The next in our exciting series of grape variety tastings where we showcase examples across the world, is Chenin Blanc. On this evening, we will be tasting eight fantastic expressions with examples from within France and from further afield including South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and California.

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Chenin Blanc

Hailing from Anjou in the Loire Valley somewhere around the 8th Century, it’s hard not to love this versatile grape variety. Appellations such as Vouvray, Quarts de Chaume, Bonnezeaux, Savennières make some of the most compelling age worthy, complex and thought provoking wines worthy of every dinner table. Whilst its roots are firmly entrenched in the Loire Valley, the more modern history of Chenin Blanc begins in the 17th century, when it made its way from France to South Africa where it's known locally as Steen, today the Cape now claim’s roughly 50% of the world’s total plantings, and has quickly become South Africa’s signature white grape variety.

 

It is versatile in style and sweetness and has the ability to produce a wide array of wine styles. As a white wine, Chenin Blanc has shown to produce a wide range of flavors, of which is due to a lot of difference in winemaking, where the wines can be lithe, minerally and dry making exceptional summer drinking whites and sparkling wines. It also offers oak-aged styles with similar flavors and characteristics to Chardonnay, and when in the right hands it can produce a wine of multiple sweetness levels proving there really is a Chenin Blanc for every occasion.

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What to look for:

• Dry: When the grapes are fermented dry and kept fresh, they produce a very lean, minerally style Chenin Blanc that offers up flavors of tart pear, quince, ginger, and chamomile.

• Off-Dry: When some of the grapes’ natural sugars are left in the wine, you’ll taste richer flavors of ripe apple, pear, ginger, quince, jasmine, passion fruit, and honeycomb.

• Sweet: Sweeter styles of Chenin Blanc have flavors of dried persimmon, toasted almond, mango, ginger, and mandarin orange.

• Sparkling: Sparkling styles can range from dry (Brut) to sweet (Demi-Sec), with Chenin Blanc’s classic characteristics of quince, yellow apple, plum, ginger, and floral notes.

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