One of the highlights of the salon in Angers was meeting up with Ina Smith who works for the Chenin Blanc Association in South Africa.
Ina and I have been virtual friends for years, exchanging news and views from here and South Africa but we’d never managed to meet in person until Monday, and that was more by chance than design.
Despite trying to meet up on several occasions, you know how it is, life gets in the way. It never happened. Until – we spotted Ina across the hall and seized the opportunity to go over and say hello.
Ina does a wonderful job for the Association. Everyone I’ve ever met has only wonderful things to say about her and now I see why. She’s just the warmest person and a huge support to the growers making fabulous Chenin Blanc wines in her country.
Did you know that there are around 16,827 hectares of Chenin Blanc in South Africa which represents roughly 18.6% of total plantings.
It comes from the Loire but cuttings were taken over to South Africa in 1655 by Governor Jan van Riebeeck. Under his watchful eye the first grapes from three young vines were pressed on the 2nd February 1659 and produced fourteen and a half litres of wine!
Referred to as Steen locally for many years, it gained this name as locals thought it’s origins were from Germany but this was corrected in 1963 when the head of viticulture at Stellenbosch university confirmed that Steen and Chenin were in fact one and the same thing.
By 1988 Chenin accounted for 33.2% of total plantings and gained a reputation for being the work horse of South Africa with high yields and much going for distillation. Since then, it has become the most uprooted grape variety in South Africa with the surface area today at a stable figure of around 18%.
Ina told us that around 70% of total production makes bulk wine from big companies but – the other 30% is making some fabulous and interesting wines.
The growers that are members of the Chenin Blanc Association are making top quality wines using old vines and often indignous yeast with little or no irrigation.
What is lovely to see is the current collaboration between Chenin producers here in France and those in South Africa.
The second International Chenin Conference took place in Stellenbosch this past November and was attended by a group of growers from Vouvray and Anjou. Topics covered were sustainablility and innovation with a spotlight on vinegrowing and winemaking in the face of climate change.
We tasted a range of wines with Ina. Ken Forrester came out on top. Our two favourite wines cames from this iconic estate but the ones from L’Avenir and Optenhorst were also lovely examples of fine Chenin.
