Coteaux du Layon is an Appellation d'origine contrôlée

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

(AOC) for sweet white wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 in the Loire Valley wine region of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Coteaux du Layon is situated in the Anjou district of the region, along the river Layon

Layon

The Layon is a long river in the Deux-Sèvres and Maine-et-Loire départements, western France. Its source is near Saint-Maurice-la-Fougereuse. It flows generally northwest...

, which is a tributary of the Loire River. Six of the villages (communes

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

), namely Beaulieu-sur-Layon

Beaulieu-sur-Layon

Beaulieu-sur-Layon is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France....

, Faye-d'Anjou

Faye-d'Anjou

Faye-d'Anjou is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France....

, Rablay-sur-Layon

Rablay-sur-Layon

Rablay-sur-Layon is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.-See also:*Communes of the Maine-et-Loire department...

, Rochefort-sur-Loire

Rochefort-sur-Loire

Rochefort-sur-Loire is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France....

, Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné

Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné

Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.-References:*...

 and Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay

Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay

Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.-Geography:The commune is traversed by the river Layon...

 are allowed to add their name to that of the appellation. Usually, the "de" or "sur" part is dropped, to give names like Coteaux du Layon Beaulieu and Coteaux du Layon Saint-Aubin. Furthermore, two villages within the Coteaux du Layon area form their own respective AOC – Bonnezeaux and Chaume. Finally, a favoured enclave within Chaume is a separate AOC under the name Quarts de Chaume. For the geographically delimited AOCs, required grape maturity is higher and allowed yield is lower. The best vineyards are generally located on the north bank of the Layon, where they enjoy a good sun exposure on roughly south-facing slopes. Coteaux du Layon including its enclave appellations cover about 1400 hectares (3,459.5 acre) in the early 2000s.

The wines of Coteaux du Layon are all made from Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc

Chenin blanc , is a white wine grape variety from the Loire valley of France. Its high acidity means it can be used to make everything from sparkling wines to well-balanced dessert wines, although it can produce very bland, neutral wines if the vine's natural vigor is not controlled...

, locally often called Pineau de la Loire. Often, the grape

Grape

A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

s are harvested when they are affected by noble rot

Noble rot

Noble rot is the benevolent form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea, affecting wine grapes. Infestation by Botrytis requires moist conditions, and if the weather stays wet, the malevolent form, "grey rot", can destroy crops of grapes...

, but can also be very ripe or have sun-dried on the vine, so-called passerillé grapes. While Coteaux du Layon wines are never dry, the level of sweetness varies. Simpler wines from the basic appellation could best be described as semi-sweet, while some producers – nicknamed "sugar hunters" – produce very sweet wines with an intense botrytis

Botrytis

Botrytis may refer to:*Botrytis, the anamorphs of fungi of the genus Botryotinia**Botrytis cinerea, a mold important in wine making*Botrytis, the cauliflower cultivar group of Brassica oleracea...

 character similar to a Trockenbeerenauslese

Trockenbeerenauslese

Trockenbeerenauslese is a German language wine term for an intensely sweet dessert wine-style wine....

. Some, but not all of these very sweet wines are labelled Sélection de Grains Nobles

Sélection de Grains Nobles

Sélection de Grains Nobles is French for "selection of noble berries" and refers to wines made from grapes affected by noble rot. SGN wines are sweet dessert wines with rich, concentrated flavours...

. However, it has been claimed that since the late 1990s, fewer producers try to get the sweetness of their wines up to the very extreme levels sought by many "sugar hunters" during the 1990s.

The combination of sweetness and the high acidity of Chenin Blanc, especially when grown in a relatively cold wine region such as Loire, makes many Coteaux du Layon wines very long-lived; several decades is not unusual. Indeed, since many young Chenin Blanc wines tend to be rather neutral in character, many of the traditionally made wines have been intended to be at their best with significant bottle age, after they have developed mature aromas of honey, nuts and straw. Some very sweet wines rely more on aromas of dried apricots and other botrytis flavours present already in the young wine.

Bonnezeaux

The AOC of Bonnezeaux is located in the eastern part of the Coteaux du Layon area, and has about 110 hectares (271.8 acre) of vineyards.

