Seven wine styles to drink with pork:

White wine

• Riesling
• Viognier
• Chenin Blanc

Red wine

• Sangiovese (Chianti Classico)
• Mencia
• Grenache / Garnacha (red or rosé)
• Gamay (Beaujolais)

Decanter Premium is the ideal last-minute gift for wine lovers!

Is red or white wine best with pork?

Pork is quite a versatile meat that can match brilliantly with both red and white wines – not to mention orange wine – depending on what you’re cooking or eating. 

Try Riesling white wines or juicy reds with relatively high acidity to cut through the fat content of roast pork belly, or comforting Grenache-led red blends with midweek bangers and mash.

Tuscany’s Sangiovese-fuelled reds, with their balance of structure, wild berry fruit and acidity, can be delicious with a porchetta-style roast or slow-cooked pork shoulder at the dinner table. 

‘Italian reds always have that wonderful acidity that’s perfect with pork,’ wrote Decanter food and wine expert Fiona Beckett in this festive pairings piece.

Food and wine pairing principles

Food and wine pairing has been the subject of debate among wine writers. While proponents outline certain principles, personal taste is hugely important in this arena.

Even classic wine styles may vary between individual producers, but experimenting with different combinations and trying new bottles can be part of the fun.

When it comes to choosing a wine to pair with pork dishes, Jean-Baptiste Lemoine, deputy director of food and beverage at The Goring hotel in London, previously told Decanter it’s important to consider:

• the cut of the pork;
• the way it’s cooked;
• the sauce you are serving it with

Matthieu Longuère, a master sommelier and the wine development manager at Le Cordon Bleu London culinary school, told Decanter in 2024. ‘Whatever the meat is, it depends what you do with it.’

Think about matching the intensity of the wine with that of the dish, as well as any acidity and sweetness brought by ingredients in the meal.

Wine with pork belly and suckling pig

For tender, melt-in-the-mouth suckling pig, Lemoine advised drinking lighter styles of red. These include Spanish Mencia, Nerello Mascalese from Sicily, Pinot Noir from cooler regions or Chilean Carménère.

He also recommended Riesling with a touch of sweetness. This can be a classic with pork belly, too.

‘Roast pork belly works best with a wine that has a high level of acidity plus a touch of sweetness,’ wrote Fiona Beckett, naming 25 top food and wine pairings.

Germany is renowned for top Riesling wines, from dry styles to varying sweetness levels. Great Rieslings are also found in Alsace and the US Finger Lakes area, as well as parts of Austria, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – to name a few sources.

Flavours in the dish can help to lead your wine choice, too.

Apricots in this cider vinegar-roasted pork belly recipe ‘would lead me in the direction of Viognier rather than Riesling’, Beckett noted. 

In a Decanter ‘perfect pairing’ article for chestnut-stuffed pork fillet, she said: ‘Given the sweetness from the chestnuts, prunes and redcurrant jelly, I’d go for a wine that has a touch of sweetness itself. [For example] Alsace or New Zealand or Oregon Pinot Gris, or an old-vine Chenin Blanc.’

Wines to drink with a roast pork

‘Roast pork calls for something that combines richness with acidity, whether it’s white or red,’ Rhône expert Matt Walls previously told Decanter.

For white wine lovers, ‘Condrieu [Viognier] can be a brilliant match for pork roasted with herbs like Oregano or Marjoram,’ said Walls, who is Decanter’s Rhône correspondent and a contributing editor.

He also advised considering fresher styles of Chardonnay, as well as Chenin Blanc from either the Loire Valley or South Africa.

Tuscan reds, such as Chianti Classico or the vaunted wines produced around the hilltop town of Montalcino, can be delicious with a herby pork roast, or a porchetta-style festive dish – as previously noted. 

Walls pointed to Grenache-led wines, as well as Pinot Noir from warmer climates. Grenache is known as Garnacha in Spain, and stole the show in a Decanter panel tasting of red wines from Aragón last year.

Wine to drink with pork sausages

Walls returned to the Grenache theme when considering a wine for pork sausages. ‘For a classic bangers and mash, I tend to reach for a young Grenache-based wine like a southern Rhône.’

Classic blends of Grenache, Syrah (Shiraz) and Mourvèdre – and variations on the theme – are produced in many regions, from the Rhône and Languedoc-Roussillon in France to parts of South Australia and California.  

In a similar vein, the Carignan from Languedoc-Roussillon featured in the list below promises to enhance comforting bangers and mash on an autumnal evening, wrote Decanter’s David Williams in his recent review.

Other options include Gamay-based Beaujolais Cru, which can also make a great wine match for traditional Christmas ham. 

Don’t ignore rosé wines or orange wines at the dinner table, either.

Dry rosé wines could be a good bet for BBQ pork, whether pulled or cooked as a chop, said Lemoine. However, the meat might overpower some of the more delicate styles.

Decanter’s Williams recently recommended this budget-friendly, off-dry orange wine led by Grüner Veltliner. ‘A cushion of sweetness makes this a great match for spicy pork dishes,’ he wrote.

Watch out for too much oak in some wines

Beware of wines with prominent oak flavours when it comes to some pork dishes. 

Oak in wine can be tricky with sweet and sour pork, for example, said Longuère at Le Cordon Bleu London. 

‘The oak is quite bitter, quite smoky. If you have something sweet, it tends to make it taste quite metallic. And if you have something quite high in acidity, it clashes.’

Great wine with pork: Inspiration from our experts

The following wines have all been tasted by Decanter’s experts and include bottles at a range of prices.

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Varietal thinking is treacherous… but it seems to be conceptually necessary for us. How else can we keep the worrisome chaos of the wine world at bay?

Once we start tasting, those familiar friends begin to swap clothes and identities, those landmarks turn up in the wrong places and those gateways open on strange, unexpected vistas. We taste, we drink, we relish. And then we ignore what we’ve just experienced. We go running back to our myths of varietal primacy and segregation – just so that we can keep our heads well organised.

All of this kept tickling me a little earlier this year during the Chenin Blanc International Celebration, held in early July in Angers and Tours, France. There was data aplenty. Fair enough: Chenin Blanc has a genetic definition, so its presence in the world’s winelands can be measured. South Africa has just over half of the world’s plantings (16,200ha in 2023) and France a little more than one third (10,700ha in 2023); the US, Argentina and Australia share the rest.

It’s South Africa’s most planted variety; in France, by contrast, it’s the 14th most planted, the fifth most planted white and the third most important variety in the Loire.

But here’s what matters. Any variety is a suite of possibilities, and those possibilities only take form and come into being when vines are planted in a particular site. It’s the site that will steer your wine experience – in coordination with the craftswoman or -man who shepherds vines through seasons and oversees the radical metamorphosis from grape juice to wine. Those efforts are vital. No efforts; no interest. As the talk and the tastings we shared made abundantly clear, the set of possibilities grouped under ‘Chenin’ can dazzle.

Almost the first word spoken about Chenin, by Anjou grower Patrick Baudouin, was ‘versatility’. ‘Plasticity’ soon followed (from the academics in attendance). South African vine-guardian Rosa Kruger (who cherishes the idea that old vines begin, after 35 years or so, to lose their clonal status and ‘change and reflect the landscape’) calls it ‘the chameleon variety’. Everyone stressed the community of possibilities that Chenin offers. For South African grower Chris Alheit, it’s ‘the very honest grape: it’s going to tell the truth about where it comes from’.

It has been in the Loire for the longest, so it’s no surprise that differences are most marked there. In Anjou it’s deep, sumptuous; in Savennières driving, masterful; in Saumur intense, bright and chiselled; in Chinon (and, soon, Bourgueil) firm, dry, upright; in Vouvray tender and intricate; in Jasnières slender, fragile, quenching.

Then… there’s time. Take it at different points of the season and it will give you a drench of differences, from bitter-hard and raw though springleaf, pear and apple via verbena, hawthorn and meadowsweet to a flush of yellow fruits and finally luscious autumnal extravagance. There’s a slower cellar clock, too. Ten, 20, 50 years pass and the wine deepens in hue and flavoury tone yet retains its sure-footed balance. No Chenin, just Chenins.

South Africa is still working its way towards all this. The scale and bone-structure of Chenin’s Cape expressions are very different from those of the Loire: larger and more chewy, broader in the beam, mingling honey, pollen, stone and softly tropical fruit notes.

What’s so encouraging, though, is that growers there are listening, waiting, asking questions, beginning sincere conversations with their sites, as you can now see from the gratifying range of balances in the wines, and their ever-quieter and ever-subtler weave of analogies.

No more statements or postures; farewell varietal confinement.

Few wines grown in the southern hemisphere have the same ease and spread of articulation, the same sense of unfussy belonging, as these do.

Unvarietal varieties, translators of origin, mothers of difference: of all this we need more.

In my glass this month

Hard to choose just one wine from all those I tasted, but here it is: thunderous and improbable, like an Anjou summer storm. Aromatically prodigious: a hayloft full to bursting, an orchard, a beehive. Rich, thick, vinous, mouthfilling, extravagant, burnished, glycerous and full… though not sweet; fissured, indeed, with acidity. This Pantagruel (a little Gargantua) is Patrick Baudouin’s Clos des Bruandières 2020 from Anjou: wonderful now, wonderful in a decade. Or two.

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South Africa‘s Swartland region is both literally and figuratively remote. It is a long way from the Cape Dutch architecture of Stellenbosch, the mountainscape of Cape Town and the Huguenot avenues of Franschhoek.

It is wide open, a vast prairie of wheat fields and dusty tracks that feels more like something Steinbeck might have written about than a wellspring of contemporary Cape winemaking.

Scroll down for eight scrumptious Chenin Blancs and other wines from David & Nadia

Yet in the space of 30 years, Swartland has moved from curiosity to pioneer to icon. That‘s thanks to a relatively small group of producers, among them David and Nadia Sadie.

They have been working here since 2010 and quietly building a reputation for some of South Africa‘s finest and most ageworthy wines.

The pair met in their final year at Stellenbosch University; Nadia studying conservation and soil science and David specialising in viticulture. After graduation, they moved to Tulbagh near the Swartland.

‘We started from scratch,‘ David says. While Nadia worked for an environmental company, David took a job at local winery Saronsberg Cellar. By 2010, they‘d relocated to Malmesbury in the Swartland, where David was buying fruit.

The early wines – a white blend called Aristargos and Elpidios red blend – were based on contracted fruit from decomposed granite soils across Swartland.

Talkin’ about a revolution…

That same year, the producers of the Swartland Revolution held their first iconoclastic event, presented by flip-flopped winemakers who seemed as keen on surfing and beer as they were on wine and farming.

It turned heads and turned the region into one of the most closely watched in the Southern Hemisphere.

‘The timing was perfect,‘ Nadia remembers. ‘We were living in Tulbagh, and we knew it had to be Swartland.’ The mood in the region was bold, collaborative and optimistic.

‘I think if the Swartland Revolution had never happened, we would still have made Swartland wines,‘ adds David. ‘Swartland was and is my home. But the Revolution motivated me a lot.‘

By 2013, they had agreed a lease on a cellar with a Chenin Blanc vineyard at the Paardebosch ranch in Malmesbury not far from where David‘s parents lived.

They now found themselves stewards of a rather special 3.6ha vineyard of old vine Chenin Blanc, which they called Plat’bos, meaning ‘flat bush’. From then on it formed the basis of their classic Swartland Chenin Blanc bottling.

Chenin specialists

Although the white and red blends continued to be produced, as well as a Grenache Noir, the new wines added to the range in the years to come would expand on the promise of Chenin Blanc.

The production of single-vineyard Chenin Blanc wines began with the 2015 vintage of Skaliekop. It was followed by Hoë-Steen and their home site of Plat‘bos as a single-vineyard wine in the 2018 vintage.

Most recently, with the 2021 vintage, Rondevlei has added to a strong range of Chenin Blanc from complex soils.

‘Specialisation is more relevant than ever before,‘ David argues. ‘Plus it‘s exciting to see the diversity of the variety. It can deliver generous bottlings at a young age, but it can also give restrained, understated, linear styles. Even with these extreme, challenging vintages, I can‘t see us planting anything new other than Chenin.’

‘Micro-farming’

Precision viticulture is key, and the focus is tight. ‘We do 100% Swartland, 100% dry-farmed bush vines. No trellising. Poor soils. Low yields. No irrigation,’ explains David. ‘I want the vintage to express the rainfall.’

Farming without irrigation isn‘t easy, but along with his (unrelated) namesake Eben Sadie, David believes that it‘s essential to the concept of terroir. Vineyards are replanted using massal selection from existing old vines, rather than clones from nurseries.

Nadia‘s background in soil science has been fundamental in exploring the sense of place in the wines. In 2016, she joined the business full time, and the name on the label changed from David to David & Nadia.

‘In 2023, I did 60 profile pits just in Plat‘bos,’ she says. ‘In less than 4ha, we mapped different soils – clay, sand, iron – and split the vineyard into separate blocks, which allows us to harvest and vinify separately. It‘s micro-farming,’ she adds. ‘We work with drones to refine how we farm, block by block.’

Precision winemaking

Winemaking is both precise and traditional, utilising spontaneous fermentations in the cellar and avoiding inoculated yeasts, as well as new oak. Concrete and used barrels are the ageing materials of choice.

Fruit is generally picked across multiple passes to achieve a balance of acidity and ripeness at remarkably modest alcohols (around 13%) for the climate. The focus is on preserving steely acidity and tightly coiled structure in youth.

‘I don‘t want to say that we are making a lighter style, but rather a less extracted style,‘ Nadia says.

They continue to push for the highest quality. Since 2020, they‘ve made the switch from natural to technical, taint-free corks, and have made the decision to hold back some magnums to demonstrate how well their wines age in bottle.

A sense of place

Although initially restrained, the wines unfurl with time and patience. ‘If blind tastings score these wines lower, so be it,‘ David says. ‘I want to have a 10- or 20-year vision, as opposed to starting big and flashy to get the scores. We‘re not chasing trends. We‘re chasing site expression.’

But the long-term vision, as for many of South Africa‘s younger generation of winemakers, is far from mapped out.

The couple are working on more stable 30-year lease agreements for their vineyards, pushing for more security and farming control in the vineyards they lease, and planting their own sites with climate resilience in mind.

But there are no plans to increase the scale of the business. ‘We‘re happy with our volumes,’ Nadia says, which are around 60,000 bottles. ‘The focus is on quality now.‘

Inspired by the work of producers as diverse as Thibaud Boudignon in the Loire, Comando G in Spain‘s high-elevation Gredos and Yves Cuilleron in the Northern Rhône, the goal is simple, according to David.

‘We want to be at the same tables as the best wines in the world, but we are farmers first of all. Understanding and fine-tuning the vineyards better and better – that‘s our priority for the future.’

David & Nadia wines: Top Chenins and a few extras

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Who doesn’t love a trip to London? I may live in a wine-producing country, but London? It’s the beating heart of the wine world.

This was my first visit to Decanter in situ, and I was invited to taste on the Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 Panel Tasting. The wines on show highlighted how producers are pushing stylistic differences, from Banghoek to Bottelary, rather than just ‘Stellenbosch’.

The top contender was Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2017.

Scroll down for Malu’s top 10 South African wines of 2024

While in the UK I jumped on a train to Sussex to visit the Jordans (of Jordan Wine Estate in Stellenbosch) at the medieval Mousehall. They’ve just released the maiden Tidebrook Wines.

I mention this as they’re not the only South Africans prospecting English vineyards, there’s a growing number – an interesting trend to watch.

South Africa’s ‘secret weapon’

Touching down in Cape Town, it was straight back to tasting for Decanter. This time for My top 20 South African white blends article. Eben Sadie’s Palladius 2022, an iconic Chenin-based blend, is proof that South Africa’s secret weapon is having this grape as its backbone.

Boasting the majority plantings of Chenin Blanc in the world, we may as well make good use of it. Using Chenin as ballast also has the advantage of being uniquely South African; where else do you find such a preponderance of premium Chenin-based cuvées?

That said, the Sauvignon-Semillons also fared well. What’s surprising is that for the relatively high quality, producers find this blend difficult to sell. Consumers would rather reach for a straight Sauvignon Blanc.

Adept with both grapes is winemaker Trizanne Barnard. One afternoon at her beachside home, we dove into her 2023 Seascape range. The stand-out was the Sondagskloof White 2023: wild fermented, some barrel, half skin-contact Sauvignon, named for a tiny Cape South Coast ward.

Barnard is not alone in experimenting: the use of oak, spontaneous fermentation, lees contact et al, is on the rise. This was illustrated by the Sauvignon Blanc category winner in Platter’s South African Wine Guide 2025: Diemersdal Wild Horseshoe 2023 – which makes use of all of those techniques.

Celebrating success

Some personal successes this year included being named a finalist in the inaugural 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Awards. Then, while in Zanzibar I got the news that I managed to not only clinch the WSET Diploma, but also win three of the modules.

Fine wine is not readily available on the island, so I settled for an ice cold beer – which tasted pretty good! Back home we celebrated by popping a bottle of the Silverthorn Jewel Box 2019.

Suddenly, we were in the thick of release season. Duncan Savage’s release at his urban winery was memorable. A seamless, confident showing, with the Girl Next Door 2023 rising to the top using Syrah parcels from both Noordhoek and Fish Hoek.

These unusual growing areas were chosen partly, I suspect, for the opportunity to surf between pickings…

From one surfer to another: Miles Mossop and the launch of his Cab-led Sam 2021 at Salon by chef-patron Luke Dale Roberts. Something that struck me was how much more elegant Mossop’s wines have become after leaving the life of a salaried winemaker in 2018.

Varieties to watch

While Salon was a feast for the palate, sometimes simple food seems to make wines shine all the brighter. The Roodekrantz 2023 release tasting at a dive bar underscored this.

Six excellent Chenin Blancs that were nuanced, characterful and carried the signature of their sites. Has there been a more impressive Chenin showcase since Chris Alheit?

While hard to choose – it was the Roodekrantz Die Kliphuis 2023 that pipped the post. Roodekrantz is smart to bet on this workhorse; the premiumisation of Chenin Blanc is becoming a thing.

So much so, that there’s a well-funded research project on the go with this as its focus. Could we soon have a Chenin brand equivalent to Cloudy Bay?

Another cultivar of the moment is undoubtedly Grenache. Suited to hotter climes, dry-land farming and bush-vine cultivation (like in Spain, a South African speciality) we’re seeing the emergence of more single-varietal bottlings.

Probably my favourite tasting of the year benchmarked some top SA Grenache against international bottlings in Joostenberg’s tasting room. One of the attending producers, Marelise Niemann, is so passionate about the variety that she makes four different regional versions.

Her Momento Grenache Noir Piekenierskloof 2022 proves that Grenache can deliver in cooler wards, too.

Don’t forget Chardonnay

Chardonnay has somewhat taken a backseat to Chenin in recent years, but the launch of the Chardonnay Association of South Africa in November, which already has 55 members, has bolstered the variety.

Overall the quality at the launch tasting was outstanding, with Restless River’s Ava Marie Chardonnay 2022 disappearing most quickly in my glass. The diversity of sites on display was particularly interesting, such as the high-lying vines in the Sutherland-Karoo district.

My final (professional, that is) wine lunch of the year took place at my local, The Foodbarn, presided over by the inimitable chef Franck Dangereux. I met with distributor David Clarke of Ex Animo, who had a number of interesting pours.

The Testalonga El Bandito Skin Chenin Blanc 2024 makes the cut here for how distinctly South African it is, there’s just simply nowhere else in the world that it could come from. And that is something to celebrate.

Malu Lambert’s top 10 South African wines of 2024

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Elizabeth Gabay MW, Poppy de Courcy-Wheeler and Justin Howard-Sneyd MW tasted 158 wines, with 2 Outstanding and 30 Highly Recommended.

Languedoc whites: Panel tasting scores

158 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 2

Highly recommended 30

Recommended 114

Commended 12

Fair 0

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit current-release, still white wines from any of the AOPs within the Languedoc (with the exception of AOP Picpoul de Pinet), as well as from any of the IGP and Vin de France, but not including single-varietal Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay.

The wine-growing region of Languedoc is 200km in length, arcing round the southwestern edge of France’s Mediterranean coastline. Diverse terroirs with schist, limestone, clay and sand can be found along the coastal plains and the southern foothills of the Massif Central.

There is an Atlantic influence in the northwestern vineyards, higher altitude coolness in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the south, and cool air sweeping down the Rhône Valley in the east. The resulting diversity can make it almost impossible to define a ‘Languedoc style’.

Languedoc white wines rated 90+ listed below

A riot of varieties

A long history of producing large volumes of cheap and cheerful wines has fixed the image of the region for many consumers, but affordable land and free-minded attitudes have meant that the region has, for a number of decades, also produced some stellar wines.

Judge Justin Howard-Sneyd MW said: ‘It was great to see the wines aspiring to price levels certainly not achieved 20 years ago, meaning the best wines are excellent value compared to wines of similar quality from the Rhône, Burgundy or California.’

A distinctive feature of the tasting was the rich assortment of local white grape varieties. These include Clairette, Piquepoul, Terret Blanc and Gris, Carignan Blanc, Grenache Blanc, and Riveirenc Blanc and Gris; some saved from obscurity or even extinction.

Rhône varieties such as Marsanne, Roussanne, Bourboulenc, Araignan (also called Picardan) and Viognier, as well as Rolle (Italy’s Vermentino) and Macabeu (Viura in Spain), are also increasingly widespread. For Howard-Sneyd, ‘the most successful wines were Mediterranean blends’.

Since the 1980s, international varieties have been increasingly planted in Languedoc. Chenin Blanc was an early introduction in the area around Montpellier, appreciated for its acidity, and can now be considered a local grape. It is used extensively in Limoux and in the area of Terrasses du Larzac, where it is hoped it will soon be included in the list of permitted varieties.

Wines made from 100% Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc were excluded from the tasting. Newer international varieties such as Riesling, Petite Arvine, Colombard, Petit Manseng and Alvarinho do crop up, and can contribute freshness and acidity.

Single-varietal Viognier performed well, but blends including a small percentage of it did not.

Oak, concrete and freshness

Not every Languedoc appellation includes white wines, and those that do often produce just a small amount. This makes it more difficult to establish regional styles and Howard-Sneyd notes that whites under the large Languedoc AP ‘struggle for identity, and this risks being a dumping ground for anything that doesn’t have a more specific AP.’

Great freshness was found in maritime La Clape and the higher altitude and limestone soils of Terrasses de Larzac, but we were disappointed not to have found greater freshness in the wines from Limoux.

The best wines all had extended ageing in wood, concrete or tank, with great balance of freshness and richness, complexity and power. Poppy de Courcy-Wheeler felt that the use of oak did not always justify higher prices.

The lowest-scoring wines were often marked down due to flabbiness and a lack of freshness or, conversely, by hard, unripe greenness and more clumsy use of oak.

While there may not yet be clear regional Languedoc white styles, the range is still impressive: from rich, complex, oaked wines to lighter, fruity wines with prices from below £10 to over £50. Clearly this is a region with opportunities for exciting discoveries.

Languedoc whites panel tasting scores

Wines were tasted blind

The judges

Elizabeth Gabay MW is a wine writer, educator, speaker and consultant, with a focus on rosé and the wines of southern France, where she has lived since 2002. Her second book Rosés of Southern France (£22 Amazon, 2022) was co-authored with her son Ben Bernheim

Poppy de Courcy-Wheeler is a wine buyer for Waitrose, focusing on rosé, Burgundy and regional France, having previously worked for more than five years in roles including wine buying and head of trade sales at importer Charles Taylor Wines

Justin Howard-Sneyd MW is the DWWA Regional Chair for Languedoc-Roussillon. A former wine buyer in UK multiple retail, he is a wine trade consultant via his company The Hive Wine Consulting, a trustee of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, and produces wines at Domaine of the Bee in Roussillon

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In the Loire Valley, the emerging consensus is that there is no pattern to the weather, prompting Muscadet’s Famille Lieubeau to wonder if there is such a thing as ‘normal’ anymore.

Its conclusion? ‘From a climate point of view, no two years are the same’.

Scroll down to see Beverley Blanning MW’s selection of the best new releases of white Loire wines

Risk of rot

This sentiment is by no means unique to the western Loire in 2023; the vintage presented a range of problems for white-wine makers across the region. By the time harvest arrived, growers had a bumper crop of healthy grapes on their hands – but most had endured plenty of drama along the way.

The early season started well, with no significant frost. After successful flowering and fruit set, the vines were laden with fruit. Everyone had their fingers crossed for a good-sized, healthy crop.

But in June, humidity set in, causing widespread mildew pressure that persisted throughout the season.

Growers had to be vigilant to protect their grapes. Temperatures fluctuated wildly, from excessively cool to near-tropical, with the ever-present threat of rot.

Growers in Vouvray had an additional challenge – acid rot. Julien Pinon, of François et Julien Pinon, says, ‘grey rot is a fungus, but acid rot is caused by a bacteria that turns wine into vinegar. It’s very rare – the last time this happened was in 2014’.

Because the rot originates inside the berries, it can be hard to spot, but Pinon says, ‘In some parcels, you didn’t need to see it – you could smell it.’

He says that fruit selection in the vineyard was the key to making good wine. ‘We discarded 20% of the grapes; some colleagues threw away as much as 40%,’ he says. The 2023 vintage will favour the minority who harvest by hand in Vouvray.

Across the Loire

Chenin Blanc also suffered in other appellations, especially Anjou, where the cool, humid weather persisted throughout August, followed by heavy rain in September.

Domaine Belargus declares that 2023 was the rainiest harvest in the area for 10 years. Again, sorting was key to quality. Harvest at Belargus took two months.

Sarah Hwang, of Domaine Huet in Vouvray, reports a similarly long and complicated harvest, with 2023 taking twice as long as 2022.

Elsewhere, and for other varieties, harvest conditions were rather easier. In Muscadet, the early ripening Melon de Bourgogne escaped the rain and benefited from a late summer heatwave that concentrated both sugar and, unusually, acidity. There are some excellent wines to be found here.

In the vineyards around Sancerre and further south, growers enjoyed a very healthy and high-volume vintage.

See all of Beverley Blanning MW’s top Loire latest releases here

What to expect

Despite the problems of the growing season, the high and early crop load has translated to very high yields across the Loire this year. Volumes are up more than 20% on the 2022 vintage and at the highest recorded levels of the last five years.

Many appellations yielded the maximum permitted levels. Higher yields are harder to ripen successfully – dilution has been a noticeable issue in some of the earlier released 2023 Sauvignons.

The white wines are in the more classical Loire style, with cooler, restrained flavours, moderate alcohols and refreshing acidity. These will be shorter-term wines than those of 2022, which was a vintage of exuberant fruit and good concentration.

Loire white wines: Know your vintages

2019: Following severe frosts, vines produced a low crop of very good quality grapes. The wines show freshness, concentration and balance, and will age well. 5/5

2020: A warm vintage of good quality and ripeness, but with a tendency for higher alcohols, as sugars rose rapidly late in the season. 4/5

2021: A year of devastating frosts all over France that severely affected the Loire. Frosts were followed by a cool growing season that favoured white production. A small volume of delicate, high-quality wine was made. There are some delicious, understated, crisp whites from this vintage. For the few growers who held out for botrytis, some outstanding sweet wines were made, too. 4/5

2022: This year was marked by drought, with heat so severe the vines closed down in summer. Nevertheless, it has produced excellent white wines with beautiful aromas and balanced acidities. There are many hugely appealing wines here. 4/5

2023: One of the most complicated vintages in recent memory, testing the abilities and resilience of vignerons throughout the Loire. Of recent releases, the Muscadets appear to be very successful, the Sauvignons of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé less so. A vintage in which the skill of the grower was paramount. 3/5

Beverley Blanning MW’s book, The Wines of the Loire Valley, was published in October 2024 and is available to buy for £35

Decanter has partnered with Académie du Vin Library to offer Premium subscribers access to an exclusive discount for the book: use code DECLOIRE5 when purchasing the book here.

Beverley Blanning MW’s top Loire white latest releases:

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Beneath the towering Himalayas, the realm of the Gods, a new wine country has been born.

On 21 October, Bhutan – ‘Land of the Thunder Dragon’ – officially joins the global stage with the release of its first vintage.

This beautiful, secluded Buddist kingdom, graced by dramatic mountains, lush valleys, roaring rivers, shimmering lakes and an ancient yet ever-evolving culture, is now home to a pioneering wine venture.

Founded by American dreamers, Michael Juergens and Ann Cross, in partnership with the Bhutanese government, the Bhutan Wine Company aspires to capture the essence of the Thunder Dragon’s terroir.

Known for its commitment to Gross National Happiness (GNH) and its pristine environment, Bhutan might seem an unlikely candidate for wine production.

Yet, these very qualities have given rise to what could become one of the world’s most intriguing wine regions.

The genesis of this venture is a tale of serendipity and vision. Juergens, a business consultant and aspiring Master of Wine, and his wife Cross, a brand management expert with a WSET Diploma, first visited Bhutan in 2017.

Bottling Bhutan

What began as a bucket-list trip soon evolved into a pioneering enterprise.

‘I looked at it and said, this place has the potential to make some of the world’s greatest wines,’ Juergens recalls.

‘Everything that you eat [in Bhutan] is the most flavourful thing you’ve ever tasted. So I figured you could probably grow some interesting wine grapes.’

Captivated by Bhutan’s diverse microclimates and pure environment, Juergens drafted a proposal for the Bhutanese government, outlining how a wine industry could align with the country’s development goals, GNH policy, and status as the world’s only carbon-negative nation.

Recognising the potential for an entirely new, high-value, low-volume product that could showcase Bhutan to the world, while promoting sustainable agriculture, preserving cultural heritage, and generating income opportunities for rural communities – all key pillars of GNH – the response was enthusiastic.

By 2019, the first vines were in the ground. This merging of American entrepreneurialism with Bhutan’s adaptive cultural framework has given rise to a unique venture that respects local traditions while pushing viticultural boundaries.

Karma Choeda, chief operating officer of the Bhutan Wine Company, emphasises the cultural significance: ‘For the people and the country, it will be a matter of pride to say that we are able to grow grapes and produce wine in Bhutan.

‘Being a small country sandwiched between two giant nations [India and China], we have always placed great importance on our identity.

‘And to be able to capture and promote the essence and identity of Bhutan in a good bottle of wine will make the Bhutanese people very proud indeed.’

A mandala of microclimates

Bhutan, slightly smaller than Switzerland, offers a remarkable diversity of microclimates within its tropical lowlands, high-altitude valleys and abundant river and lake regions.

The venture has identified four distinct climate zones and two primary soil types – alluvial sand by the rivers and red clay on the hills.

Currently, about 80 hectares of vineyards span the country, cultivated across nine sites.

This diversity allows for an extraordinary range of grape varieties. ‘We’re going to have the Loire Valley equivalent here, doing Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc, the Rhône equivalent there doing Syrah, Bordeaux over there doing Bordeaux varietals, and we’ve got Burgundy Pinot Noir,’ Juergens enthuses.

‘We’ve got the microclimates to do all of that. We’ve just got to figure out which is which.’

Unlike the French appellation system, however, there are no rules. With no prior history of viticulture, Bhutan is a vinous blank canvas.

Monkeys in the vineyard

High altitudes, with some vineyards reaching up to 2,700 metres, contribute to intense UV exposure and significant diurnal temperature variations.

Combined with Bhutan’s famously pure water and unpolluted air, viticultural conditions are optimal.

Pioneering an entirely new wine country is not without its unique challenges. Wildlife management tops the list, with monkeys, cobras and leopards posing threats in the vineyards.

‘We don’t have red blotch [a vineyard disease], but we have monkeys!’ Juergens exclaims, highlighting the need for innovative solutions like electric fences and anti-venom protocols.

Matt Brain, the company’s Californian winemaker and a professor of oenology, shares his perspective on the challenges: ‘Growing world-class grapes in the country with no prior experience will take some time.

‘Vineyard teams will need to learn best practices in a variety of environmental conditions. And we will need to continue to explore the suitability of different varieties in different soils, altitudes and weather patterns.’

A new harvest

Adapting to local agricultural practices has been another hurdle. Bhutanese farmers, accustomed to maximising yields for other crops, are gradually coming around to the counterintuitive practice of reducing yields to enhance wine quality.

The diverse terroir and long growing season – harvests span from June to October due to altitude differences – allow for experimentation.

With 16 varieties in the ground, early results have been promising across the board, with Pinot Noir, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling showing particular promise.

Juergens describes the Pinot Noir as ‘the darkest you’ve ever seen, and at the same time the lightest, most ethereal you’ve ever tasted’.

Brain adds: ‘It is too early to say where our chosen varieties will excel best, but we are seeing different varieties beginning to show a great deal of promise at these early stages.’

As one might expect from a country without a single fast-food chain or traffic light, the aim is not for globalised ‘recipe’ wines.

Rather, the venture has set its sights on terroir-driven wines that reflect the unique characteristics of each microclimate and soil type.

As Bhutan pours its first wines, there’s a palpable sense of excitement and pride among its citizens.

The wines were presented first to the kingdom on 12 October, ahead of the global release on 21 October.

Building a wine culture

The project has been embraced as an opportunity to showcase Bhutanese culture and values to the world through the universal language of wine.

In the capital, Thimphu, a wine bar and tasting room has been established to foster a local wine culture, doubling as an educational hub.

The venue offers a rotating selection of international wines and the company’s Ser Chem range, featuring bottles adorned with Bhutan’s dragon symbol.

