Loire Valley (wine) come out of this period with their full palate of flavors and can continue to age well into 20 years. Some of the Sauvignon blanc based wines like Sancerre buck this trend and instead stay more low key till their third year when they mature and develop their full assortment of flavors before they eventually fade around their 7-10th year. However the best made examples in top vintages can often live much longer. Some classic examples of Vouvray can even reach the levels of longevity commonly associated with Port. Historically the wineries of the Loire Valley have been small, family
Loire Nevers, La Charité-sur-Loire, Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, Cher: Sancerre, Loiret: Briare, Gien, Orléans, Loir-et-Cher: Blois, Indre-et-Loire: Amboise, Tours, Maine-et-Loire: Montsoreau, Saumur, Loire-Atlantique: Ancenis, Nantes, Saint-Nazaire. The Loire Valley in the Loire river basin, is a stretch in the western reach of the river starting with Orléans and terminating at Nantes, short of the Loire estuary and the Atlantic Ocean. The tidal stretch of the river extends to a length of and a width of , which has oil refineries, the port of Saint-Nazaire and of wetland whose formation is dated to 7500 BC (caused by inundation by sea waters on the northern bank