If you attend enough wine tastings and seminars, it becomes pretty clear that all winemakers everywhere think that their wines are truly fabulous–or that they are commercially obliged to say so even if they know better. So, whenever I’m at a panel presentation and some winemaker issues a proclamation that he grows the “World’s Greatest Grape,” and that he grows it in the variety’s “Optimal Terroir,” I confess that my natural tendency is to roll my eyes and reach for my BlackBerry…or to roll up my sleeves and prepare for argument if the claim seems particularly egregious.
However, I attended a workshop last week where a winemaker made a claim roughly equivalent to the one I’ve parodied above–but was then backed up impressively by the wines being presented.
The event was one of a series of “WOSA Wine Workshops” being presented around the world by Wines of South Africa, and this panel in Washington, DC included four winemakers showing a dozen renditions of Chenin Blanc. The panel was led off by Ken Forrester, who is known
for excellent wines but not for an overly reserved personality. The upshot of his introductory remarks was that Chenin Blanc is the world’s greatest white wine variety, and that the grape, which thrives in a cool sunshine, is at its very best in South Africa.
That is a severely concise paraphrasing of his remarks, but not an unfair one. Forrester was a bit more diplomatic than I’ve suggested here, noting in response to a question that Loire Valley Chenins can be fabulous when France’s capricious weather chooses to cooperate. Still, the clear subtext of the remark was that South African Chenins are the qualitative equals of their French cousins from appellations like Vouvray, Savennieres and Quarts de Chaume, but more consistent thanks to a more hospitable climate in South Africa.
This is just the sort of Big Claim that stirs up my biological fight-or-flight response, but the wines following it were so bloody good that nobody in the audience (including me) was inclined to argue the point or check out of the tasting.
The session was entitled “Chenin Blanc’s Diversity,” and diversity was indeed on display. The younger, leaner, simpler renditions of the grape showed great freshness and vivacity but also impressive breadth and depth on the palate. Ken Forrester’s own “Petit Chenin” bottling from 2010 was a delicious case in point, as were the wines from the same vintage by Bellingham and Mulderbosch.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, rich dessert-style renditions also showed beautifully, with Kanu Kia-Ora Noble Late Harvest 2006 and De Trafford “Straw Wine” 2007 both exhibiting an impressive intricacy of flavor and structure.
However, by my lights the best backers for the Big Claim were the essentially dry wines made from old vines with a little influence from oak and yeast lees. Three eye-popping cases in point were The Bernard Series Old Vine 2010; De Morgenzon 2007, and Ken Forrester “FMC” 2009. All three were generously fruited with layered flavors but still fresh and focused by lacy, mouth-watering acidity that energized the amazingly long finishes of the wines. I scored all three wines in a range between 92 and 95 points, and though they didn’t quite show the minerality of a great Chenin from Savennieres, they were richer and deeper and equally nuanced.
I’ve been fortunate to taste many Chenins from South Africa during three trips to the Cape region, but always in a sporadic manner rather than in a seated, focused tasting such as this recent one in Washington–which left me as impressed at the end as I was skeptical at the outset. I’m not quite ready to sign on to the Big Claim just yet, but I’m certainly resolved to continue testing it at every available opportunity.
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