Chaume

The village of Chaume is situated in the western part of the Coteaux du Layon area in the commune of Rochefort-sur-Loire. The village of Chaume used to be one of the villages which could add its name to the appellation name, to be sold as Coteaux du Layon Chaume. The requirements for Chaume were slightly higher than for the other villages. In 2003, INAO

Institut National des Appellations d'Origine

The Institut National des Appellations d'Origine is the French organization charged with regulating French agricultural products with Protected Designations of Origin . Controlled by the French government, it forms part of the Ministry of Agriculture...

 elevated Chaume to its own AOC under the name Chaume Premier Cru des Coteaux du Layon. This choice of name was somewhat unusual for the region, since no other Loire appellation (in difference from for example Burgundy

Burgundy wine

Burgundy wine is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône River, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here - those commonly referred to as "Burgundies" - are red wines made from Pinot Noir grapes or white wines made from...

 AOCs) bear the designation Premier Cru or Grand Cru as part of their AOC name. Therefore, the decision was protested by some other Loire producers, and in 2005 the Conseil d'État annulled INAO's rules for the new appellation, temporarily returning Chaume to its pre-2003 status. In 2007, the AOC was created anew, now under the shorter and less controversial name of Chaume and covering 130 hectares (321.2 acre). The vintages 2005 and 2006 were allowed to carry the new name. Interestingly enough, the must weight and residual sugar requirements for the new Chaume appellation were set higher than for Quarts de Chaume. However, Quarts de Chaume AOC producers still felt that the close association between their AOC's name and Chaume was causing damage to the value of their wines and continued to object to the AOC naming, and brought the new AOC to court as well, where it was annulled in May 2009, which would mean that the wine would be back to Coteaux du Layon status. In December 2009 it looked like the controversy would be resolved by the regional committee of INAO by Chaume being allowed to call itself Premier Cru, while Quarts de Chaume would be called Grand Cru.

Quarts de Chaume

Within the village of Chaume, a particularly favoured enclave of just over 30 hectares (74.1 acre) is entitled to the name Quarts de Chaume, which means "the quarter of Chaume". It is situated with southernly exposure in an amphitheatre

Amphitheatre

An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...

-like setting, with brown schist

Schist

The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...

 and carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...

 soils. Sources differ as to the explanation of the name, if it is derived from its status as the best quarter of Chaume, or if a quarter of the wine was collected by a landowner as payment in older times.

Requirements

The legal requirements for the different AOCs are as follows.

AOC	Allowed base yield (hectoliter per hectare)	Minimum sugar content of the must (grams per liter)	Minimum alcohol content	Minimum residual sugar in the wine (grams per liter)	Other requirements
Coteaux du Layon	35 hl/ha	221 g/l	11 %	34 g/l
Coteaux du Layon + a village name	30 hl/ha	238 g/l	12 %	34 g/l
any of the above + the designation Sélection de grains nobles		294 g/l			No chaptalization Chaptalization Chaptalization is the process of adding sugar to unfermented grape must in order to increase the alcohol content after fermentation. The technique is named after its developer, the French chemist Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal...  allowed, must prove in a test that it has SGN character
Bonnezeaux	25 hl/ha	238 g/l	12 %	34 g/l	Grapes must be overripe, and may be affected by noble rot or not
Chaume	25 hl/ha	272 g/l	12 %	68 g/l	Grapes must be passerillé or affected by noble rot. If the must has a minimum sugar content of 323 g/l and no chaptalization is used, only 11% alcohol is required
Quarts de Chaume	25 hl/ha	238 g/l	12 %	34 g/l	Grapes must be overripe, and may be affected by noble rot or not

Other appellations

The subregion's generic Anjou appellation overlaps with the Coteaux du Layon area. Therefore, it is possible to downgrade Coteaux du Layon wine to dry or sweet Anjou blanc.

Coteaux de l’Aubance to the north of Coteaux du Layon produce wines of a similar style, but is a less notable appellation.

Vouvray

Vouvray (wine)

Vouvray is a French region of the Loire Valley located in the Touraine district just east of the city of Tours in the commune of Vouvray. The Appellation d'origine contrôlée is dedicated almost exclusively to Chenin blanc though the obscure and minor grape Arbois is permitted but rarely used.Wine...

is another Chenin blanc appellation which produces both sweet, dry and sparkling wines. It is situated further upriver along the Loire, in the Touraine subregion. In comparison to sweet Vouvray, Coteaux du Layon wines tend to be more full-bodied, often sweeter, and slightly lower in acidity.

External links

• Wine Doctor: Anjou and Saumur Part 1, including map of the appellations