Focus on Loire Valley Chenin Blanc

With his wirerim glasses, bushy mustache and graying hair, Jacky Blot might well look his 65 years of age in those photographs featured in wine magazines, but anyone who has bounced with him in a four-wheel drive vehicle through the vineyards would hardly think he was a day older than 21. He oozes a crazy energy in everything he does. Given their vibrancy, his wines must listen. In spite of his age, he is—with younger pioneers like Roman Guiberteau in Saumur and Eric Morgat in Savennières—the new face of chenin blanc.

For most tourists, the gentle stretch of the Loire that flows from Tours to Angers conjures visions of castles, stately manor homes and lazy afternoons on a bicycle tour along one of the river’s many tributaries. For many British, it is their first port of call when they cross the English Channel into France. After all, their first kings hailed from this region. Not surprisingly, the wines from the Loire figure far more prominently in that market than they do in the United States.

While the douceur angevine, as the French call this gentle countryside with its “sweet” air, may be perfect for a summer holiday, few associate the region with serious vinous pleasures. Older readers will, of course, remember when Muscadet was in fashion as a refreshing white wine to drink with oysters, but few connoisseurs would mention chenin blanc in the same breath with chardonnay, sauvignon blanc or riesling. That is a mistake! Few grapes are so versatile and, as a new generation of winemakers is proving, the finest examples can compete with anything those other varieties have to offer. In fact, a number of these wines must now be counted among the finest whites produced in France.

In some ways, chenin blanc being banned to purgatory—as Jean-Pierre Chevallier of Château de Villeneuve described the difficult era in the early 1960s when much of the “Côte des Blancs” in Saumur was replanted with cabernet franc—most likely has something to do with its similarity to riesling. Indeed, some call it the French riesling, but Philippe Foreau in Vouvray disagrees: “Riesling is the German chenin blanc,” he asserts. Both varieties are slightly aromatic, have brisk acidity and excel in a fascinating number of disciplines. Each makes fine sparkling wines at the cusp of ripenesss, but also bring forth stunning dry, off-dry (which the French now often call tendre) and even noble late-harvest nectars. Chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, on the other hand, are not quite so versatile, however well they may be used. Multiple talents, though, create confusion in consumers’ minds, which any marketing guru will tell you can be a handicap.

The success of their sparkling wines, whether they hail from Vouvray, Saumur or Anjou, has also led to the widespread introduction of genetic material planted to deliver the much larger yields allowed by law for Crémant de Loire. This clone, disparagingly known as “a bulles” (meaning “for bubbles”), may be well adapted for that purpose, but it can not be reconverted to the production of dry whites, at least not if quality is to be part of the equation. Not surprisingly, chenin blanc runs the gamut from sublime to barely pedestrian.

Sunset over Eric Morgat's vineyards in Savennières

Chenin blanc’s pedigree.  Sometimes called pineau de loire, or even blanc de Brézé, chenin blanc probably had its origin in the region of Anjou. In his classical rant, Gargantua, Rabelais praised the grape as early as 1534. Accoring to Dr. José Vouillamoz, the renowned Swiss geneticist, one of its parents is probably savagnin (or traminer) and it is either the brother or sister of both sauvignon blanc and trousseau. More surprising is the fact that its genetic profile is identical to that of godello, the Spanish variety found in Galicia.