Chenin Blanc

Overview

Chenin Blanc buds early but ripens late and is a vine of relatively high vigour and high yields. Chenin produces wines of characteristic bruised apple aromatics, with honey, straw, and mushroom complexity, and South African versions often leaning towards the more tropical fruit realm. Various sweetness levels are produced, in especially the Loire region, from bone dry and crisp to off dry and increasing levels of sweetness; sparkling versions also exist.

Chenin is most commonly associated with France’s Loire valley, and the appellations of Vouvray, Anjou, and Savennieres, where the best examples have great honeyed mouthfeel, bruised apple fruit concentration, and often very long age-ability. Fully sweet wines from the Loire Valley are produced in the Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume appellations. In South Africa, Chenin is the most planted grape, popular due to its high acidity levels – preserved in the warm climate – and due to its high yields. South Africa is famous for its old bush vines of Chenin Blanc, found in Swartland and Stellenbosch, which produce highly concentrated and tropically scented wines. 

Typical Blends and Winemaking

Chenin Blanc is mostly made unblended as a varietal wine, although a small portion of other varieties are permitted by law in some Loire appellations including Saumur and Anjou. In the Loire Valley, mainly inert vessels are used for fermentation and ageing, whereas in South Africa occasionally a small percentage of new French oak barrels are used.  

• Chenin Blanc (100%)

Typical aromas and flavours

Pear, yellow apple, quince, honey, ginger.

Food matching

Young, crisp, and light-medium bodied Chenin Blanc goes well with most types of shellfish and seafood, including sushi and sashimi, crab and prawns, with a variety of salads, creamy pasta dishes and mushroom risottos, but also with goat cheeses and milder cheeses like a young brie or other young creamy white cheese. Riper and fuller bodied Chenins, sometimes with oak ageing, such as for example Savennieres but also many of the best versions from South Africa, tend to show well when served alongside richer fish dishes, such as black cod or salmon, with roast chicken and pork and roast sweet potato and root vegetable, but also scallops, lobster, and nutty cheese.

The off-dry styles work well with spicy foods, such as some Thai and Chinese cuisine, Vietnamese salads, and Scandinavian gravadlax with mustard sauce. And finally, sweet Chenins tend to go well with apple, stone fruit, and tropical fruit desserts.