Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc

Welcome to Vine to Wine, I’m your host Linda Moran.  I seem to be on a roll lately indulging in the wines of summer. Let’s talk about a great summer wine Chenin Blanc.  

Chenin Blanc is a white grape which likely mutated from a French grape known as Chenin Noir. It has a high acidity and makes everything from dry wines to very sweet dessert wines and sparkling wines and even brandy. It is versatile and grown in many of the major wine producing regions of the world. It expresses terroir readily and that makes it interesting as it will taste quite different depending on where it comes from what the climate is, how that vintage went and of course the how the winemaker treats it. Perhaps the most popular wine made from Chenin Blanc is the French wine Vouvray.  The more sophisticated Vouvray is off-dry and tends to show lovely varietal fruit characters which evolve to honey and floral features as they age. There are also many delightful sparkling Vouvray wines. In the United States it happens to be the one of the top three white grapes planted in California and mostly contributes to the jug or box wine portion of the industry. But don’t get me wrong there are very good wines made from this grape. There are many delicious Chenin Blancs available and in my home state of Washington we make some great ones. If you ask for suggestions from your local wine merchant you just may be surprised. This is a good wine for the summer and lends itself well to many of our tradition summer salads and seafood dishes. Remember to send your wine questions to linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.

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