History
Located west of the city of Tours, the area of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil has seen viticulture since at least the days of the Romans. Though long overshadow by the neighboring communes of Bourgueil and Chinon across the Loire, the area earned a reputation for the quality of its red wine as early as he Middle Ages. According to local legend, the Cabernet Franc grape was introduced to area in 1090 when it was planted in the nearby Bourgueil Abbey. Like neighboring Bourgueil, the Bretons of Brittany were a significant customer for the wines of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and by at least the 16th century the wine from the area was being described as "Breton wine".
When the Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO) was delineating AOC regions in 1937, the commune of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil was originally grouped with the communes of Bourgueil, Benais and Restigné under one Bourgueil AOC. But Adrien Ory, mayor of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and one of the largest vineyard owners in the region campaigned for a separate AOC designation for the wines from his town despite the two AOCs having essentially identical terroir and producing similar wines. However at the time of AOC creation, the maximum allowable yields for Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil was slightly lower than for Bourgueil but subsequent revisions of AOC regulations has now made them completely the same for both AOCs.
Read more about this topic: Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOC
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