Chenin Blanc
Vintage image sourced on Pinterest
Chenin Blanc is a bit of an oddball grape variety in that it straddles the line between “nobility,” thanks to its capability to produce many styles of wine, including age-worthy ones, and “workhorse” status, since it’s pretty easy to grow. Almost too easy, some might say.
It’s also kind of an “insider” grape, since it’s just not trendy, and hasn’t been for a while. Not for any lack of quality, mind you, far from it. Chenin just hasn’t become a wine world darling in the same way as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling or Chardonnay. The upshot to this is that Chenin Blanc wines in general tend to be under-valued. Even the increasingly hard-to-get South African Chenins, like those from The Sadie Family, aren’t (yet) hitting the kind of price points that top Chardonnays reach, though there are a few crème de la crème wines in the Loire Valley, like those by Nicolas Joly at Coulée de Serrant, Domaine Huet, Richard Leroy and Stephane Bernaudeau that tend to command top dollar.
For this tasting, though, there’s no need to splash out (unless you really want to). The wines included in this Wineluck Club tasting guide cover the full range of classic Chenin Blanc styles, from sparkling to sweet, while allowing you to share the costs - and more important, the fun - with people you love.
Stuff to know
Chenin Blanc is one of those rare grapes that straddles the line between being “noble” and a workhorse. It’s incredibly versatile, used to make traditional method sparkling wines, off-dry and semi-sweet wines, botrytized sweet wines, unoaked and oaked dry wines. And there are plenty of Chenin Blanc wines with aging potential to spare, all of which makes the grape a “noble” one. In the Loire Valley in Central France, Chenin Blanc is revered.
However, Chenin Blanc is also a highly productive grapevine. It’s reliable, high-yielding and vigorous in a wide range of soil types, and the high, almost screaming acidity that is a hallmark of its character remains consistent, even when the vines are grown in toasty climes.
In South Africa, where Chenin Blanc goes by the name “Steen,” the grape is generally considered to be a workhorse, long appreciated for its ability to retain acidity even in warm inland regions, where the resulting wine was used to make brandy or sold to huge cooperatives to be blended into wines whose purpose was to be good, cheap wine, rather than memorably delicious wine.
While the grape has been planted in South Africa since the 1600s, it wasn’t entirely clear that it was the same variety as the Loire Valley’s Chenin Blanc until the 1960s. More than half of the Chenin Blanc grown today is in South Africa, where it is the most-planted white grape variety.
Still, France’s Loire Valley is widely considered to be Chenin Blanc’s spiritual home, even if South Africa has commandeered more of the wine media’s (still rather limited) attention on Chenin Blanc in recent years. Chenin Blanc just isn’t a trendy grape, even though it’s wildly versatile, delicious and best of all for those of us on budgets: usually under-valued for the quality it delivers.
What to look for in this tasting
In the Loire Valley, Chenin Blanc-based wines tend to have aromas and flavors of green or golden apple, chamomile, pear, lemon, honey and quince, with a signature smoky note often described as wet wool. These wines have bracingly high acidity and moderate alcohol levels, and are made in a wide range of styles, from sparkling to dry and sweet.
Vouvray Moelleux, which are lightly sweet to sweet Chenins, tend to taste riper than their dry counterparts, with flavors of ripe pear and quince, bruised apple, jasmine, ginger, honeycomb and toasted almond.
Sweet Chenin-Blanc based wines from the Loire Valley usually have varying levels of botrytis, AKA noble rot, the same fuzzy mold that affects strawberries, though it somehow makes sweet wines more appetizing instead of less. These wines can have flavors of dried apricot, orange marmalade, saffron, candied ginger, toasted almond and honeycomb, sometimes alongside the flavors found in dry Chenins, like golden apple, chamomile and wet wool.
In South Africa, Chenin Blanc-based wines are often oak-aged, which, in combination with a warmer climate, delivers wines with an entirely different character from those in the Loire Valley. So much so that it’s understandable that it wasn’t clear for centuries that both countries were using the same grape variety. You can find flavors ranging from golden apples, pears, quince, orange blossom, chamomile and honeysuckle to grilled pineapple, stewed apples, honeycomb, dried grass, freshly-churned butter, marzipan and vanilla.
The wines
#1: Vouvray Mousseux
Vouvray Mousseux (”voov-ray mousse-uh”) is a form of Vouvray, one of three different types included in this tasting. There are also Crémants de Loire from the same region, and you can pick up one of those instead, but I chose Vouvray Mousseux because it’s more specific, in that it’s always predominantly, if not entirely, made from Chenin Blanc grapes.
Crémant de Loire, on the other hand, can be made from Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grolleau Noir, Grolleau Gris, Pineau d’Aunis, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. I have nothing against Crémant de Loire and have very happy memories sipping these bubbles between tours of extravagantly beautiful Loire Valley châteaux, I just feel that Vouvray Mousseux is a clearer taste of Chenin Blanc, the Loire’s signature white grape, in sparkling form.
