Happy Drink Chenin Blanc Day!

 
 

Today isn’t only Dragon Boat Festival, it’s also Drink Chenin Blanc Day💛! We're dedicating this week to celebrating the versatility of this noble grape.

Chenin Blanc is renowned for its ability to produce wines in a wide range of styles - from sweet to bone-dry, and even sparkling. It also has an exceptional ability to age gracefully over many years. For this special promotion, we're highlighting a selection of sublime dry Chenin Blanc expressions, with excellant examples from Chinon and Savennieres of Loire and Western Cape of South Africa.

Chenin Blanc from Loire Valley often displays a vibrant, citrus-driven profile, with notes of lemon and green apple, bracing acidity, and a crisp, refreshing mouthfeel. In contrast, the South African expressions, grown in a warmer, drier climate, tend to exhibit riper, more tropical fruit characteristics like pineapple, mango, and guava, with a rounder, fuller-bodied texture.

This time, we have Domaine de la Noblaie as our Chinon representative showing how Chenin Blanc shines in the region. In the 20th century, when Chenin Blanc was cultivated by only a handful of producers in Chinon, Jerome Billard's grandfather, Pierre Manzagol, was one of the few to persist with the grape variety with the belief that this is part of the Chinon vinous heritage. As a result, Domaine de la Noblaie now has some of the oldest Chenin Blanc vines in Chinon.

From Savennieres, Domaine Laureau's Chenin Blancs are praised for their stunning balance of richness, concentration, acidity, and length, earning them praise from La Revue de Vin de France as the "future star of Savennieres".

As for South Africa, Minimalist Wines offers a distinctive Chenin Blanc with much freshness and complexity.

🫶Whether you're a devoted Chenin Blanc lover or eager to explore different expressions of this varietal, we hope you find something to delight your palate!🫶

SPECIAL OFFER: ENJOY A 15% OFF DISCOUNT ON Selected Chenin Blanc wines

Promotion period: until Jun 24, 2024

Domaine de la Noblaie Chante le Vent

From 50 years old vines of Chenin Blanc. The wine was mostly fermented in stainless steel vat but from the 2019 vintage barrel and amphorae were also used. There is a little bit of skin contact, and the wine spends 6 months in fine lees without sulphites in vat before bottling. The style is on the fresher side with no malolactic fermentation, but still substantial on the palate, and with potential for some ageing.

Tasting note for Vintage 2016 (RP92)

From three different pickings (over 15 days) of perfectly ripe grapes whose juices were fermented separately and blended only after the fermentation and then aged on the lees for six months, the 2016 Chinon Chante le Vent is clear, fresh and nutty on the nose, where ripe pear and acacia aromas are displayed. Full-bodied, dense and quite rich with remarkable freshness and a firm tannin structure, this is a tightly woven and very persistent Chenin Blanc with a long, dry and salty finish. Great tension and aging potential here.

92, Stephan Reinhardt, August 2021 Week 1, The Wine Advocate, August 2021

Domaine de la Noblaie La Part des Anges

A Chenin Blanc from 60 years old vines on tuffeau. This is a serious Chenin Blanc with long term ageing potential. Some of the grapes may be affected by botrytis and the wine goes through full malolactic fermentation, resulting in a rich and full-bodied wine. The wine first spends 15 months in 500 litres oak barrels, and then another 6 months in stainless steel. It is floral and creamy on the nose, with a complex creamy yellow stone fruit palate and refreshing acidity. This wine benefits from cellar time, and requires decanting if consumed young.

Tasting note for Vintage 2017 (VNS93/RP93)

Beautifully waxy on both on the nose and palate. Rich, full-bodied and great structure. Aromas and flavors of honey, apricot jam, and a touch of smoke throughout are balanced by green apple notes, a thrilling acidity, and a chalky underpinning that carries through the finish. From 50 year old vines, fermented in oak and aged 15 months in older 500-liter barrels, then 6 months in stainless steel, and a small amount in amphora.

-93, Jason Wilson, Vinous.com, July 2020

From roughly 60-year-old vines on an east/southeast-facing slope of tuff limestone, picked late and super ripe and partly overripe or even botrytized, the full-bodied 2017 Chinon La Part des Anges opens with concentrated and intensely aromatic fruit with flinty and some spicy tannic notes. Vinified in 500-liter oak barrels for 15 months and another six months in stainless steel, the low-yielding Part des Anges (38 hectoliters per hectare) is a rich, round and elegant, even fresh and mineral Chenin that reveals an intense and concentrated texture with serious tannins on the complex and sustainable finish. I would decant the wine for one to three hours and drink it from a Burgundy glass. 14.3% alcohol. Tasted in June 2021.

-93, Stephan Reinhardt, August 2021 Week 1, The Wine Advocate, August 2021

Domaine Laureau Les Raisins de l'Amitie Chenin

A blend of Chenin Blanc from schist and limestone soils. Following the 2021 frost, Damien vinified Chenin Blanc grapes from two fellow producers: Alain Boré and Thibault Masse. This cuvée is a symbiosis between Anjou Blanc and Anjou Noir, vinified partly in barrels and partly in stainless steel vats, perfectly balanced (11% ABV). This wine is labelled as a Vin de France.

Tasting note for Vintage 2021 (RP89)

The fruity, gourmand 2021 Les Raisins de l’Amitié is a collaborative approach (Damien Laureau bought grape must from different vignerons) that shows well today, revealing aromas of pear, peach and spring flowers. Juicy and round, it’s supple, fresh and delicate with a long finish.

