Chenin Blanc

Identity

Chenin Blanc is the Loire Valley's chameleon grape. From the very same plot, depending on the vintage and the winemaker's choices, it can give a sparkling wine, a taut mineral dry white, an off-dry wine or a noble-rot dessert wine — a range of styles few grapes anywhere can claim.

What makes this gymnastics possible comes down to a single quality: exceptionally high acidity, which structures a ten-year-old dry wine just as well as a fifty-year-old sweet one.

History and origin

A very old variety, probably native to Anjou, mentioned there as early as the ninth century under the name plant d'Anjou. The name "Chenin" appears only later, tied to the Mont Chenin in Touraine.

On its parentage the VIVC is cautious: it does not document a cross with two identified parents, but a parent-descendant relationship with Savagnin Blanc, said to be one confirmed parent — the second unknown. That is the same uncertainty, in this corpus, as for Riesling or for Sauvignon Blanc, which likewise shares a relationship with Savagnin Blanc without a full parentage established.

In the vineyard

Chenin buds early, a day before Chasselas, which exposes it to spring frost — a risk made more serious by its secondary buds, which show very low fertility once frost hits. It ripens in the second period, three to three and a half weeks after Chasselas.

Its vigour is high. It is prone to grey rot and powdery mildew, but resists downy mildew, black rot and anthracnose better. Its yield depends heavily on soil fertility: the poorer tuffeau and schist of Vouvray, Savennières and Saumur give its most taut and refined versions.

In the glass

On the nose, green apple and lemon lead the dry, young versions, with a touch of pear. Quince settles into the off-dry and sweet wines, alongside honey and beeswax with age. In great dry Savennières, a flint mineral note appears, the signature of a schist terroir. Camomile punctuates some evolved bottlings.

On the palate, acidity is the highest in this corpus alongside Riesling: 4 to 5, never less, whatever the style. Tannin is nil (a white grape), body and alcohol vary widely (2 to 4) depending on whether one is dealing with a light sparkling wine or a concentrated sweet one — hence a sweetness potential spanning the whole scale, from bone dry to a great botrytised dessert wine.

Great terroirs

The Loire Valley, its likely birthplace, is its classic ground in France: Savennières for the most austere dry wines, slow to open and built to keep; Vouvray and Montlouis for the whole dry-to-sweet-to-sparkling range within a single appellation; the Coteaux du Layon, Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume for noble-rot sweet wines, carried by the Layon valley's microclimate.

Outside France, South Africa made it, under the name Steen, its most-planted white variety for most of the twentieth century, before a recent renewed quality interest in old, unirrigated vines.

Commonly confused with

Riesling is the most natural comparison: the same high acidity, the same ability to span the whole dry-to-sweet range. Riesling is more aromatic and cleaner on citrus and, with age, petrol; Chenin is waxier, rounder, often with a richer texture at an equal sugar level.

Sémillon, this corpus's other great botrytis-prone variety, has neither Chenin's acidity nor its liveliness: fuller and less taut, it ages toward wax and saffron rather than quince and honey.