The “mousseux” in Vouvray Mousseux just means “sparkling,” and it’s included because there is a whole range of still and sweet wines made in Vouvray from Chenin Blanc, so the distinction matters. Chenin Blanc is known for its bracingly high acidity and subtle, romantically pretty flavors like bruised apple, honey, quince, chamomile and pear, which will combine with flavors of lightly toasted hazelnuts and brioche from lees aging in these sparkling wines.
What to ask for: Ask by style name
Alternative(s): Vouvray Pétillant, which will have softer and lighter bubbles, Chenin-based Crémant de Loire, Saumur Mousseux, Prestige de Loire, which requires a minimum of 24 months’ lees aging, or Chenin Blanc-based Cap Classique from South Africa
#2: Vouvray Sec
Vouvray (“Voov-ray”) lies just east of Tours, in the Touraine region in the central Loire, and the wines here are made entirely from Chenin Blanc, usually grown on slops overlooking the Loire river. Chenin Blanc is highly versatile, with wines made in styles ranging from still to sparkling, dry to sweet. Vouvray, too, does it all, so be sure to look for Vouvray Sec, indicating the dry, still wine style. If you see “classic,” “tendre,” “demi-sec” or “moelleux” on the bottle, the wine will be off-dry, lightly sweet or sweet.
Chenin Blanc is often considered the most romantic of grapes, the kind of wine you envision sipping on a blanket spread under an old tree on a perfectly warm, sunny day. Chenin has bracingly high acidity, and it often sneaks up on you as the wine lingers on your palate. Vouvray’s aromas and flavors can include green or golden apple, pear, lemon, honey, quince paste, chamomile and smoky aromas sometimes described as wet wool or lanolin.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternatives: Montlouis-sur-Loire, Anjou
#3: Savennières
Savennières (”sah-vun-yehr”) is a small region just west of Angers in the Anjour-Saumur region of the central Loire. Savennières wines are made from Chenin Blanc, like in Vouvray, but here, they’re all fully dry and known for being riper, fuller-bodied and more concentrated than Vouvray wines, though some can seem restrained to the point of austerity when young. Some producers choose to aim for fruitier, less austere wines, while others are even experimenting with partial use of new oak barrels, adding richness and toasty vanilla and caramel-y flavors to the wines.
Made with Chenin Blanc, Savennières wines are known for their high acidity and aromas and flavors of green or golden apple, pear, lemon, honey, quince, chamomile and smoky aromas sometimes described as wet wool or lanolin.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Savennières La Roche aux Moines, Saumur, Coulée de Serrant (a prestigious monopole appellation)
#4: South African Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc (or Steen) in South Africa has experienced a revival as new winemakers rediscover the quality potential in the country’s old Chenin vines. South Africa’s Old Vine Project, a nonprofit organization certifying planting dates for vineyards 35 years older, has confirmed that Chenin makes up the largest percentage of South Africa’s old vines. There’s even a Chenin Blanc Association for the winemakers who have brought this beloved old workhorse grape into the spotlight. These days, it’s more of a question of what style of South African Chenin you prefer: oaked or unoaked.
My first-ever experience with an oaked South African Chenin Blanc left me, well…dubious, to say the least. I didn’t understand the appeal, since in that particular wine, it felt like the oak flavors were completely separate from the rest of the wine. A year or so later, I tried one of Adi Badenhorst’s single vineyard Chenins, and I was completely blown away. Since then, I haven’t had an oaked South African Chenin that I haven’t loved. These wines may have flavors of baked pineapple, stewed apples and quince, honeycomb, dried grass, freshly-churned butter, marzipan and vanilla.
If you’re still not sure about oaked Chenin tasting great, try an unoaked one first. If you can’t tell by the label whether the wine spent time in an oak barrel or not, look for words like “fresh” or “fruity,” since some South African producers have added a style indicator to their wines, with “fresh,” “fruity” and “rich” as the key words, and the “rich” wines will generally have either oak influence, botrytization or both. Unoaked South African Chenins may have flavors of lemon, golden apples, pears, white peaches, just-ripe pineapples and mangos, chamomile, orange blossom and honeysuckle.
What to ask for: A dry South African Chenin Blanc
Alternative(s): A Chenin Blanc-based white blend from South Africa or a dry Chenin Blanc wine from the United States, Argentina, New Zealand or Australia
#5: Vouvray Moelleux
Vouvray Moelleux (”voov-ray mway-luh”) is another form of Vouvray, the third in this tasting. I wasn’t kidding: Vouvray really does it all, from sparkling to dry to off-dry and even sweet wines. Moelleux wines are the sweetest Vouvrays, usually just one step back from the sweetness levels found in the Loire Valley’s Coteaux du Layon, Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume, all clearly botrytized Chenin-based wines.
Between Vouvray Sec (dry) and Moelleux (sweet), there are actually a few different levels, like “Classic” (or tendre), which are off-dry or lightly sweet, and demi-sec (noticeably sweet). Vouvray Moelleux, at the opposite end of the Vouvray spectrum, is recognizably sweet, with concentrated richness from fully ripe, usually late-harvested grapes, though botrytized grapes can sometimes make it in the mix.
