Above the north bank of the Loire east of Tours, Chenin Blanc grows on tuffeau, the soft chalky limestone from which the châteaux were quarried; the same rock holds the growers' cellars, dug straight into the hillside. Vouvray is one appellation with every register — sec, demi-sec, moelleux, pétillant — and it is the vintage, not the winemaker's ambition, that decides what the year will give.
Its glory is time. The great botrytized moelleux of legendary years — 1947 above all — have outlived their makers and still taste young: honey, quince and chamomile held on a wire of acidity, over the taste of chalk. Few white wines anywhere age longer; almost none age so affordably.