Chenin blanc (, ; known also as Pineau de la Loire among other names) is a white wine grape variety from the Loire Valley of France. Its high acidity means it can be used to make varieties from to well-balanced , although it can produce very bland, neutral wines if the vine's natural vigor is not controlled. Outside the Loire, it is found in most of the New World wine regions; it is the most widely planted variety in South Africa, where it was historically also known as Steen ( ). The grape may have been one of the first to be grown in South Africa by Jan van Riebeeck in 1655, or it may have come to that country with Huguenots fleeing France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Chenin blanc was often misidentified in Australia, as well, so tracing its early history in the country is not easy. It may have been introduced in James Busby's collection of 1832, but C. Waterhouse was growing Steen at Highercombe in Houghton, South Australia, by 1862.
It provides a fairly neutral palate for the expression of terroir, vintage variation, and the winemaker's treatment.Oz Clarke Encyclopedia of Grapes pg 75-83 Harcourt Books 2001 In cool areas, the juice is sweet but high in acid with a full-bodied, fruity palate. In the unreliable summers of northern France, the acidity of under-ripened grapes was often masked with chaptalization with unsatisfactory results, whereas now, the less-ripened grapes are made into popular sparkling wines such as Crémant de Loire. The white wines of the Anjou AOC are a popular expression of Chenin as a dry wine, with flavors of quince and apples. In nearby Vouvray AOC, vintners aim for an off-dry style, developing honey and floral characteristics with age. In the best vintages, the grapes can be left on the vines to develop noble rot, producing an intense, viscous dessert wine, which may improve considerably with age.
When Thomas Bohier purchased vineyard land around Chenonceaux on January 3, 1496, several grape varieties were brought in from the Burgundy wine region of Beaune, the Jura wine region of Arbois and nearby Orléans and Anjou. One of these varieties, a white grape known as Plant d'Anjou, was later planted between 1520 and 1535 at a nearby site known as Mont Chenin in Touraine by the Lord of Château de Chenonceau and his brother-in-law, Denis Briçonnet, the abbot of Cormery. Ampelographers believe that Plant d'Anjou was like Chenin blanc, with the grape eventually taking on the name from Mont Chenin.
French writer François Rabelais (1494–1553) wrote glowingly about the white wines of Anjou, and mentions the medicinal qualities of the grapes at the end of chapter XXV of Gargantua:
This done, the shepherds and shepherdesses made merry with these cakes and fine grapes, and sported themselves together at the sound of the pretty small pipe, scoffing and laughing at those vainglorious cake-bakers, who had that day met with a mischief for want of crossing themselves with a good hand in the morning. Nor did they forget to apply to Forgier's leg some fat chenin grapes, and so handsomely dressed it and bound it up that he was quickly cured.Translation based on that of Gustave Doré (1894) at Project Gutenberg of the following French :Ce faict, et bergiers et bergieres feirent chere lye avecques ces fouaces et beaulx raisins, et se rigollerent ensemble au son de la belle bouzine, se mocquans de ces beaulx fouaciers glorieux, qui avoient trouvé male encontre par faulte de s'estre seignez de la bonne main au matin, et avec gros raisins chenins estuverent les jambes de Forgier mignonnement, si bien qu'il feut tantost guery.
From France, the grape spread to South Africa, where it was most likely included among the vine cuttings sent to Jan van Riebeeck in the Cape Colony by the Dutch East India Company. In the 20th century, a subvariety of Chenin planted in the Loire was found to be not actually Chenin blanc at all, but rather the Portuguese grape Verdelho, which is banned from French AOC regulations in the Loire.
Other DNA research has shown that a crossing of Chenin and the Hunnic grape Gouais blanc produced several varieties including Balzac blanc, Colombard and Meslier-Saint-François. In South Africa, the grape was crossed with the Italian wine grape Trebbiano to produce Weldra and Chenel.
Over the years, Chenin blanc has also been frequently confused with other grape varieties with which it does not seem to have a close genetic relationship. This includes the Portuguese wine grape Verdelho grown on the island of Madeira Machupiclait and in the Azores, as well as the Spanish wine grape Albillo, which was confused for Chenin blanc in Australia.
New clonal varieties have been developed that delay budding and increase sugar development during the ripening phase. Six of these new clones have been officially sanctioned by the French government. The vine is semi-upright in habit with three- to five-lobed leaves. It tends to break bud early, with conical, winged bunches containing yellow-green grapes that ripen late. The berries are typically 16.0 mm long x 14.2 mm wide, with an average weight of 1.79 g.
The climate of a wine region largely dictates whether Chenin blanc is produced in a predominantly sweet or dry manner, while the vineyard soil type generally influences the overall style of the wine. Heavy clay-based soils, paired with the right climate, are favorable to the development of weighty, botrytized dessert wines that need time to age and mature. Well-drained and less organic, predominantly soils tend to produce lighter styles of wine that mature more quickly. Chenin blanc planted in soils with a high silex content produce wines with distinctive minerally notes, while limestone-based soils encourage wines with sharp acidity. In Vouvray, the soil is predominantly argilo-calcaire or calcareous clay, which produces rounded wines with both acidity and weight. In areas where schist is plentiful in the soil, Chenin blanc grapes generally ripen earlier than in vineyards with predominantly clay-based soils.
