Vouvray (wine) ginger, fig, apples and white flowers. Vouvrays are often paired with rich, hearty dishes and flavorful sauces. As Vouvray can be made in a wide range of sweetness styles, the wine labels may indicate the sweetness level by the terms "Sec", "Demi-Sec", "Moelleux" and "Doux". While these terms are not strictly defined, they tend to roughly fall into the guidelines below. Note that the residual sugar level may not equate to the level of sweetness that a taster will perceive in the wine due to balance of acidity in the wine. In some cases a producer's "Demi-Sec" wine may taste
Loire lower Loire found its source upstream of Orléans in the region of Gien, flowing westward along the present course. At a certain point during the long history of uplift in the Paris Basin, the lower, Atlantic Loire captured the "palaeo-Loire" or "Loire séquanaise" ("Seine Loire"), producing the present river. The former bed of the "Loire séquanaise" is occupied by the Loing. The Loire Valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period from 40–90 ka. Neanderthal man used stone tools to fashion boats out of tree trunks and navigated the river. Modern man inhabited the Loire valley around 30 ka.