According to the Oxford Companion to Wine: Vouvray, the most important white-wine appellation in the Touraine district just east of the city Tours on the right bank of the Loire. Vouvray itself is a small, pretty town whose wines owe much to the monks and monasteries who refined local viticulture from the Middle Ages. But it was not until the creation of the AOC in 1936 that Vouvray established an identity of its own.

The region’s best terroir has historically been the flat, stony plateau that overlays the tuffeau cliffs overlooking the Loire from Rochecorbon to Vernou-sur-Brenne. Small rivers dissected this plateau, creating perpendicular valleys with sheltered slopes further from the Loire (in Parçay-Meslay, Reugny, Chançay, and Noizay). Three main topsoils cover the limestone bedrock: a mix of flinty-clay or perruches (known for wines with great ageing potential), a chalky-clay called aubuis (known for wines of concentration), and younger sandy gravels (more suited to sparkling wines).

Wine style is also influenced by the weather, as the locals claim that this is where the Atlantic climate meets the continental climate, inducing much vintage variation. In the least generous years, dry and sparkling wines make up the bulk of production, but top vintages yield styles from bone-dry sec wines to golden moelleux and liquoreux wines that can age a century or more.