Loire
Complex as it is, the River Loire is worth mapping as a whole.All of its wine districts are so far-flung, with wide variations of climate, soil, tradition and four or five important grape varieties, the wines do have a family likeness. They are light and invigorating, with palpable acidity. The classic word for them is charming, the classic mystery that they are not more widely appreciated outside northern France. These wines are unwarranted casualties of the modern wine drinker's obsession with sheer mass.