The name ‘Ser Chem’ refers to the traditional ritual of offering alcohol to the gods by dipping the left ring finger into the glass and flicking droplets into the air – the Bhutanese equivalent of ‘cheers’.

Bridging tradition and innovation, this Buddhist kingdom may well become the rising star in the world of wine.

The dragon awakes.

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When Ken Forrester took over the abandoned vineyard of Scholtzenhof in 1993, it was a change of lifestyle for a man who had spent the better part of three decades in hotel management.

Relocating his wife and young family, he renamed the estate Ken Forrester Vineyards and began the work of restoring the property, located to the west of the Helderberg mountain in Stellenbosch.

Among the lands attached to the Cape Dutch homestead were two old Chenin Blanc vineyards, one planted in 1970 and one in 1974, and the work began to rehabilitate them after years of neglect and turn their old vine fruit into wine.

By the time Nelson Mandela was elected in 1994, Chenin Blanc covered over 32,000 hectares of the Cape.

Planted extensively by the national co-operative winery, KWV, it had been the most important white grape for South Africa since the 1950s, mostly grown for distillation into Cape brandy.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for a retrospective of The FMC

The trendsetter

By 1994 many of the vineyards were mature and well-adapted to local conditions. Chenin became an important focus for experimentation and ambition in the years following the end of segregation.

In the hands of winemakers such as Eben Sadie, Chris Alheit and Chris and Andrea Mullineux it has been instrumental in building the reputation of the Cape for world-class wines.

But before any of those esteemed names, and before Swartland was seriously prospected for fine wine, there was Ken Forrester and the Chenin Blanc known as The FMC, a wine from Stellenbosch that can be credited with putting fine South African Chenin Blanc on the map.

Produced from 2000, The Forrester Meinert Chenin was a collaboration between Ken Forrester and winemaker Martin Meinert, who had previously worked at Simonsig and Vergelegen.

Aiming high

From the beginning, the goal was to make a high quality, attention-grabbing wine that could sell at a premium price.

‘I knew The FMC was good, but it was hard to convince people in those days that you could make a really good Chenin Blanc,’ Forrester recalls.

‘I looked at the price of the most expensive white wine in South Africa and said, “That’s my benchmark.” We went to the first Independent Winemakers Guild auction in 2000 in South Africa and we sold at that price, which was a wonderful validation of the wine.’

The FMC was squarely aimed at a premium market: fine wine buyers, collectors and sommeliers — in short, the people who appreciated the great, age-worthy white wines of France.

But it wasn’t inspired by those wines. Unlike the South African Chardonnays which looked towards Burgundy, Forrester says, ‘I never wanted to look or be like anybody or anything else. I wanted the wine to carve a path of its own. It was about maximum extract and maximum agility, balance and elegance at the same time.’

Twenty years down the line

In July, at The OWO at London’s Raffles Hotel, journalists and sommeliers assembled to taste through 20 years of this Cape icon.

Every wine was sourced from the farm, and each vintage poured from magnum accompanied by a range of exquisite dishes from Mauro’s Table.

Introducing the wines, Forrester described them as ‘my lifetime’s work,’ starting with 2020, which unfortunately wasn’t in perfect condition, and ending with the superb 2003.

The fruit sources and winemaking have barely changed. Before 2016 the fruit was sourced solely from the 1974 vineyard, which was planted as bush vines, with the trellised 1970 site only contributing fruit from the 2016 harvest onwards.

Each year The FMC is made with bunch selection in the vineyard across multiple picks, whole-bunch pressing, wild yeast fermentation and ageing in 400 litre French oak.

Some refinements have taken place over time. There’s less work with the lees than in the early days, giving a leaner, tighter aspect to the wine.

The time in barrel has also dropped since the earliest vintages, and the number of picks in the vineyard have increased from four in 2003 to eight in 2020, to target more precise ripeness in the bunches.

Sometimes there’s a little residual sugar, but it is often balanced by the acidity and integrated during bottle-ageing so that the wines feel dry, but rich, with some honey and mushroom flavours from botrytis.

Steering towards the future

As with all retrospectives, questions about the future direction of the wines and the farm are inevitable.

In May 2023 Shawn Mattyse, a born-and-bred South African, was officially appointed winemaker at Forrester Vineyards after nine years with the farm, and he is increasingly taking over the making of the wines.

‘He’s going to make some waves,’ Forrester says. ‘He’s got his hand on the tiller; I’m just the old codger who makes his life miserable from time to time.’

Whatever the coming decades bring for Forrester Vineyards, the future of the most important Chenin Blanc in modern Cape winemaking history isn’t in doubt.

‘The FMC is definitely an ongoing project. It will continue,’ Ken assures us.

Looking back at The FMC:

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Contrary to popular belief – and if the 20 wines selected here are anything to go by – you can taste terroir through the lens of a blend. In South Africa’s case, white cuvées are the most transparent, with imaginative winemakers building a picture of place from a range of different grapes, sites and techniques.

For the tasting to make this selection, I called in white blends from across the country and ended up sampling more than 60 examples, most of which scored above 90 points.

Scroll down for notes and scores Malu’s favourite South African white blends

The main categories

South Africa’s white blends can be broadly divided into three categories. First, the Bordeaux-style Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blends, made using traditional ‘protective’ techniques and ingredients, such as chilled grapes, anaerobic fermentation and cultured yeasts. These wines are steadily improving in quality but are sadly often overlooked, as consumers are more inclined towards straight Sauvignon Blanc.

The cooler regions of Constantia, Durbanville, Elgin and Elim all make superb renditions, as does the greater Stellenbosch region, from sites with moderating influences such as ocean breezes and higher altitudes.

Then there are the ‘Cape whites’, although there’s some controversy over how these are defined. Most postulate that Chenin Blanc – the nation’s most-planted grape (16,192 hectares in 2023, according to data from SAWIS, with Sauvignon Blanc second at 10,028ha) – should form the majority of the blend.

Premium examples often showcase other heritage grapes, too. Most of South Africa’s old vines are white, a happy hangover from the early days of local brandy production. Chenin, Colombard, Palomino, Semillon and Clairette Blanche were all originally planted for the spirits industry. In wines today, these grapes are often blended with white Rhône varieties that have found a home in the Cape’s Mediterranean climate and preponderance of granitic soils.

Overall excellence

There are South African winemakers who would rather not be prescribed to, and that brings us to the third category: the wildcards, such as field blends. Hemelrand Vine Garden is a good example. In 2010, Chris Alheit, co-owner and winemaker at Alheit Vineyards, and grower Hans Evenhuis created a vineyard in the marginal Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge region by interplanting Chardonnay, Roussanne, Verdelho, Chenin Blanc and Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains.

‘The wine will naturally change every vintage,’ says Alheit. ‘I’m intrigued by the genetic evolution of the original cultivars that landed in the country. That’s what’s unique to South Africa.’

A common factor aligning the more niche bottlings is interesting, low-yielding vineyards. These vineyards may be small, but their stories are writ large, such as the multi-regional Rocking Horse blend made by John Seccombe at Thorne & Daughters.

‘I was loosely inspired by wines like Gérard Gauby’s Vieilles Vignes Blanc,’ he explains, referring to the traditional blend of old-vine Macabeu, Grenache Blanc, Chardonnay and other varieties from Roussillon in southwest France. ‘It’s a wine that struck me as having a sense of place while also being inimitable.’

The most successful wines of the tasting were largely Chenin-led, blended with a mix of heritage grapes and Rhône varieties. With many of these, in contrast to the Bordeaux-style blends, winemakers were more experimental – using natural ferments, skin contact and a wide mix of maturation vessels, such as amphorae, concrete and varying sizes of old oak.

The overall excellence of the wines made it tough to select just 20. However, my top wines reflect not only a range of terroirs and styles, but also the energy and dynamism of some of South Africa’s most forward-thinking producers.

Malu Lambert’s top 20 South African white blends

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Do you know the feeling? You’ve got new shoes and your favourite jacket. You’ve had a good haircut. You step out into the street feeling confident and ready to take on the world… That feeling was everywhere I went, on my recent visit to Chile – winemakers brimming with enthusiasm; wines full of energy.

And nowhere was this confidence more on display than in the country’s white wines. Known generally as a source of reliable, wallet-friendly Sauvignon Blanc, Chile is now also home to terroir-driven Chardonnay, old-vine Semillon and Chenin Blanc, unusual varieties and exciting blends.

In the three decades since the country began exporting to the UK, the revolution has been dramatic. Steve Daniel, head of buying at importer Hallgarten & Novum Wines, was the first to introduce Chile to British wine lovers.

‘When I first visited the country and brought back wines to Oddbins’ shelves in 1988, the wine industry as we know it in Chile was just starting out,’ he says. ‘They had no idea of what modern wine tasted or looked like, but they did have good-quality, mostly Cabernet, grapes.’

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 new wave Chilean white wines

White wine production was in its infancy. ‘Casablanca was being investigated as a potential source of quality white grapes and the first vines were in but not producing on a commercial scale,’ explains Daniel. ‘Leyda and San Antonio were not discovered from a wine perspective – nor were any of the higher-altitude or desert vineyards that are now used for quality white wine.’

The shift in Chile’s white wine scene has been motivated by a range of local and global factors. These include climate change, the exploration of new growing regions, a focus on old-vine heritage, changes in vineyard management and winemaking techniques – including a move away from overt oak use – and the rise of boutique producers.

Cooling influences

On the subject of climate, it’s worth pointing out that Chile is much cooler than you probably think – and its coolest regions are where white vines flourish. ‘People who don’t know Chile don’t know that we’re penguins,’ quips Tomás Rivera, viticulturist at Viña Leyda.

He’s talking about the Humboldt Current, which transports cold, sub-Antarctic water north along Chile’s Pacific coast. In a narrow coastal country like Chile, which averages only 177km east-west, the influence of the sea can’t be overstated.

Over time, vineyard plantings have crept ever closer to the ocean in order to take advantage of its cooling effects. ‘The explosion of coastal vineyards has been super-important in the boom of Chilean whites,’ notes Chile expert Alistair Cooper MW, DWWA judge and president of South America’s Catad’Or World Wine Awards.

Viña Leyda was a pioneer in Leyda, planting vines in 1998, releasing its first wine in 2001 and successfully petitioning for the creation of the Leyda Valley DO in 2002. There were only two other producers there when the DO started; now there are 10.

‘The signature of Leyda is high acidity,’ notes Rivera, whose vineyards are planted with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Gris. ‘I really like Sauvignon Gris – it has a lot of potential. But Riesling is our challenge – no one knows about Riesling in Chile,’ he says.

His Riesling, planted on granitic soils and cooled by Pacific fogs, has vibrant linear acidity. Northwest of Leyda – and even closer to the sea – is the tiny Lo Abarca DO. Casa Marín is the only producer here; its founder, María Luz Marín, Chile’s first female winemaker, planted her vineyard just 4km from the Pacific, against the advice of other wine professionals but with a firm belief in the potential of cool-climate wines in Chile. Her faith was vindicated when her Sauvignon Blanc 2004 gained international recognition with a DWWA Gold medal.

‘We are one of the coolest vineyards in Chile – cooler than Leyda – and all of our wines show you coolness,’ notes Marín. What’s the signature of Lo Abarca? ‘Whites carry a silty character on the palate… And the wines age really well. We never have to acidify in the cellar – that’s why the ageing potential is so high.’ Indeed – that award-winning 2004 Sauvignon is tasting beautifully 20 years on.

Marín’s son Felipe is now in charge of winemaking, a generational change that has brought with it a stylistic shift that’s being mirrored all over Chile. ‘When Felipe arrived, he wanted wines with less alcohol, so we pick earlier,’ Marín explains. ‘I used to have a consultant from the US and the style was bigger, with higher alcohol. It’s now more delicate.’

Places not grapes

This general refinement of style has gone hand-in-hand with a better understanding of the unique terroirs that can be found across Chile.

‘Twenty years ago, we were looking for more commercial styles. In the last 10 years, there’s been

more of a focus on precision and finding a sense of place,’ explains Marcelo Papa, technical director at Concha y Toro. His top white, ‘Amelia’, from Limarí – Chile’s first ultra-premium Chardonnay – is a case in point.

One of the first to plant vines in the region, Papa has worked in Limarí since the 1990s, the style of his wines evolving as the vines matured and he gained a better understanding of the terroir. The Quebrada Seca vineyard is planted in four roughly 2.5ha blocks, 22km from the Pacific, on clay-calcareous soil.

‘Limarí is cool climate, but it’s cloudy, so there’s less sunlight. We have a similar number of degree days to Burgundy and Oregon,’ he adds. These conditions enable him to make ‘a very classic style of Chardonnay’ in the Burgundian mode.

He believes that regionality will become increasingly visible in Chile’s whites. ‘In 20 years’ time, people will be talking about places in Chile – regions – not grape varieties,’ he predicts.

‘People are looking for wines of site now, not wines of style,’ agrees Guillermo Calderón at Casas del Bosque in Casablanca – a DO that was pioneered by the influential Pablo Morandé for white wines.

‘Chile is moving towards pursuing its own identity. For a long time, we were trying to produce other styles, looking towards other regions… Now we are getting local identity for our wines.’

Going to extremes

The search for a unique identity has led winemakers to explore ever more diverse areas, venturing to the dramatic glacial landscapes of Patagonia in the deep south’s Austral region. Pioneers here include Casa Silva, the first to plant vines in Futrono, 904km south of Santiago, on volcanic slopes above Lago Ranco, in 2006.

The inaugural vintage of its Lago Ranco Riesling was released in 2016. The latest vintage reveals the potential of these maturing vines along with further proof that, in the right site, Riesling has a bright future in Chile.

Even closer to the Antarctic, Miguel Torres Chile has experimental plantings in Puerto Ibáñez and Puerto Sanchez near lake General Carrera. ‘Here there is a microclimate where temperatures are more moderate, with less extremes, without snow,’ says technical director Eduardo Jordán. ‘The biggest problem is the wind, so vineyards have to be protected with nets or natural protection with tree lines.’

The producer is still in the process of searching the region for the most suitable sites for placing the vineyards, he adds: ‘But we’re sure that this part of Chile has an important potential, especially given the climate change that has opened barriers unthinkable in recent years.’

Viña Ventisquero also has plantings near lake General Carrera. Its vineyards in Chile Chico sit at 46° 33’ latitude, in contrast to its plantings at the opposite end of the country, 690km north of Santiago at 28°S in the Atacama, the most arid desert on Earth.

‘It hasn’t rained here in the last 50 years!’ notes senior winemaker Alejandro Galaz. The Tara wines he makes from Atacama with head winemaker Felipe Tosso vividly display a sense of place.

Limestone soils, a rarity in Chile, produce Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc with a mineral profile. However, viticulture was made more complex by the soil’s high salinity levels. ‘These soils are very old – millions of years ago they used to be under the sea – so there’s a large amount of salt,’ explains Galaz.

The initial plantings, made in 2008, failed; the problem was solved by installing individual sprinkler irrigation for each vine. Fog rolling in from the ocean 30km away and a significant diurnal temperature difference ensure that the grapes retain high natural acidity. ‘The increasing age of the vines has made a difference. We are understanding the vineyard much better now.

The character of the place doesn’t allow us to do much with the wines – they have to express themselves,’ concludes Galaz.

Back to the future

Alongside the innovation of these fairly recent plantings, there has been renewed interest in the heritage of Chile’s old vines in its historic growing

regions.

‘Main viticulture in Chile started in the 16th century in Itata,’ explains Jordán. The oldest vineyards were planted by Jesuit missionaries between the coastal range and the ocean. ‘I like Itata a lot. Everything is bush vines, dry farming; soils are slate, granite, loam, clay.’

Soil specialist Pedro Parra, known as ‘Dr Terroir’, was thinking about relocating from his native Chile to Chianti in Tuscany until he tasted wines from Itata.

‘You always ignore what’s on your doorstep,’ he admits ruefully. ‘Itata is the least Chilean place in Chile. It reminds me of Barolo with its round hills. There’s no irrigation, nothing industrial, and old vines.’ He explains that the high iron content in the soils – ‘like Burgundy’ – contributes to the particular character of wines produced from these old vines.

Also like Burgundy, vineyards here are planted in a patchwork of small plots, often owned and worked by the same families for generations.

Along with neighbouring Bío Bío, Itata was home to more than 75% of Chile’s vineyard area in the early 19th century. But as the Central Valley rose to prominence from the mid-20th century, these southern vineyards were largely forgotten.

Looking southwards

Concern for the environment sparked renewed interest, as unpredictable weather patterns and water scarcity prompted many to rethink both the location of vineyards and the viability of the location of vineyards and the viability of conventional farming.

The traditional dry-farmed vineyards of Itata and Bío Bío are more resilient to water shortages – though sadly they’re not immune to all of climate change’s effects, as the devastating wildfires of 2023 proved.

Moscatel de Alejandria and Semillon are the signature whites in Itata and Bío Bío, with many ungrafted centenarian vines. Encouragingly, much is being done to preserve them – both by boutique producers such as Itata pioneer Leo Erazo, who put the region back on the map, and by larger companies such as Santa Carolina, which has collected massal selections (cuttings from the estate’s best stock) of old vines in its Bloque Herencia vineyard.

‘When vineyards in Itata were devastated by wildfires, Santa Carolina could give growers massal selections of old vines to replant,’ says head oenologist Alejandro Wedeles.

Renewed interest in heritage grapes has brought with it a return to traditional techniques. For whites, this means skin contact and the use of using large old tinajas to age its Itata whites.

‘The tinaja tends to give some earthy clay notes, but largely it’s neutral,’ explains winemaker Nicolás Pérez. ‘The idea with the tinaja wines is to show purity of fruit but with a sense of place.’

In the mix

Traditional field blends from Itata – such as Erazo’s Rogue Vine Grand Itata Blanco, made from Moscatel, Riesling and Semillon planted in a dry-farmed vineyard in 1922 – show a different side to Chilean wine.

Indeed, some of the most exciting whites I tasted for this article were blends. They range from Santa Rita’s Floresta field blend of Semillon, Sauvignon Vert, Moscatel, Torontel and Corinto, to Valdivieso’s inaugural Caballo Loco Blanco, a daring mix not only of grapes but of regions and vintages.

‘It only took me seven years to put it together,’ jokes Valdivieso head winemaker Brett Jackson, who was inspired by the slowly oxidised style of aged white Riojas.

The blend includes Moscatel de Alejandria from Itata. ‘Moscatel de Alejandria is a tough call,’ he says. ‘It has this phenolic edge. But if you put it into barrel for four years, the tannins disappear and it becomes so rich, with oxidative characters.’

Also pushing the envelope for Chilean blends is Pablo Morandé Junior, winemaker at Bodegas RE, a boutique winery set up with his famous father and siblings in Casablanca in 2008. Its experimental wines include Chardonnoir, a white blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

‘We’re making new styles of wine; new for Casablanca and new for Chile,’ he says. ‘We blend wines, we blend names. We’re trying to make different wines to show other producers – to show that Chile has the potential for white blends.’

Meanwhile, in Maule, Viña Morandé planted Marsanne and Roussanne in Melozal in 2013. Chief winemaker Ricardo Baettig blends the fruit with Viognier from Casablanca to create his Rhône blend Bestiario, which is fermented and aged in concrete eggs.

‘Experiences in Europe led us to appreciate the potential of the Chilean climate with Mediterranean varieties,’ he explains. ‘We opted for unconventional varieties in Chile, such as Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier, to highlight their potential and their ability to create an exceptionally complex and distinctive white wine.’

Baettig believes Rhône grapes could have a future in Chile. ‘In these 10 years managing vineyards of these varieties, we have learned a lot about better interpreting their characteristics. The future looks very promising!’

Although white plantings only account for 34,016ha of Chile’s total vineyard area, compared with 95,000ha for reds, Baettig is confident of the potential. ‘Beyond Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon is interesting, and also Chenin Blanc in Itata, grafted onto old País vines, is showing good results,’ he says.

Ventisquero’s Tosso agrees. ‘There is a lot more potential for whites in Chile. It’s easier to sell Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from Chile, but there’s room for other varieties,’ he says.

Meanwhile, styles of Sauvignon and Chardonnay continue to be fine-tuned. ‘In terms of quality, Sauvignon Blanc has more potential to express its terroir. There are more terroirs in Chile that suit Sauvignon Blanc; fewer for Chardonnay. But Chardonnay quality has increased big time.’

Importantly, Chile is now making serious whites that can age. ‘It’s a challenge for Chilean whites, because consumers think of young whites from Chile,’ notes Jordan of Miguel Torres. But it’s time to rethink, tune into Chile’s optimism and explore the exciting whites on offer.

Chile’s new whites: 12 to explore

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Domaine Belargus was created by Ivan Massonnat in 2018. Born in Savoie, Massonnat spent his childhood in his grandfather’s vineyards developing a passion for wine.

‘Initially I concentrated on Burgundy, which was then still affordable,’ he says, ‘chasing the dream of one day becoming a wine producer making cool-climate wines from a single varietal. My aim was to be an active winemaker – this was not to be a retirement project.’

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for nine vintages of Les Treilles plus nine more Belargus wines

Massonnat’s focus switched to the Loire when he and his wife bought a holiday home near Chinon and he became fascinated by the region’s wines, especially unfashionable Anjou and Chenin Blanc.

‘I started looking for a vineyard in 2016,’ says Massonnat, ‘As sweet wines were out of fashion, I had the luxury of choice and was offered lots of opportunities.’

‘On 6 February 2018 I met Jo Pithon, who was retiring and wanting to sell his Les Treilles vineyard,’ he says. This is now the estate’s top-tier vineyard, and the domaine is named after the blue Belargus butterfly found within it.

Les Treilles overlooks the River Layon and is remarkably steep and south facing.

The early days of Les Treilles

Although always passionate about making great wines, Pithon has unfortunately had a rollercoaster career.

From his plot of vines in the renowned Les Bonnes Blanches vineyard on the south side of the Layon in the commune of Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay, Pithon saw the potential of the very steep slopes of the Coteau des Treilles on the other side. After seeing a postcard from the 1920s showing vineyards along the steep south-facing hillsides of the Layon Valley, which had long been abandoned, Pithon and his wife Isabelle decided to undertake the massive task of clearing the scrub on this seven-hectare plot and resurrecting a vineyard, whose slopes range from 30 to 70 degrees, dedicated to Chenin Blanc.

Starting in the mid-1990s, it took 10 years to transform the steep scrubland into a vineyard. The first three years were spent buying 70 plots from 25 different owners. Two American admirers of Pithon’s wines financed the project and formed a company. This was fortunate as Pithon’s then partnership with Philippe Fournier, a local telecommunications tycoon and owner of Domaine FL, fell apart in early 2008, resulting in the loss of some of his vineyards, but thankfully not Les Treilles.

It took five years just to clear the hillside, and only 2.7ha could then be planted as the remainder is sheer cliff face. Planting started in 2000 and was completed in 2002 using massal-selected vines closely spaced and planted at a high density (7000 vines per hectare).

Les Treilles at a glance

The soils are a complex geological mix of schist, volcanic spilites, puddingstones and Devonian limestone. As this site had long been abandoned, no chemicals have ever been used here. It is already organic and now in conversion to biodynamics.

Very well protected from the cool of the north, Les Treilles has a unique Mediterranean-style microclimate due to the Foehn effect, whereby cool air travelling up one side of a hillside creates a warmer climate on the other side.

Annual temperatures in Les Treilles are on average 2˚C higher due to its steep south-facing slopes, boosted further by the many rocks. Since the 18th century botanists have identified plants here that are normally only found 400km further south.

2005 was the first vintage, of which there are few bottles left, but ones tasted in April 2019 and February 2020 were still good.

Les Treilles under Ivan Massonnat

Massonnat was immediately captivated by Les Treilles and the deal was completed on 5 September 2018. The harvest started just five days later.

At the same time he bought a large 10-hectare plot in Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru, as well as vines in Savennières (in particular the Clos des Ruchères vineyard that adjoins the lower part of the Roche-aux-Moines).

At the beginning of 2023 Massonnat gave up his Parisian life in finance to become a full-time vigneron, and the domaine now has 22ha of Chenin planted, with a further 7ha of land providing biodiversity in the form of trees, medicinal plants, animals and birds.

It is very rare in Anjou to concentrate on one sole grape variety, with most producers making a bewildering number of wines from a range of varieties.

Adrien Moreau, a young winemaker, joined the Belargus project at the start, and Augustin Fromageot, who was appointed in July 2022, is responsible for managing the estate’s biodiversity initiatives.

In October 2021 Massonnat bought Domaine de Beauséjour in Panzoult – potentially one of the top properties in the Chinon appellation. However, Beauséjour remains separate from Belargus, with its own team.

Although Massonnat is not interested in expanding Belargus, he has recently taken on two small parcels: Grand Beaupréau (0.33ha in Savennières) and the Pierre Couverte vineyard in Beaulieu-sur-Layon (Anjou – 0.8ha).

The latter is a parcel of land which features a dolmen – a neolithic stone monument – at its centre. Here Massonat has planted Chenin vines en échalas, an old way of growing Chenin in Anjou whereby a bush vine is grown against a wooden stake upon which the shoots are tied during the summer.

The ground is littered with stones, and ‘we discovered a subsoil of spilites – basaltic lavas which are very common in Beaulieu,’ says Massonnat. ‘They promise tense, chiselled and powerful wines.’

Massonnat’s work with this particular site reflects the Belargus philosophy overall:

‘We wanted to highlight the attractive wooded area around the parcel, which leads to a stream at the bottom, so we cleared some of the vegetation and were surprised to discover a dry-stone surrounding wall, right up to the edge of the stream. While preserving the trees and hedges that adorned this place, we planted three small plots of Chenin, leaving enough areas of brush for the many surrounding birds.’

Discover 18 incredible Chenin Blanc wines

Wines are listed in the following order: Les Treilles by vintage, then other Belargus wines by style then score.

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If the name Anjou doesn’t ring any bells, it’s probably because until recently, there has not been very much that’s Decanter-worthy to talk about.

This productive Loire region is known more for its inexpensive semi-sweet rosés than anything else. ‘People expect high-volume, standardised wine from Anjou,’ says winemaker Antoine Pouponneau of Grange Saint-Sauveur, who opts to produce his (excellent) Anjou wines under the humble Vin de France label.

But things have not always been this way…

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 20 Chenin Blancs from Anjou’s diverse soils

Anjou is widely considered to be the birthplace of Chenin Blanc, and the area was known for the calibre of its wines, both sweet and dry, made from this grape. It was so highly regarded, in fact, that Chenin was virtually the only grape planted – and it claimed all the best terroirs.

Even though Chenin’s history was overwritten throughout the 20th century to make way for more fashionable reds and rosés, the good news is that today this rich vinous heritage is being reclaimed. And it is dry Chenin that is leading the renaissance.

Two parts of a whole

Anjou’s vineyards lie mostly to the south of the Loire between the riverside towns of Angers and Saumur.

The region is the meeting place of geological eras hundreds of millions of years apart, which means that there is a vast diversity of soils and rocks to excite winemakers and geologists alike. For the more geologically challenged among us, these complexities can be helpfully simplified by classifying the soils according to their basic colour: dark or light.

These two divide the region more or less vertically down the middle (see map), with the dark soils to the west and paler ones to the east. The darker, more acidic soils, born from ancient volcanic and metamorphic rocks of the Armorican massif, tend to yield powerful wines that have savoury, mineral, saline flavours and often a trace of bitterness on the finish.

Wines from the appellations Savennières and Anjou are found in this part of the region. Further to the east, the paler soils are from the younger, sedimentary rocks of the Paris basin. Here, in the Saumur appellation, grapes grow on limestone, notably the pale tuffeau that was extensively quarried to build the many castles and homes found around the Loire valley. These soils give finely textured wines of bright fruit and crystalline acidity.

Comparing the styles of Chenin from these two terroirs, Thierry Germain of Domaine des Roches Neuves in Saumur, says: ‘The wines are worlds apart; it’s almost like tasting two separate varieties.’

Outside influence

Some of the most thrilling dry Chenins to emerge in the last few years have come from the catch-all appellation of Anjou. Many of these wines come from the valley of the Layon, a small tributary of the Loire that runs along the fault line that separates the Armorican massif and the Paris basin.

These rocky slopes are traditionally known for their sweet wines, such as those from the appellations Quarts de Chaume and Coteaux du Layon. The climate is mild and dry, so the grapes ripen fully, and in favourable vintages autumn mists rising from the river allow noble rot (Botrytis cinerea) to work its magic on the grapes. But, as any winemaker will tell you, making sweet wine is a risky and often uneconomic pursuit, so more and more growers are focusing on dry wines instead.

Since the wines are not sweet, they cannot be labelled with the names of the sweet appellations, just as dry white wines from Sauternes cannot be labelled as Sauternes. But these succulent and characterful dry whites offer a fascinating alternative perspective on these exceptional terroirs, and are becoming some of the most sought-after whites of the Loire.

The past decade has seen an influx of talent, bringing new life to the area – sometimes literally. Vanessa Cherruau acquired Château de Plaisance in 2019, and by the time the harvest came she found herself eight months’ pregnant. As luck would have it, her obliging daughter held off making an appearance until the crop was in. Cherruau is now president of the Chaume growers’ association and rarely seen not wearing her signature ‘Chaume Must Go On’ t-shirt, the slogan possibly inspired by the experience of her first vintage.

She farms 25ha to produce a range of wines heavily skewed towards terroir-specific, chiselled, mostly dry whites from the varied soils of the hill of Chaume. She says she’s aiming to produce ‘al dente Chenin: ripe and crunchy, not too golden’. She adds: ‘We pick with two buckets, separating out any berries with botrytis.’

Another notable newcomer is Ivan Massonnat of Domaine Belargus. In 2018, he purchased a selection of plots in Anjou, including a sizeable chunk of the Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru vineyard that had been languishing on the market for a decade.

He, too, saw the potential for dry wines here, although he recalls: ‘People thought I was crazy to make dry wine from the most expensive sweet wine terroir.’ Those people have probably long since eaten their words. His wines have rapidly become some of the most lauded and highly priced whites of the Loire, defying the belief of some of the older generation that no one is prepared to pay for good wine from Anjou.

‘We’ve broken the glass ceiling – from above,’ says Massonnat. ‘Compared to Burgundy, we are cheap.’ It’s easy to see how such wines would appeal to Burgundy lovers, with their generous, rounded fruit and persistent, mineral length.

The drier path

Among the longer-established producers of the Layon valley, young winemakers stepping into their parents’ shoes are also favouring dry wines over the more traditional sweet styles.

Fifth-generation winemaker Emmanuel Ogereau makes a range of consistently pure and seemingly effortless wines – though he is quick to point out that it’s not that easy: ‘Aromatically, Chenin is very shy here. I’m focused on mouth perception – texture, balance and terroir character,’ he says.

To the north of the Layon vineyards, the tiny village of Savennières, surrounded by vines, is perfectly situated on the north bank of the Loire. The gentle, oceanic climate, southerly exposure and steep, stony slopes have made it a natural choice for wine-growing for centuries.

Some of the sites – the micro-appellations of Roche aux Moines and Coulée de Serrant – have been producing wines since the 12th century. Here, Chenin is assertive in character, typically with silky texture, minerality and often the distinctive bitterness of the ‘Anjou noir’ dark soils.

Long known for the quality of its dry whites, there have nevertheless been radical changes here as well. Evelyne de Pontbriand, owner of Domaine du Closel and president of the Savennières appellation, explains: ‘Until 10 years ago, we all harvested the grapes late, with botrytis – just like the sweet Chenins. The wines were often harsh and tannic and needed 20 years before you could drink them.’ The past decade has seen a sea change in the way most wines are made. De Pontbriand says: ‘Now people harvest with no botrytis, and the wines are far more open and approachable.’

The Saumur vineyards suffered a similar fate to the rest of Anjou when much of the Chenin was replanted from the 1950s onwards. ‘All the great white terrains were pulled up to plant Cabernet Franc,’ recalls Germain at Roches Neuves. One such site is the now ironically named ‘Côte des Blancs’, which falls entirely within the red-only Saumur-Champigny appellation.

Return to favour

But even here, Chenin is making a comeback, with growers choosing to increase their plantings of the grape over Cabernet Franc and working to achieve cru recognition beyond the more basic Saumur Blanc appellation for this and other historic Chenin sites such as Brézé.

Winemakers emphasise terroir expression by separating production into site-specific cuvées. Growers such as Germain, Arnaud Lambert, Antoine Foucault (of Domaine du Collier) and Romain Guiberteau are producing consistently fine Chenins with the precision and chalky density that derive from these limestone-based soils.

Chenin Blanc still remains in a minority in Anjou, but the world is waking up to the superb quality of its wines and its untapped potential. Furthermore, the sustainability credentials of those leading the way are impressive: almost all of the wines recommended below are farmed organically and/or biodynamically, and producers anticipate a bright future for Anjou’s signature grape. Ivan Massonnat says: ‘To my mind, we will soon go back to a majority of Chenin. The hillsides will be reconquered. We are reconnecting with the greatness of the region.’

See notes and scores for 20 Chenin Blancs from Anjou’s diverse soils

Wines are ordered by Anjou blanc then Anjou noir soils, then by score.

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In just over a decade Momento, in South Africa’s boutique Bot River region, has added its name to the crowded but illustrious list of new Cape wine projects.

This rapid success is down to the passion and determination of the talented Marelise Niemann who founded the label in 2013.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of six new-release Momento wines

We meet at the start of the 2024 vintage. It’s late January and grapes are already arriving at the winery; the only problem is that Marelise is in London.

