So long is the extent of the viticultural Loire that generalizations are impossible. The Loire’s vineyards vary from the continental climate which produces Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, to the Muscadet region warmed by the Gulf Stream. Loire wine regions represent today, however, the north western limit of vine cultivation in Europe (with the exception of england’s vineyards). Spring frost can be a serious problem, as it was in 1991, when it destroyed up to 90% of the crop in some of the Loire’s wine regions. The character of Loire wines can vary considerably from vintage to vintage, since in a cool summer the grapes may struggle to reach full ripeness, while a particularly hot year such as 1989, 1990, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2009, and 2011 may result in some exceptional sweet white wines, some of them botrytized in the middle Loire, but can rob the Loire’s dry white Sauvignons of their nerve, and leave some Muscadet dangerously limp.
