Australian Chenin Blanc: 15 of the best bottles available today

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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