Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOC - Climates and Geography

Climates and Geography

Located on the north "right bank" of the Loire river in the Touraine wine, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil experiences some of the maritime climate influences from the Atlantic that the neighboring AOCs in Anjou see but with some continental climate elements as well. The Vienne river reaches the Loire at Candes-Saint-Martin across from the AOC creating a large body of water with a resulting lake effect that tempers the climate.

The AOC boundaries of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil fall within the Bourgueil AOC, northwest of the commune of Bourgueil itself on terraces of silt deposits that border the Maine-et-Loire department and Anjou wine region. Centered around the commune of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, the vineyard soils of the AOC are not much different than the greater Bourgueil region with the exception of a slightly higher sand/limestone content (known locally as varennes). About a third of the regions vineyards are planted on Turonian chalk, a type of limestone.