Moelleux just means “soft,” and in this case, I like to think of the wine’s sweetness as softening Chenin Blanc’s high natural acidity, in the same way that adding a bit more sugar to lemonade makes it less tart. These are dessert wines, but they tend not to be cloyingly sweet, thanks to that acidity, and can often age for decades with increasing complexity.
Vouvray Moelleux wines often have flavors of ripe pear and quince, bruised apple, jasmine, ginger, honeycomb and toasted almond.
If you’re not so sure about sweet wines, skip the traditional dessert pairing and try them with cheeses instead, or go for a slightly sweet Asian-style dish, like sweet and sour pork belly or Korean barbecue.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): “Classic” or demi-sec Vouvray
#6: Coteaux du Layon
Coteaux du Layon (”koh-toh doo lay-yon”) is a region in Anjou-Saumur in the central Loire that lies west of Saumur, along slopes that flank both sides of the Layon river, a tributary of the Loire. In Coteaux du Layon, sweet white wines are made from botrytis-affected Chenin Blanc grapes.
Botrytis cinerea, AKA Noble Rot, is a mold. The same fuzzy mold that ruins strawberries. Weirdly though, when botrytis affects wine grapes in just the right way, Goldielocks-style, perfectly ripe grapes will start to shrivel on the vine as teensy little filaments of botrytis mold poke through the skins, dehydrating them and altering the juice’s flavor. All the technology in the world still hasn’t been able to replace the highly trained pickers who hand-select one perfectly moldy grape at a time for weeks on end during harvest. Some of the world’s most famous sweet wines, including Sauternes, Barsac, Tokaji and Trockenbeerenauslese Rieslings are made from botrytized grapes, so “Noble Rot” really is quite apropos.
Botrytis adds aromas and flavors of preserved lemon, dried apricot, baked apple, honey and orange marmalade. Coteaux du Layon wines, made from high-acid Chenin Blanc grapes, retain plenty of acidity that balances the richness and sweetness contributed by botrytization, much like how the best lemonades have just the right amounts of sugar and acid to be addictively delicious.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Bonnezeaux, Quarts de Chaume, Coteaux du Saumur
Tasting tips
The eats
For this tasting, I’d bust out one of my go-to recipes that works as well cold as it does hot from the oven, and as well for brunch as it does for dinner: salmon and leek quiche (for which I prefer to use smoked salmon), along with a simple green salad with a lemony vinaigrette, since Chenin Blanc wines can totally handle zippy acidity. Since there are sweet wines in the mix in this tasting, this tasting is also your chance to show off your baking prowess…or to pick something up from your local bakery. Almond- and lemon-based treats in particular will sing, and you can always put them together with recipes like the Danish Citronmåne (Lemon Moon) cake or Sicilian-style lemon almond cookies.
If you’re planning this tasting at a chillier time of year, look to options like veal, trout, chicken or pork, ideally with plenty of fresh herbs and lemon squeezed on top. And if you want to skip all the food prep and aim for something more casual, consider ordering in fried chicken, French fries and all of their varied accoutrements, since Chenin’s acidity will cut right through that crispy grease in the very best way.
If charcuterie is more your style, look to cheeses like creamy Brie, Gruyère, Irish Cheddar and herb-crusted goat cheeses, along with lighter meats like smoked turkey and Prosciutto. If you want to play with echoing some of the flavors in the wines, grill slices of pineapple and serve sliced peaches, candied ginger, quince paste and honey along with the cheeses, meats, crackers and breads.
The prep
These wines are generally easy to find, though the Vouvray Moelleux and Coteaux du Layon, medium-sweet and fully sweet wines, might take some time, since sweet wines just aren’t all that popular these days. Give your guests at least two weeks to find their wines for this tasting.
Encourage your guests to give their wines some pre-tasting fridge time, since this is a tasting where it’s best if the wines are chilled.
For the Vouvray Mousseux, a sparkling wine, a bit of extra equipment will go a long way in making the experience better for you as a host. Two items that I highly recommend having on hand:
Ice buckets. With sparkling wines, properly chilling isn’t just about the tasting experience. It’s about safety. Chilling sparkling wines reduces the pressure in the bottles, so that the risk of a rogue cork and wasted wine is dramatically diminished. Taking a few extra minutes to chill: worth it.
Sparkling wine stoppers. Optional, but amazing. Mine somehow always go missing, so I’m not even sure how many are left in my liquor cabinet at the moment. Once your bottles are opened for tasting, bubbles will leak out, flattening the wines. If you put these stoppers on between pours, you can dramatically extend the life of the wine and its bubbles.
I didn’t mention champagne flutes or coupes here, and that was intentional. I recommend using white or universal wine glasses unless you have tulip-shaped sparkling wine glasses. Not only will it save you the money and storage space for extra glasses, it’s actually a better tasting experience, giving you plenty of room at the top of your glass for the wine’s aromas to come through clearly.
A note on the tasting order: The wines are listed in the order of which should be included first. If you have fewer than 6 wines/guests, you’ll still have a well-rounded experience. However, the order in which you taste the wines, regardless of how many wines are included, is recommended as follows:
Vouvray Mousseux
Vouvray Sec
Savennières
South African Chenin Blanc
Vouvray Moelleux
Coteaux du Layon
