Loire Valley (wine) (where Pouilly-Fumé is made) sit on opposite sides of the Loire river with Sancerre being about to the northwest of Pouilly. The "Fumé" is said to come from the "silex" flint interspersed with the limestone in the area that can give a smoky gunflint note to the wine. Another possibility for the name is the early morning fog created by the Loire river that can blanket the vineyards. Wines labeled with just Pouilly or Pouilly-sur-Loire are often made from the Chasselas grape. Unlike many areas of France, the Sancerre region is heavily mechanized with the use of mechanical harvesting rather
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