The Loire is France’s longest river, meandering 1,000 kilometers from the center of France to the Atlantic, and its entire Valley has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its sumptuous Renaissance châteaux and landscapes are its outstanding features, which includes 70,000 hectares of vineyards. With more than 80 different appellations and denominations of wine, the Loire is France’s third-largest wine-growing region for appellation wines after Bordeaux and Languedoc-Roussillon. It is the leading producer of AOP (Appellation