-89, Yohan Castaing, The Wine Advocate, January 2024

Domaine Laureau Savennieres L'Alliance

"L'Alliance", with intense fruit and a mineral finish, is sourced from younger vines. The fruit comes from young vines in the nearby La Petite Roche and Le Pitrouillet vineyards, blended with some press wine from his other cuvées, making it approachable.

Tasting note for Vintage 2019 (CK92)

This is a new cuvée, a blend of fruit from young vines in La Petite Roche, from young vines in Le Pitrouillet near the cellars, and some press wine from his other cuvées to add a little oomph. It was fermented and aged in stainless steel, and bottled in July 2020, neither filtered nor fined. The nose is smoky with baked apple fruit, in a quite gentle style, with a light minerality. Fresh and pure on the palate, it is polished and supple, rounded and softly composed, floral but with fine energy. Lively and grippy in the finish, this is a fine introduction to the appellation, approachable and yet with some distinctive Savennières traits.

-92, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, October 2020

Domaine Laureau Savennieres L'Aurore

Tasting note for Vintage 2017 (RP94)

The frost of 2017 decimated Damien Laureau's vines, forcing him to produce a single cuvée, the 2017 L'Aurore, released in just 2,400 bottles. Crafted from Les Genêts plot (sand and schist soils), it reveals a deep, reduced bouquet with aromas of almonds, beeswax, honey, sweet spices and ripe orchard fruits. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and round, concentrated and perfectly balanced, it’s dense and seamless with a floral, flinty finish. It should see out its 10th anniversary in fine form.

- 94, Yohan Castaing, The Wine Advocate, January 2024

Domaine Laureau Savennieres Les Genets

Domaine Laureau's "Les Genets" and "Le Bel Ouvrage" offer a rare glimpse into the diverse terroirs of Savennières. While the appellation is predominantly schist, the soils are actually quite complex. To illustrate these differences, Laureau carefully sorts the grapes by terroir of origin and vinifies them separately.

The "Les Genets" cuvée is sourced from the sandier, silty soils of the appellation, resulting in an earlier-drinking Chenin Blanc. This wine sees an 18-month elevage, largely held in fibreglass vat for the entire period, with just 10% remaining in barrel.

Tasting note for Vintage 2018 (VNS94)

If you're looking for a bold Chenin, the 2018 Les Genets is not it - and it's all the better for it. A rather quiet and tender wine with a subtle, refined nose of apples, Brazil nuts, almond macaroon and florals. While round, there's a sense of calm, purity and no heaviness. The gentle embrace of phenolics is so delicate that it leaves a gently satisfying texture throughout the mouth. There's a fine flush of acidity on the finish. Ends as it began, with calm and tranquility.

-94, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous.com, March 2021

Domaine Laureau Savennieres Le Bel Ouvrage

The "Le Bel Ouvrage" cuvée, sourced from the schist soils, produces a much firmer, longer-lived Chenin Blanc. This wine sees an 18-month élevage, with one year in barrel followed by at least six months in fiberglass tank.

Tasting note for Vintage 2016 (VNS97)

This Chenin Blanc, the 2016 Le Bel Ouvrage, is now starting to throw off its youth and develop aging characters of lanolin and earthy notes alongside cooked pineapple. There's clearly been a lot of care put into this wine - the delicacy and transparency of the juice is fabulous - and although it packs plenty of power and drive, presumably from the schist and rhyolite soils, it does so in an elegant and light-footed way. There's no sense of being forced, and harmony is achieved. A smidgen more length would be very desirable.

-97, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous.com, March 2021

Domaine Laureau Savennieres Roche aux Moines

This is the top cuvée, from Damien's small parcel of vines in this appellation, only around 100 cases are produced annually from its unique schist and sand soil with volcanic rock seams.

Tasting note for Vintage 2018 (CK96)

From Damien’s micro-parcel within this exalted appellation, this was fermented and aged in barrels as for the ‘lesser’ cuvées, before bottling which was in July 2020. The nose is filled with the scents of fine yellow-stone minerality, with a sandy freshness and a fine reductive edge. Polished and elegant on the palate, the style here is rather precise and well formed. In the middle it feels rather smoky with struck flint, yet sweetly focused, with apricot, plum and stone fruits, livened up by notes of intertwined nuances of acacia and honeysuckle. I see incredible energy and focus here, in a cuvée which quite clearly has great potential for the cellar.

-96, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, October 2020

Minimalist Wines Experimental Blanc Chenin Blanc

Tasting note for Vintage 2021 (NM90)

The 2021 Chenin Blanc Experimental comes from 25-40 year-old vines in decomposed granite soils in Paarl, matured in 228-litre used French oak. This has a neutral nose with fleeting scents of orchard fruit and honeysuckle. The palate is pinned upon a keen line of acidity, not an intense Chenin Blanc, and it might need a little more substance on the mid-palate, but it bursts with freshness and has an appealing waxy texture on the finish. Fine.

-90, Neal Martin, Vinous.com, September 2022

Promotion period: until Jun 24, 2024

In stock now, and offered subject to final confirmation and remaining unsold. E. & O. E.

*Standard delivery conditions apply, and a surcharge will be added to orders delivering to Discovery Bay, Ma Wan and Hong Kong International Airport. Please check our delivery and storage policy for more details.

Charlotte Wong