She is meant to be shopping, having extended her trip by a day to pick up gifts for her family. But instead of being on Regent Street she is on her phone, exchanging WhatsApp messages with her picking team in the Western Cape.

She seems energised by the adrenaline of the harvest and one thing quickly becomes clear: she has vineyards on the brain. It’s rather like talking to someone who is in love. All conversational roads lead to vineyards, grapes and farms, and doubly so when they feature Grenache.

Getting started

After studying winemaking at Stellenbosch University, Marelise’s first major post was as assistant winemaker from 2007 to 2014 at Beaumont Family Wines in Bot River, where she worked under second-generation owner Sebastian Beaumont.

‘I studied for four years, and then I had to unlearn all of that to become more creative again,’ Marelise says.

Starting with a new perspective was formative, and her early years at Beaumont shaped her later priorities.

‘Saz [Sebastian] farms like an absolute pro. He is a farmer more than a winemaker, which is the way it should be,’ she says.

Farming is also in Marelise’s blood. Her grandparents owned a dairy and vegetable farm in Grabouw in Elgin where she spent a lot of time as a child.

‘Even when I was older I went to the farm and developed a great love for agriculture during those days. Even though my grandfather was not farming grapes, he was the most important person getting me into farming in the first place.

‘During those years with Sebastian, I did harvests in France, Spain, Portugal, everywhere I could,’ she continues. However, it wasn’t a bottle of wine from an iconic domain that inspired Momento, but the vineyards of Priorat in Spain.

‘At Terroir Al Límit I really started connecting with Grenache. I started forming this relationship with Grenache.’

Finding the focus

Marelise bought her first Grenache grapes in 2011, after returning from Priorat. She managed to get in touch with a grape farmer who had a Grenache vineyard with 50-year-old vines in Eendekuil, near Piekenierskloof in what was then the up-and-coming region of Swartland.

‘I ended up buying two tonnes with Donovan Rall [of Rall Wines in Swartland]. He picked it because he didn’t have a day job then.’

She smiles. ‘Our friend in Stellenbosch University secretly kept it in the cold room overnight. I took Sebastian’s bakkie [pickup truck] the next morning at 4am and drove to the university and collected the grapes, all secretly.’

‘I made it at Beaumont and when I bottled it the next year, I thought, yes, I’m gonna start a project and I’m gonna call it Momento. I phoned the farmer and he said, “Sorry – I’ve just ripped out the vineyard”.’

Marelise was undeterred. ‘It was sad, but it made me focus on getting to know the different Grenaches of South Africa. It also gave me a real urgency to make sure people know that Momento is a long-term project.’

After the loss of the original vineyard for her 2011 harvest, the close-knit Cape winemaking community was there to support Marelise’s vision of site-driven Grenache – even though, in 2011, it was largely a blending grape used to bulk out inexpensive wines.

‘I went through a few phases of different grapes, and Grenache was the one that always just kept coming back to me.’

Momento: At a glance

Founded 2013 (with 2011 vintage)

Owner Marelise Niemann

Winery Anysbos, Bot River since 2019 (formerly made at Beaumont until 2014, and Gabrielskloof from 2015 to 2018)

Bottles 25,000 a year on average

Vineyards Parcels from 12ha to 15ha on contract from 10 farms

Varieties Chenin Blanc, Verdelho, Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Noir, Tinta Barocca

New projects Three new site-specific Grenache Noir bottlings launching in 2024, from sandstone, schist and shale soils.

The way forward

In 2014, with the help of celebrated Cape viticulturalist Rosa Kruger (winner of the 2022 Decanter Hall of Fame award), she was able to access a new source of Grenache.

The plot is next door to Raaigras, the oldest Grenache vineyard in the Cape, currently in the hands of Adi Badenhorst, founder of AA Badenhorst in Swartland. ‘This is an older clone, thick-skinned, light-coloured. It’s got beautiful tannins,’ Marelise remarks.

But, she notes, Grenache is not an easy variety to work with. ‘People see a Grenache vineyard and it’s hardy, it’s well adapted, it can take sun, it can take heat, it can take dry conditions. But once the grapes are picked, it is the complete opposite. Once you pick the grapes, it is not so hardcore – then, it’s very sensitive.’

Despite her romance with Grenache, in those early years Marelise developed a parallel enthusiasm for Portuguese varieties, initially kindled with Sebastian Beaumont.

In 2013 she released two new wines. One was a Chenin Blanc with a considerable proportion of Verdelho in the blend. The other, a red made from Tinta Barocca, an old Portuguese variety from the Douro originally brought to the Cape for Port-style fortified wines. The white wine remains Marelise’s best seller.

In 2017 she was able to acquire a parcel of Grenache Gris, and in 2019 a plot of Grenache Blanc followed, completing the trinity. The Grenache Gris is a scant four rows within a larger vineyard, the only one in the Cape, and Marelise often does four or five laborious picks.

‘People probably think I’m nuts,’ she admits.

The Grenache Blanc started as a single vineyard on granite, with two new additions from 2022, also on granite, to increase production.

Next steps

The direction of travel for Momento is clear. ‘I love my Chenin and Verdelho,’ Marelise says, ‘but my main focus is Grenache. I can see myself in 10 years only making Grenache.

‘I believe in focusing and learning and getting to know certain varieties that you love and not multi-tasking. I’m excited about Grenache and I’m excited about the future of the grape for South Africa because it’s becoming even more hot and dry.’

Marelise will add three new expressions of Grenache Noir to her range, starting with the 2022 vintage, released this year. ‘I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but the time was not right. First I had to get people to drink Grenache! Now they’re drinking it, I can show them the next phase.’

She emphasises that it isn’t about promoting single vineyards, although her commitment to finding and bottling the fruit of old, distinctive sites is a thread that runs through our time together.

The new releases will showcase sandstone (Piekenierskloof in Olifants River), schist (Riebeekberg in Swartland) and shale (Bot River), while her current Grenache from granite soils in Swartland will be renamed Paardeberg to fit within the range.

There is no doubt Marelise thinks Grenache is a pragmatic variety to champion in climate change-inflected South Africa. But it’s far from a calculated angle. Hers is a practical love, a farmer’s pleasure in the well-crafted tool, the beautiful implement.

‘I’d love to buy parcels of Grenache and then farm them, own them, work with them, invest in them, and obviously plant. If I have any money to invest, it will be in vineyards and not in an estate. I just love Grenache. I love working with it,’ Marelise laughs. ‘I love making it, I love drinking it.’

Momento: six new releases

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Chenin Blanc has come of age in Australia. Vineyards and palates have matured, demand for growers’ fruit has increased, new plantings are on the rise, and producers are striving to craft wines that are complex, thought-provoking, ageworthy and diverse in style. Wines that can easily claim their place on the global stage.

The greatest examples are varied in style, but they all share a seamlessness, an exciting tension, and a persistent finish. From briny freshness through to layers of texture; some show lees work and funk, others polish and opulence, and many are glossy, long and lithe.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 15 top Australian Chenin Blanc wines

Chenin’s defining trait is its shape: acid and tension grow in waves and excite the palate. Turn away if you are looking for that Sauvignon Blanc electric shock or Riesling-like line of steel.

With 62 Australian Chenin Blancs sent in for this tasting, it was clear to see the ageability of this noble grape and its stylistic evolution, particularly in Western Australia.

Swan Valley’s Bella Ridge, one of the first producers to herald a new era of variety, sent in a vertical back to 2006. Each bottle clearly expressed its vintage, with the 2009 retaining freshness yet offering a glimpse into the honeyed, nutty hues of developed Chenin.

On that note, the ‘drink by’ dates suggested in my tasting notes are conservative; with acid and phenolics, these wines can go the distance.

The variety of styles, regions and vintages tasted made three points clear. One is that Australian Chenin Blanc has the capacity to show terroir. The Chenin Blanc from Xanadu in Margaret River comes from vines right by the Indian Ocean, and you can practically hear the crash of the surf in the glass.

The second point is the importance of bottle age and its impact on the tasting experience. Australian palates prefer youthful wine, but there is real reward in cellaring your purchases for several years.

Thirdly, Chenin Blanc really comes into its own with food. It was almost a sacrilege to look at these on a clinical tasting table.

On the up

The final tally speaks for itself: 33 wines above 90 points, including nine wines at 95 points or more. It’s no mean feat, considering that Chenin Blanc is responsible for just 0.3% of Australia’s total crush, and nationally 2023 provided the lowest Chenin crush since 2017.

According to Wine Australia (source of all the statistics in this article), Swan Valley and Margaret River in Western Australia provide 47% of Australia’s crush. For commercial winemaking, South Australia’s Riverland region, with 38%, makes up the majority of the remaining crush.

Interestingly, the price per tonne for Riverland Chenin Blanc has dropped year on year by 1%, while Western Australian fruit has risen massively in demand and price.

‘There’s been a real shift over the past three years,’ says Damian Hutton, general manager and chief winemaker at Nikola Estate in Swan Valley. ‘We could sell Chenin Blanc twice over. It’s gone from “what are we going to do with all of these grapes?” to demand being insatiable.’

The Australian wine show circuit can be useful for gauging trends. In 2023, there were 17 entries in the Chenin Blanc bracket at the Perth Royal Wine Show, 23 in the Swan Valley Wine Show, 59 in the Australian Chenin Blanc Challenge and 24 from 10 global regions in the International Chenin Blanc Symposium.

Margaret River winemaker Nic Peterkin of LAS Vino founded this latter tasting in 2019 ‘to champion the grape, to provide an avenue for winemakers and growers to compare styles and see what works, and finally to benchmark Chenin Blanc in Western Australia against the best in the world.

‘There really is something special about Chenin Blanc in Western Australia. This event proves it.’

Historic connections

It’s a far cry from just a decade ago, says Rob Mann, whose family have played a key role in the growth of the Western Australian wine industry as well as the Australian Chenin Blanc narrative.

‘At the Perth Royal Wine Show 10 years ago, the Chenin Blanc class had dwindled to just six wines. They dissolved the class, and Chenin was regulated to “Other White Wine Varieties”.’

In 1936 and 1937, Rob’s grandfather, Jack Mann, won back-to-back trophies for the Best White Table Wine at the Melbourne Wine Show with his Houghton’s White Burgundy (now Houghton White Classic), a wine produced from Swan Valley Semillon – at least, that was the name for the grape at the time.

‘It wasn’t until the 1960s that the vines were identified as being Chenin Blanc,’ says Rob. ‘Until then they were thought to be Semillon. My uncle, Dorhum Mann, said he always had a suspicion the vines weren’t Semillon. There are a lot of similar stories with mislabelled varieties throughout Australia.’

Looking at the historical context explains why Chenin doesn’t hold the same gravitas nationally.

‘With Chenin Blanc, the planting material is really important,’ Rob explains. Swan Valley is Australia’s second-oldest wine region (after the Hunter Valley in New South Wales), with James Water founding the first commercial vineyard in 1929 from plantings that were likely via South Africa and Europe.

Conversely, much of the rest of Australia’s wine industry can be traced back to James Busby, who brought European vines to New South Wales in the 1830s. Australia’s vastness meant the Western Australian wine industry evolved in isolation, and even after travel and trade were more accessible, tough quarantine measures meant large differences in source material.

State-wide success

The next major evolution of Australian Chenin Blanc was in the late 1980s and 1990s in Margaret River. The speed and influence of the affordable, quaffable off-dry Chenin Blanc from Amberley Estate could not be ignored. Founded by South African vineyard consultant Albert Haark and two fellow investors, demand quickly outgrew supply. Haark’s son Amberley looked to growers for as much Chenin Blanc as they could get.

‘Amberley Chenin was the biggest-selling bottled white wine, first in Western Australia, then throughout Australia,’ Amberley Haark says. ‘We started with 3,000 cases and I sold my share of the business in 1994. Shortly after, it was in Houghton’s portfolio and sitting at above 90,000 cases a year.’

Thanks to these foundations, Western Australia has two wine regions – Swan Valley and Margaret River – with mature vines. Alongside this fruit resource, several factors have contributed to Chenin’s rise in popularity over the past five years.

Affordability is one point, especially when compared with Chardonnay. Producers such as Garth Cliff from Vino Volta in Swan Valley can purchase or grow fruit that is ‘hardy and really expressive of its terroir or soil’. And they can make creative winemaking choices with an end result that is wallet friendly for consumers.

‘We’re getting a bit of notoriety in Asian export markets, too,’ Cliff adds. Chenin suits those cuisines better than a lot of the more traditional Australian wines. Too much fruit can overpower savoury dishes.’

There’s no question that the acid profile and crunchability of Chenin Blanc, coupled with the often saline characteristics, make it the perfect option for both Asian food and coastal Australian palates.

High hopes

Cliff and Peterkin visited the Chenin Blanc International Congress in South Africa in 2022. ‘On a world stage, it showed Australia doesn’t have scores on the board in regards to global production,’ Peterkin reflected.

‘Most people at the congress didn’t realise that Australia made Chenin Blanc. But after showing six of the best Western Australian examples, most of the French and South African winemakers took notice. Our wines easily matched the best in the tasting of 400 wines.’

So where to from here? Genevieve Mann, winemaker and co-founder with husband Rob of Corymbia in Swan Valley, hopes that more local vineyards will join them with organic certification. Peterkin, in Margaret River, hopes that producers keep focusing on quality as popularity rises.

‘If we do that,’ he says, ‘it could lead to Chenin Blanc being up there with both Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Margaret River region.’

Australian Chenin Blanc: The best from the west and beyond

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The youngest of chef Rick Stein’s three boys, Charlie was born in Padstow and now splits his time between London and Cornwall. Charlie has personally chosen every bottle on the Rick Stein restaurant wine lists and in the online shop, with the help of connections made during his travels. He is also a director for the Rick Stein business, and has appeared on TV, including the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, and co-hosting, with brother Jack, the TV series Wine, Dine & Stein, which aired in South Africa.

Chenin Blanc hates to be pigeonholed. It’s arguably the world’s most versatile grape variety, appearing in an impressive range of styles – bone-dry, off-dry, oaked, slightly sweet, sweet and sparkling. As such it’s a grape that I urge readers to experiment with. My early experience with this grape was limited to wines from the Loire valley. I was brought up eating classic French seafood, paired with intense and zingy Chenin Blancs from Savennières and Vouvray, and for many years I thought the Loire had a monopoly on the best examples of the grape.

Moment of truth

Fast-forward to a few years ago, and everything changed for me. I was sitting overlooking the Polkadraai hills with two of South Africa’s best winemakers – Lukas Van Loggerenberg and Reenen Borman – tasting Lukas’ latest release of old-vine Chenin Blanc. It was here that I had my epiphany, realising that South African Chenin Blanc can easily hold its own with those from the French Loire. Now, in 2023, I am convinced that the standard of Chenin Blanc being made at the top level in South Africa is as good, if not better, than that of the dry Chenin of the Loire. This sentiment was echoed by Decanter contributing editor Tim Atkin MW in his own South Africa 2023 Special Report. Every year I taste new releases from South Africa and the quality is outstanding. These wines certainly deserve more recognition.

The best Chenins for me are the oaked style made from old vines in South Africa, as well as the off-dry styles from the Loire. In the former, I love the waxy, pithy stone fruit as well as the energy, drive and often-found saline finishes. With the off-dry, it’s all about the flint-like minerality, balanced with luscious honeyed fruit.

Multiple styles

It’s this adaptability and notably high acidity that makes Chenin Blanc such an interesting variety. This is a bonus in the warmer climates of South Africa where it keeps the wine nice and fresh, but in the cooler regions of the Loire, ripeness can be hard to achieve, leaving searing acidity and not much else in less successful examples.

Like most wines, Chenin Blanc reflects its soil types and terroirs, expressing the schist soils of Savennières, the clays of Vouvray, or the decomposed granites of the Western Cape, with different textures, flavours and structure.

I mention Chenin Blanc from South Africa and the Loire often in the same breath since they are, in my opinion, the great white wines of the world. Its versatility especially shines when it comes to food pairings. Unsurprisingly for me, seafood is a natural fit. At home, I love pairing native oysters with a young, bone-dry Loire Chenin, or would

turn to an old-vine South African Chenin with a rich tronçon of turbot and hollandaise.

Discover Chenin Blanc: Charlie’s three to try

Two South Africans here, and one from the Loire. Lourens Family Wines, Skuinskap Steen (2020, £42.49 Museum Wines) is single-vineyard Chenin planted in 1977 on sandstone at around 750m in the far north of the Citrusdal mountains, an hour’s drive from Cape Town. It’s delicious, and a great way into the world of old-vine Chenin.

My ‘road to Damascus’ Chenin Blanc was Van Loggerenberg, Kameraderie (2021, £33-£39.95 Lockett Bros, SugarBird Wines) from 1960s-planted vines on the Klein Drakenstein mountains in Paarl. It’s textural, pure and round, with more than a pinch of salinity on the finish. Then back to the Loire, and a classic, Domaine Huet’s Le Haut-Lieu Vouvray Sec (2013, £50 Shrine to the Vine). This is the original domaine vineyard, and it gives the wines an incredible texture and density.

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You can be forgiven if you are unfamiliar with the Quarts de Chaume appellation. After all, when I mentioned to a well-known wine-writer colleague based in San Francisco that I was writing about it, he said, ‘What’s that?’

The appellation should be on every wine lover ’s radar, because it’s home to one of the world’s greatest sweet wines.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for Domaine des Baumard’s Quarts de Chaume

Only about 40ha in size, and shrinking, the appellation sits within the wider AP Coteaux du Layon in the Anjou district, in western Loire. It has the distinction of being the Loire’s sole grand cru, approved by the French National Institute for Origin and Quality (INAO) in 2014.

About 20 producers bottle just over 50,000 bottles annually, which helps explain why the wines are not as well-known as they rightly should be – compare that figure to the five million bottles produced each year in Sauternes and Barsac, home to another of the world’s finest sweet wines.

Domaine des Baumard, with its 6ha, is the largest producer of Quarts de Chaume, and is certainly one of, if not the, best producers.

Just below this pinnacle lies two appellations, Coteaux du Layon Premier Cru Chaume and Bonnezeaux. Rounding out the area for sweet wines is the broader Coteaux du Layon appellation.

Quarts de Chaume’s history

Quality wine from this section of the Loire has been known for 1,000 years. Indeed, Quarts de Chaume takes its name from the custom of winegrowers paying the Abbess of Ronceray in Angers in the Middle Ages a quarter (quart, in French) of the crop from the famed south-facing slope that comprises the appellation.

Because of its complexity – a mixture of schist, sandstone, quartz, rhyolites and spilites (volcanic rock like basalt) – winemakers have called the soil of this sunny hillside along the Layon river, a tributary of the Loire, ‘geological chaos’.

Exposure to morning mist rising from the Layon allows for the development of botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot. Though Chenin Blanc is required for producing Quarts de Chaume, botrytis is not necessary, according to the appellation regulations. Indeed, Florent Baumard, who took the reins from his father, Jean, in 1990, explains that botrytis has the potential to overwhelm the character of wines and to obliterate the sense of terroir.

Chenin Blanc is excellent for transmitting the taste of the vineyard, according to Baumard, so in his mind, it is important not to overshadow it with botrytis. He likes a blend of roughly a third each of botrytis-affected grapes, concentrated berries and ripe ones, ‘to bring freshness, happiness and elegance’, to the wine.

Domaine des Baumard chronicled

Baumard dates the domaine to 1634 when his ancestors were cultivating grapes on land that is still part of the estate. After phylloxera, Baumard family members became nurserymen, supplying the region with new vines.

In 1955, the modern history of the domaine began in earnest with the arrival of Jean Baumard. Having trained in oenology in Dijon and Bordeaux, he started buying vineyards, including, in 1957, the 6ha of Quarts de Chaume, whose vines now average 35 years of age.

Jean is widely credited with the revival of the appellation. His son, Florent, returned to the domaine in 1987 after studying in England and the US, and became general director on Jean’s retirement in 1990.

In the vineyard and cellar

The two critical points in winemaking are picking and pressing the grapes, according to Baumard. He explains that harvesting Chenin Blanc for Quarts de Chaume is especially difficult because ripeness of the berries even within a bunch is variable.

As in other parts of the world known for sweet or late harvest wines, pickers go through the vineyard multiple times, harvesting by hand, selecting only the best bunches and discarding unsatisfactory fruit. Baumard notes that ‘the whole vineyard can change in a couple of days’.

The team uses small baskets, as though they were harvesting peaches, to collect the grape bunches, because ‘the grapes, like peaches, need to be pristine for the terroir to show,’ says Baumard. Between picking and pressing, the grapes are left in a cold room to avoid oxidation.

Baumard emphasises that gentle pressing is essential, otherwise the inherent quality of the fruit is lost, and along with it the unique sense of place. Since they press with low pressure, each run can last six to 12 hours.

They will then often collect six to eight different portions, or cuts, of juice from the same press run. The first cut is set apart because it is ‘dirty’, containing skins and water. Baumard explains how since the acidity and sugar levels vary in subsequent cuts, they ferment them separately because the yeast won’t work the same way in each batch. The cuts are blended only after fermentation is complete.

Baumard says that they ‘are not looking for super extraction or super richness, just the purest juice’. He says that if they make a mistake in the picking or the pressing, there’s no way to correct it.

Fermentation is slow, occurring at low temperature to preserve fruitiness and freshness. The wines then spend nine to 18 months on the lees in stainless steel vats. Oak barrels, which would alter the harmony of the flavours, are never used.

Starting with the 2003 vintage, Domaine des Baumard has bottled its wines under screwcaps. A vocal proponent of the closure, Baumard says: ‘I was so stupid. I should have used them 20 years earlier.’

Perfect food and wine pairing companions

As though the plethora of flavours and sensations that come with the yin-yang of sweetness and acidity is not sufficient, versatility is another major attribute of Quarts de Chaume.

Young vintages display floral and delicate honeysuckle sweetness, making them a good choice as standalone aperitifs. And while their sheer vibrancy is refreshing, the faint allure of sweetness is neither heavy nor overpowering. Thus, they brilliantly balance the brininess of olives or the saltiness of nuts. For the same reasons, a young Quarts de Chaume is an ideal foil to starters, such as smoked salmon or savoury patés.

While broad generalisations about sweet wines pairing well with Chinese and Indian food are true to an extent, they are overly simplistic. How could the same wine pair with both Sichuan and Cantonese dishes?

The charms and subtleties of most wines, including Quarts de Chaume, will be overwhelmed by very hot food, such as Hunan cuisine or a fiery Indian curry, so I’d stick to beer on those occasions. However, the vibrancy and gentle sweetness of youthful Quarts de Chaume is a superb way to offset and balance the gentler spice found in many Asian and Latin American dishes. They also work extremely well with the parade of flavours inherent in a sushi dish or an omakase meal.

With increasing age, Quarts de Chaume morphs from delicately honeyed to a richer amalgam of apricot skin and orange-like citrus flavours. Finally, with more bottle age still, they even acquire lush caramel nuances.

At the more mature stages, Quarts de Chaume maintains an enlivening and uplifting acidity, which makes them an excellent choice with both hot and cold foie gras. It’s a perfect Christmas splurge.

More practically, aged Quarts de Chaume is a superb choice with cheese, especially blue or other strongly flavoured varieties. After all, what better pairing could there be than Quarts de Chaume and Colston Bassett Stilton? That said, you might be surprised at how engaging these lovely wines are, especially the younger versions, with fresh or creamy goat’s cheese, or the nuttiness of well-aged Comté.

Although some favour sweet wines with dessert, I find that the sweetness in the dessert can fight and frequently overwhelm the wine. Far better, in my opinion, is a glass of Quarts de Chaume all by itself, as a dessert in its own right.

Looking to the future

Baumard notes that climate change has been beneficial for Quarts de Chaume, because it has aided maturation of the grapes. He recounts that in the 1970s, his father harvested in mid-October, and even by then the grapes often were not ripe, necessitating chaptalisation. But since 1987, with warming growing seasons, Baumard has not needed to chaptalise, even though harvest is earlier.

Growers are increasingly requesting permission from the INAO to make dry wines from the appellation, because the market for Quarts de Chaume and sweet wine in general, sadly, has been shrinking. As Baumard notes: ‘Everyone knows about Sauternes, few about Quarts de Chaume.’

In 1996, the INAO required growers in both Quarts de Chaume and nearby Savennières to choose whether to make dry or sweet wines from Chenin Blanc. Quarts de Chaume chose sweet. ‘A historic mistake,’ according to Ivan Massonnat, co-director of the Quarts de Chaume growers’ association, which they are now trying to correct – Savennières resisted and finally the INAO relented and granted its producers permission to make both.

Currently, the dry wines from Quarts de Chaume can be sold only as Anjou Blanc. To distinguish them, many producers are labelling them under the umbrella term, Ronceray, after the abbey, or writing Dry Chenin Blanc prominently on the label. In my limited experience – I tasted about a half-dozen Ronceray, mostly from the 2020 vintage, last year – they are a most welcome addition, showing great minerality and verve.

The best wines from Quarts de Chaume, especially those from Baumard, have a lightness and grace that distinguishes them from the heavier wines of Sauternes. With its delicacy, Quarts de Chaume is more akin to German late-harvest sweet wines.

Quarts de Chaume can stay fresh and invigorating for at least a week or two after opening, though the odds any will be left in the bottle even after a week are small.

These wines develop magnificently in bottle, reaching a plateau and remaining there for decades, making them a good choice for laying down a few bottles for the future.

Tasting notes and scores for Domaine des Baumard’s Quarts de Chaume

Wines are listed in score order

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In many parts of the Loire Valley , producers attest to a complicated 2023 vintage. While many producers began picking at the beginning of September, the harvest will continue into October.

It has been especially difficult in Anjou, and far from easy in Saumur and Touraine . However, it has been considerably less difficult in Sancerre , Pouilly and the Upper Loire.

It is challenging to succinctly sum up a vintage such as 2023, as it is very variable depending on the grape variety and the sector. For instance, there has been a good harvest in Azay-le-Rideau, but a more complicated one in nearby Chinon, despite their proximity. Even within the same parcel of vines there can be considerable differences.

The growing season

Overall, 2023 is a potentially very large vintage but likely to be of variable quality – a year when producers have faced challenges during the growing season.

Fortunately there was no serious frost this year. Bud break brought a large volume of potential grapes, and this was confirmed by a rapid flowering in dry and sunny conditions at the end of May and the first part of June. Later on in June is when the strong mildew pressure started, so it was essential to spray against it regularly and at exactly the right moment.

The most successful parts of the Loire this year are at the two extremes – the Pays Nantais (which encompasses the Muscadet appellations) in the west, and the Central and Upper Loire (which takes in Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and some of the lesser known appellations such as the Côte Roannaise) to the east.

Exploring Les Monts Damnés: the unofficial ‘cru’ of Sancerre

Pays Nantais

Because the Melon de Bourgogne variety is early ripening, Muscadet producers were able to pick during the heatwave at the beginning of September before the heavy rains started midway through the month.

Vincent Lieubeau, winemaker at Famille Lieubeau in the Pays Nantais, said: ‘We started harvesting on 4 September during the hot weather. Our Muscadet is very good and concentrated, as the potential alcohol rose by nearly two degrees in just one week due to the heat. The yield is around 50hl/ha with 11.8% alcohol’.

Central and Upper Loire

In the Central Loire, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé it was very dry during late July and August, so producers welcomed the September rains that brought their grapes to maturity and swelled them. There was, however, a violent storm on 17 September which brought down trees in a campsite in Saint-Satur, meaning many of the picking staff had to find new accommodation – an additional pressure on producers.

Vincent Grall, of his eponymous domaine in Sancerre, said: ‘Picking started on 8 September, but it is difficult to find pickers. Our Sauvignon is around 12.5% ​​potential alcohol.’

Benoit Fouassier, of Domaine Fouassier in Sancerre, said: ‘We started picking on 13 September. The Pinot Noir is fully ripe at between 14%-15.5% alcohol and our Sauvignon between 13%-14%.’

In the Upper Loire, Romain Paire, of Domaine des Pothiers in the Côte Roannaise, said: ‘We started picking on Tuesday 12 September. Rain on that Thursday swelled the grapes, giving us fully ripe fruit.’

In Saint-Pourçain, Domaine des Bérioles, Clos de Breuilly and Domaine Grosbot-Barbara have all had successful harvests. In addition, 2023 is the first vintage from the remarkable, steep, south-facing slopes of Mont Georges within the Saint-Pourçain appellation. The project to reclaim these vineyards, which were abandoned 60 years ago, has taken over 20 years to come to fruition, with the first parcel of Gamay and Pinot Noir planted in 2020.

It is noticeable that there is much less mildew damage here.

Anjou-Saumur and Touraine

The picture is different and more variable further west in Anjou-Saumur and Touraine.

‘2023 is like a vintage of 20-30 years ago, when very careful selection of grapes was essential,’ said Jean-Philippe Blot, of Domaine de la Taille aux Loups in Montlouis.

Antoine Daviau, of Domaine de Bablut in Anjou, describes it as ‘a year of extremes!’

‘We went from a lack of water in the early part of the season to an excess of rain. From 1 July to 28 September we had 220mm of rain,’ he said.

In Chinon, Jérôme Billard, winemaker at Domaine de la Noblaie, reported 172mm of rain between 1 August and 26 September, with 80mm falling between 11 and 26 September – a huge amount, considering 172mm is about a third of the average annual rainfall.

It is easy to see who was successful at containing the mildew and who wasn’t. There are parcels where there are virtually no leaves left, making it very difficult for the grapes to ripen properly.

Success was only achieved through spraying frequently. Daviau sprayed 11 times, as did Vanessa Cherruau of Château de Plaisance in Chaume. Billard sprayed 14 times including four times during the 21 June – the most difficult week, while Lieubeau reported spraying 15 times. ‘Because of the regular rains we also had a busy job keeping the grass and other vegetation under control. By August we were exhausted!’ he said.

Ivan Massonnat of Domaine Belargus in Anjou and Domaine de Beauséjour in Chinon, said: ‘We succeeded in controlling the mildew except for the Coteau des Treilles, which overlooks the river Layon, because our caterpillar tractor broke down at a critical time, so the vines have lost almost all of their leaves.’

In addition to mildew, levels of rot in Touraine and Anjou were high, especially for Chenin Blanc . Cabernet Franc is variable but had less rot.

Most worrying is the incidence of acid rot, also called sour rot, which can turn wine into vinegar. Pickers had to carefully examine bunches and cut out acid rotten grapes, easily recognized as it turns white grapes orange. Unfortunately the affected grapes may well be hidden inside the bunch and not visible unless the bunch is cut open. Naturally this presents a challenge for those that pick by machine. Jean-Hubert Lebreton of Domaine des Rochelles in Anjou said: ‘We cut off all the rotten grapes by hand before using our picking machine.’

The levels of alcohol are generally considerably lower here than recent vintages such as 2018, 2019 and 2020. The average to date is between 12% and 13.5%. Adrien Moreau, of Domaine Belargus, said: ‘We are around 12.5%, which since we use native yeasts will rise to around 13% by the end of fermentation.’

Due to the large volume of the harvest and the weather conditions, there are reports that some producers in Anjou are currently struggling to get their grapes above 9% or 10% alcohol.

The news is much more positive for Sauvignon Blanc and the reds – Gamay , Cabernet Franc and Côt ( Malbec ) in the Cher Valley in the Touraine appellation, where the grapes are both plentiful and healthy.

There will be little sweet wine made this year partly due to the conditions and the lack of consumer demand, although there may be exceptions from healthy parcels. The 2023 vintage will continue well into October.

Despite the difficulties, the grape juice and fermenting wines I tasted throughout the Loire were all clean with no off flavors – a testament to a very rigorous selection of grapes by some of the Loire’s best producers. However, overall it is very likely that there will be big variations in the quality of the finished wines.

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Overall the 2022 growing season in the Loire was marked by some periods of extreme heat and drought during the summer, but rain in August made a big difference and grapes were generally very healthy.

Quantities vary considerably depending on April frost damage and whether the later drought spells blocked grape maturity, which would have been dependent on soil type, the age of the vines and producers who encourage their vines to develop deep roots by avoiding the use of chemical herbicides.

‘2022 is a very good quality vintage across the board. Some are hailing it as one of the great years – time will tell.’

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Jim Budd’s top 30 Loire whites of 2022 and 2021

Top white producers of 2022 and 2021:

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups – Montlouis and Vin de France (Vouvray)

Domaine Luneau-Papin – Muscadet Sèvre et Maine

Domaine Merlin-Cherrier – Sancerre

Domaine Ogereau – Anjou

Vincent Pinard – Sancerre

Pays Nantais

There were early April frosts here, as François Lieubeau, of Famille Lieubeau, explains: ‘Four nights of frost from 31 March to 4 April, with temperatures below -3.5C, once again kept us on our toes.’ Fortunately, there was much less damage than in the previous year – in part because bud-break was in its early stages and because it was dry, so there was less humidity to form ice around the fragile buds. Frost protection systems are also increasingly effective, and investment in wind machines has increased markedly since 2016.

The summer was very dry with rainfall down by 30% on the 10 year average. However, fortunately rain finally arrived in mid-August just before the harvest and in time to make a difference. The Ban de Vendanges was given for 23 August, which is very early.

Lieubeau sums up: ‘With ideal natural alcohol levels (a final average of 12%) and grapes in impeccable health, 2022 will go down as a solar year with outstanding quality and beautiful balance.’

Due to the drought, yields were not sufficient to replenish stocks after the very short, frost-affected 2021 vintage.

