Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc is an underrated grape variety that can produce truly great wine. In its home in the central Loire Valley it is made in a wide range of styles, from the very dry to the intensely sweet. The dry or off-dry wines can be excellent (or just good) and ageworthy, and the sweet wines outstandingly long lived, with wonderful acidity balancing their richness. Outside the Loire, Chenin Blanc is best known in South Africa, where for a long time it was used to produce some fairly unexciting, neutral wine. Recently, however, a new generation of quality producers has started making excellent, complex Chenin from old vines and the future looks very bright indeed.