THE TERROIR OF SAVENNIERES
Savennières is a very old village, nestled in a coulée on the right bank of the Loire Valley at the point where the Maine and Loire rivers meet. The village is dominated by well-ventilated hillsides facing the river. On this plateau fractured by coulées, there is a remarkable exposure on the slopes. Le grand clos de la Coulée de Serrant, la Roche aux Moines overlook the Petites Coulées and the Clos du Papillon on the Coulées hillside, together with the Croix Picot and Hu boyau, which are the emblematic parcels of this great terroir. The soils are covered with decomposed schist, fractured by millions of years of geological life.
The Appellation extends over 350 hectares towards La Possonnière to the West and Bouchemaine to the East.
A semi-oceanic microclimate favours almost Mediterranean vegetation. Rainfall averages 400 mm per year.
A LANDSCAPE OF PARKS, COULÉES AND VINYARDS.
From the Renaissance, the arrival of Angers’ bourgeoisie seeking to have a "country house" left a deep imprint in the landscape of Savennières. Very little remains of these closeries. The most visible element is the old part of the Château de Chamboureau, with its octagonal tower. Interior walls of the Château d'Epiré and the Château des Vaults also date back to this period, which brought polycultural farming to these hillsides.
In the 19th century, the seventeen châteaux and manor houses built around the schist plateau were built on these former rustic manor houses. These prestigious homes deeply altered the landscape, creating a setting for the vines with their landscaped agricultural parks and open vistas or paths leading to the vineyards: the most spectacular one being the cypress path between the Château de la Roche aux Moines to the Coulée de Serrant (listed as a Historical Monument).
These landscaped agricultural parks also contributed to biodiversity through their very design, which included farmland (still noticeable at La Bizolière), grazing land for animals such as cows, sheep or horses, sometimes very large water features, even rivers as at the Château de Varennes and the Château des Vaults, where a boire (branch of the Loire) runs through the grounds, remarkable botanical collections such as the arboretum at Château de Varennes, with rare trees and shrubs adapted from hot climates, follies and vegetable gardens. The Savennières landscape consists of 15 landscaped agricultural parks where the vineyards are enclosed by exceptional greenery and trees.
The "Coulées", which once served as terraced vineyard and have now largely disappeared, were gradually transformed into a wooded countryside over the course of the 20th century, providing a habitat for fauna and flora that has recently been showcased by today's winegrowers, who are sensitive to the biodiversity of their landscape. A study carried out by INRAE (the French National Institute for Agronomic Research) on chiropteran populations, which are particularly active in the vicinity of hedgerows and coulées, and are predators of the vineyard pests Eudemis and Cochylis.
Regular spring frosts in recent years and extreme summer drought have prompted a number of collective thoughts, leading to various actions: agroforestry, natural grassing, eco-pasturing, installation of frost sensors and a weather station, etc...
THE GEOLOGY
Geologically speaking, Savennières lies on the remnants of an ancient mountain range, as evidenced by the diversity of the rocks, the numerous fractures and folds that characterize them, and the presence of a sheet-like flow that expresses itself above all in the finest-grained rocks: schistosity. The history of these constraints is more recent than that of the sediment and location of these rocks when this territory was in the southern hemisphere (mainly clayey muds, sands or radiolarians in a marine environment that gave rise to shales, sandstones or phtanites). Interspersed with these rocks, the geological unit belonging to the Armorican range, which characterises Savennières, is also made up of magmatic rocks with varied chemistries ranging from spilites (metabasalts) to rhyolites and microgranites.
All these ancient rocks have been altered and eroded. The most resistant rocks, such as quartz veins, are very common, as are spilites, rhyolites, phtanites and sandstones. They can be noticed as residual rocks in vineyards or as points where mills and castles were frequently built. These rocks are more frequently found on hillsides or in the wake of roadworks, notably on the Route des Forges, along the railroad line or along the Loire River.
Alterites (products of rock weathering) cover the plateau in varying thicknesses, sometimes overlaid by fine deposits of so-called eolian sands, in connection with their formation during the Quaternary, when the area was swept by strong winds and the climate was much colder and drier. Slope deposits, known as colluvium, can also fill in valley bottoms and blend with fluvial deposits, where they can reach up to twenty meters in thickness under the Loire River.