Anjou-Saumur

As with elsewhere in the Loire, drought and extreme summer heat were the dominant factors in the Anjou-Saumur area, as Ivan Massonnat, of Domaine Belargus, recounts: ‘From the month of May rain was rare. It was so dry that there was a major fire on the north side of the Layon on 9 August. The miracle of 2022 was the very welcome return of some rain on 15 August – just in time to make a significant difference.’

The rain allowed producers to make very good dry whites. Further small quantities of rain in October provoked the development of botrytis, enabling the production of fine sweet wines, too.

Touraine

Fortunately, although there were some very early April frosts they didn’t have serious consequences overall. That being said, western Touraine was affected, for example in parts of Chinon, as bud-break was further advanced than in eastern Touraine where the nascent buds still had their protective cover.

As with elsewhere, the picking started early: in August for some varieties and wine styles, especially Chardonnay for sparkling wines. Vouvray was able to make all styles from sparkling through to sweet.

I tasted some very attractive Sauvignon Blanc, for example, from Clos Roussely, Domaine Beauséjour and Domaine Mérieau.

Centre & Upper Loire

The winter was mild with above average temperatures in the Centre and Upper Loire area. In early April there were two periods of frost, which could have had severe consequences as during the night of 3 April temperatures fell as low as -6C. Fortunately, bud-break hadn’t properly started and there was very little humidity. Flowering was very early, starting at the end of May.

Picking started in Menetou-Salon and Reuilly on 25 August and between 5-10 September for the rest of the central vineyard appellations.

The Sauvignon Blancs are concentrated with ripe fruit notes – grapefruit, pineapple and stone fruits – and despite the heat of the summer the wines have enough acidity, although naturally less marked than the 2021 vintage.

There are some very good 2022 Sauvignon Blancs. At this stage the overall quality of Sancerre is more regular than Pouilly-Fumé. However, in both appellations there are some prestige cuvées that would have benefitted from more time on their lees but there may have been pressure to bottle given the small 2021 vintage.

See all 51 of Jim Budd’s recommended Loire whites from 2022 and 2021

Top value whites of 2021 and 2021:

Cellier du Beaujardin, Salamandre, Touraine 2022

Domaine Beauséjour, Les Silex, Touraine 2022

Domaine de la Tourmaline, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2022

Domaine de Villargeau, Coteaux du Giennois 2022

Domaine des Forges, Vignoble Branchereau, Coteaux du Layon, Chaume 1er Cru 2021

Loire white wines: know your vintages

Since 2014, the Loire has been blessed with an unprecedented series of good to great vintages.

2018

Hailed as a great vintage, which generally combined quality and quantity, although the alcohols on some whites are very high. 5/5.

2019

This is another good-quality vintage, although frost-affected, with attractive wines that are drinking well now with more freshness than 2018 but with the potential to age well. 4/5.

2020

Another hot vintage with many good, concentrated wines but also some that lack freshness and zip. 4/5.

2021

A cold spring with severe early April frosts led to a return to a more traditional Loire vintage, with picking starting considerably later than many of the recent vintages and more marked acidity in the wines. Despite some early doubts there are some lovely whites, though quality is variable and volume severely down. This is a vintage that reveals the quality of the producer. 4/5.

2022

This is a very good vintage, possibly one of the best, but more time is needed to judge. Overall it is a success for both Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc with well-balanced wines having both concentration and freshness, although there are a few flabby wines lacking acidity. 5/5.

Jim Budd’s top Loire whites from 2022 and 2021:

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One of my very favourite times to be at Borough Market, on the south side of London Bridge, is first thing on a Saturday morning. That’s when the locals come to do their food shopping, armed with empty shopping bags that will be full to bursting when they finally leave the Market gates. It’s a scene replicated at food markets across the country and around the world: shoppers making the choice to swap the relentless beeps of a supermarket checkout for a trader’s big smile and perhaps a bit of banter, too.

At a (Borough) Market stall you can pick up and squeeze or smell the fruits and vegetables; ask the fishmonger what is best that day; seek the butcher’s advice on the different cuts of meat you can see right there in front of you… They’re the conversations where discoveries are made about seasonality, provenance, production and heritage. All things that matter for sustainability, for preserving food traditions, and simply for their sheer deliciousness.

Those values lie at the heart of Borough Market and also the pages of Borough Market: The Knowledge. Its chapters are like every conversation you might have at a market stall: packed with trader knowledge, skills and tips. There’s everything from filleting a fish, to varieties of honey, fixing Martinis and so much more; plus 80-odd recipes that spring out of the knowledge and the glorious seasonal produce with which the market abounds. Because fundamentally our book – like our Market, and like all good markets – is about finding the joy in food.

Loaf-baked whole cheese with girolles recipe

Camembert is just one of many soft cheeses that would work well for this – I’d be just as happy with a Vacherin Mont d’Or or Epoisses. Whatever cheese you choose nestles within a whole loaf and is then baked for tearing and sharing, its flavours layered up with garlic, mushrooms, honey and wine.

Serves 3-4 as a main or 6 as part of a feast

Preparation time 20 minutes

Cooking time 25 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 round baking cheese such as Camembert (about 250g-300g)
• 1 round sourdough or cob loaf
• 1 garlic clove
• 30g butter
• 25g small girolle mushrooms
• 1⁄2 tsp herbes de Provence
• 2 tsp honey
• 50ml white wine or vermouth

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.

2. Cut the top rind off the cheese. Then cut the top off the loaf and pull out enough of the crumb inside that the cheese can sit comfortably in the loaf.

3. Peel the garlic and cut into slivers. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low-medium heat. Cook the mushrooms until just softening, then add the garlic slivers and stir in the herbes de Provence. Take off the heat and stir in the honey and the wine. Mix well and season lightly.

4. Sit the loaf on a large piece of foil on a baking tray. Spoon the mushroom mix over the top of the cheese, then spoon the rest of the juices over, allowing some to go over the outside of the bread too. Push at the garlic pieces so they sink into the cheese a little. Wrap loosely in the foil and bake for 20 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 190°C, open the parcel up just enough to reveal the cheese, and return to the oven for another five minutes to finish off.

5. Cut or tear the loaf into wedges and serve while the cheese is still meltingly hot.

Angela Clutton is a cook, presenter and awarded food writer. Her first book The Vinegar Cupboard (Bloomsbury Absolute, 2019) won several awards, including ‘Debut Cookery Book’ at the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards 2020. Angela has written for a range of national publications, and broadcasting includes the Channel 5 Inside… series. She presents Borough Market’s Borough Talks podcast series, and is host of the Borough Market Cookbook Club (boroughmarket.org.uk).

Borough Market: The Knowledge by Angela Clutton was published in October 2022 and is available through Amazon UK

The wines to drink with loaf-baked whole cheese with girolles

There will definitely be two views on what to drink with this dish – the white wine with cheese camp, and those who always prefer a red. The fact that the dish has white wine in it might incline you toward the former, and given that the dish contains honey it will have an added touch of sweetness, so I’m tempted by the idea of a Vouvray or Montlouis from the Loire, or an old-vine South African Chenin Blanc. A Chablis with a bit of bottle age would work pretty well, too.

The mushrooms would go with either white or red, but might incline you towards a Pinot Noir; nothing too rarefied, I’d suggest – this is a hearty dish. Maybe something from the Auvergne rather than Burgundy, although I can imagine it being pretty delicious with an Oregon Pinot Noir. The other option would be a cru Beaujolais, maybe from the warmer 2020 vintage than the cooler, lighter, 2021 – and a Côte de Brouilly or Juliénas rather than a Fleurie. Think the rustic rather than the floral side of Beaujolais.

By Fiona Beckett

Wines selected by our Decanter experts

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Greg Sherwood MW, Beverley Blanning MW and Roger Jones tasted 223 wines with 28 Outstanding and 108 Highly recommended.

South African Chenin Blanc: panel tasting scores

223 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 28

Highly recommended 108

Recommended 82

Commended 5

Fair 0

Poor 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release Chenin Blanc still whites, including single-varietal wines or blends containing a minimum 85% Chenin Blanc

Until the late 1990s, Chenin Blanc was the workhorse of South Africa’s wine industry – the principal variety used for brandy distillation, as well as the base wine of most commercial bulk white blends. But over the past three decades the value of Chenin Blanc, in price and perception, has rocketed.

Part of the grape’s popularity arose due to its chameleon-like ability to make almost any style of wine: from traditional-method Cap Classique sparklings to sweet botrytised dessert styles, and everything in between. Today, Chenin Blanc still constitutes 18.6% of the Cape’s vineyard plantings.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the South African Chenin Blanc panel tasting

In one of Decanter’s biggest-ever panel tastings, we tasted 223 cuvées from across South Africa. It was a fascinating three days of judging in which we were impressed by the quality and consistency of winemaking and breadth of different styles, particularly from the elegantly fresh 2021 vintage.

‘Anyone who enjoys Chenin Blanc will find plenty to love here,’ said Beverley Blanning MW. ‘Chenin Blanc is easily influenced by the presence of other varieties – as we saw in a few blends with Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Roussanne and others – but more often by oak. Its delicate nature requires careful handling in the cellar to produce wines of quality. These results show abundant evidence of confident winemaking for South Africa’s signature grape.’

With his chef and sommelier hat on, Roger Jones commented that premium South African Chenin Blanc has many similarities to New World Chardonnay, offering a fresh, vibrant style perfect for food matching. ‘The best have punchy, fresh stone fruits, elegant oak assimilation, overt wet-stone minerality and that fabulous Cape fynbos note of sweet rose, lemon thyme and peppermint,’ he said. Time in bottle was also needed to appreciate them at their finest, he added.

See all 223 wines from the South African Chenin Blanc panel tasting

Swartland was the standout region, all judges finding a real sense of place coupled with great individuality. There were some world-class examples, showing savoury depth, pungent smokiness and tangy saline intensity. Alcohol levels were typically a little lower than in other regions, allowing the thrilling acidity and crystal-bright fruit purity to shine.

Unsurprisingly there was a large entry from Stellenbosch, featuring many excellent wines conforming to a classic profile of South African Chenin Blanc: bold, ripe yellow fruits and toasty oak. ‘The top-scoring Stellenbosch wines provide hugely satisfying drinking and lingering layers of complexity,’ enthused Blanning.

As a panel we were impressed by the number of value wines that, more often than not, hit the quality mark. Nevertheless, there were some less desirable characters we hope producers will iron out in the future. Jones highlighted ‘hints of banana and tinned fruit’ from inoculated yeasts and wines that were ‘overly polished and perfumed’, while Blanning was less thrilled by those imbalanced through excessive alcohol or oak, mostly from the 2020 vintage.

However, with 98% of wines earning the equivalent of a bronze medal or higher, in terms of bang for your buck, you simply cannot find more characterful white wine in the world than South African Chenin Blanc.

South African Chenin Blanc panel tasting scores

The following wines all scored 95 points or above

The judges

Greg Sherwood MW is a London-based South African Master of Wine. Formerly fine wine buyer at Handford Wines for more than 20 years, he publishes his Fine Wine Safari blog at gregsherwoodmw.com and judges at several wine competitions worldwide.

Beverley Blanning MW is an independent wine writer, judge, tour guide and educator. She is author of Wine Tasting (Hodder & Stoughton, 2010) with Wines of the Loire Valley due out in 2023 (£35 Infinite Ideas), and has been a DWWA judge since its inception in 2004.

Roger Jones is the retired former owner of The Harrow at Little Bedwyn restaurant in Wiltshire. He is now a wine writer, judge and consultant with a particular interest in the hospitality trade, as well as helping charities. He is a DWWA judge, with a focus on New World regions.

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Much of the messaging in food media seems to take a ‘this is what you should be cooking right now’ approach: ‘try this cuisine’, ‘use these leftovers’, ‘eat seasonally’ and so on. It’s probably counterproductive to a (still relatively fresh) cookery writer’s career to state it, but there’s too much choice.

At the genesis of this book, it struck me that we’ve found ourselves looking at things the wrong way around. Aspiring to master new (to us) cuisines, use up leftovers and eat ingredients at their peak are all relevant. But these are distracting sub-themes when there’s something more visceral that sits above them all: most of the time we simply cook the things we do so that we can eat what we fancy.

With that realisation in mind, I set about writing a cookbook that would provide clarity, order and direction when we respond to our cravings – grouping recipes into six sections: fresh and fragrant; tart and sour; chilli and heat; spiced and curried; rich and savoury; and cheesy and creamy. Of course, many of the best cuisines and recipes balance the full range of tastes and multiple flavours. However, more often than not, dishes have a key characteristic or an edge that can be categorised under one of these six flavour profiles. I hope that thinking along these lines, of dominant characteristics and flavours, is a good starting point. It’s a new, if ultimately obvious, framework.

Cider vinegar-roasted pork belly & apricots recipe

I find a craving for something sharp often goes hand in hand with a desire for something rich and fatty. It’s not obvious which sensation I’m really after, although the former is essential to cut through the latter. Does that make the sour element more or less important? Does it matter? Pork belly is one example of an ingredient that needs acid to complete it. Apricot season often chimes with a desire to edge away from comfort food, and the tart notes that appear when cooked go perfectly here (you could use rhubarb in exactly the same way).

Serves 4-6

Preparation time 15 mins

Cooking time 2 hours plus 15 mins resting

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp fennel seeds
• 10g-20g flaky sea salt
• 1.25kg-1.75kg pork belly (bone in, skin scored)
• 250ml dry (hard) cider
• 100ml apple cider vinegar
• 10 baby shallots, peeled and halved
• 40g fresh ginger, sliced
• 6-9 apricots (3 halves per serving), halved and pitted

Method

1. Bash the fennel seeds to open them up. Mix half of them with 1 tablespoon of the salt, then rub that into the flesh of the pork (the base and the sides). Sprinkle the rest of the salt, or as much as you need, to completely cover the skin on top. Refrigerate uncovered for 90 minutes or more (overnight is best).

2. Heat the oven to 240°C/475°F/gas 9. Brush the salt off the top of the pork and discard, but leave any fennel seeds still attached to the flesh. Place in a roasting tin in which the pork fits snugly. Roast in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes, during which time the skin will puff up and harden to form crackling.

3. After that time, remove the roasting tin from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 140°C/275°F/gas 1. Carefully decant the rendered fat from the base of the tin into a heatproof container, then pour the cider and vinegar into the tin (taking care not to get the crackling wet). Add the shallots, ginger and the remaining fennel seeds, then return the roasting tin to the oven for a further 1¼ hours, adding the apricot halves (cut-side down), to the liquid around the pork when there’s 30 minutes to go.

4. Once cooked, remove the pork from the roasting tin and leave to rest on a board in a warm place for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, transfer the apricots to a plate or container, taking care to keep them intact. Place the roasting tin (with the liquid, shallots and ginger still in) on a high heat and bring to a furious boil for 10 minutes, reducing the liquid by half to two-thirds so it becomes a glossy and viscous sauce.

5. Pick out and discard the ginger. Serve the apricots next to generous slices of pork belly, with the sweet-sour sauce and shallots spooned over both, and a big green salad and a bowl of well-salted baby potatoes.

Crave by Ed Smith was published in May 2021 (Quadrille) and is available through Amazon UK.

Ed Smith is a former City lawyer turned cook and food writer. Crave, his latest recipe book, won the Cookery Book category in the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards 2022. His award-winning blog is at rocketandsquash.com

The wines to drink with cider vinegar-roasted pork belly & apricots

You would often use wine as a corrective to a slightly fatty ingredient like pork belly, but Ed has cleverly done the job for you by putting apricots on the side. That would lead me in the direction of Viognier rather than Riesling, which is my usual go-to with pork belly – although if you’re a Riesling fan, a fruity style such as the ones you tend to find in New Zealand would work, too. Viognier has, of course, apricot notes of its own but you’d be enhancing them rather than cancelling them out with the other elements of this dish.

There are so many good ones now, particularly from Australia and South Africa.

Other good options would be Pinot Gris – again from New Zealand, for preference – or an old-vine South African Chenin Blanc. A Vouvray or Montlouis from the Loire would work too. And if you prefer red? I’m thinking Grenache or Garnacha, or a vibrant young Côtes du Rhône. You want younger wines with this dish rather than more mature ones.

By Fiona Beckett

Wines selected by the Decanter team

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Hundreds of kilometres of open road hug the wild Atlantic shoreline all the way up to Namibia.

As you whip up the seemingly endless West Coast highway, see the glittering saltpans, the steampunk of rusting mining machinery, the fields of potatoes and cabbages – this has always been an area of mixed industries, and wine farming is the most recent, with vines going into the ground around the 1940s.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 10 top Cape West Coast wines to try

PLUS see profiles on the eight producers to know

There are two official wine routes, one through Darling, as well as the West Coast Wine Route which also takes in stand-alone wards. The West Coast Wine Route begins in the mountainous Piekenierskloof then descends into the wild west coastlands of Vredendal, Klawer, Lutzville, Koekenaap and Doringbaai.

Historically, this is a bulk production area – think co-ops churning out gluggable dry whites, semi-sweet rosés and the like, much of it destined for the bag-in-box market. This is changing, though, with growing interest from ambitious winemakers who hunt obscure parcels of fruit, much of it old vine.

Darling

Area under vine: 2,753ha

Number of producers: 3 estates, 38 growers.

Key varieties: Sauvignon Blanc (570ha), Cabernet Sauvignon (470ha), Shiraz (424ha).

Soils: Decomposed granite, Oakleaf, sand, loam.

Wines of substance

Sakkie Mouton leans over a barrel, syphoning out his inaugural Syrah. He makes his wines at the Riebeek Valley Wine Company, but his fruit is all West Coast, as is he. Born and bred in Vredendal, the winemaker styles himself as a small-town Weskus boytjie (‘West Coast lad’) making wines of substance.

In 2019, Decanter World Wine Awards judge Greg Sherwood MW scored the 2018 vintage of Mouton’s Revenge of the Crayfish 96 points, catapulting the young unknown to cult status. A unicorn wine, only 390 bottles of this crystalline Chenin Blanc existed.

‘I call it Romanée-Koekenaap,’ quips Mouton on the rarity of the Crayfish, the reference to Koekenaap being the vineyard’s place of origin. He produces just 4,000 bottles per year for his entire range.

‘My wines are an honest expression of the West Coast,’ he says. ‘Just like the place, what you see is what you get, although the impression of the region needs to change from bulk to quality,’ he underscores.

‘We have the vineyards and terroir, we just need honest vintners to help shape its true identity.’ He likens the arid, coastal terroir and the resulting wines to that of Sicily or Greece: ‘The line of salinity you find in the wines is very similar.’

An important grape for the West Coast is Colombard. The offspring of Chenin Blanc and Gouais Blanc, the high-acid white has been planted in South Africa since the 1700s. Paradoxically, its commercial history for brandy production and simple dry whites has now yielded many old-vine sites.

Mouton’s hails from a small vineyard planted in 1978. The sandy soils and dry conditions make irrigation a necessity, which happens quite dramatically with the old method of flood irrigation from a stone sluice connected to the Olifants River.

Receiving the same treatment across the road is the Colombard vineyard from which Ian Naudé makes the cult wine, Langpad.

This vineyard, planted in 1983 on sandy soils, lies about 35km from the ocean. Crucial is a daily mist Naudé says they can set their clocks to. ‘You have to see it to believe it,’ he insists. ‘It will be a sunny day and then this black front on the ocean rolls in and everything becomes dark.’

The mist cools the vineyards down from the heat of the day. And hot it gets, averaging on 35℃ in summer. Naudé has a hunch it does something else, too. ‘When the sun comes up in the morning it burns off the mist, leaving traces of the sea on the grapes. This is where that distinct salinity and kelp flavour in the wine comes from.’

‘Colombard is the next big thing,’ Naudé enthuses. ‘Swartland has had its time. It’s now the West Coast’s turn, and this grape’s expression is transcendent here.’

Great heights

We make our way up into the rocky corridors of the Piekenierskloof, where altitudes ramp up to 750m.

Situated on the border of the Swartland, this is the start of the West Coast Wine Route. Here, in the alpine air, rooibos and citrus proliferate, as do gnarly bush vines.

The route covers a large expanse and with it ever-morphing terroir. Falling under the auspices of the Olifants River region, it incorporates the Citrusdal Valley and the mountain districts (the famous area of Skurfberg is just outside of this), then continues on to the broad valley of the Olifants River, incorporating the Lambert’s Bay designation on the coast.

Piekenierskloof

Area under vine: 480ha

Number of producers: 20

Average growing season temperature: 22.8°C

Key varieties: Grenache Noir (74ha), Pinotage (72ha), Chenin Blanc (50ha).

Soils: Dundee, Hutton, Clovelly, Glenrosa.

The Piekenierskloof is home to the country’s largest concentration of old, dryland Grenache, drawing in acclaimed producers, among them Sadie Family Wines, Vriesenhof, Savage Wines, Donkiesbaai and more.

Historically, Grenache was blended here with Cinsault for ‘Cape Chianti’, made then by the Citrusdal Co-operative, now the Piekenierskloof Wine Company.

The winery still makes Grenache, as well as a special bottling as part of an old-vine series. The grapes for the range come from six sites spread across two farms owned by brothers Oubaas and Potgieter van Zyl. The vines are all ungrafted, dry-farmed bush vines, growing in sandy loam soils. Added to the Grenache (noir and blanc) are Palomino, Cinsault and Chenin Blanc.

The air is like ice, fresh and cutting, as winemaker Cerina van Niekirk takes me for a walk among these old bush vines, some of which grow as tall as small trees. The treasured vineyards are marked with plaques on granite obelisks.

Onward and northward

As we descend north, the verdant landscape unfurls from the pass to the Olifants River wards.

The most intensive viticulture takes place in this part of the region. Home to some of the larger co-ops, the district incorporates Vredendal as well as the cooler, ocean-influenced Koekenaap and Bamboes Bay.

The family-run Cape Rock Wines appears like a heat mirage, the white cellar afloat on a sea of dormant vines.

Situated between the towns of Vredendal and Klawer, this 11ha estate is a stronghold of Rhône varieties. Husband and wife, Willie and Desiree Brand, are salt of the earth kind of people, the welcome is warm, the wine is cold.

Olifants River Region

Vredendal, Klawer, Lutzville

Area under vine: 8,000ha

Number of producers: 290

Average growing season temperature: 19.6°C

Key varieties: Chenin Blanc (2,500ha), Colombard (2,300ha), Sauvignon Blanc (550ha), Shiraz (480ha), Pinotage (430ha).

Soils: Red-brown Oakleaf, dorbank calcareous Trawal.

Koekenaap and Doringbaai

Area under vine: 880ha

Number of producers: 25

Average growing season temperature: 18.8°C

Key varieties: Chenin Blanc (250ha), Sauvignon Blanc (190ha), Colombard (170ha).

Soils: Red-brown Oakleaf, sandy terraces.

Source: West Coast Wine Route and Vinpro

‘It felt natural to adapt our plantings to the grapes that suit our climate,’ explains Oom Willie (as he is known) on the preference for Rhône varieties. ‘These grapes fare better with the intense summer heat and lack of water.’

Pouring a glass of the resplendent Cape Rock White, Oom Willie regales us with tales of the Weskus: of piloting planes, diving for kreef (rock lobster) and resident vineyard cobras. The blend is spontaneously co-fermented Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Roussanne matured in old oak. The wine’s pared down, textured character conveys the rawness of the place and its sun-baked desolation.

Tempered by the sea

From here we churn up dust as we navigate 30km of dirt road to Bamboes Bay just outside Doringbaai. The scene is bucolic as it flashes past: lambs in the wildflowers, hopping duikers.

Bamboes Bay is the smallest Wine of Origin (WO) in South Africa, composed of a 10ha vineyard located 600m from the sea – bamboes is the Afrikaans word for kelp.

Fryer’s Cove Winery is set on the rocky edge of the coast in a converted fish factory, complete with a jetty running into the ocean. True joy is watching the thundering white horses in the spray from the deck with a plate of fresh oysters and a glass of Sauvignon.

It smells like the sea in winemaker Liza Goodwin’s cellar, and she uses the proximity to the Atlantic to help regulate temperatures by piping water through the icy ocean.

A component of the new vintage of the Hollebaksstrandfontein Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is maturing in barrel. Goodwin pulls out a sample to taste. The characteristic kelp, sea breeze aromatics of the wine are unmistakable.

Fryer’s Cove makes two Sauvignons and a Pinot Noir from Bamboes Bay fruit, for the rest of its range, grapes are sourced from across the West Coast.

During my time here, the only sound in this lonely landscape – other than the stir of the constant breeze – came from a three-kilometre train as it trundled past, carrying iron ore.

Windswept, white-sand vineyards

On the road to Gedeelte Wines, the coast becomes less rocky, the swell more glassy and calm. The sandy enclave of St. Helena is a living postcard and although, officially, St. Helena Bay is WO Swartland, its beachside address clearly proclaims it not so.

John Bouwer stands in his Palomino vineyard, vines rooted in sea sand and limestone. He picks up a lizard darting amongst the trunks: ‘This is a koggelmander, they eat the bugs that nibble on the roots,’ he says, explaining the unique natural pest control.

This place is the very picture of a West Coast vineyard: roots cling to the white sand, reflecting light onto the vines. Jewel-like vygies (or mesembryanthemums) run down the rows like cover crop, with bright blooms of magenta.

Inspired by the wines of the Jura, Bouwer’s wines are all matured under a veil of flor. He uses the technique to magnify the inherent ‘mineral saltiness’ of the terroir. We taste the Palomino 2021 right there in the sand. It tastes like the inside of a seashell, cool and limpid, with waves of crushed rock, white citrus and pear. It’s the very essence of the place.

The West Coast’s old vines and unique terroir are still something of a secret. Two of South Africa’s most renowned winemakers, Eben Sadie and Adi Badenhorst likewise make wines from this sandy stretch and the swell of interest is only growing. As Sadie puts it, he’s simply ‘following the salt trail’.

In some ways the West Coast is mirroring the revolution that transformed its neighbour, the Swartland, and is going from bulk to cult.

Darling: the country heart

Historically a dairy-producing area, just a few estates make up the official Darling Wine Route, which was once deemed a part of the Swartland.

There are many vineyard holdings, however, which own-label producers are seeking out and securing.

Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz in particular shine, while Darling Cinsault is becoming hot property, the grape being something of a best-kept secret for producers such as Duncan Savage and Alex Milner of Natte Valleji Wines.

Confirming the quality of the fruit here, Charles Back of Fairview fame has invested in many hectares of vineyards (approximately 150ha) and produces a number of wines across the cultivar spectrum.

Malu Lambert’s 10 top Cape West Coast wines to discover

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There is an abundance of well-known South American wines that are capable of long ageing.

These include icons such as Almaviva and Nicolás Catena. However, I want to shine a light on some less well-known bottles I’ve found that you may not have heard of, but are certainly wines for the long haul that can still evolve beautifully over time.

I like to call it relic hunting.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 ageworthy South American wines

It’s a game I play every time I go to a wine shop while I’m in South America. Looking beyond the polished bottles on the front row, I rummage in the back aiming for those covered in dust or with tired labels.

In a small mini-market in Argentina’s remote wetlands I found a Terrazas de los Andes Chardonnay 2010 for less than £2… I nabbed that, and later delighted in its oily texture with a plate of cured jabali (wild boar).

In a restaurant near Chile’s Torres del Paine park I once found a Carmen Reserve 1999 and, much to the waiter’s surprise, enjoyed the whole bottle to myself over a dinner of guanaco (a larger version of a llama). It was so old that the label read Grande Vidure, years before it was renamed Carmenère, but the wine was far from old: spicy, energetic and delicious.

In a wine shop in Mendoza two blocks from my house, I found a Mendel Semillon 2013 for a third of its usual price. After popping home to have a quick sample, I came back with a trolley and took all of the 11 bottles left. I still kick myself for drinking those so fast, but the heady notes of lemon peel and honey with piercing acidity were irresistible.

I probably shouldn’t share this information because I’ll be deeply upset when I can’t play relic hunter anymore. But for the meantime, South America’s wines are being sold and served scandalously young – with older vintages wrongly being sent to the back of the shelf.

Without an en primeur system, or fine wine collectors either, there’s little incentive for wineries to hold back their wines and delay often much-needed income. There’s also still a misconception that many of South America’s wines can’t age.

Although the sunny climates in most of Argentina and Chile do make wines approachable in their youth, that does not mean that these wines aren’t ageworthy; in fact, they most certainly can be. And today more than ever, South America’s winemakers are producing wines that are worthy of holding back to taste in their prime of maturity.

Semillon makes a stand

On a visit to Lagarde winery in Luján de Cuyo you won’t leave the cellar without hearing the story of the 1942 Semillon.

By accident, an entire 1,800-litre oak cask was left filled with a 1942 vintage of dry Semillon wine and forgotten about for half a century. On its rediscovery in 1991, it was bottled as a special release and has served as one of the greatest testimonies to the ageability of South American white wines ever since.

The modern-day champion of Semillon in Argentina, though, is undoubtedly Roberto de la Mota. He started out in his winemaking career producing Semillon along with Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay with his father Raúl de la Mota at Bodega Weinert in the late 1980s.

But although the variety had lost favour in Argentina since, dwindling from over 5,500ha to just 600ha today, in 2009 de la Mota took up the mantle again. He has been making Semillon for his Mendel label ever since, waving the flag for this under-appreciated variety.

‘We have many old vines of Semillon in Mendoza, and really excellent-quality Semillon in cooler parts of the Uco Valley,’ explains de la Mota, who makes his wine from 70-year-old vines in Altamira. ‘The cool climate with the limestone soils give us very fresh acidity and strong personality, capable of long ageing.’

Several others have joined the Semillon mission. These include the Michelini family, Nieto Senetiner and Altocedro in Mendoza; Matías Riccitelli, Humberto Canale and Marcelo Miras in Río Negro. In Chile: Carmen and Santa Rita in Apalta; Bouchon and Longaví in Maule; and Roberto Henríquez and Leo Erazo in Itata.

Not only does the high acidity make these wines ageworthy but the concentration found in the old vines adds to the complexity and length of these outstanding wines.

Chardonnay for the long haul

However, it isn’t only old-vine Semillon that is proving its great potential to age.

Chardonnay is also a worthy contender. It was on a mission to make great Chardonnay that US winemaker Paul Hobbs was first brought to Argentina in 1989 by the Catena family, at the eve of Argentina’s quality revolution.

‘Even then I could see there was potential in the Chardonnay fruit – even if the winemaking needed a radical change,’ says Hobbs.

Today he makes several single-vineyard Chardonnay wines at Viña Cobos. ‘There are some extraordinary old vines, such as our 80-year-old Zingaretti estate in the Uco Valley, and great sites to plant new Chardonnay vines as well,’ he adds.

New vines of Chardonnay have, in particular, redefined the calibre of South American white wines in recent years. The combination of identifying great terroir with a modern, sensitive approach in the cellar has led to some of South America’s greatest and most ageworthy wines today.

They include Errazuriz’s Las Pizzaras from Aconcagua, Catena Zapata’s White Bones from Gualtallary and Bodega Chacra’s Chardonnay from Río Negro. While from Limarí the wines of Tabalí, Reta and Amelia will all no doubt still fend for themselves after decades in the cellar.

Following in the footsteps of Chardonnay, there is a great impulse happening across Argentina, Chile and Uruguay to make ageworthy white wines and blends from other key varieties including Chenin Blanc, Albariño, Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. The fruits of which I’m sure we’ll enjoy in the years to come.

Reds built to last

Before the 225-litre French barrique became popular in South America in the 1990s, most of the red wines were made in large vats or foudres and aged significantly before release.

Some producers, including Bodegas Weinert, Carmelo Patti and Bodegas López in Mendoza, never stopped making wine this way.

Weinert’s current Cask Selection release is vintage 2012. Carmelo’s current UK release of Cabernet Sauvignon is 2007 and López has re-released its 1983 vintage of Montchenot.

While these are prime examples of a traditional approach still holding great promise for the future, the wines of the ‘modern school’ in South American winemaking are also coming of age now.

Complex and classy Bordeaux blends from top crus in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay – such as Viñedo Chadwick, Almaviva, Don Melchor, Nicolás Catena, Lindaflor, Cheval des Andes, Balasto and Monte Vide Eu – may still be released far too early, but they age gracefully in the cellar for those patient enough to wait.

Tasting these older vintages leaves no doubt of the potential for ageing – both in cask and bottle – that South American red Bordeaux blends have.

Beyond Bordeaux varieties and French barriques, there’s another movement underway seeking to optimise the continent’s Mediterranean varieties and returning to large-format ageing vessels. Marcelo Retamal is one of these returnees.

‘Before French barriques, we used these large old vats made from rauli (a native Chilean tree), so it’s nothing new,’ explains Retamal, who was head winemaker at De Martino from 1996 until 2021. ‘I now prefer larger format foudres and cement because we have less of an oak impact, but great conditions for long ageing of red wines.’

His Mediterranean red blends, including Syrah, Garnacha and Mourvèdre, from Viñedos de Alcohuaz in high-altitude Elqui, spend up to five years in cask or concrete. Bottles such as his Pingo Pingo Carignan, with 2015 as the current release, show the great vivacity that these wines retain and only hint at the long life yet to come.

Old-vine reds

Old vines of Carignan further south, in Maule, are also at the heart of some of the most exciting ageworthy red wines coming from Chile.

The association and quasi-appellation of VIGNO, Vignerons of Carignan, was set up to celebrate these dry-farmed old vines but also with a minimum two-year ageing requirement — one which is often far surpassed.

