Chenin Blanc@The Beautiful South tasting, Olympia, London

 Beautiful South Tasting@Olympia – Argentina, Chile and South Africa

I spent a fair chunk of time@the Beautiful South tasting at Olympia. This is the first edition of this combined tasting with Argentina, Chile and South Africa getting together. I spent much of my time there tasting Chenin Blanc from South Africa. 

 Ken Forrester: The long established King of South African Chenin Blanc

The fine FMC is Ken's top Chenin with a production of 1000 cases 

 Bruwer Raats: Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc specialist

@Raats Family Wines

Excellent Old Vine Chenin 

 Ina Smith, manager of the Chenin Blanc Association

 Andrea Mullineux, winemaker for Mullineux Family Wines 

tasting their beautifully balanced 2012 Chenin Blanc Straw Wine 

  

 Johan Reyneke, vine hugger@reyneke

Decidedly humbling few moments to be told by Johan Reyneke that my visit back in 2001, not long after they started out (1998) and were then making wine in a cow shed, had been encouraging and an inspiration. I had liked their Chenin and cited it in the article I wrote for Decanter on South African Chenin. Johan told me that this had persuaded them that they were making better wine than they thought.

 

Was sorry not to have had a chance to take shots of Gary Jordan (Jordan Wine Estate) as I was impressed with the concentration and texture of his 2012 Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc. Unfortunately he had departed for lunch when I was going round taking a few snaps. 

 Appalling lack of properly controlled visitor screening  

– they let anyone into these tastings...

A couple of Chenins and a Sancerre@winerack

Off to the wine rack tasting this morning, where among the 80 or so wines shown, there were two Chenin Blancs and a Sancerre.

2007 Montarlet, Sancerre, Joseph Mellot (£16.49 single bottle price)
Grassy and gooseberry aromas and flavours, some weight and style and crisp, citric finish. Montarlet is a blend of wine from silex vineyards at Sancerre (60%) and caillottes (limestone – 40%) from nearby Ménétréol-sous-Sancerre.

Looking down from the flinty vineyards of Sancerre (La Belle Dame) towards those of Ménétréol

Sancerre to Ménétréol: similar view to above but lower down and slightly to the left

2008 Ken Forrester Handmade Chenin Blanc, South Africa (£6.99)
Good value, characterful citric South African Chenin with a touch of apricot and fair length. Not sure what Ken Forrester means by ‘Handmade’ – did he waggle his hand in the fermenting must to check the temperature? Hopefully Ken will be over for the London International Trade Fair next week so I can check then.


2005 Anjou, Chenin Sec, Château de la Guimonière, Vignobles Alain Château (£8.99)
Perhaps the most interesting of the three wines – certainly the most challenging with its beeswax and slightly oxidative style. This Anjou has honeyed length and it will be good to see how it evolves over the next few years. Fair value.

La Guimonière (Rochefort-sur-Loire) has had several changes of ownership over the last couple of decades. The late Gaston Lenôtre bought the property in 1991. It was then sold to Bernard Germain in 1996, who sold it on along with Yon Figeac (Saint-Emilion) in 2005 to Alain Château, who already owned Château de Bellerive in the Quarts de Chaume. Interesting to see that plain Anjou is preferred to Anjou Blanc on the label – presumably they believe correctly that 'Anjou Blanc' would undermine it.

Platter Guide 2009: one Five Star Chenin

The 2009 edition of Platter’s South African Wines was released in Stellenbosch today along with the five star wines. There were a record 33 five star wines this year – a small fraction of the some 6400 wines sampled by 15 tasters over a mere few months by 15 tasters (with 60 new wineries and brands this year, and about 400 additional wines).

The only Chenin Blanc was the excellent Ken Forrester The FMC 2006, which is aged and fermented in wood.

UK stockists include Swig and Waitrose.

Web: www.kenforresterwines.com

Full report here.

Millton Chenin Blanc

James and Annie: December 2007

It might seem curious to include a New Zealand producer on a site that is devoted to Loire wines. There are, however, good reasons for this. As far as I know James and Annie Milton produce the only serious Chenin Blanc in New Zealand and Chenin Blanc is both the Loire’s most significant gift to wine and the greatest and most versatile grape in the world.

Including fine producers of Chenin Blanc from other parts of the world is entirely appropriate. After all the birthplace of Chenin is Anjou, probably around Bouchemaine, so producers like the Milltons, as well Ken Forrester, Teddy Hall and others in South Africa, are outposts of Loire excellence, although they have the undoubted misfortune of living far from the wonderful valley. See links in right column under Chenin outposts.

The following is an extract from a two-part article I wrote on the Circle of Wine Writers trip to New Zealand in November 2007. I was able to stay on for another 12 days, so was able to make a special journey to Gisborne to see Annie and James.


4th December 2007 James and Annie Millton at Millton Vineyard, Gisborne
My final visit in New Zealand was to see James and Annie Millton at their biodynamic vineyard in the Gisborne region. As Millton Vineyard is a strong candidate for making the best Chenin Blanc outside the Loire Valley and I have long liked their Chenin, I had to visit them before I left NZ.


Within moments of meeting James he was complaining that Gisborne was off the radar of the New Zealand Wine Growers and wanted to know why the Circle trip hadn’t come through this region. Although there is no doubt that making a special effort to visit Millton Vineyard was – vaut le voyage, it is also easy to see why Gisborne is often left off the itinerary of visiting writers. In short the place is out on a limb. It’s just over 200 kilometres from Napier to Gisborne and its 200K of hard driving – up and down and round an endless series of sharp bends. Driving north towards Opotiki is just more of the same, although, of course, there is some fine scenery.

Another reason is that there are few producers in Gisborne, although Montana has substantial plantings, particularly Chardonnay, and has their Lindauer plant based here. There are just 11 wineries listed in Cuisine Wine Country.

A block of Chenin Blanc@Millton Vineyard

Gisborne is the most easterly town in New Zealand. James and Annie set up their vineyard in 1984 and went biodynamic in 1985, so they were amongst the first in the world to do so. I was lucky to have the chance to have a vertical tasting of their Chenins from 2000 through to 2006, although the 2002 was missing as there is none left. The styles vary considerably from vintage to vintage depending on whether there is any botrytis. All had lovely fruit characters and good balancing acidity and plenty of life left in them. James kindly pulled out an 1985 Millton that was still wonderfully fresh – far more impressive than a Marc Bredif 1986 Grande Année that he also kindly pulled out. The Grande Année was dilute and uninteresting. Fortunately the other treat – a 1964 Vouvray from Bourillon d’Orleans – upheld the Loire’s reputation.