Chenin Blanc – quo vadis?

Chenin Blanc – quo vadis?


Author: Christian Eedes

Published: 08 Jun 11
Never mind that this year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show failed to identify a single current-release Cabernet Sauvignon worthy of gold despite over 100 entries in this class, it’s Chenin Blanc that’s got everybody in a tizz. Also no gold, even if there were significantly fewer entries - around 50 compared to 111 in the case of the 2011 Wine magazine Chenin Blanc Challenge.

The reaction I’ve encountered from Chenin Blanc producers is that the panel involved (Cathy van Zyl MW as chair with Thierry Desseauve of La Revue du Vin de France and Miguel Chan, group sommelier of Southern Sun hotels) simply got it wrong. Is this the case?

When UK magazine Decanter pretty much trashed a line-up of 155 examples of local Chenin Blanc in its April issue accusing them of “monotony, neutrality and non-existent regionality”, I was quick to assume like many others that the tasters involved had goofed. Taken in conjunction with the Trophy Wine Show result, however, and perhaps the category is not as hot as we’d all like to think.

Once the hysteria has died down, there’s probably something of a truth buried in the outcomes of these tastings. When it began to emerge that Chenin Blanc was to go without gold at Trophy Wine Show, I was quick to interrogate the panel members concerned. Desseauve, generally the model of discretion, in this instance did not hesitate to say that he thought the category was poor: “Rich, lots of fruit, lots of sugar but no proper delineation – fruit salad flavours, very rustic. No elegance or finesse”. Chan, meanwhile, offered the insight that too many producers were trying to emulate the big but carefully conceived Forrester Meinert The FMC without success: “The more ambitious wines typically offer richness but not the same level of complexity as FMC”.

Stellenbosch producer Kleine Zalze has been at the forefront of efforts to rehabilitate the image of Chenin Blanc, the Vineyard Selection 2008 winning the Wine magazine Challenge in 2010 among many other awards that its various versions of the variety have collected over the years. This particular wine however had an analysis which left it very much in geek territory, with an abv of 15.18%, residual sugar of 7.3 g/l, TA of 6.9% and pH of 3.19.

The 2010 is less remarkable but arguably more drinkable with an abv of 14%, RS of 2.4g/l, TA 5.7g/l and pH of 3.56, this the result of a directive from owner Kobus Basson to winemaker Johan Joubert to tone things down. Kleine Zalze make between 4 000 and 6 000 cases of the Vineyard Selection and the wine sells for R62 a bottle. Basson realises that irrespective of the critical acclaim his wines may attract, they need to have popular appeal first and foremost otherwise the old bush vines that supply the grapes won’t stay in the ground. One feels that a move to greater refinement and freshness across the entire Chenin Blanc class won’t do it any harm at all.

For more by Christian Eedes, visit www.whatIdranklastnight.co.za