On a recent tasting of the VIGNO collective’s 2010 vintage, I can assure you these wines are still relative infants, with dense, compact aromas and a tense tannin and acid structure built to last. They are also often a bargain, giving anyone an ample opportunity to build a long-lasting wine collection.

Whether Carignan or Cabernet Sauvignon, there are a host of South American reds that will stand the test of time. As with the white wines, we just need to have the patience as a market to give them time to shine.

Until then, you’ll find me lurking at the back of dusty wine shelves hunting down some of these priceless gems.

See tasting notes and scores for 12 ageworthy South American wines

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With a history of eight generations under the Foucault brothers, establishing its reputation as the best producer of Cabernet Franc (not to mention Chenin Blanc) in the Loire, it created a shock wave when Clos Rougeard was sold to the Bouygues family in 2017.

What has changed since then, and what has stayed the same?

Scroll down for the most recent tasting notes for Clos Rougeard wines

Building the future: a new winery under way

The wines of Clos Rougeard used to be made in the cramped cellars under the family house in Chacé, until the brothers found a new site nearby in 2010, with 1km of underground cellars.

Now a new building is being completed, with a rather ornate exterior contrasting with the old quarters. It appears large relative to the domaine, but technical director Jacques-Antoine Toublanc says the capacity of the building matches the vineyard area. ‘We could manage 2ha more,’ he says. ‘Perhaps if they became available in Les Poyeux.’

Construction has been continuing between winemaking seasons, but from 2022, Clos Rougeard wines will be made in a new gravity-fed winery, equipped with 17 new concrete fermenters, holding 60hl-70hl. Each can serve 1ha of picked grapes; 14 tanks are for red, three tanks are for white. Previously the wine was made in 200-hectolitre fermenters.

Emphasis on long ageing and oak use

The reds age for 24 months: Le Clos in used barriques and Les Poyeux in one-year-old barriques, sourced from first growths in Bordeaux. Le Bourg ages in 90% new barriques, from oak sourced in the Loire. Jacques-Antoine believes oak has a crucial influence, and is extremely fussy about the barriques used.

‘The source of the oak, the temperature of toasting, and the duration of toasting are all important,’ he says. His criterion for judging barrel preparation is the smell of the oak as it is being toasted.

All cuvées offer an unmistakable impression of purity, with a smooth generosity to each wine. Le Clos is elegant and pure, Les Poyeux the crystalline essence of Cabernet Franc, and Le Bourg tighter with higher acidity and tannins, needing more time.

A change in direction for the white?

With 20% new oak, the white Le Brézé offers a wonderfully savoury impression of Chenin Blanc, with a steely minerality reminiscent of Puligny-Montrachet when young. As it ages, that minerality turns more austere, so I would enjoy it in the first decade. But there may now be a change coming.

‘In red winemaking, we are following exactly the Foucaults, but for the whites the wine could be a little lactic. The brothers used to pick late. Nady always said you should find everything from citrus to over-ripe in Brézé. Some years it was too heavy for me. I’m not happy to make Burgundy, I want to get the typicity of Chenin, I want freshness. This is the new style, I would say,’ Toublanc says as we taste the 2019, which shows an exceptional sense of tension.

The 2018, from a warmer year, is a halfway house between the new, fresher style and the older, more Burgundian style.

The style of Clos Rougeard, ‘has to be ripe, but it has to have freshness on the palate at the same time,’ says Toublanc.

Elegance over power might well be the motto of the domain. It’s in good hands.

Clos Rougeard’s history and terroir

Copy by Yohan Castaing

Clos Rougeard has always been a truly exceptional estate in the Saumur-Champigny appellation of the Loire.

Whereas most winemakers in Saumur-Champigny often practised a high-yield approach to viticulture, choosing quantity over quality, the Foucault brothers marched to the beat of a very different drum from 1969 to 2015.

Charly and Nady made very distinctive, quality-driven wines of remarkable freshness and silkiness. The brothers practised an ‘haute couture’ type of viticulture and winemaking, based on small yields, native yeasts and long cellar-ageing.

This approach made their 10ha domain, planted with Cabernet Franc except for 1ha of Chenin Blanc, the unquestionable top-tier benchmark for the appellation. Their long-lived wines could easily age up to two decades.

Sadly Charly passed away in December 2015, and Nady sold Clos Rougeard in 2017 to French entrepreneurs, Martin and Olivier Bouygues, who also own Château Montrose in Bordeaux.

The terroir

The vines are planted on a limestone plateau overlooking the Loire. According to Jacques-Antoine Toublanc there is 30cm of topsoil at most, which allows the roots to plunge into the tuffeau, the limestone bedrock typical of Saumur-Champigny.

Of the two main vineyards, Les Poyeux and Le Bourg, the former has the reputation of producing the most accessible wine. It has sandier soils, albeit on a clay-limestone base.

Les Poyeux is located on a 2.5ha parcel, which makes it more than twice the size of the 1ha of vines in Le Bourg. It’s a well-ventilated site that produces healthy grapes resulting in wines that are more fruit-forward and less concentrated.

As for Le Bourg, the grapes are sourced from four tiny plots on limestone soil with some deep clay on which the grapes ripen impeccably. Le Clos is sourced from 14 small plots that comprise a total of 4ha.

As for the 1ha Brezé parcel, its vocation is for white wine thanks to its south-facing site on calcareous limestone, ideal for Chenin Blanc. Clos Rougeard’s Brezé white has become a cult wine, but another rarity is the Côteau de Saumur sweet wine, only produced in exceptional vintages such as 2018. The previously released vintage was 2003.

Tasting notes and scores for Clos Rougeard wines:

Vintages 2017-2019: tasting notes and scores from Benjamin Lewin MW

Vintages 2014-2016: tasting notes and scores from Yohan Castaing

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The Vouvray and Montlouis appellations are located in the Touraine region of the Loire Valley, 10km from the city of Tours and easily accessible by train from Paris.

Although they both enjoy proximity to the Loire river, facing each other across the water, they are quite different when it comes to terroir and wine production.

For one thing, Vouvray lies on the right bank, to the north of the seemingly languorous Loire – the longest river in France – while the lesser-known Montlouis is on the left bank. Nevertheless, the two have the omnipresence of that fabulous white grape variety Chenin Blanc, and their appellation production is limited to white wine.

A grape in common

Chenin Blanc is an alluring grape variety whose origins are enshrouded in mystery. It is not easy to find agreement about it among winegrowers and ampelographers. DNA analyses have not settled the question, but what seems incontrovertible is that the Savagnin grape, of Jura fame, is one of its parents. The jury is out as to the exact identity of the other parent, but Chenin Blanc does have a sibling relation to both Trousseau and Sauvignon Blanc, born of the same parentage.

Chenin Blanc is certainly an astonishing grape variety in its own right, expressive of its terroir origins and capable of producing quality wines in an array of styles. These range from sparkling to dry, off-dry, semi-dry, and all the way to lusciously sweet, including botrytised versions.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 10 Vouvray and Montlouis wine to try

What styles of wine are produced?

The whole stylistic range is produced in the two appellations, with the choice often depending on grape ripeness in the context of the variable climatic conditions that prevail in this region.

For challenging vintages in which grapes struggle to ripen, an obvious option is to increase the amount of sparkling wine, but in years where ripeness is not an issue and botrytis develops at the end of the growing season, some superlative sweet wines can be produced.

The wines of Vouvray tend to have more tension than those of Montlouis-sur-Loire, and more bewitching flinty aromas. Often Montlouis wines have more residual sugar than their neighbours from Vouvray, which makes them suitable as an accompaniment to a greater range of dishes, especially Asian food.

Climate

The climatic conditions of these two appellations are intimately linked to the local landscape, characterised by a number of valleys of varying exposure to sunlight and air movement, which creates specific conditions for each appellation.

This can prove critical when it comes to providing shelter for the vines from cold air and frost, especially for the more vulnerable Vouvray area, whereas the vineyards of Montlouis benefit from a more regular orientation with south-facing slopes.

Soils

Both appellations lie on a special soil type known in Touraine as tuffeau, the yellowish metamorphic rock dating back to the Turonian period (93.9 million-89.8 million years ago). This soft, porous chalk substance is what makes the distinctive maisons troglodytes possible – houses dug right into the limestone cliffs.

Vouvray has its own distinctive soil mix, including a calcareous clay rich in limestone known as aubuis that extends 30-40cm from the surface, and another deeper layer of siliceous sand and clay known as perruches.

Montlouis stretches over some 380ha on mainly clay-siliceous soils, with a layer of windblown sand and pebbles in some spots.

Vouvray is much larger with its 2,200ha, which explains to a large degree the greater heterogeneity of Vouvray wines compared to those from Montlouis.

The future is bright

There are signs of growing interest in these two appellations among international consumers attracted by the striking freshness and chiselled profile of the best dry whites from these areas, as well as by the well-structured and vivacious sweet wines.

Such is the special magic of the Chenin Blanc grape that even the sparkling wines have regained favour, especially for their appealing quality-to-price ratio for this category.

10 Vouvray and Montlouis wines to try:

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The Chenin Blanc renaissance?

The 2021 vintage is very small in volume in the Loire, and is markedly different from the unbroken series of fine vintages from 2014 until now.

2021 has been frequently heralded as a return to a more classic style: more noticeable acidity, lower alcohol levels and less opulent, ripe fruit – a return to Loire wines’ famous ‘nervosité’, which is characterised by vibrancy and liveliness.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for 36 top Loire white wines from 2020 and 2021

A tricky growing season

Once again the Loire was hit by April frosts at the start of the month, culminating in the night of 11 April. Spring frosts are always a threat in this northerly wine region but in recent years, spring frosts have become more prevalent – in the past six years, for example, the Loire has been hit by frost in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021.

Instead of being a single devastating night of frost, as was the case in April 1991, the norm has become a series of nights below freezing.

Ivan Massonnat of Domaine Belargus in Anjou said: ‘From the end of March to the beginning of April, our team spent precisely 15 nights standing, fighting alongside our vines. Mother Nature has no schedules: she tested us even more than in previous years. There were too many freezing nights for us to protect our entire vineyard. Day after day, the uninjured areas therefore became increasingly rare, until only the three hectares of Quarts de Chaume remained.’

Sadly, losses of 70% were commonplace in 2021. Unusually, even Sancerre – which normally escapes substantial frost damage due to its steep slopes – was hit severely in 2021, including vineyards on the higher ground.

Fortunately there are now many more frost protection systems in place than there were seven or eight years ago, but the type of frost is often unpredictable.

The cold spring was followed by a poor, wet summer that provoked mildew, adding to the misery inflicted by the frost. Fortunately, September and October were sunny and dry, saving the vintage.

Picking started considerably later than in recent vintages. The Ban des Vendanges – the official start of the harvest period – for Muscadet, which is always among the first to start, was on 15 September in 2021. In comparison, in recent years Muscadet has started in early September or even the latter part of August: the 2020 harvest began on 26 August.

Loire white wine 2021: top producers

At the time of tasing, many wines were yet to be bottled and released

• Claude Lafond
• Domaine Cady
• Domaine des Herbauges
• Famille Bourgeois
• Jean-François Mérieau

Smaller crops but promising quality

Overall, the volume of the 2021 Loire vintage was down 40% on the previous year. It is closer in style to 2013 – an even later vintage which didn’t see the Muscadet picked until 23 September – although it is considerably better and more promising than that poor vintage.

David Vigan, manager at Château du Brueil in Anjou, said: ‘Given the difficult year, the quality of 2021 is astonishingly good. Overall, we were down 50% in volume so we had concentrated fruit in some parcels due to the small crop.’

Jacky Blot of Domaine de la Taille aux Loups had a similar experience: ‘We were down 50% at 19hL/ha but the quality was a nice surprise with good mature grapes.’

The shortage of grapes and the difficult conditions means that some producers will not have made their full range of wines. Jean-Marie Bourgeois, of Famille Bourgeois confirmed, ‘We haven’t made our top cuvées, like Jadis, in 2021.’

Loire white wines 2021: value picks

• Domaine des Herbauges, Fief Guérin Sur Lie, Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu 2021
• Joseph de Maistre, Le Prieuré de Saint-Céols, Menetou-Salon 2021
• Domaine Cady, Cheninsolite, Anjou Blanc 2021
• Domaine Jacky Marteau, Touraine 2021
• Desprat Saint-Verny, Chardonnay 809 The Lost Vineyard, Côtes d’Auvergne 2021

With their marked backbone of acidity, well-made 2021 whites should age well provided they have enough fruit to carry and balance the acidity. In particular, there are some very good sweet wines made in Anjou in 2021, including from Quarts de Chaume.

It is in difficult vintages that good producers really come to the fore. Unfortunately it is evident that some 2021s have green fruit and rasping acidity, so you need to buy 2021s with care and expect prices to have risen, due in part to the small vintage but also because of recent substantial increases in the price of glass bottles and cartons.

Know your Loire white vintages

2017: Once again spring frosts reduced the crop, but less severely than 2016. Many very good whites with balance and finesse. 5/5

2018: A rare frost-free, very hot vintage with often high levels of alcohol – some whites just too powerful, heavy and lacking acidity. Large vintage. 3/5

2019: Another frost-affected vintage but it produced brilliantly balanced whites with some producers saying it is the best dry white vintage they have ever made. Will need time to show best but should age extremely well. 5/5

2020: Hot vintage with often concentrated, ripe white wines, some with very high alcohols up to 15%. However, there is more freshness and balance than 2018. Should mature more quickly than 2019s. 4/5.

2021: Most difficult vintage since 2013, with a small crop due to spring frosts, mildew and poor flowering for some varieties. Overall quality better than feared – return to a fresher, more traditional Loire style. There is a big range of quality between producers. 3/5

Jim Budd’s top Loire whites from 2020 and 2021:

While many 2021 Loire whites haven’t been bottled yet, Jim has recommended 13 that are already available, plus 23 2020s – all top picks to drink now.

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An exclusive report on Domaine Huet's latest releases, plus tasting notes on several older vintages from this legendary Vouvray estate...

Founded in the Loire village of Vouvray in 1928, Domaine Huet is revered for its ageworthy Chenin Blancs.

Gaston Huet, son of the founders, was mayor of Vouvray from when the AC was granted in 1947 to 1989, and supervised more than 60 vintages until his death in 2002.

Scroll down to see tasting notes tasting notes and scores for new release wines and older vintages

The domaine then passed to his son-in-law Noël Pinguet, who had been working with Huet since 1976 and was instrumental in converting the 35ha domaine to biodynamic practices in 1990.Chinese-American businessman Anthony Hwang bought the estate in 2003, though the Huet family retains control of the stock of older vintages going back to 1921.

Pinguet resigned suddenly in 2012, reportedly due to disagreements with the Hwang family over wine styles. Beginning with the 2020 vintage, Benjamin Joliveau took over the helm for wine production at Domaine Huet from Jean-Bernard Berthomé, formerly Noël Pinguet’s right-hand man, who decided to retire after more than thirty years of loyal service to the estate.

Huet is famed for its three vineyards:

• Le Haut-Lieu (9ha)
• Le Mont (8ha)
• Clos du Bourg (6ha)

Le Haut-Lieu is the original estate vineyard, whose rich limestone-clay soils give wines that are the most approachable in youth.

Gaston Huet bought Le Mont in 1957, and the stony, south-facing vineyard yields wines of great minerality and tension.

Clos du Bourg, purchased in 1953, dates to the 8th century and its 6ha of vines are surrounded by an ancient stone wall. Gaston Huet believed this to be Vouvray’s greatest vineyard, and its wines are certainly the most powerful and vibrant.

Each vineyard expresses unique characters, and the wines can be made in four styles, subject to vintage conditions:

• Sec (less than 5g/l of residual sugar)
• Demi-sec Off-dry, typically 15-25g/l)
• Moëlleux Meaning ‘mellow’, this is a medium-sweet style at 45-55g/l)
• Moëlleux Première Trie The ‘first picking’ of botrytised berries produces a wine with residual sugar of more than 60g/l

All styles are balanced by very high total acidities of between 4-6g/l TA

Introduction and profile by Tina Gellie

Yohan Castaing tastes the latest releases: 2019 and 2020

2019 is without question a very fine vintage for Vouvray wines, and yet the winemakers had to face challenging climatic episodes that included frost, excessive heat and especially significant drought conditions.

More than ever, the quality of vineyard work proved to be an asset, especially to maintain soil health by improving its intake of available oxygen. However, not many sweet wines were produced in 2019 because of the high levels of rainfall from the beginning of October, with nearly 113.2mm falling in Angers compared to an average of 71.8mm.

The 2020 vintage is another quality vintage in the Loire, even more so than 2019, as the production of superlative sweet wines was possible. From the beginning of the growth cycle, vines were on track almost two weeks ahead of the usual calendar dates. Thereafter, the weather was challenging at times but without dramatically affecting the yield.

The harvest took place in perfect conditions, which allowed each producer to fix what he or she considered to be optimal harvest dates. In fact, this latitude in choosing picking times had an impact on the chosen styles of the wines, which at their best are closely identified by their respective terroirs of the Loire region.

As for Domaine Huet, without a doubt, biodynamic viticulture enabled this estate to harvest exceptional grapes and make equally exceptional wines.

See tasting notes and scores for latests releases and older vintages:

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One vine of Château Cheval Blanc’s vineyard carries just five or six clusters of grapes. That barely makes one bottle of wine, and – in the case of this esteemed Right Bank estate – about £500 worth of wine, depending on the vintage.

You could say these vines are almost worth their weight in gold… So why then has Cheval Blanc uprooted over 3,000 vines in order to plant humble fruit trees in the vineyard instead?

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for a selection of Château Cheval Blanc and Cheval des Andes wines

This tree planting is part of Cheval Blanc’s rather radical agroecology plan, which has been evolving since 2009 in a bid to mitigate the impact of climate change on the estate’s wines.

‘If we don’t change the way we manage the vineyard today, it will be too late and our wine will change forever,’ explains technical director Pierre-Olivier Clouet. ‘Climate change will bring higher alcohol, drier tannins, riper fruit… So we had to make a significant change to the whole estate – not just by experimenting with one or two rows.’

The team has planted 80 trees per hectare of vines; not only surrounding the vines with hedgerows, woodlands and wildlife corridors but actually planting tree saplings within the vine rows, replacing some vines.

‘We have to adapt to global warming, but we also believe that the biggest impact on the environment in the last century has been [the change to] monoculture,’ explains Clouet. ‘Soil fertility decreased, biodiversity decreased and disease pressure increased. We thought we were doing the right thing back then, but now we realise it was a mistake.’

Polyculture philosophy

Cheval Blanc’s agroecology manifesto is all about returning to how things were before: polyculture vineyards.

As well as planting forest and fruit trees, since 2019 Cheval Blanc has enacted a zero till policy and planted an abundance of cover crop, created habitats for birds, insects, bats and animals. The vineyard produces its own fruit, vegetables and meat, with the ambition to become self-sufficient.

To date, Cheval Blanc has 150 chickens, 45 sheep, 20 beehives, a number of Basque pigs and several thousand forest and fruit trees on the estate.

‘We looked into organic, but it wasn’t enough,’ explains director Pierre Lurton. ‘I studied biodynamics too and I think it is important, but I still wasn’t satisfied. I believe agroecology is the best way — we need to respect the soil and its microbiology again, we can’t keep using copper. If you respect nature and make more diversity in the vineyard, the vine roots have better disease resistance and we don’t need to do so much spraying.’

Lurton has been able to significantly reduce the application of copper to the vineyards in recent years thanks to the new agroecology approach. Cheval Blanc will in fact tolerate a small amount of mildew in favour of less spraying.

Lurton and Clouet both believe that the change to polyculture has built up the natural resistance of the vines to disease. It also gives them more tools to face the impact of climate change, while lowering their carbon footprint.

‘On one practical level,’ adds Clouet, ‘the trees also provide more shade in the vineyards and a cooler microclimate — which is increasingly important in Bordeaux!’

Going underground

Adapting to climate change is part of the reason Cheval Blanc started to apply its now tried-and-tested agroecology manifesto to its estate in Argentina.

‘We take the same approach, but obviously with some differences as the climate is totally different,’ explains Lurton, who founded Cheval des Andes in Mendoza in 1999. With the desert climate of Mendoza, increasing water retention in the soils has been one of the main goals.

The team believes no tilling, planting of cover crops and the addition of trees will help to achieve this.

‘We think 80% of the benefit is what is going on underground – in the living soil,’ explains Clouet. ‘We know there is a link between all of the roots in the soil, and a tree is the biggest trap for mycelium [a network of underground fungi], as are cover crops and vines. These mycelium exchange water and nutrients, so it’s a natural way to keep nutrition and water in the ground.’

Pressing down the cover crops periodically helps to gradually break down returning nutrients to the soil, while the roaming vineyard animals provide fertiliser.

‘The more cover crop and more trees you have, the greater the mycelium link is between them, which will naturally give the vines more resistance and more homogeneity in the plot. The soil really is the intestine of the plant, and so we are focusing on its gut health,’ adds Clouet.

As with different human guts, the approach differs depending on the vineyard. ‘We have the benefit of using Cheval Blanc’s experience, but we are adapting our choices to our climate and soils,’ explains Gérald Gabillet, technical director of Cheval des Andes.

He manages two vineyards: one in the Uco Valley and the other in Luján de Cuyo. ‘We are planting local species [of tree] that are more drought-resistant, like algarrobo and chañar for example.’

In Cheval des Andes, the vineyard is already producing honey, olive oil and cherries for the local workers and their families, but Gabillet’s goal is to have a bigger community impact. ‘Some of the older vineyards in Mendoza are still polyculture and we want to educate the local community so that we don’t lose these mixed plantings,’ he says. ‘We are training our vineyard workers but also want to work with the local schools to engage future generations.’

Cheval des Andes is just at the start of its agroecology venture, taking its first steps in 2018 by planting 180 trees.

By the end of 2022, Cheval des Andes plans to have over 650 trees planted between the estates and will also be certified organic. The teams at both wineries are in constant communication about how to develop the next steps in Argentina, and last year Cheval Blanc decided to publish its 45-page manifesto so that other wineries could reinstate agroecology in their vineyards.

‘If we want to change what happens in the world we have to be coherent and consistent,’ explains Clouet. ‘We don’t want to publicise this to look good, we just want to convince people it is possible to farm in a different way — and one that costs relatively little. Agroecology is a living tool box. It’s scientific, it’s an expertise, but it is something that is alive.’

Château Cheval Blanc and Cheval des Andes wines reviewed and rated

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Jacky Blot has been making wine since 1989, picking the quiet village of Montlouis-Sur-Loire for his base, just down the road from Vouvray.

The unassuming stone building of Domaine de La Taille Aux Loups in Montlouis seems a million miles away from the grandeur of the nearby Château de Chenonceau. Located on the southern bank of the Loire river, it is just a short car journey to Vouvray, crossing the bridge to the north bank of the river.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores on 24 red and white wines by Jacky Blot

The estate is run by Jacky Blot and his son, Jean-Philippe. Their guiding principles of organic viticulture and small yields from a massal selection of old vines have helped to bring the wines to the attention of those with their ears to the ground. Not only are the wines among the most exciting, scintillating examples of Chenin in the Loire, but they remain incredible value considering the quality.

With the purchase of sister estate Domaine de La Butte in Bourgeil in 2002, Jacky Blot now makes both red and white wine under four appellations: Touraine, Vin de France, Montlouis-Sur-Loire, and Bourgeuil, spanning the gamut from dry sparkling wine all the way through to ultra-decadent botrytised wines.

Inspired by Burgundy

It’s fair to say that the house speciality is Chenin Blanc, especially given its proximity to Vouvray – just a 15-minute drive away – but Jacky and Jean-Phillipe seem to draw more inspiration from Burgundy than from their eminent neighbours.

This inspiration can be seen in the single-vineyard, terroir approach to many of their wines, as well as the organically-informed viticulture. The Blots buy barrels from three coopers, all Burgundian. They have even been exchanging ideas with Coche-Dury, including ways to reduce the impact of reduction.

No surprise, then, that La Taille Aux Loups also owns its very own clos, Clos de Mosny.

Purchased in 2011, this monopole is a walled and gated vineyard in Montlouis-Sur-Loire, said to be the largest in the Loire. This makes it too big for the walls to have any real effect on ripening by retaining or reflecting heat (unlike some of the smaller grand cru clos seen in Burgundy), however it does occupy a favourable site and so produces some of the domaine’s best fruit.

Although the majority of its whites come under the Montlouis-Sur-Loire appellation, two wines are made from grapes grown in the Vouvray appellation.

The Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) had originally given indefinite permission to vinify these wines in Montlouis back in 1999, shortly after Jacky Blot purchased the parcels, but an appellation law change a decade later led to him being unable to use the Vouvray title unless he agreed to vinify them within the appellation borders.

Instead, he chose to relabel them as Vin de France and continue vinifying them in Montlouis. Considering the significant capital investment required for building a new winery, the wines are likely to remain VdFs for a long time yet, but the good news is that the wines remain excellent.

Winemaking

The red grapes from Domaine de la Butte are totally destemmed, and both red and white grapes are thoroughly sorted on tables to ensure only the best grapes are used. From here they are passed down into the cellar by gravity. The cool cellars, a cavernous ex-troglodyte dwelling carved out of the chalk bedrock, are large enough to store hundreds of oak barrels, in which all the wines spend time. The oak, however, is there to provide structure and texture rather than overt vanilla flavours.

The viticulture has developed over the last decade in response to vintage conditions. 2009 was a particularly hot year that made the team adjust its approach in order to avoid the ‘fat’ wines which were the product of the infamous European drought of 2003. Changes have included increasing harvesting machines from 40 to 120 to enable a speedy harvest at the perfect moment, while stylistically the wines have become less extracted and less reductive.

At one point, helicopters were used during the winter months to churn up the air and prevent frost, however this expensive and intermittent method has now been replaced by large fans which draw in the cold air and blast it upwards. Despite these measures, the domaine has lost half of its 2021 harvest to early April frosts, badly affected like many other producers across France.

Jacky and Jean-Philippe commented on the upward trend in temperature, which brings new challenges in the vineyard and winery. ‘We’ve seen average annual temperatures rise by 1.4˚C in the last 30 years, and most of that in the last decade,’ said Jacky. ‘When we started in 1988 it was difficult to ripen the fruit. The challenge today is to preserve tension in the wines. Pre-2006, we used to pick the same quantity of fruit every day during harvest. But then by the end we had overripe fruit. So we adjusted our way of working so that we were picking all our fruit at the same ripeness level.’

The 2019 vintage

All this experience has gone a long way in aiding the 2019 effort. A spring frost at the beginning of the season was compounded by drought conditions from June to September – just 8mm of rain by the end of August, although Jean-Philippe states that he would have preferred 50mm! By way of comparison, there was 70mm of rain in September alone in 2003.

The heatwave saw temperatures peak at 43°C, and the Blots were worried that they wouldn’t have anything to harvest. Thankfully the older vines that make up the majority of the Blot’s vineyards, with their deep roots, were able to draw just enough water from the soils. The yield for the whites was 36hl/ha, but just 22hl/ha for the reds. The 2019 harvest for La Taille aux Loups and Domaine de la Butte lasted from 12 September to 4 October. ‘2019 has the energy of a cold vintage, and the concentration of a warm vintage,’ says Jean-Philippe.

Tasting the 2019s along with some older vintages demonstrated just how vital and alive the wines are, particularly the dry whites. These wines will age very well indeed but it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t open a bottle today.

Wines are imported to the UK by Justerini & Brooks.

Reds and whites by Jacky Blot: Domaine de la Taille aux Loups & Domaine de la Butte:

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Donovan Rall burst on to the Cape wine scene just over a decade ago, when the inaugural 2008 vintage of his Rall White blend earned a five-star rating in South Africa’s Platter Guide wine bible.

He followed the feat up with two more five-star ratings in 2009 and 2010, firmly cementing this BFG (blond friendly giant) as one of the country’s new winemaking stars.

Scroll down for tasting notes of the latest releases from Donovan Rall

Today it’s not just his Rall White that wows the critics – though the new 2019 vintage is yet another cracker. His Rall Red blend, single-vineyard Ava Chenin Blanc and Syrah, and a slew of other varietal wines are collector favourites. All are incredible value.

That is, if you can find them. While there are some 8,300 bottles of the 2019 Rall White, there’s only 4,500 of his 2019 Grenache Blanc and 1,300-1,700 of the new 2018 Ava cuvées.

Focus is firmly on quality over quantity, and Rall is passionate about uncovering and reviving abandoned vineyards. With help from the Cape’s renowned viticulturalist Rosa Kruger, he has bought up parcels in a number of regions, as well as forging contracts with farmers of old-vine plots. In the cellar he works with old oak, concrete eggs and amphorae and lets the wines speak for themselves.

At a recent virtual tasting he gave some insights into of his new-release 2019 wines (and 2018 Rall Red), all available from UK importer Justerini & Brooks.

Grenache Blanc

From the Heidedal vineyard in Piekenierskloof, where ungrafted vines averaging 20 years old are planted at 650m on sandstone.

Rall says: ‘Out of all the Grenache Blanc vineyards I take fruit from, this is the only one I could see as a varietal wine – it has such great balance. There’s hot days, cool nights, good radiation and long, slow ripening. We do two picks, to get super-fresh acidity as well as fruit ripeness, leaving them as whole bunch. We ferment in concrete eggs, take it through malo, then bottle after six or seven months.’

White blend

A Chenin Blanc-led blend (68% in 2019) mostly from a Paardeberg vineyard planted in 1970 along, plus 15-year old Verdelho vines on schist (28%) and Viognier (4%).

Rall says: ‘A few years ago I did a vintage with Eben Sadie and tasted the Verdelho that went into Palladius and just loved the freshness and high acid, which makes it a great blending component. The 2019 is the highest acid white I’ve ever made (6.3g/L total acidity; 3.3pH) – the PH was so low it stopped the wine going through malo. Verdelho is the one thing in my portfolio I want to do as a single variety and I reckon I have South Africa’s best vineyard.’

Ava Chenin Blanc

From a single-vineyard in Kasteelberg on schist (next to the Ava Syrah vineyard), the first vintage made in 2016.

Rall says: ‘This 2019 vintage is the best Ava I’ve made. The vineyard has such an identity every vintage. The fruit used to go into the Rall White but it changed the character of that wine so much I decided to bottle it as a single-vineyard. Chenin usually has a broad texture and is yellow in fruit profile. This vineyard has that but it is so mineral too, with the smell of fresh hay. On granite you can get four tonnes of fruit per hectare. Here, on schist, if I get two tonnes I’m jumping through the roof!’

Cinsault

A blend of 40% Darling fruit and 60% from the same 1952-planted vineyard in Swartland that contributes to David & Nadia Sadie’s Elpidios and Duncan Savage’s Follow the Line red blends.

Rall says: ‘Duncan farms the 39-year-old dry-farmed Darling vineyard and I get one section. It is the best Cinsault vineyard I’ve ever worked with. The fruit is structured yet quite elegant with fine, feminine tannins. Cinsault has massive bunches. A crate of Syrah weighs 14kg or 15kg, but a crate of Cinsault weighs 25kg. You can’t imagine how you could make decent wine from it, but you can!’

Red blend

A Syrah-led, 100% Swartland blend that, since 2016, is left in bottle a year before release because of the density and structure.

Rall says: ‘It’s the first Rall Red I’ve got under 14% alcohol! This blend is usually around 90% Syrah, but in drought-stricken 2018 I didn’t want to acidify and needed to balance the concentration, so Grenache (12%), Cinsault (8%) and especially Carignan (10%) play a much bigger role in adding that freshness. The Grenache comes from 25-year-old bushvines. South African Grenache is not comparable to the Rhône – it gives more freshness, sweetness and perfume.’

Ava Syrah

From a 21-year-old schist vineyard next to the Ava Chenin Blanc vineyard.

Rall says: ‘It’s hard to think both were undiscovered before I found them in 2016. The fruit just went to the local co-op. The farmer even sent his sheep in to eat the grapes! For the first vintage (2017) I took the whole 2.4ha and got just 700 bottles. This 2019 is the biggest yield yet, still at only 1,700 bottles. The Ava Syrah vineyard has such character – it’s so concentrated, you need to be careful not to over extract – which is why, like the Ava Chenin, I keep it separate from the Rall wines. It’s a vineyard that’s very close to my heart. I put so much effort into it but I’ll never stop farming it, despite the tiny yields.’

Donovan Rall: six latest releases

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Expert’s Choice: South African old-vine Chenin Blanc

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The story of South African Chenin Blanc is nothing if not convoluted.

It is one of the oldest varieties in the country, the conventional wisdom being that it arrived with the Dutch settlers in the 17th century. For a long time it was known as Steen, and it was only in 1963 that it was found to be the same as the Loire’s famous white grape.

During the 20th century it grew to be South Africa’s most widely planted variety and remains so to this day.

Why? For one thing, the KWV, functioning as a sort of super cooperative, gave incentives for decades on the basis of volume, rather than price, and high-bearing Chenin proved itself useful in this regard.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Christian Eedes’ top 30 South African old-vine Chenin Blanc wines

Perhaps the grape’s defining moment, however, was in 1959, when Stellenbosch Famers’ Winery (SFW), an important producer-wholesaler, launched Lieberstein, a low-cost, semi-sweet white, which became the world’s largest-selling branded wine of its era. Chenin was an important constituent of the blend, and this resulted in a spate of plantings.

As recently as 1990, Chenin Blanc comprised more than 35% of the national vineyard. Post political transformation, however, the tendency was to replace it with more fashionable red varieties. Of South Africa’s 92,067ha currently under vine, Chenin Blanc now makes up 17,103ha, or 18.6%.

