of Anjou and Saumur
There has much been written on the wine of Anjou unfortunately, with several notable exceptions, much of it is trite and superficial. I have the impression that, with many recent works, the source of information is books that have been written many years earlier. This perceived wisdom simply does not take into account the vast strides that winemakers in the region have made in the past 20 years or so. The potential has always been here to make great wine, now that potential is being realised. For example many famous wine experts still talk of Loire reds in general as being like super-rosé's. This is simply not true. To be sure there are wines like that, made deliberately to be lightly chilled and enjoyed on a hot summer's day but you will also find red wine that is as dark as any you will find in the South or the New World.
However I can well understand why many authorities tend to gloss over this, one of France's most fascinating wine regions and that is simply because the region is frankly - complicated. With around 26 separate appellations it is intricate web of overlapping appellations which make it very difficult to get a handle on to it. Couple that with the myriad soil types; from the pure, dense limestone of Saumur to the dark schist of the Layon and you have a region of such complexity that you could happily pass the rest of your wine appreciating life here, discovering the little known appellations which almost always contain a hidden gem.
The size of the Anjou/Saumur vineyard is immense and it benefits from a temperate climate, which is in itself divided into several micro-climates. It is far enough inland to escape most of the winter storms which can affect the nantais and is near enough to the coast to have a more temperate climate than the continental one which affects the central vineyards to the East. This combination of factors favours a staggering richness in its wine.
The white wines are fruity and distinguished when dry with ample acidity and a lemony finish, when sweet they are generous and honeylike with overtures of tropic fruit, particularly of lychées. The red wines are ruby coloured with notes of red fruit, fresh and aromatic, very attractive in their youth whilst those that are made for ageing are dense, complex and mouth-filling. The rosés, of which there are many different examples, both sweet and dry are gentle, perfumed and light, ideal at any time under the Anjou summer sun. The sparkling wines really define the region, their elegance and sophistication seemingly in perfect harmony with the grandeur of the chateaux for which the Loire is equally famous. It is in Saumur that the emphasis is really on what the French call fine boulles - fine bubbles. Saumur is France's second largest producer after Champagne and often produces wine which puts its more famous competitor in the shade. 
