Loire Valley (wine) more pronounced mineral notes. The Cabernet franc based wines are also lighter in color with more vegetal or "weed"-like aromas. In riper vintages, a Loire Cabernet franc will develop aromas of raspberries and lead pencil shavings. The Loire Valley has a high density of vine plantings with an average of 1,600-2,000 vines per acre (4,000-5,000 per hectare). Some Sancerre vineyards have as many as 10,000 plants per hectare. With more vines competing for the same limited resources in the soil, the density is designed to compensate for the excessive yields that some of the grape varieties, like Chenin blanc, are
Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; meaning "Loire Countries") is one of the 18 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of so-called "balancing metropolises" ("métropoles d'équilibre")¹. Pays de la Loire comprises 5 departments: Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Sarthe, Vendée. Pays de la Loire is made up of the following historical provinces: Thus the name of the region, chosen by the French central government, was not based on history, but purely on geographical references: "Pays" ("lands") "de