Old vines, meanwhile, are defined as being at least 35 years of age based on industry convention, and of the 3,693ha registered as such (in 2020), approximately half is Chenin Blanc.

Better with age

While plantings have fallen in recent times, there has simultaneously been a growing awareness among more farsighted producers that the variety has an affinity to local growing conditions and, moreover, that mature vineyards can play a key role in producing wines of excellence.

Plantings are not confined to any one area, and vineyards are not under any sort of consolidated ownership, with the result that it is still relatively easy for aspiring winemakers to gain access to fruit.

A key part of the extremely high quality that old-vine Chenin shows, therefore, is the outcome of healthy competition among the winemaking fraternity.

The old-vine phenomenon gained extra momentum in 2016 when the Old Vine Project was set up with funding provided by businessman Johann Rupert. It’s the outcome of a process going back some 20 years.

Leading viticulturist Rosa Kruger utilised a South African Wine Industry Information & Systems vine registry to scour the land and seek out these old vines. This ensured the most interesting grapes went to producers who could make notable wines from them and consequently ensure appropriate remuneration for the grower.

More than 90 producers have now signed up as members and can apply an official Certified Heritage Vineyards seal to their wines designating the year of planting of the relevant vineyard.

Flavour concentration is the easy answer to what makes old-vine Chenin special, but it’s more than that, as Chris Alheit of Alheit Vineyards explains. ‘In all the massive swathes of Chenin, there are bound to be some good sites: soil, aspect and microclimate combining to best effect, hence why a vineyard has stayed in the ground,’ he says.

‘Mature vineyards have the ability to cope with tough seasons better than young vines do by virtue of better- established root systems. I’ve seen vines self-regulating: lowering crops drastically in dry conditions. Also yields are lower, which means good natural concentration even at moderate ripeness. Dry farming rather than irrigation is important too. Many factors combine to contribute to the quality of old-vine Chenin.’

Christian Eedes’ top 30 South African old-vine Chenin Blanc wines:

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When it comes to white wines from the Loire Valley, Sancerre and Sauvignon Blanc may be the first to come to the minds of many wine drinkers, but it is Chenin Blanc that reigns supreme in the central part of the Loire that spans the regions of Anjou, Saumur and Touraine.

With its northerly latitude, vine cultivation in the Loire is only possible where vineyards are situated on the flanks of a south facing slope. The glistening of the river reflects sunlight up to the vineyards which adorn its banks, aiding in the ripening of the grapes. This is Chenin’s spiritual home.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 30 Loire Chenin Blancs

Loire Chenin Blanc: key styles

Known locally as Pineau de la Loire, the wines come in a multitude of styles – sparkling, dry, off-dry and sweet. Here’s what to expect from each style, along with some great examples to try.

Sparkling Loire Chenin Blanc

Sparkling wines made from Chenin Blanc can be found in many of the central Loire appellations, notably Crémant de Loire which is grown and produced in the same areas as Anjou, Touraine, Saumur and Cheverny as well as bottles coming from Vouvray. In fact the Loire is second only to Champagne in terms of sparkling wine production in France.

The fizz is made in the same way as Champagne, using the traditional method. However there are also producers making wines in the pétillant naturel style. Normally these lightly sparkling wines must be labelled as Vin de France, but the Montlouis appellation has recently added this production method to their appellation regulations.

Chenin lends itself well to sparkling wine due to its high acidity, and adds floral aromas and flavours both on the nose and palate. Producers who use ripe grapes, and not astringent under ripe fruit, can make great quality bottles and those that allow longer ageing on the lees give their wines more complexity which, when aged, start to display Chenin’s typical honey character.

Some top examples from a range of appellations include Domaine Vigneau Chevreau’s Vouvray NV with its wet wool, hazelnut and baked apple characters. Also worth seeking out is Gratien & Meyer, The Society’s Brut, Saumur NV which shows subtle apple flesh, yeasty notes and a creamy mousse. Château de l’Aulée’s Classic, Crémant de Loire NV is lightly toasty with green apples, jasmine and blossom characters. All three can be bought for under £20/$20, providing a great alternative to Champagne.

Decanter Best: 10 dry Loire Chenins to seek out

Dry Loire Chenin Blanc

Expect exceptional freshness and zippy acidity from good dry Loire Chenin. A basic example will show floral, green apple and white peach aromas and flavours. The more complex wines will display jasmine, honeysuckle and great intensity of orchard fruits.

Some wines will also show a stony, mineral character and hints of wet wool or lanolin. Take Franz Saumon, Mineral Plus, 2018 from Montlouis – here the pithy citrus fruit combines with wet rocks and chalk, making it refreshing and zesty.

This versatile grape variety also has the ability to retain a ripe, honeyed flavour even when made in a dry style – for instance Château d’Épiré’s Savennières 2017 shows sweet juicy peaches, heady jasmine, honeysuckle and poached pears.

The Saumur and Montlouis appellations also produce dry Chenin. Chalky limestone soils characterise both areas which is credited with lending finesse to the resulting wines. Seek out Frédéric Mabileau’s Chenin du Puy, Saumur 2016, which is lean and austere, but has a richness and ripeness to the fruit which brings balance.

Another top pick from Saumur is Mélaric, Billes de Roche, Saumur 2018, which is elegant and precise. It shows cooking apples and quince, with licks of hay, pecan and delicate blossom, and gives a lot of flavour and complexity for under £25/$25.

Dry Chenin on the rise

Dry Chenin Blanc can be aged to great effect. The top-scoring Eric Morgat, Fidès, Savennières 2012 is showing some indication of bottle age but also reinforces Chenin’s ability to retain freshness and acidity. It’s not unusual for a great dry Chenin to be alive and singing after 20 or more years in bottle. By this stage, these aged Chenins will have developed more oxidative, savoury characters such as hazelnuts, umami and dried fruit.

Decanter’s Regional Chair for the Loire, Jim Budd, recently explained in an online tasting how the appreciation of dry Loire Chenin is on the rise, as is the quality of the wines, so look out for high-quality examples at the lower end of budgets too.

Domaine Cady’s Cheninsolite, Anjou Blanc 2018 retails at under £15/$15 but impresses with its delicately floral aromas, and flavours of peach, almond and a creamy smokiness.

Off-dry and medium-sweet Loire Chenin Blanc

The term off-dry means that a wine has some residual sugar, but not as much as a fully sweet wine. Whether or not we can perceive this small amount of residual sugar when tasting depends on the overall balance and harmony of the wine. This style is referred to as ‘sec tendre’ in France, especially in Vouvray.

Chenin’s vibrant, often scintillating acidity can mask sweetness so that these off-dry styles taste dry on the palate. Bottle age can also impact the perception of sweetness, so much so that an aged sec tendre or demi-sec Vouvray can be the perfect accompaniment to creamy fish dishes.

Expect delicate blossom and ripe fruit aromas and flavours such as apricots and peaches as well as Chenin’s typical honey note. Pick up Château Gaudrelle, Clos le Vigneau, Vouvray 2018 for just over £15/$15, where the touch of residual sugar on the palate lends balance and concentration. It is great as an aperitif or to enjoy with a classic Loire dish of creamy pork and prunes.

How are sweet wines made?

Sweet Loire Chenin Blanc

The Loire Valley produces some of the best sweet wines in the world. They offer exceptional quality and longevity. Despite this, as Budd pointed out, there has been a drop in popularity of this golden nectar with winemakers finding them increasingly hard to sell.

Often in the Loire, grapes affected by noble rot are used to make these sweet wines, in the same way as the luscious sweet wines of Sauternes in Bordeaux. Wine producers harvest grapes with multiple trips through the vineyard, picking only the perfect (or perfectly imperfect) rotten grapes. The best examples are labour intensive and therefore expensive to make.

In Coteaux du Layon, south of the river in Anjou, the sweet wines combine ultimate ripeness with laser acidity and rich sweetness. The Coteaux du Layon Saint Lambert from Domaine Vincent Ogereau, for example, is rich and lively, filling the mouth with nectarines and apricots soaked in runny honey. Coming in under £25/$25 the quality to price ratio is exceptional.

Complex flavours can be expected from this style of wine, and it is not uncommon to find marzipan, candied peel and honey notes as well as the more savoury and vegetal mushroom. A top bottle to try is Domaine des Forges, Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru 2014 which has a rich and heady scent of grilled honeyed peaches, apricot and frangipane tart. Available at under £40/$40 for a 75cl bottle.

Great sweet Chenin has just as much ability to age as dry Chenin does. In fact in great vintages, for example 1959 and 1964, sweet Chenin can still be drinking well after 50 years in bottle.

With their uplifting acidity, these wines are assertive at the dinner table, and there is no reason why they can’t be enjoyed with every course. Try one with charcuterie, delicate lobster or creamy chicken and mushroom dishes, as well as spicy and fragrant vegetable tagines, and of course salty cheeses or fruit tarts.

Versatility

With such an array of styles, there is a Loire Chenin Blanc for every course and every occasion, with many at affordable price points.

Jim Budd’s top vintage recommendations for each style of Loire Chenin:

Sparkling: most sparkling Loire Chenin tends to be non-vintage, but look out for any labelled as 2017 or 2019 because these were good vintages for Chenin across the board.

Dry: 1992, 2002, 2014, 2017, 2019

Off-dry/medium-sweet: 1989, 1996, 2002, 2010, 2017

Sweet: 1989, 1990, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2010

Tasting notes and scores for 30 Loire Chenin Blancs

Wines are listed in score order per category; sparkling, dry, off-dry and sweet. 

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Vincent Pinard producer profile

Ivan Massonnat had long relished the idea of buying a wine estate and now the proud owner of the winery Domaine Belargus in the Loire Valley.

Ivan Massonnat is a shrewd businessman. His main day job is his role as partner of the large private-equity firm, PAI Partners, which acquires companies involved in diverse sectors of activity, then revitalises them by managing them along the lines of a start-up before selling them for a profit after a few years of development. In charge of relations with institutional as well as private investors, Ivan Massonnat spends much of his time traveling to capital cities across the globe and eating at the best restaurants. He is also a passionate wine lover who had the habit of spending as much of his leisure time as possible in vineyards.

For a long time, Ivan Massonnat nurtured the idea of buying a wine estate. A native of the Savoie region and a lover of Burgundy wines, he made plans to realise his “idée fixe”: an early retirement in order to become a wine producer himself. After several years of looking for a domaine to acquire, it was the Loire Valley, in particular the area known as Anjou, that grabbed his attention.

‘I was chosen by Anjou’

After a deal for a property in the Chinon appellation fell through, Massonnat was introduced by Anjou wine-grower Patrick Baudouin to one of the most admired of all producers in the region, Jo Pithon, who was looking to retire. After a previous partnership with an outside investor had soured, Pithon launched a new venture in 2008, Pithon-Paillé, which in addition to owning several hectares of vines, had a négociant activity. From the start of their discussions, Massonnat and Pithon hit it off and found common ground. It could be said that the deal to buy the domaine and its wine business company was clinched after Massonnat visited Pithon’s treasure trove of vines that he had planted on a hillside, the Coteau des Treilles, and then felt first-hand the impact of such an exceptional terroir.

‘I did not choose Anjou; I was chosen by Anjou, which is so beautifully endowed with that amazing grape variety, Chenin Blanc, but also with a hierarchy of millennial terroirs that reminds me of Burgundy, which I love so much,’ explains Ivan Massonnat.

Pithon had vineyards in both the Anjou and Savennières appellations, but his crown jewel was the previously mentioned Clos des Treilles, a contiguous vineyard of a single block located on a south-facing hillside that he had cleared and replanted to vines. Although vines had existed on this magical spot in the past, past growers found it too difficult on this steep terrain to maintain them in the aftermath of the dreaded phylloxera crisis and then World War II.

It has been said that great terroirs are not preordained, but the creation of stubborn civilisations and the result of human obstinacy. Clos des Treilles is a textbook example of this, and Massonnat will continue to polish this diamond in the rough as well as its setting.

Jo Pithon’s deep knowledge of the Anjou region proved to be yet another windfall for Massonnat, who was able to meet other winegrowers in the region and find further opportunities. One proved to be particularly propitious. The Laffourcade family decided to sell its estate in the nearby Quarts de Chaume appellation – the only one in the Loire Valley to have grand cru status – comprising almost 10 hectares. Massonnat lost no time in concluding a deal, and this new acquisition is now the cornerstone of his long-term project.

‘I love Chenin, the emblematic grape of Anjou. But it appeared to us that dry wines could reveal terroir character just as well as sweet wines. And with the economic difficulty of selling sweet wines, we decided to produce great dry white wines from terroirs usually devoted to sweet ones,’ he says. So the long-term project has entered a new phase with this bold move.

Biodynamics

Massonnat is a fervent champion of environmental protection, and so turned to Guy Bossard, former owner of Domaine de l’Ecu in the Muscadet region and pioneer of biodynamics in that appellation. His mission is to convert the entire vineyard to biodynamics. Massonnat cannot resist the temptation of a great terroir, and so just a year ago another opportunity came knocking in the form of a small, rather unprepossessing plot of vines up for sale. Its new owner could see its extraordinary potential, as it is located just off a road descending from the famous Coulée de Serrant estate in the Savennières appellation and lies on a soil containing the rare but coveted purple schist. It even has the glamour of being both a clos and a monopole, and even its name, Clos des Ruchères, seems destined to get good buzz.

Ivan Massonnat’s ambitious project is now in working order. The first vintage 2018 promises to be extraordinary. So ‘magnificent that we are going to produce four cuvées of sweet wines, which we will not do every year, and seven cuvées of site-specific dry wines’. The team – led by the youngest employee, agricultural engineer Adrien Moreau – has an average age of 28 years and perfect gender parity.

The future seems radiant for this new Domaine Belargus, now comprising 26 hectares. Its name derives from that of a blue butterfly present on the Coteau des Treilles, one of the places with the highest biodiversity in Anjou. Remember this name, as its production should meet with resounding critical success in the coming years.

Tasting the Domaine Belargus wines

Swartland is known for its extreme summer heat, and old bush vines are prevalent in the vineyards which cover the gentle hills and rocky mountain outcrops of Paardeberg, Kasteelberg and Piketberg.

It’s a region that’s currently leading the way for South African wine, home to forward-looking and experimental winemakers such as Eben Sadie (no relation!), Adi Badenhorst and Chris and Andrea Mullineux, as well as David & Nadia Sadie.Rediscovering Swartland’s abandoned apartheid-era vineyards – a disparate mix of semi-forgotten local varieties and international varieties – this new generation of winemakers has stumbled upon old (sometimes ancient) vines on what has turned out to be some impressive terroir.

Scroll down to see the latest releases, plus two verticals

Background

David & Nadia Sadie have only been making wine together since 2010 but they’ve already made quite an impact internationally.

The husband and wife team met at the University of Stellenbosch, where they both studied Viticulture and Oenology. David then found work at several wineries around the world, including Rustenberg in Stellenbosch and Yves Cuilleron in the Rhône Valley. It was during this time that he gained expertise working with Mediterranean grape varieties such as Syrah, Chenin, Marsanne and Roussanne.

David was working full-time at Lemberg in Tulbagh – chasing a more elegant, less oak-derived expression compared to the fruit-forward, opulent styles Swartland was known for – when he produced his first wine under his own label: Aristargos 2010.

He soon made more, and although quantities were tiny, the successes of his first few vintages led to him quitting his day job in 2013, making his wines in various rented spaces. In 2015, David moved into a restored 220-year-old cellar in Paardeberg in time for the 2016 vintage, when Nadia joined him as the winery’s full-time soil scientist and viticulturalist.

The couple now source fruit from around 25ha, 70% from owned and leased vineyards and the remainder bought-in. They own a vintage tractor which does much of the hard graft in their own vineyards, although David is keen to make the most of it by increasing their holdings.

From vineyard to cellar

David & Nadia’s ‘natural’ philosophy extends from vineyard to cellar. They rely on the natural drought resistance of old vines (the oldest planted in the 1960s) rather than irrigation; they achieve balance by clever blending of the various sites available to them, wild ferments include a portion of whole-bunch fruit which can impart texture and freshness, and they only use minimal amounts of sulphur at bottling.

They produce a red blend, Elpdios, and a white blend, Aristargos, as well as several single-varietals with a strong focus on Chenin Blanc: the 2018 vintage sees the release of a third single-vineyard Chenin Blanc, Plat’bos, which joins the Skaliekop and Hoë-Steen labels.

For the blends, David always ferments varieties separately to give him more control over the quality and style, and to hedge against disaster – he’s been bitten in the past.

The first vintages of his whites underwent 100% malo with battonage, but he scaled the battonage back from 2013 onwards as he found he could get all the texture he wanted anyway.

He’s never been a fan of new oak, and so has only ever used older French oak, particularly 300l barrels and 2,500- and 4,000-litre foudres.

In 2018 David also began using concrete tanks to ferment and age a proportion of the red wines – the CO2 build up, he explains, keeps the wines tight and fresh, and helps them to mature at a slower rate.

Elpidios

Elpidios, David & Nadia’s Cape red blend, is ‘the one wine that tells our story the best,’ according to David. Like its white counterpart, it’s an ever-changing blend reflecting not only vintage conditions but also the quest for elegance. As a result, the key component has over the years changed from Syrah to Carignan and then to Grenache, although Syrah has always made up approximately 30% of the blend.

‘Syrah today is the most important variety in the Swartland,’ he affirms.

After fermentation in stainless steel, Elpidios used to spend up to 20 months in large, neutral foudres before maturing in bottle for a further 20-22 months, but from 2016 the barrel time was reduced to 12 months with a further 18 months in bottle. This regime is reflected across much of the range.

For all vintages of Elpidios, up to 15% is back-blended – a portion of the following vintage added in. David explains that this is ‘to prevent the Grenache from “drying out” as it ages,’ ensuring that its character is focussed firmly on fresh fruit expression.

Single-vineyard Chenin

If anyone was to mark out David & Nadia’s flagship wines, these would be them. With the 2018 vintage, two becomes three – Skaliekop from brown shale soils is the most elegant, while Hoë-Steen on clay and iron-rich soils is the most intense. Plat’bos, on the Paardeberg’s signature granite, is racy and sculpted.

It really goes to show the potential and diversity of the region that these three Chenins are so different. And all of them are among the best South African Chenins that I have tasted. Our experts from the November 2016 South African Chenin Blanc panel tasting agreed, calling Hoë-Steen a ‘supreme Chenin’ and ranking it in first place.

David & Nadia: Latest releases and two verticals

Below are the top new releases from David & Nadia, followed by verticals of Aristargos and Elpidios (both including the latest vintages)

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Chenin Blanc has a very strong claim to be the world’s most versatile grape variety, successfully producing dry and demi-sec wines, all the way through to lusciously sweet, as well as sparkling – and not forgetting brandy and ‘sherry’ styles in South Africa.

The grape has the rare talent of producing some of the most sublime wines that can age for a century or more – while also being capable of making some of the most disgusting wines if picked unripe and vinified badly!

From workhorse to high quality

It can be difficult to produce high quality Chenin as it’s capable of producing large crops, making it popular as a workhorse variety, especially in South Africa and California. However, as the emphasis has increasingly been on making interesting and high-quality Chenin, world plantings have been cut by half over the last 30 years.

Scroll down to see Jim’s top picks of Chenin Blanc from the Loire and South Africa

As well as Chenin Blanc’s versatility, it has a remarkable ability to age: as mentioned above, great sweet vintages can remain magnificent for a century or more, and I have been privileged to taste several Chenins from the 19th century. And we celebrated my father’s 90th birthday in 2009 with an amazingly youthful 1919 Le Mont Moelleux Vouvray from Gaston Huet – a memorable occasion!

Chenin Blanc’s two principal regions in terms of quality are South Africa, where it is the most planted variety, and the Loire. Vincent Carême, who makes wine in both the Loire and in South Africa, says of the differences: ‘The South African climate is much more extreme – very hot and very dry. Broadly speaking, South African Chenin has more weight with an exotic fruit character, while those from the Loire are more mineral.’

Loire Chenin Blanc

Recent trends include a significant move to making dry Chenin from special sites such as the Quarts de Chaume (the Loire’s only grand cru), which have traditionally specialised in sweet wine. This is because selling sweet wines has become so difficult in the modern age.

Plantings of Chenin in the Loire are essentially confined to Anjou-Saumur and Touraine – stretching eastwards from Ingrandes-sur-Loire to around Amboise.

West of Ingrandes, Melon de Bourgogne (Muscadet) becomes the dominant variety, while Amboise is at the limit of where Chenin will ripen properly in the Loire as the climate becomes increasingly continental, causing later budbreak.

Schist and slate in Anjou tend to produce softer wines with less marked acidity than those from the clay-limestone of Saumur and Touraine.

Sparkling Chenin, especially Crémant de Loire and Saumur, dominates production, accounting for 63% of total Chenin production in the Loire, while it’s the dry and demi-sec (26%) and sweet (11%) styles which are the most renowned.

Top Loire Chenin Blanc producers:

Anjou Blanc Didier & Damien Richou, Domaine Belargus, Ogereau, Bablut

Savennières Coulée de Serrant, Damien Laureau, Eric Morgat, Domaines Ogereau, Bergerie, Domaine aux Moines, Closel, Baudouin

Saumur Clos Rougeard, Château de Villeneuve, Antoine Sanzay, Antoine Foucault, Guiberteau

Chinon Noblaie, Alliet

Montlouis Taille aux Loups, Saumon, Chidaine, Delecheneau, Weisskopf

Vouvray Huet, Foreau, François Pinon, Fouquet, Carême

Touraine-Amboise Frissant, Bessons

Sweet

Coteaux du Layon Juchepie

Bonnezeaux Château de Fesles, Les Grands Vignes, Petit Val

Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru & Coteaux du Layon 1er Cru Chaume Pierre-Bise, Suronde, Bergerie

Coteaux de l’Aubance Bablut, Montgilet, Rochelles

South African Chenin Blanc

South African plantings are more widely spread, ranging from Stellenbosch northwards to Olifants River and eastwards to Klein Karoo.

In South Africa, site is becoming increasingly important, as is the recognition of old bush-vine Chenin as a treasured heritage.

Top South Africa Chenin Blanc producers:

Elgin Illimis

Paarl Glen Carlou, KWV, Nederburg

Stellenbosch Botanica, Ken Forrester, Kleine Zalze, Mulderbosch, Raats, Radford Dale, Spier

Swartland AA Badenhorst, Craig Hawkins, Mullineux, Painted Wolf

Walker Bay Beaumont

Wellington Bosman, Painted Wolf

Chenin Blanc renaissance: Loire & South Africa

Awareness

The first International Chenin Blanc Conference was held in Angers from 1 to 3 July. A major aim of this conference is to raise the profile and appreciation of Chenin which, because of its past reputation as a workhorse grape, means that it does not have the same repute as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon, for example.

But it’s clear that the variety has history, its own unique characteristics, is adaptable to climate change, and can be very long-lived.

The next edition of the conference will be held in 2021 in Cape Town.

Chenin Blanc at a glance:

World total 35,000ha

South Africa 17,242ha (53% of production)

Olifants River: 2,821; Breederkloof: 2,796; Paarl: 2,743; Swartland: 2553; Worcester: 1,860; Robertson: 1,546, Stellenbosch: 1,344; Northern Cape: 1,038

Loire 9,700ha (28% of production)

Anjou and Saumur: 5,282; Touraine: 3,668; Loir et Cher: 303; Sarthe: 153

California 1,938ha (9% of production)

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Regional profile: Savennières

Including additional tasting notes exclusively for Decanter Premium members.

A prince’s kiss rouses a cursed princess from a century of slumber in Sleeping Beauty – a fairytale illustrative of the long-comatose state of Savennières. The Loire Valley appellation has been given the kiss of life in recent years, though there was no royalty puckering up – this is the French republic after all. Instead a group of energetic newcomers has breathed new life into the region’s veins.

Scroll down for Rebecca Gibb MW’s top Savennières

The change has been a long time coming for an appellation whose potential was clear but not fully realised. Records show that this village on the right bank of the Loire was making wine long before English painter JMW Turner sketched its slopes and famous tower-like rocky outcrop La Pierre Bécherelle in 1826.

The wine village experienced success and prosperity in the 19th century, according to Evelyne de Pontbriand, a former teacher who took over the family property Domaine du Closel from her mother in 2001 and has plans to write a long-overdue history.

‘Savennières was very developed and dynamic in the 19th century,’ she says. ‘Parisians invested in wine and they built châteaux – that’s why we have 17 châteaux in and around the village. They all have a park, which was fashionable in those days, and an avenue of trees leading to the vineyard; some have an arboretum. It’s not a monoculture – it is very interesting from a landscape perspective.’ However, along came phylloxera and two world wars, so it’s no surprise that the village’s wine fortunes waned.

Savennières at a glance

Appellation Created 1952

Location Southwest of Angers on the right (north) bank of the Loire. Savennières itself sits between the villages of La Possonnière and Bouchemaine, which form the southern and northern boundaries of the appellation respectively.

Vineyards Located on the slopes perpendicular to the river.

Grape Chenin Blanc (Le Chenin is the name of the town’s restaurant)

Soils Schist, sand, volcanic-origin soils including phtanite and rhyolite

Producers 36

Total area 140ha (including 20ha of Savennières Roche aux Moines and 7ha of Coulée de Serrant)

Changing of the guard

Skip to the latter half of the 20th century and this tale sees several visionaries working together to create and shape the dormant Chenin Blanc giant. The appellation was now stirring, but in the first years of the 21st century it received the equivalent of several shots of strong espresso. This took the form of a new generation taking over the reins of their family estates: from Pontbriand to Tessa Laroche of Domaine aux Moines, plus dynamic new entrants including Damien Laureau, Eric Morgat and Thibaud Boudignon.

The changing of the Savennières guard has been accompanied by a change in mindset. While some things here don’t change – the soils are always variations on a theme of schist, sandstone and other volcanic rocks – the tending of its soils and vines is a far cry from the 1990s.

The head of the Savennières appellation, Jean-Claude Taddei, estimates that about 60% of the appellation’s 36 producers now work organically, no doubt thanks to the combined influence of biodynamic champion Nicolas Joly and consultant Clément Baraut, who ‘pushed us all forward to sustainable, then organic production,’ according to Pontbriand. ‘He asked us why we harvested so late, challenging us to vinify with less sulphur.’

In the Roche aux Moines and Coulée de Serrant vineyards, which became appellations in their own right in 2011 and 2015 respectively, organic viticulture is compulsory.

Return to nature

This move away from chemicals is not confined to the vineyard: winemakers have dramatically reduced their use of sulphur dioxide in the cellar. The antioxidant and antibacterial agent was previously used liberally – the bugs that caused the malolactic fermentation didn’t stand a chance.

Wines used to be bottled soon after harvest, but that’s changed since the 2000s. René Pepin at Château Pierre-Bise says: ‘If you don’t want to do the malolactic conversion you have to add sulphur dioxide or keep the wine cold, and that’s really difficult.’ Malolactic commonly occurs partially or fully in Savennières today, but there’s no hard and fast rule.

Nature has also played its role in the current Savennières style. Climate change has brought harvest dates forward, according to Tessa Laroche of Domaine aux Moines, a château that surveys the Roche aux Moines vineyard as it descends to the river below. ‘We now pick in September and get 14% alcohol, whereas we used to pick in October and get 12.5%. We want freshness – that’s why we don’t go on holiday in September,’ she says.

The influence of climate change in combination with malolactic fermentation means the wines now don’t need 20 years in bottle before they are ready to drink, suiting current trends. ‘When I started [in 2001], Savennières was a wine for cellaring, but we don’t speak about them like that any more,’ confirms Laroche. The wines have less acidity because of climate change, and people – me included – want to drink their wines younger.’

Chenin revolution

The non-aromatic grape variety of Savennières, Chenin Blanc, is the vehicle to express the 46 lieux-dits across its 140ha. It is far from easy to grow successfully.

Eric Morgat took up the challenge in 1999, buying an abandoned parcel of vines. Chenin Blanc was out of favour with his parents and grandparents – growers on the other side of the river in Layon – due to its unevening ripening, which means a parcel needs to be picked on several different occasions. It can produce bitter wines if not handled correctly.

‘Chenin Blanc is demanding here in terms of viticulture because of the poor, schist soils. You need to do a lot of work in the vineyard because it has very thick skins: it can be vegetal and produce tannic wines,’ explains Morgat. When handled with care, however, the wines are powerful and structured with intense minerality and freshness.

Quality is high to exceptional across this small appellation, and yet its president Taddei admits that it is still little known – even in France. ‘It has a good reputation, but in a very small circle. It’s very well appreciated but it isn’t the first wine that people think of asking for – they demand wines that are better known like Sancerre or Burgundy.

‘But things are changing,’ he adds. A new generation of producers with both organic and fine wine ambitions are waking this sleeping beauty from her slumber.

Savennières: Names to know

Château Pierre-Bise

You won’t find anyone called Pierre Bise here – it’s the name of a village, a short drive away from Savennières across the Loire. The Papin family has owned this domaine since 1959 and winemaker René Papin is now at the helm. He makes three impressive single-vineyard Savennières: an ageworthy Roche aux Moines, the elegant Clos de Coulaine and impressive Clos de Grand Beaupréau

Damien Laureau

If you haven’t yet tried Laureau’s wines, it’s time they appeared on your shopping list. Born to a cereal-farming family in Versailles, he arrived in Savennières in 1999, and has gradually acquired parcels around the appellation including the illustrious La Roche aux Moines. His cuvée Le Bel Ouvrage from schistous soils is pure, intense and precise, while Les Genêts, sourced from sandstone and schist, is fine with scintillating aromas.

Domaine aux Moines

The parents of current custodian Tessa Laroche bought the domaine in 1981 and its style has changed with the times: it is now organic, and biodynamic farming is practised; you won’t see any botrytised fruit in the wine these days and, with reduced use of sulphur, malolactic is common. Wines are barrel-fermented, producing a rich, powerful style that can be enjoyed from four years onwards.

Domaine des Baumard

Despite Jean Baumard’s best efforts to put his son off taking over the family wine business, Florent Baumard joined his father at the domaine in 1987. The wines are full, supple and powerful. The intense Trie Spéciale is made from a selection of the ripest grapes and was only produced four times between 2003 and 2014. The Clos du Papillon bottling is satisfying and long-lived. The domaine’s wines are rare for an additional reason – they have been bottled under screwcap since 2003. When Florent isn’t running his domaine, you can find him kitesurfing on the Loire.

Domaine du Closel

Since taking over from her mother in 2001, former French literature teacher Evelyne de Pontbriand has been questioning the old techniques, embracing organic and biodynamic practices in her prized parcels Clos du Papillon and Les Caillardières, and minimising sulphur, enabling malolactic fermentation. She is a champion of the appellation and her wines should also be championed: they are harmonious, balanced and poised. Cuvée La Jalousie provides an affordable entry point.

Eric Morgat

A relative newcomer, Morgat first bought an abandoned Savennières vineyard in 1999. A meticulous vigneron and sensitive winemaker, he makes seductive, structured barrel-fermented Savennières. Fidès is his main cuvée and in 2015, after more than 10 years’ restoration work, he introduced Clos Serteaux as a single-vineyard bottling.

Thibaud Boudignon

Bordeaux-born and Burgundy-trained, Boudignon travelled to the Loire when he bagged a winemaking role at Château Soucherie. The newest of newcomers, it is his eponymous project that has had critics salivating at first taste. He now grows, makes and lives in Savennières, tending his organic vineyards. His two cuvées, Clos de la Hutte and Les Fougerais, are guided with sensitivity to the bottle, providing a transparent expression of place.

Coulée de Serrant

Biodynamic champion Nicolas Joly and his winemaker daughter Virginie push boundaries on the steep vineyard slopes of the Coulée de Serrant vineyard and La Roche aux Moines. They’re not afraid to include a small percentage of botrytised fruit in the dry wines, which contributes to higher, albeit integrated alcohol levels. Expect an atypical style of Savennières.

Rebecca’s top Savennières worth seeking out:

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Loire 2018: Vintage preview

Like everywhere else in France, the 2018 vintage gave grape growers a fright.

The unusually hot spring activated vigour in the vines, but this was followed by a harrowing outbreak of fungal diseases, especially mildew, after heavy late spring rains.’We had a tropical spring with a strong mildew pressure,’ explains Jacques-Antoine Toublanc of Clos Rougeard, ‘then a dry summer with lots of heat’. This left its stamp on 2018 as a hot, solar vintage. ‘We had to prevent the grapes from accumulating too much sugar,’ says François Chidaine of the challenge to limit the alcohol levels.In the end, it was an early, mid-September harvest, producing balanced wines with a lightness of touch and a potential for ageing well in the best examples. It’s worth bearing in mind that wines from producers following a meticulous ‘haute couture’ approach to viticulture will contrast strikingly with those who did not limit yields and practice a draconian selection of their grapes.

Appellations to know

The Loire Valley is renowned as much for its fairytale châteaux as its wines, and for many years the region was the seat of French rule. Its many wine appellations follow the meandering Loire river, the longest in France, and can be approximately divided into three sectors:

The Upper Loire

The homeland of Sauvignon Blanc.

Sancerre

Grape varieties Sauvignon Blanc for the whites, Pinot Noir for the reds and rosés.