Among the viticultural hazards to which Chenin is susceptible (apart from botrytis in less than ideal conditions) are damage from spring frost, powdery mildew, and fungal disease (such as dead arm of grapevine) that affect the wood structures of the grape vine. Some of these hazards can be managed with integrated pest management and rootstock selection.J.H.S. Ferreira " Effect of Rootstock on the Incidence of Dying Arm of Chenin blanc vines " Viticultural and Oenological Research Institute, Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa. March, 1985
With optimal ripeness and balance between acidity and sugars being such a viticultural priority for Chenin blanc, many growers (such as those in the Loire Valley) harvest the grapes in "tries" or successive pickings through the vineyards. During each series of picking, only the ripest clusters or individual grapes are harvested by hand during a period that could last four to six weeks and include three to six passes through the vineyard. For the production of sweet botrytized wines, pickers look for the grapes that have achieved the necessary amount of the noble rot. In hot and dry years where no noble rot occurs, pickers may leave ripened grapes on the vine long enough to shrivel, or passerillé, where they could later be affected by noble rot. In areas that experience considerable vintage variation, winemakers may decide on a day-by-day basis what style and dryness of Chenin blanc they could make, with the grapes harvested during each try going to different styles of wine. For some producers in Vouvray, which may have up to six tries during harvest, the first few could go to sparkling and dry wine production, while the later trie could go towards sweet wine production.
Chenin blanc is an authorized planting in many Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) regions, but is mostly planted in the Middle Loire AOCs of Anjou, Bonnezeaux, Crémant de Loire, Coteaux de l'Aubance, Coteaux du Layon, Jasnières, Montlouis, Quarts de Chaume, Saumur, Savennières, and Vouvray. The wines of the Coteaux du Layon, Bonnezeaux, and Quarts de Chaume are produced as sweet dessert wines, while Savennières produce predominantly dry wines. The wines of Anjou, Crémant de Loire, Coteaux de l'Aubance, Jasnières, Montlouis, Saumur, and Vouvray have a wide range of sweetness levels, from dry to semi-sweet to sweet.
In the 1970s, plantings of Chenin blanc in the Loire were uprooted in favor of the more fashionable red Cabernet Franc and white Sauvignon blanc, as well as the easier-to-grow Gamay. This consolidated Chenin's presence to the Middle Loire region around Anjou-Saumur and Touraine. In the 1980s, interest in the sweet dessert wines of the Loire renewed enthusiasm for Chenin blanc in the region. During this time, the Bordeaux wine region of Sauternes had experienced a series of favorable vintages that gave a dramatic increase in prices as supply began to dwindle in face of high demand. Wine consumers who had developed an appreciation for these sweet wines began to look to the Loire as another source. The 1990s brought a string of successful vintages to the Middle Loire that produced many highly rated Chenin wines affected by noble rot. As wine expert Oz Clarke noted, these wines became the "standard-bearer" for Chenin blanc.
The climate of the wine region tends to dictate what style of Chenin blanc is most prevalent in the area. In the northernmost reaches of Jasnières, Chenin blanc is at its limits for cultivation, with the wines being mostly dry and thin. While most of the Middle Loire experiences a continental climate, the Coteaux du Layon receives more climatic influence from the Atlantic Ocean, which promotes the development of Botrytis cinerea, than in nearby Vouvray or Montlouis. While all three AOCs produce sweet, botrytized wine, less vintage variation is found in the Coteaux du Layon. The cool continental influence in Montlouis and Vouvray lends itself to producing a wide range of Chenin blanc, including grapes with the necessary balance of acidity to sugar needed to produce sparkling wine. In the AOC of Savennières, less fog and mist from the nearby rivers occur and more wind that makes botrytis taking root more difficult. This is part of the reason why Savennières is the one Loire AOC that produces predominantly dry Chenin blanc. In the south of France, the warm Mediterranean climate of the Languedoc region encourages the production of many more dry styles of Chenin blanc rather than sweet.
Outside the Loire, in addition to the Languedoc plantings in Limoux, other French plantings of Chenin blanc can be found in Corsica (with planted on the island in 2008), Charentes, and the Aveyron department. In South West France, it is permitted to be used in the white wines of the Côtes de Duras and the Garonne wines of Vins d'Estaing and Vins d'Entraygues et du Fel.
