As a Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc fan, I usually enjoy well-made wines from the Loire but as an importer I seem to have a difficult time finding wines that meet my standards.  There are also a tremendous amount of Loire wines already imported into the United States and so it is also difficult to find the "undiscovered" wines from great farmers that are my focus throughout my portfolio.

Another unfortunate reality for Loire wines, however, is that, as the region in France with the highest production volume, I would guess that many producers know that they can always sell most of their production to large French supermarket chains and so such realities also decrease the motivation to produce consistently good wines.  I did find a nice surprise, however, in a delightful demi-sec Vouvray from a smaller producer.  There was actually also another delightful surprise as well in a remarkable Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine Sur Lie from near Vallet but the producer decided that he didn't want to deal with having to create new labels to meet the often silly, capricious, and arbitrary requirements of the US TTB.