Terroir Clay and limestone slopes, Kimmeridgian marl, silex and flinty soils

Top producers Domaine Vacheron, François Crochet, Gérard Boulay, Pascal Cotat, Domaine Vincent Pinard

Pouilly-Fumé

Grape varieties Sauvignon Blanc, plus a small amount of Chasselas under the Pouilly-sur-Loire appellation

Terroir Limestone, silex, marlstone and clay

Top producers Didier Dagueneau, Domaine de Ladoucette, Chatelain, Château de Tracy, Joseph Mellot

The Middle Loire

Famed for its Chenin Blancs, the Middle Loire also produces world-class Cabernet Franc and is home to one of the largest sparkling wine appellations in France.

Anjou, Anjou Villages, Anjou Villages-Brissac

Main grape varieties Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay and Grolleau for reds. Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay for whites

Terroir Anjou Villages has schist-based soils for ageworthy reds. Anjou Villages-Brissac stretches overs ten communes, also on schist-based soils

Top producers Domaine Bel Argus, Ferme de la Sansonnière, Domaine Patrick Baudoin, Benoit Courault

Bourgueil

Grape variety Cabernet Franc (up to 10% Cabernet Sauvignon is also allowed)

Terroir 50% gravel terraces, 50% Turonian limestone (tuffeau)

Top producers Catherine & Pierre Breton, Domaine de la Chevalerie, Yannick Amirault

St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil

Grape variety Cabernet Franc (up to 10% Cabernet Sauvignon is also allowed)

Terroir 75% gravel terraces and 25% Turonian limestone (tuffeau)

Top producers Domaine du Mortier, Domaine de la Cotelleraie

Chinon

Grape variety Cabernet Franc (up to 10% Cabernet Sauvignon is also allowed) for the reds, Chenin Blanc for the whites

Terroir Alluvial terraces, limestone slopes and clay soils

Top producers Domaine Bernard Baudry, Domaine Philippe Alliet, Charles Joguet, Olga Raffault

Coteaux de l’Aubance, Coteaux du Layon, Coteaux du Layon Villages, Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume

These five appellations produce sweet wines made from Chenin Blanc, using either late-harvest or botrytised grapes.

Terroir A large diversity of soil types, including sandstone, schist and quartz

Top producers Domaine Richou, Château de Suronde, Domaine Patrick Baudouin, Domaine Delesvaux

Montlouis-sur-Loire

Grape variety Chenin Blanc.

Terroir Turonian tuffeau and clay

Top producers François Chidaine, Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Domaine de la Grange Tiphaine

Saumur

Terroir Calcareous-clay (argilo-calcaire), with a high clay content

Grape variety Chenin Blanc

Top producers Domaine des Roches Neuves, Clos Rougeard, Domaine Guiberteau, Domaine du Collier

Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame

Terroir The famous tuffeau made up of sedimentary rock from the Turonian era, composed of chalky, sandy marine limestone

Grape varieties Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon

Top producers Château de Fosse-Sèche, Domaine de la Paleine

Saumur-Champigny

Terroir Tuffeau, as above

Grape variety Cabernet Franc

Top producers Clos Rougeard, Domaine des Roches Neuves, Domaine du Collier

Côteaux de Saumur

Appellation name for a tiny amount of sweet wine made from Chenin Blanc

Saumur mousseux and Crémant de Loire

Sparkling wines produced primarily with Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc

Savennières

Grape variety Chenin Blanc

Terroir Schist. Two lieux-dits have cru status: La Coulée de Serrant (7ha) and La Roche-aux-Moines (17ha)

Top producers Eric Morgat, Château de la Roche aux Moines (La Coulée de Serrant), Domaine du Closel, Domaine des Baumard

Touraine

Terroir Large diversity of soil types, including flinty clays, sand and gravel

Main grape varieties Côt (local name for Malbec) and Cabernet Franc for the reds. Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc for the whites. Pineau d’Aunis, Gamay and Pinot Gris for the rosés

Vouvray

Grape variety Chenin Blanc (up to 5% of Orbois is also allowed)

Terroir Calcareous clay (argilo-calcaire), with flint-clay

Top producers Domaine Huet, Domaine Vincent Carême, Domaine du Clos Naudin, François Chidaine

The Lower Loire

Best known for its ‘Sur Lie’ bottlings of Muscadet, produced from the Melon de Bourgogne grape.

Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire, Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu, the Muscadet village crus, Muscadet

Grape variety Melon de Bourgogne

Terroir Sandy soils around the lake of Grandlieu, southwest of Nantes. Soils rich in foliated metamorphic rocks such as silica, schist and gneiss. A mosaic of soil types such as amphibolite and gabbro

Top producers Domaine de l’Ecu, Domaine la Fey d’Homme, Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin, Domaine Haute Févrie, Domaine Les Hautes Noëlles

Yohan’s pick of top Loire 2018 wines to buy:

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Old-vine Chenin Blanc in South Africa

Much of South Africa is exposed to the cooling influence of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, which meet off Cape Agulhas.

It’s this cooler climate that enables South Africa to produce top-class white wines, from Bordeaux-style whites to Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Rhône-influenced blends.

It’s said that South Africa straddles the line between new and old world, and looking through the list below this is clear to see: wines such as Vergelegen’s GVB White wouldn’t be out of place in a Bordeaux lineup.

Decanter’s Tastings team recently attended a tasting of over 50 wines that have been awarded five stars in the 2019 edition of the Platter South African Wine Guide, narrowing the selection down to a shortlist of top buys.

How many of these wines do you want in your collection?

Top South Africa white wines:

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Getting better with age: Old-vine Chenin Blanc in South Africa

British Columbia wines: Can they compete?

Our experts praised the diversity and value of these ageable Loire Chenin Blancs, many from the 2015 and 2014 vintages. Read the full report below.

Published in the February 2017 issue of Decanter magazine and now available online and in full, exclusively for Premium subscribers.

• 169 wines tasted, with one rated Outstanding

• ‘A positive tasting that showed off the terroir-driven nature of dry Loire Chenin Blanc and its differing styles,’ said our panel of Jim Budd, Chris Kissack and Ben Llewelyn

Summary

With 169 wines entered, we had the opportunity to assess Chenin Blanc from across the Loire, writes Jim Budd in Decanter’s February 2017 issue. It was also very positive that there was such a good entry despite the recent short vintages and the effects of 2016’s late April frost on stock.

Results are rather mixed, with a number of very good wines but only one Outstanding one. It would have been nice to have had more Highly Recommended wines. Sadly 11 were Poor or Faulty.

Quick link See all 162 tasting notes & scores from this panel tasting

Almost all the wines entered came from the fine 2014 and 2015 vintages. With its higher acidity, 2014 is more a year for Loire aficionados, while the softer 2015s may well have broader appeal.

Of our top 49 wines, 21 came from 2014 and 26 from 2015 – a pretty even split. It will be fascinating to see how these two vintages age. My hunch is that 2014 will last longer. There were not enough 2013s and ’12s entered to draw any real conclusions, except that the few 2013s we tasted were ageing quickly.

Our tasting demonstrated that Chenin Blanc in the Loire has a keen sense of place, with the styles of wine markedly different. Jasnières, for example, is more austere and racy than the rounder Anjou Chenins.

Scroll down to see the top wines from the panel tasting

Our top 49 wines (those achieving Outstanding or Highly Recommended) show a wide spread of regions, with 13 different appellations along with one Vin de France.

Anjou, with 12 wines, was easily the standout region, greatly assisted by 10 Savennières in that top 49, which made this AP the most successful, underlining its reputation for making the finest Loire Chenin. Domaine des Baumard’s Clos du Papillon 2007 is a pointer to Savennières’ ageing potential.

Coulée de Serrant from biodynamic champion Nicolas Joly in Savennières remains a controversial wine. His 2014 (which scored an average 86 points) divided the panel with scores of 93, 79 and 86.

Château de Passavant gets less media attention than some more high-profile Loire Chenin producers, so it is good to see its 2014 Jarret de Monchenin emerging as our only Outstanding wine.

Montlouis had four in our top 49, again pointing out the dynamism of this small appellation. By contrast Vouvray, its much larger cousin, only had three – including one from Foreau – long one of that appellation’s best producers. There would have been four Vouvrays but for the ludicrous rule that bars François Chidaine from using the Vouvray appellation because he vinifies in neighbouring Montlouis. Ironically, his Vin de France-labelled Baudoin cuvée comes from one of Vouvray’s most famous sites.

The scores

169 wines tasted

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release still, dry (less than 9g/l residual sugar) 100% Chenin Blancs. Wines could come from anywhere in the Loire Valley but must be AP or Vin de France (no IGP wines).

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 1

Highly Recommended 48

Recommended 65

Commended 23

Fair 21

Poor 4

Faulty 7

See all 162 wines from the panel tasting

The results

There’s a Loire Chenin for everyone, said our panel, impressed with the diversity, quality and great value on offer from this regional tasting. Christelle Guibert reports…

With such a large and diverse selection of dry Loire Chenin Blanc from across the region, our experts were set for a fascinating tasting. They found some great, some good and some less-good wines but still, with 67% Recommended or more – and very few priced above £25 – they left very satisfied with the level of quality on offer.

The tasters didn’t agree on any one appellation standing head and shoulders above the rest; instead they found a spread of quality within each.

Ben Llewelyn acknowledged ‘how reassuring it is that Chenin, which has its own unique characteristics, is also quite an egotistical grape variety: it saps up its place and terroir’.

Our experts found Anjou gave a richer style of Chenin with notes of baked apple, while Saumur was racier with fresh, limey, mineral notes. Chinon emerged as a great surprise, as Chris Kissack explained: ‘It’s not the first appellation you’d go to for whites, but some wines were really attractive – right up there at the top of the pile.’

Ben Llewelyn agreed: ‘The wines were fantastic, no messing around, just drinkability, class and real interest.’

Montlouis was another highlight and the panel found more charm here than in its neighbouring appellation of Vouvray.

Savennières, the king of Chenin Blanc, was probably the most diverse in terms of quality. Kissack noted that ‘some wines had bright fruit, nice structure and fresh acidity, which seemed true to the appellation, but others showed an oxidised style that lacked purity’.

As for the seven Vin de France entries, Jim Budd said: ‘Our top wines could have potentially come from this category as some of the most interesting producers also make a Vin de France. However, these wines are often produced in tiny quantities and hard to get hold of, which probably explains why we had so few represented here.’

Budd was pleased that Chenin finally has the recognition among consumers it deserves, admitting this is partly due to South Africa: ‘The Cape has played the Chenin Blanc card and if the Loire is wise, it will jump on that bandwagon.’

But Llewelyn disagreed: ‘South Africa has taken Chenin and made a particular style of wine, which it presents beautifully. Where the Loire wins every time though is in its synergy of the grape and the terroir. The Loire is not just Chenin Blanc – it’s Vouvray, Savennières, Montlouis etc, and that’s so important.’

As you’d expect, there was vintage diversity, with the 2015s and 2014s (which dominated the tasting) showing best. ‘Both vintages were very good across much of the Loire, but very different in style,’ said Kissack. ‘2014 was fresher and tougher with more acidity, energy and life, while 2015 was richer with more exotic fruit character.’

Budd found some of the 2013s to be ageing very quickly but said the best of these and other vintages still had ‘terrific ageing ability – at least 20 to 30 years, with some being virtually immortal’.

The panel also found broad winemaking differences, as Llewelyn explained: ‘Like anywhere, some producers want to be more progressive and others stick to traditional routes; there were some biodynamic styles, and others that were straight and classic. While this makes buying wine confusing for the general consumer, it makes it fascinating to an interested wine lover as there are so many different styles.’

Llewelyn suggested Decanter readers look at ‘the inherent characters of each of these Chenin appellations, and then at the producers within them that match your taste – whether that be biodynamic, oxidative styles or lean, taut and precise wines. There’s something for everyone here.’

Our tasters each pick their top 3 wines from the tasting:

Jim Budd

Budd is the DWWA Regional Chair for Loire and has contributed to Decanter since 1989. He writes the award-winning Jimsloire.blogspot.com, is one of the members of the blog Les5duvin.wordpress.com and was the editor of the Circle of Wine Writers’ newsletter from 1991-2015. He also exposes the dangers of drinks investment on his sites Investdrinks.org and Investdrinks-blog.blogspot.com

Domaine Ogereau, L’Enthousiasme, Savennières 2014

I discovered this estate in 1990 when Vincent and Catherine were part of the new generation restoring Anjou. Now their son Emmanuel is taking it to the next level. This is brilliant: austere but with rich fruit. 97 Drink 2017-2030

Domaine de Juchepie, Le Clos de Juchepie, Anjou 2014

This Belgian couple moved to Anjou in 2001. Best known for their sweet wines, they also make interesting dry whites. Le Clos has rich texture, power and length balanced with ’14’s racy acidity. 96 Drink 2017-2031

Château de Passavant, Jarret de Montchenin, Anjou 2014

I have long admired this property, now run by Oliver Lecomte, the fourth generation of his family to own Passavant. It needs more time to show its best. 95 Drink 2018-2027

Chris Kissack

Kissack is author of TheWinedoctor.com, a subscription website which he has published since 2000. He has focused on the Loire for many years, and has made regular trips since 1993, visiting domaines and vineyards, and meeting the winemakers and reporting on their wines throughout the year.

Michel Chevré, Clos de L’Ecotard, Saumur 2015

A little-known, underrated domaine run by Chevré, who often works with his friend Thierry Germain of Domaine des Roches Neuves. I loved the energy and vibrancy here. 94 Drink 2017-2020

Domaine de Bellivière, Vieilles Vignes Eparses, Coteaux du Loir 2014

Nicolas is one of the most talented vignerons in the Loire, so it was no surprise to see his other 2014 Calligramme also ranked highly. But I liked this just as much, and it is a bit cheaper. 94 Drink 2017-2025

Château Pierre Bise, Savennières-Roche aux Moines 2014

Claude Papin is a master of Chenin, and of Savennières, and this cuvée, from the hallowed Roches aux Moines vineyard which has its own AC, is perhaps his greatest dry white. I loved it! 93 Drink 2017-2025

Ben Llewelyn

Llewelyn has worked in the UK wine trade since 1997, starting at Oddbins, and then at Enotria. He moved his family to France in 2007 to experience the life of a winemaker while studying for his Master of Wine, and in 2008 set up the wholesale wine agency and importer Carte Blanche, which leans towards producers who make wine as naturally as possible.

Domaine de Bellivière, Calligramme, Jasnières 2014

What a wine! Calligrame is a parcel selection of 55-year-old vines from flinty clay soil on limestone and is naturally fermented in old wood. This will age but is so utterly delicious now it would be hard to leave it. 94 Drink 2017-2030

Château de la Roche aux Moines, Clos de la Coulée de Serrant, Savennières-Coulée de Serrant 2014

Joly has been one of the mainstays of the biodynamic movement and a godfather to the natural winemakers of today. This split us as judges but for me it was fascinating and carried so much energy and detail that it could not be ignored. 93 Drink 2017-2032

Clos de L’Elu, Ephata, Anjou 2014

Charlotte and Thomas Carsin started here in 2008 and work several old plots – this one over 60 years old, planted on sandy shale. It’s one of Anjou’s most exciting estates and this wine exudes the charm of Chenin. 92 Drink 2017-2020

About Loire Chenin Blanc

Chenin is a multifaceted grape, thanks to its spread across this valley, and the differing styles made from its various terroirs. And that’s what makes it exciting, says Jim Budd…

Chenin Blanc is undoubtedly the Loire’s most fascinating and diverse grape variety, capable of making a remarkable range of styles from bone-dry through to lusciously sweet as well as still and sparkling.

Recent DNA analysis suggests that Chenin is an offspring of Jura’s Savagnin and so related to Sauvignon Blanc and Trousseau. The first historical reference to Chenin comes from the 9th century at Bouchemaine, the small town at the eastern end of Savennières. Much later, in 1496, some Chenin was planted at Château de Chenonceau in eastern Touraine.

Chenin Blanc is largely confined to Anjou-Saumur and Touraine with outposts in Coteaux du Loir, in particular Jasnières, as well as the Fiefs Vendéens close to the Atlantic Coast. There is now a little planted way south in the Upper Loire in the Roannaise and Forez, where leading producers are experimenting with a range of white grapes. These wines will appear as IGP.

As Chenin is a mid- to late-ripening variety, it is not well suited to the Pays Nantais with its increased chance of wet weather in late September and October. Chenin’s eastern limit is around Amboise – spring arrives 10 to 14 days later here than it does in Anjou due to the distance from the Atlantic, thus it is hard to get Chenin to ripen properly here. Instead Sauvignon Blanc is largely the chosen white variety in the Loire’s eastern part.

Apart from the schist and slate of Anjou, Loire Chenin does best planted on limestone – the bedrock from Saumur eastwards. Chenin from limestone tends to have slightly higher acidity than those from Anjou.

Ageing

While there is a tradition in Vouvray and elsewhere in the Loire for fermenting and ageing wines in old wood, increasingly top Loire Chenin Blanc producers use newer wood, usually with a small proportion of new oak. There is a tendency to use 400-, 500- and 600-litre barrels with a medium toast rather than 225- or 228-litre barriques, so as to lessen oak flavour. There are also limited experiments using amphorae and concrete eggs.

Sweet Loire Chenin can be almost immortal, especially in great vintages. Dry Loire Chenin can also age brilliantly, although the opportunities to taste these older wines are considerably less than their sweet counterparts as there is less of a tradition – apart from in Vouvray and Savennières – of ageing dry wines. However, dry Vouvrays that are 40 years old or more are still certainly drinkable and enjoyable.

It is worth considering decanting Loire Chenin Blanc, especially from a recent vintage or if the wine appears closed. Also they should not be served too cold, otherwise their complexity will be masked.

Loire Chenin Blanc: the facts

Also known as Pineau de Loire, but use of this name is dying out

Chenin plantings in Loire 9,240ha (2014)

Chenin plantings in South Africa, by comparison 17,933ha (2014)

Dry white Loire appellations that can only use Chenin Montlouis, Chinon Blanc, Coteaux du Loir, Savennières, Touraine Amboise, Touraine Azay-le-Rideau, Jasnières (in Vouvray, 5% Arbois is permitted)

Dry Loire Chenin Blanc: know your vintages

2016 April frost, complicated year, good autumn means fine wines in tiny quantities. Too early to assess.

2015 Good vintage despite September rain. Rounder wines than ’14. Drink 2017-2035.

2014 Very good vintage saved by hot September. Classic wines with high acidity. 2018-2050.

2013 Late, small vintage saved by hot summer. Lean wines that may be ageing quickly. 2017-2025.

2012 April frost, small vintage, good wines with quite high acidity. 2017-2030.

2011 Early vintage, rot a problem. Drink these before your 2008s and 2010s.

2010 Long, hot autumn. Classic, with higher acidity than ’09.

2009 Hot year, rich wines. Not as ageworthy as ’08 or ’10. 2017-2030.

2008 Saved by Indian summer. Precise, balanced and long lived. 2017-2040.

Top dry Loire Chenin Blanc from the panel tasting:

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Top Loire Cabernet Franc: Panel tasting results

Sauvignon Blanc reigns supreme and Chardonnay is well established, but an exciting range of other white grape varieties is taking root in NZ, reports Rebecca Gibb MW. Be among the first to see the results of our panel tasting for alternative New Zealand white wines...

Is there no sating the appetite for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc? The flamboyant and vibrant style that put the country on the world wine map in the mid-1980s continues to have a thirsty fan base.

The country has become synonymous with Sauvignon Blanc, but it hasn’t always been this way. It was only in 2002 that it became the most-planted variety, taking the crown from Chardonnay, a title it had only inherited from the prolific hybrid Müller-Thurgau a few years earlier.

Despite Sauvignon Blanc’s status as the most important variety in New Zealand today, the country’s vineyards are far from monochromatic. Instead there is an ever-more colourful kaleidoscope of alternative varieties occupying New Zealand’s soils.

Chenin Blanc is recorded in the early 1900s, while Gewürztraminer took root more than half a century ago. Meanwhile, Pinot Gris was praised as long ago as 1906 by the government’s first viticulturist, Romeo Bragato; though it would take another century for its star to rise.

From just 32ha in 1997, it covered 2,369ha in 2017 and is now the third most-planted white variety after Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, finding a home in the arid, southerly extremes of Central Otago.

Scroll down to see the top wines

New energy

However, a new wave of experimental planting is re-energising New Zealand’s white producers – including Galicia’s grape Albariño, predominantly in the warmer, more humid North Island; and Austria’s signature white, Grüner Veltliner, concentrated in the cool South Island. There’s also voluptuous Viognier, vigorous Verdelho and more, for the intrepid wine drinker.

That said, the so-called ‘alternative’ movement is tiny in comparison with Australia, where Italian and Spanish varieties stand alongside Shiraz and Chardonnay vines. More than eight out of 10 litres of wine that leaves New Zealand’s ports is Sauvignon Blanc; but this is an innovative young country that isn’t afraid to fund groundbreaking research and adopt pioneering technologies; with 5,000 grape varieties in the world, make no mistake, New Zealand will be taking its exploration of Vitis vinifera further.

Quick link: View all 94 tasting notes & scores from this panel tasting

The rising tide of alternatives is providing a more colourful and appetising New Zealand wine scene. The country’s maritime climate is well suited to producing aromatic whites with vibrant fruit flavours, scintillating acidity and moderate alcohol levels. And for Sauvignon Blanc loyalists? It’s just one small step from fresh, fruity and unoaked Sauvignon to fresh, fruity and unoaked Albariño, Grüner and friends – not one giant leap.

The scores

94 wines tasted

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were asked to submit their latest release, dry white wines from New Zealand – either varietals (85%) or blends – except Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Two wines per producer (but one Riesling only) were permitted.

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 8

Highly Recommended 33

Recommended 45

Commended 8

Fair 0

Poor 0

Faulty 0

Continue reading below

The summary

High quality and the diversity of grapes and styles made this a fascinating tasting, with plenty of choice for lovers of fresh, aromatic whites, says Rebecca Gibb MW…

It is rare to feel refreshed after a 94-wine marathon, but that’s how all three judges felt at the end of this panel tasting. ‘It’s staggering how New Zealand can produce such absolutely amazing aromatic wines with great flavours,’ said Roger Jones in the post-match appraisal.

Earlier in the day, the team had not been overly enthused when faced with nearly 40 glasses of Pinot Gris, but there were plenty of judiciously made, textural examples from the 2015, 2016 and even the challenging 2017 vintage, which led to three Outstanding and 10 Highly Recommended awards among the high scores.

Quality exceeded all expectations. Melanie Brown, founder of The New Zealand Cellar, said: ‘Having watched New Zealand struggle to determine a Pinot Gris style over the years, finally seeing Gris with flavour and structure – and with good acidity – was astonishing. Gone are the days of tasting flabby, uninspiring alternative whites. These wines were testament to a quickly evolving and dynamic industry, which is capable of retaining its premium reputation beyond Sauvignon.’

Jones revealed that Pinot Gris was an important variety for diners at his restaurant, The Harrow at Little Bedwyn. ‘We have had a huge influx of people looking for Pinot Gris from the New World,’ he said. ‘Quality-wise there was a lot of lunchtime Pinot Gris here, but there were enough high-quality entries too. When Pinot Gris has texture and a bit of bottle age, my customers love it and we need to introduce more people to it.’

While there was a palpable sense of anticipation when the Albariño and Grüner Veltliner flight was poured, the Albariños failed to generate real excitement – though we felt that the variety does have a promising future, particularly in the warmer climes of the North Island. Brown explained: ‘They are new and niche, so don’t have the presence and conviction yet. In a few more years they will have developed an edge that will allow them to attain a higher level.’

A handful of Grüners showed well and offered value, although wines from the 2017 vintage lacked aromatic and palate richness, with firm acid the driving force. Jones was still pleased. ‘They are clean, vibrant and quite exciting. I haven’t had a Grüner Veltliner that excites me from anywhere other than Austria – until today.’

The sheer diversity of New Zealand’s vineyards and the expression of different grapes across the country was impressive. A range of varieties and blends shared the Outstanding podium: Pinot Gris, Riesling, Riesling-Grüner and Marsanne-Roussane. While Marlborough dominates, representing 68% of NZ vineyards, there was a good spread of plaudits across regions from Kumeu in the north to Central Otago in the south.

A number of varieties have made their home around the country, including Pinot Gris, but there are climatic differences across New Zealand, which are reflected in the choice of grapes planted. The warmer-climate grapes Viognier and Marsanne showed that they can excel in Hawkes Bay and Gisborne in the North Island; while the finest Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners are rightly situated on the cool South Island (and in Martinborough).

There is certainly value for money to be found with three of the eight wines rated Oustanding and 12 Highly Recommended wines costing less than £15. At this price, it won’t cost you the earth to go to the end of the world to discover the adventurous side of New Zealand wine.

Our tasters each pick their top 3 wines

Melanie Brown

Brown joined the team at The Providores in 2006, where she helped to develop the largest list of premium New Zealand wine in the UK. She launched her own specialist retailer, The New Zealand Cellar, in 2014, followed by a wine bar and shop in London, where she curates a unique selection of New Zealand wine events.

Millton Vineyards, Te Arai Chenin Blanc, Gisborne 2016

I’ve always been seduced by this wine, which is opulent but with poise and tension. James Millton is New Zealand’s biodynamics pioneer. One of the most texturally pleasing New Zealand wines I’ve tasted. 95/100 Drink 2018-2021

Mount Edward Riesling, Central Otago 2017

Duncan Forsyth, the winemaker and Riesling obsessive, farms organically and produces beautiful single-vineyard wines. This has depth and brightness in equal measure, with purity. 90 Drink 2018-2024

Seifried, Grüner Veltliner, Nelson 2017

Wowzers: bright, clean and superbly approachable! The Seifried family is from Austria, so its no wonder their Austrian varietals are starting to come into their own, and at such value. 92 Drink 2018-2020

Rebecca Gibb MW

Gibb spent six years living in New Zealand, where she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book, The Wines of New Zealand, will be published this year.

Prophet’s Rock, Pinot Gris, Central Otago 2015

Pure, poised and pretty. Paul Pujol draws on his winemaking experience in Alsace to craft this finely scented Pinot Gris. It offers delicacy, balance and – despite a lick of juicy sweetness on entry – there’s a sense of savouriness. 95 Drink 2018-2023

Burn Cottage, Riesling-Grüner Veltliner, Central Otago 2015

This 54% Riesling, 46% Grüner blend is a rich and pristine style; its edges are starting to soften with time in bottle. 95 Drink 2018-2020

Trinity Hill, Marsanne-Viognier, Hawkes Bay 2016

Mr Honeysuckle meets Miss Apricot on the Gimblett Gravels in this voluptuous yet well-proportioned Rhôneinspired blend. Aged on lees for a whopping 14 months, the result is a sumptuous, suave expression. 95 Drink 2018-2020

Roger Jones

Jones and his wife Sue own Michelin-starred restaurant The Harrow at Little Bedwyn. He consults, writes and travels extensively, hosting food and wine matching experiences. He set up The Tri Nations Wine Challenge to promote the wines of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, which will take place in Hawkes Bay next year.

Kumeu River, Pinot Gris, Kumeu 2016

More famous for their Chardonnay, but the Brajkovich family certainly knows how to make stylish, elegant, classy wines – and this Pinot Gris is up there with the very best. 96 Drink 2018-2022

Escarpment, Pinot Gris, Martinborough 2015

I have known Larry ‘McPinot’ McKenna for many years and this Pinot Gris showcases his capacity to make stunning white wines too – and at a great value price. 95 Drink 2018-2024

Burn Cottage, Riesling-Grüner Veltliner, Central Otago 2015

Farmed biodynamically on a tiny site where it was not suitable to plant Pinot Noir. Rich and energetic, this wine will age beautifully. Ted Lemon of Littorai is the consultant winemaker here. 95 Drink 2018-2020

Alternative New Zealand whites: the facts

White plantings in 2017 Sauvignon Blanc 22,230ha; Chardonnay 3,114ha; Pinot Gris 2,369ha; Riesling 721ha; Gewürztraminer 229ha; Sauvignon Gris 109ha; Viognier 97ha; Semillon 46ha; Grüner Veltliner 44ha; Muscat varieties 31ha; Albariño 28ha; Arneis 23ha; Chenin Blanc 21ha; Pinot Blanc 9ha; Verdelho 7ha

Total New Zealand vineyard size 37,129ha

Wineries 677

Production 253m litres

Sources: NZ Winegrower Annual Reports: Vineyard Register Report 2017-2020

New Zealand: know your vintages

2017 Difficult season with poor summer. Wet and warm autumn led to botrytis pressure. Early picked crops were most successful. A very small crop in Central Otago.

2016 Record crop. Warm, often humid. Harvest period was dry and sunny. Excellent whites and highly attractive reds.

2015 Dry and warm. Small, low-yielding crop after cool flowering. Ripe, perfumed and fully flavoured wines.

2014 Record early vintage. Warm summer with little disease pressure. Excellent across the board.

2013 Touted as the vintage of a lifetime with a warm, incredibly dry summer and autumn. Concentrated, ripe wines across the North and South Islands.

2012 Cool summer led to a late harvest with slow ripening of whites. Intense, vivacious whites, but too cool for later-ripening reds.

Top alternative New Zealand whites from the panel tasting:

View all the tasting notes & scores from the panel tasting

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Mature New Zealand wines from the cellar

Efforts to seek out and preserve old-vine Chenin Blanc are currently reaping rewards for South Africa’s winemakers. Tim Atkin MW finds out how one of the country’s oldest varieties has become its newest source of world-class wines...

The Cape winelands is one of the most beautiful vineyard regions in the world, all craggy peaks, sweeping vistas and cobalt blue skies.

By these dramatic, almost cinematic standards, the Mev (Mrs) Kirsten vineyard is something of a disappointment. Situated in the Jonkershoek Valley, close to the untidy urban sprawl of Stellenbosch, it has none of the grandeur of some of South Africa’s greatest crus.

And yet this 0.7ha parcel of Chenin Blanc is undeniably special, a distinction that’s reflected in its historical importance as well as the quality of its wine.

Scroll down to see Tim’s pick of the best South African old vine Chenin Blanc

‘It’s a small vineyard, but it’s the one that ignited my love of old vineyards,’ says Sadie Family winemaker Eben Sadie, whose Old Vine Series includes some of South Africa’s best whites and reds.‘I like the fact that I can’t predict what it’s going to do from one year to the next. It has a way of breathing in the city light. It’s like Stellenbosch is present in the wine.’

First made by Sadie in 2006, Mev Kirsten dates to 1905 and is the Cape’s most venerable Chenin block, even if vines have been added and replaced since. It is also, Sadie says, ‘the vineyard that created the wave’.

Three waves actually:

• for site-specific Chenin Blancs
• for old vines
• and (more of a ripple than a breaker) for more ambitious pricing of Cape wines

Sadie wasn’t the first in South Africa to take Chenin seriously. Ken Forrester’s The FMC – a self-confident attempt to ‘make the best wine in the world and sell it at the same price as a top Chardonnay’ – was released in 2000, two years after its eponymous owner had founded the Chenin Blanc Association of South Africa.

But Mev Kirsten ignited a new level of interest in one of the country’s oldest cultivars.

We don’t know for certain, but the variety known as Steen or Stein may have arrived in the Cape as early as the 17th century, although it wasn’t until 1963 that Professor CJ Orffer, of Stellenbosch University, identified it as Chenin Blanc.

Antiquity isn’t the same thing as nobility, however. For much of its history, Chenin was dismissed as a ‘workhorse grape’, good only for bulk wine production. Numerically at least, Chenin is the Cape’s leading grape, with 18.5% of its 95,775ha.

It overtook Semillon in the 1950s thanks to the KWV (Koöperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging), which controlled quotas and planting rights under the National Party and encouraged farmers to plant Chenin widely, often for brandy production.

That’s why it’s grown all over the Cape and why, almost by default, it accounts for a disproportionately large number of the 1,377 vineyards over 35 years old; the definition of a heritage vineyard, according to South African Wine Industry Information and Systems.

Heritage vineyards

It’s worth pausing here to say something about old vines in general and, more specifically, about the work of Rosa Kruger and her recently relaunched Old Vine Project (OVP).

By the standards of Spain, Italy or France, not to mention California, Australia and parts of South America, the Cape does not have a lot of ancient vineyards. Kruger estimates that there are only 2,644ha that ‘could make wine with a special character and purity’, although a further 4,000ha are between 30 and 35 years old.

There are two main reasons for this comparative paucity: viruses, especially leaf roll virus, shorten a vine’s lifespan and economics. Once a vineyard dips below a certain yield, farmers are tempted to pull it out in a country where grape prices are still low.

Old vines are a precious resource in South Africa, and one that the OVP is committed to preserving. Kruger has been cataloguing these special sites since 2002 and published her first list in 2014, adding to it as further parcels emerge.

‘As people have become aware of these heritage vineyards, they’ve stopped pulling them out,’ she says. The key is to encourage more cooperatives to join the OVP’s 35 members.

‘That’s where most of the old vines are,’ adds Kruger, ‘and many of the wines they produce disappear into blends. The encouraging thing is that the cooperatives are starting to put them aside and vinify them separately.’

How much of this is Chenin Blanc? André Morgenthal of the OVP believes that it’s about 53%, although no one knows for sure. The Cape’s most ancient blocks are planted with Cinsault, Muscat or, in the case of Sadie’s ’T Voetpad in the Swartland, a field blend of white varieties, including Palomino and Semillon, but Chenin is the largest source of old-vine wines overall.

It’s also significant that many of the best Chenin Blanc producers have joined the OVP, including Alheit Vineyards, Anthonij Rupert, David & Nadia, DeMorgenzon, Hogan, Huis van Chevallerie, Gabriëlskloof, Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines, Reyneke and The Sadie Family Wines.

