Chenin Blanc Parentage Revealed

In early July the Loire and South African chenin blanc growers hosted the first “Chenin Blanc International Congress” in the Loire region. I’m glad to see this finally take place. Next one is in South Africa. My spouse wrote up a small blog post that describes the ampelographer’s reveal of the chenin blanc parents. We knew about savignin but the other was not known until very recently. Here’s a connection to the blog post … EnoViti: Chenin Blanc Parentage Revealed

It really is my favorite white grape. Thanks for the link. Here are the results if you don’t want to click the link:

Thanks Josh and Gary, I’ve got the Lieu Dit version cued up for this weekend.

Sauvignonasse aka friulano… Pretty cool. Two solid varieties in their own right.

For the few times that I have tried to blend chenin with other wines I have found that chenin blanc generally doesn’t play well with others. Probably the reason behind very few blends commercially available with exception of the common NoCal CB-Viognier blend. I’m wondering if either chenin’s parents or offspring would make good blending partners with chenin blanc?

Thanks for sharing that, Gary. And thank your spouse for a fascinating blog – I need to spend more time with it

At the Berserkerfest, someone brought a Chenin/Pinotage blend white wine. It was not horrible. Someone in South Africqa must have been drinking too much before the blending trials.

They’d have to have intentionally made a blanc de blech. People have brought bottles of Loma Prieta’s sparkling Pinotage (blanc de noir) back to show South African winemakers, so perhaps they were playing a bit, then made the best out of the result.

That was probably Beyerskloof. It’s (along with the Rose) their cheapest wine at 75R including tax (=$5 USD). Story behind it is that winery owner/winemaker wanted to make a 100% white Pinotage but as this wasn’t then an approved category of the Wine & Spirit Board and being impatient at the bureaucracy involved in getting the WSB to create the category he blended his white Pinotage with Chenin in order to get WSB approval.

It’s a popular ‘lifestyle’ wine and refreshing well-chilled on a hot day in the Cape. It’s now mostly Chenin - 84% at 2018 vintage.

Stephen Richardson at Mellasat Winery did have the patience to deal with WSB and his Enigma (later Sigma) wine as the first 100% white Pinotage on the market with the 2007 vintage. It’s quite a different beast, being barrel fermented and lees aged for 7 months.

I was hoping for a DNA test clip from “Maury”.