Judging Chenin Blanc

By Jamie Goode | 22nd October 2014

It was a wet, rather chilly July day in Stellenbosch. We could hear the incessant rain descending from leaden skies, drumming against the roof of the Klein Zalze function room. Normally, I’d find this rather English weather rather depressing while I’m in South Africa (even if it is the South African winter, so it’s forgivable). But this time I didn’t really mind: I was here to do a job, and not a bad one at that. I was judging South Africa’s best Chenin Blancs.

It was the Standard Bank/Chenin Blanc Top 10 Challenge, held at Klein Zalze in Stellenbosch, and I was invited to be overseas judge this year. 126 different wines were entered, and the panel of five, chaired by well-known South African wine writer Christian Eedes, tasted each wine, and then retasted the top 32 wines to select 10 winners.

To an outsider, the thought of spending a couple of days tasting this many wines might seem to be quite an attractive, if slightly daunting prospect. However, it does require a lot of concentration, quite a bit of stamina, and the ability to spit well. Let’s face it: if you swallow even a tiny bit of each wine, then you’d not be in great shape at the end of the day.

The way I see it is that judging wine like this is a great responsibility, because each producer will have put a lot of effort into making a wine that – to you as a judge – is just one of many in a line-up. It’s important that each wine is given a fair chance, and to do this, some degree of rigour is needed. Also, factors such as where the wine appears in a line-up of 30 glasses makes a difference, so to counter this some judges taste odd numbers first, some judges taste backwards and so on. Even so, it’s not a completely objective process: we all have our favoured styles and our own personal palates, so that’s why five judges are involved in reaching a decision. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s as good as it can get.

I’ve written in this column before about Chenin, because it is such an important grape for South Africa. And this tasting confirmed that it’s a variety that does really well here. This should be the most important take-home message. Buy it! It’s usually really great value for money.

But it’s worth noting that Chenin is a chameleon variety, able to make wines in many styles. This is often positive, but it does have a downside: the problem we face when we are in a wine shop or restaurant and we are trying to choose one. We don’t know what to expect unless we know the producer and/or the wine.

The words ‘Chenin Blanc’ on the label don’t give a reliable cue as to what’s in the bottle. Cheap Chenin is simple enough in this regard: it’s almost always made in a fresh, fruity, unoaked style. But for more expensive bottles, where style varies dramatically, some sort of easily understood scale on the bottle would be helpful.

A while back, the Chenin Blanc association decided to do something about this, and broke down Chenin into six different styles, using residual sugar levels as a key factor, in attempt to avoid this consumer confusion.

Fresh & fruity (less than 9 grams/litre residual sugar)
Rich & ripe – unwooded (less than 9 grams/litre residual sugar)
Rich & ripe – wooded (less than 9 grams/litre residual sugar)
Rich & ripe – slightly sweet (between 9 and 30 g/litre residual sugar)
Sweet (more than 30 g/litre residual sugar)
Sparkling (tank fermented or Cap Classique)

Since then, they have started a joint research project with the Institute for Wine Biotechnology and the Sensory Research Unit of The University of Stellenbosch. The objective is to identify the key sensory and chemical features of the various styles (fresh and fruity, rich and ripe, sweet), and then carry out a consumer study, in an attempt to refine this classification to make it a useful practical tool. Having some understandable code on the bottle would be a real help for those of us who want to make an informed choice about our chenin.

So what about the various styles of Chenin? I’ve noticed that quite a few run the risk of being forced into a style that the vineyard can’t easily deliver. A hipster winemaker might admire Loire Chenin Blanc (whatever that is, because as with South Africa, the styles vary massively), but the Western Cape has a very different climate from the Loire. Some of the Chenins we tasted in the competition felt a bit forced: it’s as if the winemaker had a stylistic goal in mind and forced the wine into this. If your vineyard gives you rich wines naturally, then as a winemaker I think you should interpret your site intelligently and make make a good example of the richer style.

There has been a bit of a pendulum swing away from the big, rich styles. I can understand this, but it’s best if the pendulum doesn’t swing too far in the other direction. We should be praising wines for their positive virtues, not awarding them for what they are not. I’m not sticking up for the over-the-top, big, sweet, rich Chenins, but I’m saying that there’s a place in the market for richer wines.

What is it that makes a Chenin highly desirable at the top end? In other words, if you wanted to create an ‘icon’ Chenin (horrible, horrible term, I know), what would it taste like? In the Loire, the most expensive wines are sweeter styles of Vouvray that live forever, and top dry wines such as the best Savennières. These are multidimensional, complex, vital wines that combine richness with concentration and definition. For South Africa, I guess the most expensive Chenin would be Eben Sadie’s old vine series Mev Kirsten. This is a beautifully detailed wine that combines richness with precision. It’s only made in tiny quantities, but this sort of style seems to be the way to go at the very top end.

So which wines won the competition? Here’s the list, and it raised a few eyebrows. Perhaps other wines would have won on another day: there wasn't an awful lot between these and the next 20 wines, all of which were really good. A diversity of styles is represented, which is a good thing. You’ll see from the Rand price (given in brackets) that these wines are all affordable: in South Africa none of them retail for over the equivalent of £10.

Bellingham The Old Orchard's 2013 (R95)
Kleine Zalze Family Reserve 2013 (R141)
KWV The Mentors 2012 (R160)
Perdeberg The Dry Land Collection Barrel Fermented 2013 (R73)
Remhoogte Honeybunch Reserve 2013 (R150)
Rijk’s Cellars Private Cellar 2009
Simonsig Chenin Avec Chêne 2010 (R110)
Spier Woolworths Private Collection 2013 (Woolworths price: R109.95)
Stellenrust 2014 (R44)
Villiera Traditional Barrel Fermented 2014 (R94.50)