Others, such as AA Badenhorst, Beaumont, Botanica Wines, Kaapzicht, Ken Forrester, Longridge, Mulderbosch, Patatsfontein, Raats, Rall, Spier, Spioenkop and Stellenrust are outside the fold, either because they don’t have vines that qualify for heritage status, or because they can’t face ‘another feast of paperwork’, according to Forrester.

The 35-year hurdle is arbitrary in some respects. Is Donovan Rall’s Ava Chenin less good because it’s made from 20-year-old vines? Not in my book, but you have to set the bar somewhere and 35 is still comparatively young.

Fine wine ethos

Chenin Blanc is a grape variety with many faces, capable of making wines in a variety of styles. In fact, one of its advantages as a workhorse grape is its versatility and drinkability. Chris Alheit of Alheit Vineyards says that Chenin is less forgiving than some people imagine – the picking window can be as narrow as two days in some sites – and that the best examples need to be handled like any fine wine. For that, in essence, is what top Chenin has become in the space of a decade.

Chenin now commands some of the highest prices (up to R20,000 a ton in the case of Alheit’s Radio Lazarus, which is more than twice the rate for Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon) and is slowly changing the game. ‘People are all over old-vine Chenin Blanc like spider monkeys,’ he says.

Talking to some of the best Chenin growers, it’s clear that this is not before time.

South Africa’s wine industry is in a parlous state right now because of low yields (partly due to the drought of the last three years) and equally low grape prices. No wonder farmers are desperate or switching to other crops, such as citrus fruit or rooibos (redbush) tea. Even a famous grower such as Henk Laing, who sells to Botanica Wines, Fram and Savage from his farm on the West Coast, says, ‘I couldn’t survive from selling grapes alone’.

Christa von La Chevallerie, who is the most awarded grower in the Swartland, supplies grapes to Alheit, Rall, Chris and Andrea Mullineux, Peter-Allan Finlayson and Leon Coetzee of The Fledge & Co – as well as making a sparkling wine and (since 2017) a still Chenin Blanc called Nuwedam under her own Huis van Chevallerie brand.

She told me that one farmer in Villiersdorp in the Overberg makes more from windfall pears than grapes. Von La Chevallerie gets a much better price for her sought-after Chenin, of course, but even she says that what she’s paid barely covers her costs, so low are the yields on her farm.

People who buy from von La Chevallerie might disagree, but Kruger thinks Basie van Lill is the best Chenin grower in South Africa.

‘It’s like he knows each of his vines personally,’ she says. Small, wiry and devoted to his wife and business partner, Rita, Basie would be a millionaire if he lived in Napa or Burgundy, but here on the West Coast, he lives a simple life.

His 22ha on Citrusdal Mountain supply grapes for two of the country’s most celebrated whites: Sadie’s Skurfberg and Alheit’s Magnetic North Mountain Makstok. The celebrity hasn’t changed his approach: hard work, long hours, filigree attention to detail.

What makes this site so special? It’s partly diurnal variation, partly altitude (550m) and partly the marked ocean breezes. The soils here are sandstone over clay, the vines dry farmed, naturally fertilised and very old.

But taste the Sadie and Alheit wines side by side, produced from blocks that are a few hundred metres apart, and you can see that the hand of the winemaker plays a role too. Skurfberg uses grapes from two other sites, so it’s a less pure expression of the van Lill farm, but they are both remarkable old-vine whites.

Golden age

The quality of the best Chenin Blancs has never been better. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that we are living in a golden age for this most distinctive South African import and that Chenin, along with Chardonnay, is one of the Cape’s two best white grapes.

The key areas, where many of the oldest vines are to be found, are Citrusdal Mountain, Stellenbosch and the Swartland, but I’ve had outstanding Chenins from Bot River, Breedekloof, Elgin, Montagu, Olifants River, Piekenierskloof and Robertson over the past 12 months.

Many of these are made from old vines – well, old for South Africa – but that’s not their only defining feature. Soil type (sandstone, granite, shale, ferricrete and clay among others), altitude, oak source and age, picking dates, proximity to the ocean, lees contact and residual sugar levels all have an influence too, as does the thumbprint of the winemaker.

And yet, all things considered, old-vine Chenin seems to have an extra dimension of flavour, focus and intensity. Mrs Anna Kirsten, who passed away in April 2015, will live on, both in the Stellenbosch vineyard that bears her name and in the timeless, world-class wine it produces.

Tim’s pick of the best South African old-vine Chenin Blancs

Tim Atkin MW is an award-winning wine writer and leading commentator on the Cape. He publishes an annual report on its wines at www.timatkin.com

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What makes this a wine legend?

Wine Legend: Domaine Huet, Le Haut Lieu 1947, Vouvray, Loire, France

Quantity produced: 4,000 bottles

Composition: 100% Chenin Blanc

Yield: 7 hectolitres per hectare

Alcohol level: 12.4%

Residual sugar: 90g/l

Price on release: N/A UK

Price today: £620

A legend because…

It has entranced so many tasters over the years. ‘It is the wine that made me fall in love with Vouvray, Chenin Blanc and the Loire,’ says Loire expert and author Jacqueline Friedrich. Vouvray comes in various styles, but its greatest, most long-lived expression is the sweet style known as ‘€moelleux’€. Given the northerly climate of the Loire Valley, truly great moelleux vintages are rare. Thus, between 1976 and 1985 no sweet wines were produced at Domaine Huet. By any account 1947 was exceptional, easily the best vintage since 1928.

Looking back

In 1947, the Vouvray AC had only been in existence for 11 years. Although larger today, Le Haut Lieu was then a 4-hectare site -€ the other single vineyards were not acquired until the 1950s. The 1947 vintage came only shortly after the winemaker, Gaston Huet (see below), had escaped from a Silesian prisoner of war camp in Calais, and walked back to find a devastated cellar and vineyard.

The people

Huet’€s parents bought the estate in 1928. A revered figure, Huet was mayor of Vouvray from 1947 to 1989, and supervised well over 60 vintages at the domaine, remaining active until his death in 2002. His son, a photographer, had no interest in taking over the management of the domaine, so it passed into the hands of Huet’€s son-in-law, Noöl Pinguet. Pinguet had already been involved in running Domaine Huet for some years, and converted its vineyards to biodynamism in 1990.

The vintage

1947 was a very hot year, and climatic conditions in the autumn were hospitable to the development of botrytis. The harvest began on 13 October, which was relatively early. There were two pickings at Le Haut Lieu to harvest the moelleux grapes -€ the first on 15 and 16 October and the second on 21 and 22 October.

The terroir

Domaine Huet is composed of a few single vineyards that are almost always vinified, aged and bottled separately. They are Le Mont, Clos du Bourg and Le Haut Lieu. All three are capable of producing fine sweet wines, but Le Haut Lieu usually makes the most exquisite. The soil here is very deep clayey limestone -€ a rather heavy soil that generally leads to a suppleness in the wine.

The wine

After harvesting, the grapes were pressed in a vertical press, and the must fermented in 600-litre barrels in the domaine’€s cellar, which is tunnelled into the limestone rock and benefits from an even temperature of 18°C. There was no malolactic fermentation and the wine was bottled in April 1948. It had an alcoholic degree of 12.4%, and 90 grams per litre of residual sugar, which is relatively low by modern standards but in 1947 would have been considered high. Huet said simply of the 1947: ‘€It is the best wine I ever made.’€

The reaction

There was no contemporary response to the wine since it was not offered for sale until the 1970s and even then was only presented to the domaine’€s top clients. Michael Broadbent last tasted the wine in 1997, noting in Vintage Wine: ‘€Medium-deep warm amber with gold highlights; a deeply honeyed bouquet, dried apricots and vanilla; still deliciously sweet, rich, like crème brûlée, excellent acidity and overall condition.’€

Stephen Brook tasted the wine in 1985, recording: ‘An exceptionally beautiful wine: although rich in colour, aroma, and taste, there is nothing heavy about it, simply because the balance is impeccable.’€

Retasting the wine with Huet in 1998, Brook discerned aromas of ‘€caramelised oranges and tropical fruit’€ but while the palate was sweet and concentrated, it ‘€lacks some intensity and flair and shows some signs of maderisation’€. As with all old wines, bottle variation is inevitable. Pinguet notes that the wine today is deep amber in colour with a touch of gold, and aromas of caramel, tobacco, quince jelly, and bitter oranges. For anyone lucky enough to hold a bottle, he recommends serving it with a blue cheese that is neither too mild nor too strong, such as a Fourme d’€Ambert.

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More wine legends:

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How much do you know about this versatile grape that has made a name for itself in the Loire and South Africa, in particular? Let's find out...

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Jane Anson meets some of the people who put Loire on the fine wine map.

Nicolas Joly’s first words to me, on arrival at la Coulée de Serrant, were ‘Je suis très philosophe’. You almost certainly don’t need that translated – but maybe rather than, ‘I’m very philosophical’, a better summary might be ‘I think deeply about things’.

Whichever translation you prefer, I’m still not entirely sure why he chose it as an opening gambit, but it so exactly encapsulated everything that I knew about him that it seemed perfectly natural as a greeting, followed by the offer of a pot of green tea from South Korea.

And then, a heartbeat later, a wry, ‘Organic. Because what else could it be?’.

I could already tell that the meeting with Joly was not going to disappoint.

The Loire Valley has been under the spotlight over the past week or so, after the bombshell report that Clos Rougeard, that most iconic and seemingly other-worldly of Loire estates, was on the verge of being sold to Martin Bouygues of Bordeaux’s Chateau Montrose. Following Charly Foucault’s death in December 2015, the expectation was that his son Antoine would take over, but it seems that this is not to be the case, and although nothing has yet been finalised, it is clear that the family is divided over the fate of the vineyard.

I know of course the exceptional quality that Bouygues has achieved at Montrose, and Clos Rougeard has more than once been compared to the great estates of Bordeaux for its powerfully impactful wines, its ageing ability and its prices on the secondary market. But in a week when Bonneau de Martray sold a majority stake to Stan Kroenke of Screaming Eagle (the announcements came on the same day, although only one was confirmed), it seemed an awful affront to the small scale, artisan wineries of France. Charly and his brother Nady were the eighth generation at Rougeard, at Bonneau de Martray Jean Charles de la Morinière’s father Jean took over in 1969, but through marriage was related to the Bonneau-Véry family who purchased the estate after the French Revolution. Both are vineyards that many of us love through the simple act of opening their wines and marveling at the results.

So it was a strange time last week to visit two Loire legends – first Joly and then Thierry Germain, who is on record many times saying that Charly Foucault was his own mentor when he moved to the Loire aged 23 in 1991 from, ironically enough, Bordeaux.

The three men – Joly in Savennières, Germain and Foucault in Saumur-Champigny – have been instrumental in the march of the Loire towards exceptional, world-beating quality on their own uncompromising terms. Joly and the Foucault brothers in particular were the two symbols of red and white Loire, Chenin meets Cabernet Franc, the erudite intellectual of La Coulée de Serrant meets the gruffly cheerful, mustached vigneron of Clos Rougeard.

All three are and were true believers in biodynamics. Joly might have an MBA from Columbia and have spent ‘too many years’ as an investment banker, but today he is the spiritual father of this method of farming in the Loire and way beyond. We never did drink that green tea, as we headed straight out into the vineyards, taking first a 4×4 and then a footpath high over the steeply-sloped vines. Along the way we met shire horses, sheep, donkeys, Nantaise cattle, goats and chickens, most given free (at least that was clearly how they saw it) rein through the vines, fulfilling Joly’s belief that the vines draw energy from having animals near them.

Germain’s Domaine de Roches Neuves is also heading towards being a self-sustaining polycultural farm. Here horses work parts of the vines, with the particularly sensitive sections ploughed by hand or with an exceptionally light quad bike specially developed by Germain that weighs less than half his shire horses. Joly might approve of that – at Coulée de Serrant for the past two years he has stopped even horses to avoid any compaction of the soil at all and instead uses sheep to keep the grass and cover crops in check in the winter – and heads out with sheers twice a year to cut back anything extra by hand.

Both visits were exhilarating and challenging. Joly showed me the tuning forks he taps against the barrels to control volatile acidity. Germain showed me the Georgian amphoras he has buried in the winery floor, and the incredible experiments he is undertaking with Chenin Blanc aged in a solera system. Perfect visits to mark the start of a new year in wine, and to underline that, come what may in terms of ownership, the desire to push boundaries in the Loire is alive and well.

Wines to Try

Nicolas Joly, Clos de La Bergerie, AOC Savannières Roches aux Moines 2014

Known as the Coulée de Serrant’s little sister, this is a beautiful expression of Chenin Blanc. An explosion of flavours in the mouth, a sphere of orange blossom, white truffles, saffron and rich lemons. There is a multitude of flavour here, complex like you can barely believe, and yet each one is expressed with delicacy and finesse. Joly says he loves wines that ‘cast a light as they go’, and the poetry of that phrase makes total sense here. Indigenous yeasts and although under 10ppm of sulphur added, it’s remarkably stable – the wine we drank here had been open for 8 days and yet still tasted fresh and full of life. 96 points/ 100.

Domaine des Roches Neuves Clos l’Échelier 2015

A highly sought after walled vineyard purchased by Germain in 2012. The walls are fairly high and offer protection to the Cabernet Franc vines, ensuring a fairly hot, early-ripening terroir. A beautifully crafted wine, this has a certain angularity at first, but give it a few minutes and it reveals its generosity, depth and texture and oh-so-mouthwatering Griotte cherry fruits. There is real hidden power here, you can feel it drawing through the wine, with a tightening on the finish that gives a beautiful point of focus and confidently suggests a long life ahead. 96

And one that might be a little harder to find…

Domaine des Roches Neuves Solera

Okay, to be honest this is not going to be the easiest wine to get hold of. Only 180 or so bottles produced, and maybe 30 left at the estate. But it’s the perfect way to understand just what a restlessly searching winemaker we are dealing with in Thierry Germain. Made in a solera system, first started in 1998 following a mishap with a barrel that developed flor on top, and that made him wonder… There is one on-going in the cellar started in 1997 with 20 vintages in the solera system that he thinks he may bottle in 2027, so get your orders in now. We tried that from the barrel, then back upstairs he opened one that he bottled from the first four vintages (1997-1998-1999-2000) that was then topped up with the 2003 vintage as needed during the solera ageing that continued for 17 years. It was bottled in 2015. How to describe this wine? A mix of bitter orange rind, waxy lemon, sweet mandarin, a haze of spices, a dozen herbs, and a hundred fruits. Could be 100 years old or five years old. All hail to the glory of Chenin. (Points totally meaningless here!)

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Clau de Nell winemaker and manager Sylvain Potin says he is determined to honour the biodynamic legacy of the estate's late co-owner, Anne-Claude Leflaive, and he believes the winery's first commercial vintage of Chenin Blanc from its own vineyards could hardly have come in a better year.

Potin told Decanter.com that he believes Loire 2015 is set to be ‘a beautiful vintage’. It is also the first year that Clau de Nell plans to make a commercial Chenin Blanc from some of its own 1.5 hectares of vines planted in 2012 and 2013.

The move is the latest chapter in the revival story of Clau de Nell which was founded in 2000 in the Anjou area and now produces wine from Cabernet Franc, the local Grolleau grape and also Cabernet Sauvignon.

Financial difficulties meant the biodynamic, Loire estate had not produced wine for three years when it was acquired by the late Anne-Claude Leflaive and her husband, Christian Jacques, in 2008. The pair had established a project to help biodynamic wine estates across France.

Potin, a sommelier-turned-winemaker, joined Clau de Nell a year later. In London this week with Jacques, both told Decanter.com that they were determined to honour Anne-Claude’s memory by pursuing the biodynamic principles that she espoused.

Not that Potin believes biodynamics in itself is the secret to a happy marriage between great wine and environmentally-sound living.

‘For us, it’s about always trying to be more precise,’ Potin says, during a visit to Decanter’s offices in London. He believes biodynamic practices are inextricably bound to this degree of precision in the cellar, as well as acute attentiveness in the vineyard.

‘Everything is re-inforced by biodynamic preparation,’ Potin says. He argues that biodynamic philosophies, and the associated lack of chemical sprays, help vines to build natural resistance to diseases and fungi, such as oidium and mildew.

But, the concept cannot work without close attention to detail. ‘For example, just before a full moon, we know that mushrooms grow easily, so we can prepare treatments for it,’ he says. ‘This is not biodynamics, this is an observation; it is something that many generations have observed before us.’

Does he believe biodynamic methods specifically can be found in the taste of a wine? Potin says his initial feeling is that minerality and an overall sense of freshness can be enhanced in well-made, biodynamically produced wines.

‘It’s harder to know in the Loire, because our location means it’s easier for us to get these qualities [in general]. But, I think in hotter, dryer areas such as Languedoc-Roussillon, you can see this.’

Clau de Nell’s Cabernet Franc 2012 is a fine example of how to combine a distinct freshness and acidity with a core of berry fruit lined by soft tannins. Whether or not biodynamics is making the difference – over and above singular winemaking skill – is something that is likely to continue being debated among critics and producers alike.

Jacques points out that the human and environmental advantages of working with as few chemicals as possible should not be overlooked. ‘The human cost of [conventional vineyard management] is something that people don’t think about enough,’ he says.

When they have, it has proved contentious. Last year, a French court ruled in favour of a vineyard worker who claimed to have been made ill by pesticide exposure.

Biodynamics itself is still very much an emerging phenomenon in the Loire, as it is in several regions. But, there is interest among younger winemakers who have settled in the region – often having arrived there after a different career in the city.

‘Everyone talks to each other in the Loire,’ he says. ‘There are no secrets between winemakers. If someone has a particular quality in their wine, everyone will ask how they achieved it.’

Even so, Potin refuses to be too dogmatic. He won’t, for instance, lay-off the sulphur dioxide altogether, as some self-styled ‘natural wine’ producers do. ‘Our wines do contain some sulphites, but it’s small amounts and always the minimum possible,’ he says. ‘Maybe it’s my sommelier background, but I like my wine to taste like wine,’ he says.

Pilloried in the past, South African Chenin Blanc has had a new lease of life via savvy producers who realise the traditional workhorse can make complex, high-quality wines.

Old-vine Chenin Blanc from South Africa

Delicious dry Chenin Blanc to try

Sarah Ahmed’s top South African Chenin Blanc wines:

What a wonderful expression of Cape Chenin Blanc! For the price, this over-delivers on complexity and intensity, with a fleshy nose of mango, nectarine and a veil of white pepper. There’s a really pleasing, flinty attack to the palate which possesses a concentrated middle, then layers of cream, nuts, honey and peach (13.5%).

Not available in the UK or USA

A rich and eclectic mix of grape varieties, styles and origins made the shortlist for this International Trophy, but in the end a classic South African barrel-fermented Chenin Blanc was the winner. Our judges remarked on its latent richness and creamy, ripe fruit, undercut by decent acidity and great length.

That’s in line with the aim of Perdeberg cellarmaster Albertus Louw to produce a ‘rich and ripe’ style of Chenin, sourced from a single, dry-grown vineyard and fermented in 500-litre French oak barrels.

Perdeberg has accumulated a large collection of old-vine Chenin in the Agter- Paarl area, viewed as the ideal region for the variety. The bush vines remain unirrigated, producing small, concentrated berries out of deep soils with good water retention – a vital quality when you’re waiting for full ripeness before harvest.

This is a place of wet, cold winters and dry, warm summers. But even when the heat is at its most pronounced, the temperature drops significantly in the evenings, giving acidity and balance to the wines. Meanwhile, granite soils help boost acidity, while the high clay content lends structure and backbone.

Albertus Louw is the winemaker at Perdeberg – a specialist in dry-farmed, old-vine Chenin

Tasted against

Domaine Martin, Monnières-St-Fiacre, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Loire, France 2010 • Finca de los Arandinos, Viero, Rioja, Spain 2013 • Monsoon Valley, Colombard, Hua Hin Hills, Thailand 2014 • Mount Pleasant, Elizabeth Semillon, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia 2007 • Quinta de Serrade, Terras de Monção Alvarinho, Monção e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal 2014 • Terrazze della Luna, Nosiola, Trentino, Italy 2014 • Tsiakkas, Xynisteri, Limassol, Cyprus 2014.

'There’s an island spirit here,' said Gérard Bertrand’s viticulturalist Richard Planas, as we toured Limoux together. 'It’s an island inside a continent.' 'If Languedoc was Australia,' -- Jean-Louis Denois took the metaphor a little further -- 'we would be Tasmania.'

All that’s missing is encircling seawater. Instead, the cool Limoux shoreline is defined by altitude (no vineyard lower than 280m, and some which crest 500m), aspect (more east- and west-facing aspects than southerly ones) and wind (from the north-west). It’s a substantial wine island, though: Limoux in fact has four times as much land under vineyard as Tasmania (7,800 ha compared to 1,800 ha).

Most of that, of course, is used for the often admirable sparkling wines I wrote about last November, and which claim sixteenth-century antecedents. There are, though, still wines here too, of much more recent date. Production levels may be smaller (under 250 ha) but there is much to intrigue the curious drinker.

What most wine lovers know about Limoux’s whites, in part thanks to the success of the co-operative Sieur d’Arques ‘Toques et Clochers’ charity auction, is that the appellation regulations require them to be barrel-fermented. This innovation dates from the revision of Limoux’s still-white-wine AOC in 1993, the same moment at which Chenin and Chardonnay joined the traditional Mauzac as approved varieties, and was a brave move, given the cost implications. In the early years, it did indeed result in some over-oaky whites, but since neither the age of the oak nor the size of the barrel is specified, that moment has passed: you could use five-year-old 600-litre casks if you want, and the oak would be barely palpable. (Some in the region are agitating to have this requirement abandoned.)

It’s those varietal possibilities, in fact, rather than barrel fermentation which gives Limoux whites their key interest and confirms their ‘island’ status: no one else in southern France can do anything remotely similar while still producing appellation wine.

Most choose to work with Chardonnay. If you can imagine Chablis with a bigger bone structure mixed with 20 per cent dry Jurançon, you won’t be far off the best: their acid structure is definitely to the fore, but the sun of south develops more overt fruit flavours than you get further north. Gérard Bertrand’s Domaine de l’Aigle (once an investment by Burgundy’s Antonin Rodet) provides a benchmark, though the high-altitude, prestige Aigle Royale seems a little overworked and in 2013 I prefer the straight Limoux Chardonnay. Denois’ own Domaine de la Borde Longue may well be the finest crafted of all (the 2012 Sainte Marie is balanced, vinous and classical), and the chance to taste a small vertical of Chardonnays from Domaine de Mouscaillo showed that Limoux whites can age well: the 2006 and 2011 were both poised, fresh, pithy whites, impressively preserved.

Personally, I’m less impressed with the Chenin Blanc whites, though local growers love the variety’s acid-retention abilities (‘it can take you 500 km north of here,’ says Denois, as well as ‘dissolving the taste of the barrique’). A pure-Mauzac is an act of daring, as it’s not easy to sell, but the two I tried on my visit were both fascinating: the 2013 Occitania from Rives Blanques was far more complex than the ‘appley’ reputation of Mauzac would suggest (green plum and summer vegetables, as well as some welcome cream from lees contact), while former rugby-player Franck Schisano’s 2012 Consolament was no less impressive, though more secondary, with a vinous, almost honeyed palate, showing the expressive width of the variety. Blends, too, can be exciting, especially Rives Blanque’s prestige La Trilogie: the 2012 was subtle and complete as well as lively and svelte – and how often can you say that about a Languedoc white?

When you come to the red wines of Limoux, though, this is an island in scission, like Cyprus. The red AOC dates from 2004, and came into being thanks to the elegant, kid-gloved clout of the late Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, who had purchased an estate at St-Polycarpe (re-named Baron’arques), initially to make red wine. It seemed to the Rothschild team that the kind of Atlantic-Mediterranean hybrid blend also used in nearby Cabardès and Malpére was right for Limoux: the final mix chosen was 50 per cent Merlot mixed with Malbec, Syrah and Grenache (30 per cent minimum) and smaller quantities of the two Cabernets and Carignan. The red wines of Baron’arques have been excellent: real finesse from the Languedoc, where that can be an elusive quality, though they are very hard wines to place in a blind tasting.

Other growers, though, increasingly favour Pinot Noir for still red Limoux – despite the fact that this has to go to market as IGP Haute Vallée de l’Aude. ‘If we were doing the appellation regulations all over again,’ says Richard Planas, who worked on drawing up the original set of rules, ‘I would make Limoux Rouge a Pinot Noir AOC’. The singing quality of Pinot Noir fruit in Limoux can be impressive, and the wines are authentically pale, poised, fresh and lively: perhaps the best shot with this variety from anywhere in France south of the Chalonnais (with more depth and tenacity than most examples from the Auvergne, and better natural articulation than Corsican Pinot). Aigle and Mouscaillo both make good examples.

I have two reservations about both Limoux whites and Haute Vallée de l’Aude Pinot Noirs, though. The first is that they are often over-acidic and lack balancing softness and charm. (Maybe this is because producers are accustomed to seeking and sustaining acidity levels for sparkling base wines, which need an edgier balance than still wines.)

And the second is the quality they share, in fact, with many other Languedoc wines: a faintly bitter finish. In a classic Languedoc red, this either passes unnoticed, or is liked, since it is easy to assign it to the ‘herbal, garriguey’ side of the Languedoc character. In the high-altitude, fruited limpidity of Limoux, though, a bitter note tends to stand out more, or bond ungratefully with the pronounced acidity. These attractive wines would be better off without both of these minor blemishes.

Like Marmite, we might have to agree to disagree when it comes to our own tolerance for wine faults. Either way, love them or hate them, it’s useful to know more about the ‘flaws’ you may encounter, says Natasha Hughes MW

Back in the early 1990s, an awful lot of column inches were devoted to discussing the tiny mole situated above supermodel Cindy Crawford’s lip. Many believed that this tiny flaw elevated Crawford beyond mere prettiness and into the realm of the truly striking. As it is with supermodels, so it is with wine.

Over the course of the past couple of decades, thanks in large part to a growing awareness of the science required for precision viticulture and vinification, squeaky-clean wines are now produced on a consistent basis. But while technical perfection has become the new norm, a growing number of wine lovers have come to believe that these wines are utterly soulless.

Flawlessness is dismissed in favour of wines this group might describe as having character – but which others believe to be actively faulty. Tolerance levels are dictated, in part, by individual sensitivity to particular molecules, but in some cases ideological factors have a part to play as well. (The battle is at its peak when the words ‘natural wine’ are invoked.) It all rather begs the question of where you draw your own personal line between fault, flaw and quirk of personality.

Whatever position you take on the issue, there is a widespread acknowledgement that there are four main ‘flaws’ that still occur with a fair degree of regularity and which some wine lovers believe have a contribution to make in terms of increasing a wine’s complexity.

Natasha Hughes MW is a freelance wine and food writer and consultant

Written by Natasha Hughes MW

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Like Marmite, we might have to agree to disagree when it comes to our own tolerance for wine faults. Either way, love them or hate them, it’s useful to know more about the ‘flaws’ you may encounter, says Natasha Hughes MW

Wine faults: Oxidation

The relationship between oxygen and wine is an ambivalent one. The gentle introduction of oxygen to a wine during the maturation process – through the microscopic pores in a wooden barrel, for instance, or via the technique of micro-oxygenation – can help to lend a wine mid-palate weight and soften tannins.

Too much oxygen, though, results in oxidation. Affected wines are easy to spot: their colour is less vibrant (often with a brownish tinge) than you might expect given their age. One sniff or sip will confirm the diagnosis: there’s little freshness or bright fruit, and the finish is often marked by a bitter, drying character.

Oxygen can attack wines at any stage during their fermentation, maturation and storage (especially if the cork doesn’t provide an airtight seal). And yet not all oxidation is the result of a mistake. Many fortified wines – tawny Ports, palo cortado, amontillado and oloroso Sherries, Rutherglen Muscats and Topaques from Australia and the traditional sweet wines of Banyuls and Maury among them – rely on oxygen to create their hallmark flavour profiles. Madeira is another oxidised style of wine, though the term maderisation (which implies heating as well as exposure to oxygen) is more precise, albeit a little pedantic.

Some table wines, too, have traditionally had a whiff (or more) of oxygen about them (although not to the same extent as the overtly oxidised fortified wines). You’re most likely to find these wines in Old World regions where custom dictates that the wines spend prolonged periods in oak, often without the benefit of regular topping up, which helps keep oxygen at bay. These wines bear many oxidative characteristics – notes of nuts, dried fruits, beeswax and honey, for instance, as well as more obviously sherried (aldehydic) undertones. Happy hunting grounds – if you like this style – include Rioja (both whites and reds), Jura, Chenin Blancs from the Loire, Italy (particularly Piedmont and Montalcino) and the southern Rhône.

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Like Marmite, we might have to agree to disagree when it comes to our own tolerance for wine faults. Either way, love them or hate them, it’s useful to know more about the ‘flaws’ you may encounter, says Natasha Hughes MW

Wine faults: Reduction

While certain grapes – Grenache, in particular – are predisposed towards oxidation, other varieties head in the opposite direction, towards reduction. According to a strict chemical definition, reduction is a process that involves the loss of electrons, but in the context of wine the use of the term suggests the presence of volatile sulphur compounds.

Grapes that are particularly prone to reduction include Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc, especially when wines made from these grapes are vinified or stored in ways that preclude exposure to oxygen. (Screwcaps have a particularly strong reductive influence on wines unless steps are taken at bottling to adjust conditions accordingly.) Wines that have had prolonged lees contact during the course of their maturation often acquire reductive characteristics as the dead yeasts have a potent antioxidative effect.

At their most extreme, reductive characters can take the form of off-putting aromas such as rotten eggs or boiled cabbage, but a bit of gentle reduction can add complexity. The struck match character associated with some barrel-fermented Chardonnays or Semillon-Sauvignon blends is a reductive one, as are the smoky/gunflint aromas of many Sauvignon Blancs. Indeed, some characters often described as being ‘mineral’ are, in fact, reductive notes.

Californian winemaker Jamie Kutch believes that a small amount of reduction can benefit barrel-aged whites (particularly Chardonnays) enormously. ‘In modest amounts, it makes my senses come alive,’ he says. ‘If done correctly, it can create a wine whose complexity exceeds any wine without it. Drinking such a wine can be an outright religious experience!’

Not everyone is a fan, though. Philippe Dulong, consultant winemaker for Chateau Brown, actively takes steps to avoid reduction in his wines. ‘That reductive thiol character masks a wine’s fruit,’ he explains, ‘and I do everything I can to ensure that my wines are all about purity of fruit.’

If, like Dulong, you’re not keen on reduction, you might like to know that reductive wines can often be rescued by exposing them to air in a decanter. Dropping a copper coin into a glass of reductive wine and swirling it about often improves matters, too – not to mention that looks quite impressive, in a nerdy kind of way.

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Like Marmite, we might have to agree to disagree when it comes to our own tolerance for wine faults. Either way, love them or hate them, it’s useful to know more about the ‘flaws’ you may encounter, says Natasha Hughes MW

Wine faults: Brettanomyces

‘Great Burgundy,’ Anthony Hanson MW wrote in the 1982 edition of Burgundy, ‘smells of shit. Not always, of course, but frequently there is a smell of decaying matter, vegetable or animal, about them.’ While Pinot Noir rarely smells of faecal matter these days, thankfully, it is entirely possible that at least a part of the aromatic profile that Hanson was referring to was derived from the presence of brettanomyces.

Brettanomyces (or brett, as it’s often known) is a rogue yeast which thrives in wines with low levels of acidity. Wines are particularly vulnerable to brett when the main yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has died off before fermentation has completely finished, but brett can develop during maturation too – especially when the sulphur dioxide has been used sparingly.

Once brett has established itself in a wine, it produces a cocktail of chemicals that are responsible for its characteristic aromas. Foremost among these are 4-ethylphenol (barnyards, sticking plasters), 4-ethylguiacol (cloves, smoky bacon) and isovaleric acid (sweaty saddles). At high levels, these compounds not only mask a wine’s fruit, they can also leave its finish feeling hard and dry.

Many argue that the presence of a trace of brett can create additional layers of complexity, particularly when the emphasis is on the spicy, smoky bacon end of brett’s aromatic spectrum. ‘As long as brettanomyces is not overly obvious, I think it can add complexity and interest,’ says Steve Webber, the winemaker for De Bortoli in Australia. ‘Personally, I like it in savoury, rustic red wines.’ Generally speaking, though, the presence of brett is less acceptable in delicate Pinot Noir-based wines than it might once have been.

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Like Marmite, we might have to agree to disagree when it comes to our own tolerance for wine faults. Either way, love them or hate them, it’s useful to know more about the ‘flaws’ you may encounter, says Natasha Hughes MW

Wine faults: Undeniable flaws

A chemical by the name of 2, 4, 6- trichloroanisole, or TCA, cops most of the blame for cork taint. The truth is there’s a whole family of compounds that can cause a wine to smell musty, or at the very least mask its fruit.

If you thought you might have detected an aroma similar to root vegetables in recent vintages of Loire Sauvignon Blanc or Muscadet, you’re not wrong. Vineyards in this region (and parts of Chablis, Bordeaux and Beaujolais) have been affected by geosmin, an earthy character derived from fungal infections.

Although some wines – particularly light, crisp whites such as Vinho Verde and young Rieslings – have a prickle of spritz on the palate, no still wine should contain bubbles. If yours does, the chances are that the wine still had some residual sugar and yeast left in it at the time of bottling, and is now refermenting in the bottle.

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