THE WINE VINEYARD

The Loire Valley wine region is spread out along the River Loire and its tributaries, and takes in 5 Administrative regions and 14 Départements:

• Auvergne : Allier, Puy-de-Dôme
• Bourgogne : Nièvre
• Centre : Cher, Indre, Indre et Loire, Loir et Cher, Loiret
• Pays de la Loire : Loire atlantique, Maine et Loire, Sarthe, Vendée
• Poitou-Charentes : Deux-Sèvres, Vienne

It extends from Nantes to Clermont-Ferrand, with four main wine producing areas: Pays Nantais, Anjou-Saumur, Touraine and Centre.

Made up of a mosaic of sometimes geographically distant wines and vineyards, it gets its identity from being based around the River Loire.

With more than 68 appellations and more than 1000 kilometres of vines bordering the Loire, the Loire Valley is the third biggest AOC wine region in France. Part of it has been classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site (link: www.valdeloire.org)

• Biggest producer of white wines
• Biggest producer of appellation sparkling wines (apart from Champagne)
• Wine region with the third biggest number of appellations in France

 4,000,000 hl, including 3,000,000 hl of VQPRD wine

• 70,000 ha, including 52 000 given over to VQPRD wine
• 68 Appellations
• 400 million bottles

• 7,000 wine growers
• 100 wine business (15 of which generate 70% of sales)
• 24 cooperative cellars
• 25,000 people directly employed

• Sales worth €1.2 million, including €200 million in exports
• Every second, 13 bottles sold somewhere in the world

  Businesses sell 53% of the volume produced, vineyards 34% and cooperative cellars 13%.

• 1st in restaurant dining
• 3rd biggest in mass retail: 120 million bottles sold, representing 1 bottle in every 3 of Loire Valley wine
• In export: 73 million bottles exported, representing 1/5 of production. 33% goes to the United Kingdom and 20% to Belgium.

• At home: 4 households in 10 consume Loire Valley wine.