Hello,
Do you know the grape variety that can do everything?
Chenin Blanc. Bone-dry with chalk on the tongue, creamy off-dry, sparkling wine, dessert wine – no other white grape variety commands such a spectrum (except perhaps Riesling). And no other stores vintages so precisely: Each bottle is a calendar page. Seven bottles, seven entries.
We begin where one least expects Chenin – in Roussillon.
The Outlier: Chenin from Roussillon
Chenin Blanc and Roussillon? That sounds like a translation error. The grape variety belongs on the Loire, on tuffeau and chalk. But at the Majas estate in Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes, high in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Chenin grows on schist and volcanic rock. The family has farmed 30 hectares here since the 19th century. In 2007, Tom Lubbe arrived – the man behind Matassa – and brought change: radical yield reduction, biodynamic conversion, wines that taste of the place where they grow.
Chenin by Majas IGP 2024
Chenin Blanc · Roussillon · ca. 14 €
11.5% alcohol – in southern France, that's a statement. Whilst all around Grenache Blanc emerges from the tank at 14%, Majas makes a Chenin that tastes of mountain air and wet schist. Mediterranean Chenin Blanc for 14 euros: fresh, lean, with a salinity that recalls the Loire – even though the nearest tuffeau is 800 kilometres away.
Loire: The Homeland
On the Loire, Chenin Blanc is still called 'Pineau de la Loire'. The grape variety has been documented here since the 9th century. It loves tuffeau, chalk, cool morning mists – and winemakers who give it time. Three estates, three philosophies, one common denominator: With Chenin Blanc, the soil does the work. The élevage takes a back seat.
Les Pieds Rôtis AOP 2023 – Château de Coulaine
Chenin Blanc · Chinon · ca. 17 €
A Gothic château, ninth generation since 1300, Jean de Bonnaventure at the helm. In 1997, he had the estate certified organic as the first in the appellation – when the neighbours were still spraying Roundup. 'Les Pieds Rôtis' is the house's only white wine: a single vineyard, 40-year-old vines. Quince, oyster shell, anise – chalk and salt that unfold ever further in the glass.
Domaine Huet: The Legend
For 55 years, Gaston Huet made Chenin Blanc in Vouvray and called the grape variety 'la vigne du clair de lune' – the vine of moonlight. The estate, founded in 1928, has carried the Demeter seal since 1993, at a time when biodynamics was still a dirty word in France. Three sites, three world-class terroirs: Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont, Clos du Bourg. Each site produces sec, demi-sec and moelleux – depending on the vintage. The vines decide, not the winemaker.
Le Haut-Lieu sec 2024 – Domaine Huet
Chenin Blanc · Vouvray · ca. 33 €
Le Haut-Lieu is the warmest of the three Huet sites, south-facing, on clay and gravel over tuffeau. The 2024 Sec shows Chenin in its tautest form: Green apple, pear, quince, acacia blossom – and a chalky minerality that positively scrubs the palate. This wine doesn't please – it demands. Ten years' ageing potential, at least.
Le Mont Moelleux 2023 – Domaine Huet
Chenin Blanc · Vouvray · ca. 45 €
And now the proof that Chenin can be both sweet and deadly serious: 74 grams of residual sugar, on paper a dessert wine – but in the glass the acidity cuts through the sugar like a scalpel. Quince, kumquats, mango, brown sugar, smoke – and a tension between sweetness and acidity that develops over decades. Le Mont is the coolest Huet site, shaped by silex pebbles. Anyone who thinks sweet wines are kitsch hasn't tried this one yet.
Vouvray Pétillant Brut 2017 – Domaine Huet
Chenin Blanc · Vouvray · ca. 30 €
And with that, the spectrum is complete: Huet also makes sparkling wine from Chenin – using the Méthode Traditionnelle, with second fermentation in the bottle. Seven years on the lees. Candied ginger, acacia honey, quince – and a chalky minerality that distinguishes the wine from Champagne whilst making it equally worthy. Anyone who thinks sparkling wine must come from Champagne hasn't tried this one yet.
Two Outsiders, Two Masterpieces
That the finest Chenin Blancs don't always come from long-established Loire dynasties is proven by these two wines: a Burgundian who went to Anjou, and a painter who revolutionised Chinon. What unites them: Both read each vintage as an archive of their soil.
Chenin blanc AOC 2022 – Clau de Nell
Chenin Blanc · Anjou · ca. 49 €
Anne-Claude Leflaive – yes, the Leflaive from Puligny-Montrachet – discovered an abandoned estate in Anjou in 2008 with hundred-year-old vines on tuffeau: 4.5 hectares of Chenin, average age 60 years, under 30 hectolitres per hectare, biodynamic from day one. Since 2009, former sommelier Sylvain Potin has led the estate. Peach, apricot skin, honeydew melon, verbena, saline minerality – a Chenin that tastes of Burgundian ambition, anchored in Loire tuffeau.
Charles Joguet, Chinon – Painter, sculptor, winemaker. 1 hectare of hand-carved tuffeau cellar.
Les Charmes blanc AOC 2022 – Charles Joguet
Chenin Blanc · Chinon · ca. 39 €
Charles Joguet was a painter and sculptor before taking over the family estate in 1957 and revolutionising Chinon – 30 hectares, of which 5 with Chenin Blanc, named by Michel Bettane as 'the finest estate in Chinon'. The cellar alone is a work of art: one hectare, carved by hand into the tuffeau, with less than 0.5 degrees temperature variation. Ripe pear, quince, white blossom, honeydew melon, beeswax – a Chenin with the calm and depth of an artist who knows when the painting is finished.
Seven wines, one grape variety. From 14 to 49 euros, from bone-dry to 74 grams of residual sugar – from Pyrenean schist to Loire tuffeau. Anyone who wants to understand Chenin Blanc should drink their way through this selection.
Discover all Chenin Blanc wines →
Warm regards
David
Living Wines
P.S.: Dry or sweet, young or aged – Chenin Blanc shows its facets best in the Zalto Universal. The only glass that works equally well for the Haut-Lieu sec and the Mont Moelleux. Mouth-blown and dishwasher-safe.
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