The variety was most likely introduced to the country in the collection of cuttings sent to Jan van Riebeeck by the Dutch East India Company. For the next two hundred years of South African wine history, the variety was known as Steen. Ampelographers were not able to concretely identify the numerous plantings of Steen around the country as being Chenin blanc until 1965. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chenin blanc was the principal grape in the South African wine industry's "white wine renaissance" that was ushered in by the introduction of new technologies such as temperature-controlled fermentation vessels. During this time, the focus was on producing off-dry, clean, and crisp wine that was mostly neutral in flavor and could capitalize on the wine market's demand for white wine. Near the end of the 20th century, several Chenin blanc specialist producers emerged and worked with vineyard managers to isolate older Chenin vines on suitable terroir. Their goal was to produce wines that exhibited Chenin's unique aromas and traits. While plantings of Chenin blanc have decreased, the work of these producers resulted in improved quality profiles of South African Chenin blanc.
For most of its history in the California wine industry, the grape was considered a "workhorse variety" that could be used anonymously in bulk and jug wine blends. Chenin's natural acidity and ability to adapt to wines of varying degrees of sweetness made it an ideal blending partner with Colombard and Chardonnay in mass-produced blends. Until close to the turn 21st century, producers in Sacramento Valley's Clarksburg AVA had not started to make quality varietal Chenin blancs a specialty; Chenin blancs from these producers tend to show a characteristic musky melon aroma and have the potential to age well.
While Chenin blanc is grown throughout the United States, the American Viticultural Areas with the most significant amount of plantings include the California AVAs of Clarksburg, Napa Valley, and Mendocino, the Washington wine regions of the Yakima and Columbia Valley, and the Texas High Plains AVA.Appellation American ''" Chenin blanc, Accessed: July 7th 2006 In 2012, Washington had of Chenin while Texas was growing .
Other states in the United States with plantings of Chenin blanc include New York, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Idaho, Colorado and Texas. In 1990, of Chenin blanc were planted in Oregon, but by 2001, virtually all of it had been uprooted with only a few isolated plantings remaining.
In New Zealand, acreage of the variety fell to just under by 2004. By 2008, that number had dropped to . Planted primarily on the North Island, some examples of New Zealand Chenin blanc have drawn favorable comparisons to the sweet dessert styles of Chenin from the Loire Valley. Historically, the grape has been used as a blending partner with Müller-Thurgau in mass-produced blends. The success of some critically acclaimed New Zealand Chenin blancs has sparked interest in planting the variety. As experts such as Oz Clarke have noted, though, as long as the value of New Zealand Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc stays high, little economic reason exists to pursue premium Chenin blanc production.
Chenin blanc is found planted throughout South America, though for many years plantings Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay were confused for Pinot blanc. The grape was used primarily in mass-produced white blends. In 2008, Argentina had of Chenin blanc, most of it in the Mendoza wine region, while Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay had , , and of grapevines planted, respectively.
The grape was exported to Israel in the 20th century, where it is still found in limited quantities. Canada has Chenin blanc planted in the Okanagan wine region of British Columbia and in Ontario. Some plantings of Chenin blanc can be found in the Spanish wine regions, mainly in Catalonia. In 2015, of the grape were planted, but this number may rise as DNA analysis in 2006 discovered the Agudelo grape variety growing in the Galicia, Alella, and Penedès wine region is actually Chenin blanc. The tropical wine regions of India and Thailand also has some limited plantings of the grape.
One of the major differences between Old World- and New World-styles of Chenin blanc is the fermentation temperature. Old World-style producers in the Loire tend to ferment their Chenin blanc at higher temperatures, , than New World producers in South Africa and elsewhere, usually fermenting their whites at temperatures around . This is because Old World wine producers tend not to put a premium on the tropical fruit flavors and aromas that come out more vividly with cooler fermentation temperatures. Chenin blanc can accommodate some skin contact and maceration, which will allow extraction of phenolic compounds that could add to the complexity of the wine. Two of the aromas that skin contact can bring out is the characteristic greengage and angelica notes of Chenin. The grape's characteristic acidity can be softened by malolactic fermentation, which gives the wine a creamier or "fattier" texture, as would a period spent aging on the lees. The use of wood or oak aging is up to each individual producer. Old World producers tend to shy away from the use of new oak barrels, which can impart flavors of vanilla, spice, and toasted notes, though these notes may be desirable for a New World producer. In Savennières, a tradition remains of using acacia and chestnut barrels for aging, though acacia can impart a yellow tint to the wine, and chestnut barrels may add some buttery notes.
The aging ability of sweet Loire Chenin blanc is among the longest-lived in the world of wine, with well-made examples from favorable vintages regularly having the potential to last for at least 100 years. This longevity is attributed to the grape's naturally high acidity, which acts as a preservative. As phenolic compounds in the wine break down, they add complexity and depth to the wine. Some off-dry or "demi-sec" examples may need at least 10 years before they start drinking at peak levels and could continue to develop for another 20 to 30 years. Sparkling and dry examples of Chenin blanc from premium production and favorable vintages have also shown longevity levels not commonly associated with white wine. However, as they age, Chenin blanc wines are prone to going through "" where the wine closes up, revealing little aroma and varietal characteristics.
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