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  Quaffers® Feature - October 2001
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| The secret charms of Chenin Blanc |
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 The Loire Valley: Market Garden of France, playground of her kings and queens, site of spectacular châteaux, and, amongst all this history and splendour, traditional home of Chenin Blanc.
Since the Middle Ages, the vineyards surrounding Angers and Tours have provided the world with a comprehensive range of wines made from this hardy white grape.
Yet despite its international longevity and versatility, Chenin Blanc has sunk into relative obscurity except amongst the curious or the already-converted. If consumers are conscious of the grape, it is usually as an ingredient in a cheap, cheerful blend of quaffing wine, or as a medium-dry South African white going under a brand-name or Chenin Blanc's Afrikaans alternative, Steen.
The name game doesn't stop there though. In France, the grape is also known as Pineau de la Loire, and as with many French wines, is sold under appellations rather than varietals. So if you are looking on the shelves for French Chenin Blanc, you could have your work cut out for you!
This month Quaffers® considers the virtues of this under-rated grape variety, and offers guidance if you are keen to try it. One thing is certain, whatever your taste in white wine, Chenin Blanc grapes are likely to have been made in a style to suit your palate.
Back to basics
Chenin Blanc thrives on the limestone soils of the Loire Valley, producing early budding but late-ripening vines whose double-edged salient feature is high natural acidity. In poorer seasons this can make the wines sharp, but in better years, it helps the ageing process and can prevent flabbiness in the finished wines, particularly dry or medium-dry examples. In the best vintages, Chenin Blanc can produce fantastic sweet white wines to rival those of Bordeaux and Germany. The style of wine to be made from the grapes is directly related to their ripeness; consequently Chenin Blanc is transformed into dry, sweet, still and sparkling guises.
Colour-wise, Chenin Blanc produces green-gold wines, the sweeter examples with a lustrous, unctuous sheen. Depending on the style, the characteristic aromas of Chenin Blanc include moist straw or hay, flowers and sometimes a hint of honey or butter. The best sweet white wines made from the grape can show toast and honey, with the aromatic citrus of limes. Occasionally sulphur makes its presence known which is a less appealing attribute.
Fizzy pop
Given its reliable acidity levels, Chenin Blanc is a valued ingredient in the blend of sparkling wines, including AC Crémant de Loire and Blanquette/Crémant de Limoux. South American sparkling wines, especially those from Argentina, also make use of the same aspect of the grape. The fruit is used when it is just ready on the vine, before the natural acid has been much diminished by increasing sugars while ripening. During the méthode traditionnelle production process the presence of acid tempers the conversion of sugar into alcohol, particularly important when fermentation is to occur twice.
Chameleon continuum
Stretched along the banks of the river Loire and its many tributaries stand beautiful châteaux, monuments to pre-Revolutionary wealth and aristocracy. Their infinite variety is mirrored by the range of Chenin Blanc appellations to be found in the same region. Generic, varietally-labelled dry or medium-dry wines are the most familiar Chenin Blanc style for the majority of everyday quaffers. In white wines labelled Anjou, Saumur or Touraine, the principal grape is indeed Chenin Blanc, but other varieties (e.g. Sémillon, Chardonnay) are permitted in the blend.
However, recognition of individual districts is the key to discovering more about what this grape has to offer. Perhaps the driest of the still wines is from Jasnières in the northern Touraine area. Hard to come by, it can resemble dry Vouvray. In the Vouvray appellation itself, north of the river and east of Tours, almost every wine style is available, depending on the quality and ripeness of grapes in a given harvest. Vines here are usually grown on tufa chalk; it was not uncommon in the past for cost-conscious farmers to cultivate crops on top of the river cliffs, with their dwellings dug out from the soil beneath. Even today, many Loire riverside houses have at least one troglodyte room where the temperature is constant: an ideal cellar!
The sweetness of Vouvray can be deduced from the label, from sec (dry) through ubiquitous demi-sec (medium-dry) to rich, flavoursome moelleux (sweet and mellow) or liquoreux (sweet and syrupy) in bumper years, when the grapes linger on the vine well into the season. If they should fall prone to botrytis cinerea (noble rot), so much the better. There is even a dry, sparkling wine produced, labelled pétillant.
South of the river, the wines of Montlouis provide symmetry with Vouvray, but have not achieved the same reputation for quality. Heading further west, beyond Angers, lies the small appellation of Savennières, master of the art of low production and high demand for its juicy, full wines. Within the appellation, the Grand Cru wines of La Roche-aux-Moines and Coulée de Serrant (organically-produced) fly the flag for both style and quality.
Sweet low-down
 Most quaffers, when asked to name a sweet French white wine, would probably come up with Sauternes. This wine has a deserved international reputation, often with prices to match, yet France can provide delicious alternatives to it which have just as much quality and ageing potential.
Chenin Blanc grapes provide some of these alternatives, in the form of wines from Coteaux du Layon, south of the Loire between the cities of Angers and Saumur. Here the grapes are left on the vine for as long as possible to maximise the sugar content, some until they are affected by noble rot and are among the last grapes in France to see harvest in late October.
There is so much acidity in the fruit that a good amount remains even after so long in the sugar-inducing sun. This acidity can allow the wines to age for up to a hundred years, although the same element can compromise the richness of the finished wines by sharpening them adversely unless carefully managed. Within the appellation there are sub-districts whose sweet wines stand out from the rest: AC Bonnezeaux and AC Quarts de Chaume, both Grands Crus.
Southern comfort
In the 17th century the Dutch were instrumental in bringing the great sweet wines out of the Loire, as well as in developing the western-most vineyards of Muscadet and Gros Plant grapes in the Nantais region. Their influence on the southern tip of Africa was no less marked, both vinously and colonially. Inevitably Chenin Blanc was introduced, soon to be locally renamed Steen.
As in the Loire, Steen is capable of producing the full range of wines, and it has become the most widely-planted variety in South Africa. It has even been used in fortified wines and spirits, which were the foundation of the South African wine export industry. The focus has been on large quantities of refreshing dry and medium-dry wines, but since the 1980's some producers, such as Nederburg in the Paarl district, have moved to make botrytised wines of a quality to match their Loire counterparts.
Chenin Blanc has also put in an appearance in several other international wine regions, where it forms the base of many a blended wine. If its acidity can be managed in conjunction with the vagaries of climate, it has great potential to create so much more than the non-descript table wine which is currently its fate.
With so many wine styles to choose from, it may seem surprising that the profile of Chenin Blanc is not higher among wine-lovers. Play your part in finding out what makes Chenin Blanc tick by tasting some of the wines it makes.
 Taste the wines with us here
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| Coming up next month: It's Autumn and in the wine world that means one thing: harvest! Join Quaffers® as we visit three English vineyards to see the grapes come in. |
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