During my first-ever visit to the Loire Valley last week, I didn’t have time to visit the region’s chateaus of fabled beauty. Yet, during three days spent in the vast and windowless convention center of Angers, in the region’s heart, I did get to revel in the glories of the Loire Valley as surely as if I’d done the chateau circuit. Vinous glories, that is. I was attending the Salon des Vins de Loire, an annual showcase for the region’s winemakers. This year, more than 600 were on hand to pour their wines, representing nearly all the region’s 60-odd diverse appellations.

No major wine region is farther north than the Loire Valley. From its western edge comes seafood-friendly Muscadet, which seems to pick up a saline streak from the nearby Atlantic Ocean. From the region’s green and hilly eastern edge, fuller-bodied whites from Pouilly-Fume can seem, as the name intimates, to harbor a whiff of woodsmoke. Between those extremities, along the Loire River’s 625-mile wending course, the region produces almost every imaginable style of red, white, rose, and sparkling wine. Loire whites, made mainly from the Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc grapes, can be dry enough to rattle your teeth or sweet enough to make a honey bee jealous. Among the reds, Cabernet Franc, a red grape that is mainly an auxillary note in classic Bordeaux blends, gains primo status in the Loire.

This is a special moment to focus on Loire Valley wines. The 2003 vintage, now becoming widely available in local wine shops, was harvested after a summer of extreme heat. While people suffered, most vineyards thrived. In more typical vintages, Loire wines can seem like lightweights to Americans used to fat and fleshy New World wines. But the better Loire wines of 2003 are intense in flavor while avoiding the flabbiness that low acidity brings. If you don’t know Loire wines, or if they haven’t won you over in previous tastings, I believe that the 2003s will surprise you – even make you a believer.

One can be put off by the intricate web of Loire Valley appellations. In a region whose namesake river is La Loire but which also claims a river called Le Loir, the small print does get dicey. Must one really keep track of Borgueil and Saint-Nicholas-de-Borgueil? Or of the classic Muscadet from Sevres-et-Maine and a newcomer, Muscadet Cotes de Grandlieu? As I found out, in the case of those two versions of Muscadet tasted over a pile of oysters on the final day of the Salon, there really are soil-based differences that can be tasted. You can have just about anything you want from Loire wines, except for uniformity.

Like their wines, the region’s winemakers did not sing in one voice at the Salon des Vin. One of the best known, Nicolas Joly, did not even show up on the day I attended the event. Mr. Joly is sole owner of an appellation called La Coulee de Serrant, one of the Loire’s most exalted white wine appellations. Since 1981, Mr. Joly has practiced a strict form of natural agriculture called biodynamics. The practice goes beyond mere organic methods to include even coordination with the movement of celestial bodies. On the eve of the Salon, Mr. Joly hosted a “counter-salon” tasting at his estate, which commands a steep hillside over the Loire River. Biodynamic winemakers from throughout France showed off their wines in an ancient farmhouse, its rough-cut beams framing walls painted in unexpected tones of tangerine. Aside from Mr. Joly, who was also absent from his own counter-Salon during my visit, the most militant of the Loire biodynamicists is Marc Angeli. When I jokingly told him that his name was known even in New York, Mr. Angeli scowled and said, “If they know me because I’m against the assassination of the earth, then I plead guilty.”

As if to assert its Bacchus-given right to multiple wine appellations, the Loire Valley just got a new one approved, starting with the stupendous 2003 vintage. It’s called Chaume Premier Cru Coteaux du Layon, and it’s a surgingly sweet white wine made in tiny amounts in Anjou, a 20 minute drive south from Angers. In truth, sweet wines are not much in demand nowadays. The problem is not how they taste, given their seductive balance of honeyed fruit, spiciness, and acidity. The problem is that it’s hard to find a time in the day to sip them.

The 30 producers of Chaume Premier Cru made sure there would be prime time for their wines on the final evening of the Salon by hosting an ambitious dinner at which only their wines were served, 10 in all. Held in the ancient Hotels des Penitentes, the dinner was nothing if not audacious in its food and wine combinations. Three nectar-like Chaumes from 1995, 1985, and 1975, for example, were matched to foie gras with a marmalade of dried apricots and a gelee of Bretonne oysters with a puddle of intense herb oil. While foie gras is a traditional partner to sweet wine, a briny gray essence of oyster definitely is not. Did it work? “Call it a polemic exercise,” a guest across the table said. Luckily, the French know how to make even a polemic taste great.

Recommended Wines

Note: Of the several hundred wines I tasted at the Salon des Vins de Loire, thes were among the best, but not the only great ones. They are, however, some of the easiest to find locally. The best source is Chambers Street Wines, 160 Chambers St., 212-227-1434. Co-proprietor David Lillie could be seen working the aisles at the Salon. All the wines below are available at the shop.

CHINON “LES GRANGES” 2003, BAUDRY $15.99 Cabernet Franc, the red grape of Chinon, can be too vegetal in cool Loire vintages. In 2003, it’s got real gusto along with ripeness. It’s a wine that can face down a red-sauced pasta dish.

VOUVRAY “TRADITION” 2003, PINON $15.99 The whites of Vouvray, made from Chenin Blanc in both dry and sweet formats, are superlative in 2003. This one suggests an ultimately ripe honeydew melon laced with a squeeze of lime juice. Try this with a blue-veined cheese.

SAVENNIERES “CLOS DU PAPILLON” 2002, DOMAINE DU CLOSEL $21.99 Like the wine above, this Savennieres is all Chenin Blanc. Yet it is stoney and dry, even as it is laced with floral scents and taste. Like a fine white Burgundy, this wine needs aging. Unlike the former, this wine is a bargain.

MENETOU-SALON ROUGE MOROGUES 2003, PELLE $19.99 Most wines from Menetou-Salon are white. The minority of reds are made from Pinot Noir, and this far north the grape doesn’t always achieve ripeness. This 2003 is subtly rich with a plummy ribbon running through it.

MONTLOUIS NV BRUT TRADITIONELLE, CHIDAINE $15.99 After a long day of tasting at the Salon, I concluded with this bubbly. Scintillating, and with a sense of personality that many Loire sparklers lack. Doesn’t aim to be a ringer for Champagne. It has fruity verve rather than yeasty complexity.