Sauvignon Blanc in the Upper Loire is expressed on the Kimmeridgian limestone and silex soils of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume. Wines run from crystalline citrus and white-peach (Sancerre on caillottes) to broader, herbaceous and chalky (terres blanches) and to the smoky, gun-flint character (silex around Saint-Andelain). Most are unoaked and built around razor acidity, capable of 5-12 years of bottle age. Menetou-Salon, Quincy and Reuilly make value alternatives on related soils. Didier Dagueneau's barrel-fermented Silex and Pur Sang from the 1990s onwards demonstrated that Loire Sauvignon could carry oak-driven, age-worthy bottlings.
Chenin Blanc is the Loire's signature white grape, with extraordinary versatility and ageing potential. On the tuffeau of Vouvray and Montlouis it produces dry (sec), off-dry (demi-sec), sweet (moelleux) and sparkling (petillant and methode traditionnelle) styles, with the producer choosing each year based on ripeness and noble rot. On the schist and volcanic soils of Savennieres it makes tight, austere, slow-evolving dry whites. Along the Layon tributary it becomes botrytised sweet wine of multi-decade longevity, capped by Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru and Bonnezeaux. Defining features across styles: searing acidity, beeswax and quince on the palate, and the famous chalk-and-wool texture given by tuffeau.
Known locally as Breton (after Cardinal Richelieu's land manager Abbe Breton who is credited with bringing it from Bordeaux in the 17th century), Cabernet Franc is the Loire's flagship red.
The grape of Muscadet, originally from Burgundy (hence Melon de Bourgogne or Melon B), now found almost exclusively in the Pays Nantais near the Atlantic.
Pinot Noir accounts for roughly 20 percent of Sancerre's production (and a similar share of Menetou-Salon and Reuilly) as both red and rose.
Touraine's everyday red grape. Used in Touraine AOC, Touraine-Amboise, Touraine-Chenonceaux and Cheverny appellations as either varietal Gamay or blended with Cot (Malbec) and Cabernet Franc.
Anjou's rose grape. Grolleau (sometimes Groslot) is high-yielding, low-alcohol and naturally pink-skinned, the workhorse behind off-dry Rose d'Anjou (the appellation's commercial staple) and the drier Rose de Loire.
A grape found in exactly one appellation in the world: Cour-Cheverny AOC, a tiny enclave around the Sologne village of Cour-Cheverny in the eastern Touraine.