The geology of this area will influence soil types, their useful water reserves and the importance of root networks. The presence of these plateaus, coulées and hillsides, with their unique exposure in this sector, will also play a role in the drainage of the plots and their exposure to the South. All these aspects, directly or indirectly, play a role in the work of the vines and the production of the wines that characterise this appellation.
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CHENIN BLANC GRAPE VARIETAL
Chenin Blanc is the only grape varietal authorised to produce Savennières.
Jean Michel Boursiquot (Montpellier Supagro) described this grape variety at the International Chenin Congress organised by the Académie du Chenin in 2019.
« Some authors date this grape varietal back to the 11th, 10th and even 6th centuries. However, even if the presence of vines in the Layon and Anjou regions is well attested, there's no proof that Chenin Blanc was certainly present at that time. ».
Chenin Blanc comes from the Savagnin and the Sauvignonasse grape varietals (synonyms include: Friulano)
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Ampelographic description and colour of the berries
- young leaves with bronze patches
- chenin’s adult leaves have three to five clearly distinguishable lobes, with a slightly open petiolar sinus, or with slightly overlapping lobes
- on the lateral lobes, the teeth are medium-length, with convex sides, and the veins have a strong red anthocyanic pigment
- the leaf blade is quite bubbled and its underside has a moderately dense coat of flat-lying hairs
- flowers that are hermaphroditic
- berries that are elliptical in shape with presence of pips
Chenin Blanc is a grape varietal with "white" berries and is also often referred to as "white chenin". However, there is also a pink-berry mutation that was selected in South Africa; its interest deserves to be specified.
Phenology and climate requirements
Period of bud break: 1 day before Chasselas.
Flowering period: 1 day after Chasselas
Period of veraison: 2 and a half weeks to 3 weeks after Chasselas.
Period of maturity: 3 weeks to 3 weeks and a half after Chasselas.
Chenin Blanc is thus characterized by an early bud burst which makes it susceptible to spring frosts, and a relatively long cycle with a varietal heliothermic index (date of bud break to harvest date) of 1895. After a spring frost, the secondary buds which restart are not extremely fertile.
In terms of vegetation and physiology, Chenin Blanc proves to adapt to hot, tropical or equatorial climatic conditions. Meaning it is possible to grow this grape variety in these parts of the world. However, it is highly sensitivite to bunch rot,roasting and scalding. Leaf removal must therefore be carried out carefully and as a result farming must be done with due consideration of the plant and its specific requirements for optimum growth.
Suitability for agriculture and agronomy
Chenin Blanc is a medium to strong variety. Its twigs have a semi-erect to erect growth with an average diameter and short internodes. Removing unwanted shoots is often useful or necessary in the spring or early summer, to balance the vegetation, promote aeration, improve the microclimate of the berries and facilitate the winter size of the following year.
Chenin Blanc is a fertile variety, which can be cut short (and for example grown in a goblet or with a long stem, i.e. Guyot). It’s production potential depends on farming conditions and agronomic fertility of the soil where it is planted. Under vigorous conditions chenin can produce bunches in relatively large quantities and may also be subject to drying of the stalks.
The most commonly used rootstocks are, in descending order, the riparia glory of Montpellier, the SO4, the gravesac, the MGT 101-14 and the fercal23. Problems of affinity have sometimes been reported with 3309 C and today this rootstock is practically discontinued with chenin growing.
Sensitivity to diseases and pests
Chenin Blanc is particularly sensitive to gray rot, acid rot, powdery mildew and wood disease (Eutypiose, Esca, ...). It is also susceptible to excoriosis, burr knots and cutworms (larvae of the vine moth). On the other hand, it is less affected by mildew, black rot and anthracnose.
Characteristics of grapes and wines
Chenin Blanc clusters are medium to large, conical, sometimes winged (with one or two fins) and can be very compact. The berries are small to medium. Depending on the type of soil (i.e. limestone vs. schist) their agronomic fertility and farming, Chenin Blanc can produce either sparkling wines, dry wines or sweet wines. One of the main characteristics of Chenin Blanc its high acidity potential. The wines are hence elegant, generally quite lively, vigorous, with potential floral aromas (acacia, hawthorn, linden...), fruity (quince, mirabelle, citrus, guava, ...) and honey.
