The Loire's cool, maritime-influenced mouth, where Melon de Bourgogne on granite and schist produces bone-dry, saline whites built for oysters.

A geological hinge between the schist-based Loire Atlantique and the limestone Loire Blésoise, home to Chenin Blanc in every style from bone-dry to lusciously sweet.

Tuffeau limestone country whose chalky caves shaped both a historic sparkling-wine industry and structured, ageworthy Cabernet Franc reds.

The Loire's benchmark Cabernet Franc appellation, where gravel terraces and tuffeau slopes along the Vienne give the grape its most complete red expression.

Chinon's neighbour across the Loire, where gravel terraces and tuffeau hillsides give Cabernet Franc a fruitier, slightly firmer sibling style.

Chenin Blanc's most complete single-appellation expression, on tuffeau limestone that spans still, sparkling, dry and nobly sweet wines from the same slopes.

The Upper Loire's benchmark Sauvignon Blanc appellation, its flint and Kimmeridgian limestone soils sharpening the grape into a famously mineral, high-acid style.

Sancerre's mirror across the Loire, sharing the same flinty Kimmeridgian geology and giving Sauvignon Blanc its distinctive smoky, gunflint character.