Embrace all the warm-weather possibilities with a cool glass of this season-ready wine.
WORDS Lauren Buzzeo
There’s nothing like a crisp, chilled glass of white wine on a hot summer day. But while the options for that are many, bonus points go to ones that also give us a little something more to consider—a spirit, or gees, with each sip.
Enter South African Chenin Blanc, also known as Steen. While the grape’s viticultural birthplace may have been France’s Loire Valley, it’s hard to ignore that it has found a spiritual home in the Cape Winelands of South Africa.
The country’s most widely planted variety, Chenin Blanc may have been one of South Africa’s first cultivated grapes, dating to the mid-1600s. And while it may have once had an easygoing workhorse reputation thanks to its ability to produce high yields as well as be used for brandy distillation early in its history, Chenin’s potential has been shown to be so much more.
Today, skilled winemakers source grapes from a range of regions and use a variety of techniques to craft high-quality, site-expressive wines across an array of styles, from brisk and bone dry to layered and oak-aged and even sweet or bubbly.
This versatility and expertise inspired Cape Town-based artist Sumi Gous’ art above, created for the Chenin Blanc Association. “This artwork reverberates the unique and powerful combination of knowledge, skill, expertise and creativity that South African Chenin wines bring, a gift and inspiration from the southern tip of Africa,” says Gous.
That is something we’ll drink to, this season and always. Read on to discover six wineries ready to fill your Chenin glass.
A.A. Badenhorst Family Wines
Everyday: Secateurs Chenin Blanc
Hide Away: A.A. Badenhorst Klip Kop Steen
A founding member of the Swartland Revolution and Swartland Independent Producers, winemaker Adi Badenhorst has always been a champion of Chenin Blanc, especially when grown in the Swartland region his winery has called home since 2008. The winery’s accessible and widely available Secateurs bottling brings a vibrant, refreshing taste of the grape to the glasses of countless wine lovers the world over, while single-vineyard offerings like the Dassiekop, Kelder or Klip Kop Steens show the variety’s purity, focus and unique identity through specific site expressions.
Alheit Vineyards
Everyday: Hereafter Here Chenin Blanc
Hide Away: Fire by Night Chenin Blanc
Started in 2010 by husband and wife team Chris (pictured right) and Suzaan Alheit, the winery aims to showcase the beauty, variety and character of a vineyard as opposed to winemaker influence in each of their exquisite bottlings, offering a sense of Cape wine identity with every sip. The Alheits are champions of old vineyards, bush vines and dry farming, always preferring the least-intrusive approach and minimalist principles—no yeasts, no enzymes, no acidification, no fining, no new barrels, etc—to achieve their goal of authentic site expression while protecting and maintaining the country’s vinous heritage best they can.
Bosman Family Vineyards
Everyday: Generation 8 Chenin Blanc
Hide Away: Optenhorst Chenin Blanc
Based in Wellington, the Bosman family has been in the wine industry for eight generations. In addition to making wine under the Bosman Family Vineyards brand, the Bosman Adama organization also includes a plant improvement facility to help propagate new, healthy vines and a vine nursery, which supplies “stokkies” (grafted cuttings) to grape farmers across the country. Bosman Adama also extended ownership though a workers’ trust in 2009, granting a 26% stake in the business to 260 permanently employed workers, and spearheads social projects to uplift community and incorporate environmental and social responsibility into its model.
Ken Forrester Wines
Everyday: Petit Chenin Blanc
Hide Away: The FMC Chenin Blanc
Known to many as “Mr. Chenin,” Ken Forrester and his eponymous Stellenbosch winery have been champions of the variety since day one. From the brisk, crisp Petit bottling and the complex Reserve selection to the old-vine FMC (which stands for Forrester Meinert Chenin, named after the winemaking partnership between Forrester and Martin Meinert, but is frequently joked to actually stand for “Fucking Marvelous/Magic/Mindblowing Chenin”) and winery exclusives Dirty Little Secret (a unique solera-style, multivintage wine for all the cool kids) and Sparklehorse (yup—Chenin bubbles), Forrester does it all, and does it all remarkably well.
Raats Family Wines
Everyday: Original Chenin Blanc
Hide Away: Eden High Density Single Vineyard Chenin Blanc
Raats Family Wines and winemaker Bruwer Raats have exclusively focused on Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc since the winery’s founding in 2000, and it’s paid off, as Raats is regarded as a leader in producing top-quality wines from those varieties. The Original Chenin Blanc is a fresh and fruit-forward pour that’s incredibly versatile on the food-pairing front, while the Old Vine Chenin Blanc shows the depth and complexity that old-vine selections are known to yield. To take it one step further, seek out Eden, a wine like none other made from fruit grown in a high-density vineyard planted to Montpellier Clone Chenin Blanc at the winery in the Polkadraai Hills.
Simonsig Wine Estate
Everyday: Chenin Blanc
Hide Away: Langbult Steen
Stellenbosch-based Simonsig is a family-owned farm, with the third generation of the Malan family now involved at the estate. Though winery founder Frans Malan is credited with producing the first bottle of Kaapse Vonkel (Cape Sparkle), South Africa’s bottle-fermented Méthode Cap Classique sparkling wine, in 1973, Chenin Blanc has always been an important cultivar—the first wine bottled under the Simonsig label was a Chenin Blanc in 1968, and the farm has worked with the variety every vintage since. At the top of their Chenin line, the Langbult Steen (formerly known as Chenin Avec Chêne, or with wood) gives credit to the source vineyard of the terroir-driven wine, and is Simonsig’s first offering to gain certified Old Vine Heritage status.
This article was published in the Summer 2023 issue of Full Pour. Don’t own it? Pick one up today!