Winegrowing in the region of the hillsides of Bouchemaine, Savennières and La Possonnière, where the Loire and Maine rivers meet started around the 5th century.
HISTORY
From the 9th to the 12th century, winegrowing gradually developed thanks to the abbeys.
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A significant part of the area of Épiré and La Roche-aux-Moines was owned by the Benedictines of the Saint-Nicolas Abbey in Angers. The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Serge d'Angers held a priory and lands in Savennières.
Anjou's vineyards met great success when Henry II Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, became King of England in 1154. He had Anjou wines served at court, a practice continued by his successors King John and Henry III.
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From the Middle Ages to the 15th century, the bourgeoisie supported the expansion of vineyards around the town of Angers, obtaining the abolition of the "droit de banvin", which until then had reserved exclusive rights to the wine trade to the aristocracy.
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In 1532, when King François I authorized the states of Brittany to maintain a foreign trade tax on their border at Ingrandes, the wines of the Loire Valley underwent new development, and great wines like those from Savennières were exported, bearing this additional tax thanks to their quality.
In the 17th century, the Dutch trade set up in Nantes sought out wines to suit the tastes of their customers, and this led to an extraordinary boom in the production of sweet wines in Anjou, on both banks of the Loire River. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes on October 18, 1685, banishing Protestants from France, put an end to this high-quality trade, leading to the exile of the Dutch and many Huguenots in particular to South Africa, where they developed viticulture and in particular the planting of Chenin Blanc.
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In 1709, a harsh winter hit the vineyards. Temperatures dropped to -20°C. Barrels exploded, the ocean froze along the coast. Soon after, the French Revolution had devastating effects on the vineyards of Anjou, which were holme to the wars of Vendée.
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New means of transport stimulated viticulture, notably the railroads. The Paris-Nantes line opened in 1850. Investors from the Parisian financial world settled in Savennières, building new estates with a keen quest for quality. This dynamism was brought to an abrupt halt towards the end of the 19th century by the phylloxera crisis, which destroyed a large part of the vineyards. The First World War destroyed the rural workforce.
Between both World Wars, the wish to rebuild the wine economy became once again a major concern, giving birth to the Appellations d'Origine Contrôlée. The Savennières AOC was established as an exceptional area at the heart of the Coteaux de Loire et de Maine appellation (sweet wines) in 195 . The specifications do not detail the winemaking requirements, however sweet wines were the official tradition. Winegrowers were required to request special permission to make dry wines when the climate was not favourable to sweet wines.
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A few years later, winegrowers of Savennières AOC decided, under the drive of its president Michèle Bazin de Jessey and vice-president Jean Baumard, that the specifications would officially authorize the production of dry, demi-sec and sweet wines. Since 2015, the wines have been predominantly dry.
In 2000, the Loire Valley (between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes-sur-Loire) was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The remarkable wine-growing landscape of Savennières, its hillsides, its landscaped agricultural parks and its coulees are thus honoured.
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Today, the vineyards of Savennières cover approximately 170 hectares farmed by 39 winegrowers.
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EN SAVOIR +
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