Fifty years ago, the most popular wine in this country was a fresh, flowery white that was never intended to be aged and sold so fast that it was often out of stock long before a year was up.
It was made by a Napa Valley winery that eventually couldn’t supply the consumer demand and couldn’t increase production because Napa had a limited supply of grapes.
The wine wasn’t a chardonnay, a sauvignon blanc, or a pinot gris. It was made by Charles Krug Winery, and it had roughly 2 percent residual sugar, so it was a bit sweet.
The grape variety used to make this wine was chenin blanc, and despite its success, the grape variety from which it came really never became as popular as I imagined it might.
I suspect one reason for the decline in popularity of chenin blanc here has more to do with the rapid success in the early 1980s of cabernet sauvignon. As that grape became extremely popular, grapes that generated less income soon were torn out. Chenin blanc was one of the first on the chopping block.
Chenin is a noble grape, one with a long and storied history in France’s Loire Valley, where it produces several different styles of white wines. Among the driest and most complex French versions is Savennieres, which is usually more expensive than others.
Vouvray wines, more reasonably priced, typically are slightly sweeter. Vouvray Sec refers to drier-styled wines. There are also excellent sparkling wines made in Vouvray, also from chenin blanc.
Then there are two of the world’s most acclaimed Loire dessert wines, Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume. None of the above wines are likely to be found in supermarket wine aisles; even fine wine shops may not carry them.
But chenin blanc continues to grow in California—more than 4,000 acres of it, roughly 25 percent of the total acreage of the sauvignon blanc.
Also, chenin blanc has long been a staple used for making quality table wines in South Africa. Very few of them are exported here, but the few that we see can be excellent.
One reason the grape variety isn’t more widely planted is that its clusters of larger berries tend to be tight, without much space between berries. Because wind cannot dry out moisture, the variety is prone to rot. Wineries and growers dislike that.
However, one great benefit is that chenin blanc can produce a lot of fruit per acre, and when properly farmed, it can make an absolutely delightful light white wine that has a great affinity for patio sipping or accompanying spicy Asian food.
Two of the very best versions, which are made in similar styles, include wines from Husch in Mendocino County and Dry Creek Vineyards of Sonoma, the latter of which typically uses fruit grown in Clarksburg’s sandy soils in the Sacramento delta.
Both wines are slightly sweet, fitting the historic California style, and both are reasonably priced and relatively widely available.The basic aroma of a chenin blanc table wine is similar to honeydew melon with hints of freshly mown grass and kiwi fruit. Most are succulent, although some versions can also display a kind of minerally note.
