10 Must Drink Chenins
With the change of seasons, our cellars and fridges need a little more white wines added to their shelves.
If you’re looking for 10 top-notch Chenins to add to your dinner party or pop into your picnic basket in search of freedom from lockdown, we’ve got you sorted.
If you’re looking for 10 of South Africa’s best Chenin Blancs right now purchase these:
Alvi’s Drift Private Cellar Wines 221 Chenin Blanc 2019
Subtle to start, with pretty notes of white flowers, some layered earthiness leading to a juicy entry, with great fruit purity and sweet-fruited but satisfying end. Vibrant and sunny.
Retail Price: R 90.00
Alvi’s Drift Private Cellar Albertus Viljoen Chenin Blanc 2019
A lovely open and pure-fruited nose with bright lemon and lime blossom, following onto linear, focused and sophisticated palate. There is a sense of elegance to the subtle power here.
Retail Price: R 240.00
Badsberg Wynkelder Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc 2019
Tropical fruit galore and an abundant sunny-fruit forward nose. The palate follows and celebrates the exuberant Breedekloof fruit with energy and verve.
Retail Price: R 125.00
DeMorgenzon Reserve Chenin Blanc 2019
A powerhouse of a wine now in the sixth consecutive Top Ten Challenge line-up. Opening with spice, tealeaf, fynbos and shy white peach it follows with a coiled, powerful and detailed palate. Lots of pretty white fruit with a great, long finish.
Retail Price: R 430 .00
Durbanville Hills Collectors Reserve The Cape Garden Chenin Blanc 2019
Fresh and vibrant with an attractive hint of reduction, adding earthy complexity to the blossom of pear and stone fruit. The palate follows with a gentle fruit expression and taut balanced finish. Bone dry.
Retail Price: R 160.00
Kaapzicht Kliprug Chenin 2019
Earthy notes, shy fruit with promise of rich palate. Weighty, textured with powerful, long and soft finish. This is a rich, bolder style of Chenin.
Retail Price: R 160.00
Mulderbosch Vineyards Single Vineyard Chenin Blanc Block S2 2018
Some honey top notes, oak spice with notes of roasted nuts, fynbos and shy fruit. The entry is textured, creamy and layered with beautiful fruit-sweetness. Complex, regal and firm to end.
Retail Price: R 275.00
Spier Wines 21 Gables Chenin Blanc 2019
Attractive reductive notes, plus lime and crushed stone. Ripe citrus, spring blossom form part of a complex and multifaceted nose, supported by inviting oak spices on the palate and a juicy full-on acidity with a long powerful end.
Retail Price: R 230.00
Stellenrust Chenin Blanc 2019
Lemony fruit, lanolin, tropical fruits and cut pear. The palate is taut, full of verve with bouncy and bright acidity. There is a wonderful mineral tow to the wine, giving length and refinement. Unwooded.
Retail Price: R 68.00
Stellenrust Stellenbosch Manor Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc 2019
Fresh and clean-fruited on the nose, perfumed, with lovely top notes of citrus spritz and blossom. Very youthful on the entry with zesty and bright acidity and a lingering note on the finish. Will age well.
Retail Price: R 150.00
List prepared in collaboration with the Standard Bank Top 10 Chenin Blanc awards.
Tasting notes and top 10 wines were slected by a panel of esteemed industry insiders.
This year’s judges were James Pietersen (panel chair), Wine Cellar’s South African portfolio manager and a regular judge in this and several other leading local wine competitions; winemaker Boela Gerber Cape Wine Master of Groot Constantia; sommelier Higgo Jacobs, who is also a senior judge at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) and Decanter World Wine Awards and a past chairman of the South African Sommelier Association (SASA); Tinashe Nyamudoka, formerly a sommelier with chef Luke Dale Roberts and now a wine marketer; and Penny Setti, sommelier at Chef’s Warehouse. Tendai Marisa, sommelier at Indochine, served as an associate judge.
