Dry Loire Chenin Blanc
Loire Chenin Blanc has been all the fashion for a few years now. It’s high acid, very rarely aged in new oak, and, given the number of appellations it’s made in, provides a precise expression of where it’s grown. It’s made in a variety of styles, including off- and medium-dry, sweet, and sparkling, but it’s the dry wines which are the most fashionable with their racy acidity and clear varietal character.
But this hasn’t always been the case; in fact, the fashion for dry Loire Chenin is a very recent development. Plantings of Chenin Blanc declined from 16,500ha in 1958 to 10,000ha in 2008, replaced first by rosé and then by Cabernet Franc.
Quality was also indifferent. Bad vineyard management and limited access to modern winemaking technology led to wines either underripe from overly vigorous vines or affected by disease. In the 1970s and 80s, even into the early 90s, the reputation of Loire wines was at a low ebb. Tasting Loire wine now makes that hard to believe, but there have been a lot of changes and developments to improve quality, which in turn has led to greater appreciation of the wines.
Domaine du Closel in Savennières
I visited Domaine du Closel in Savennières, and had a long conversation with owner and winemaker Evelyne de Pontbriand which highlighted some of the most important developments. She’s the current President of the Savennières AOC (and was from 2004-2014) and has spearheaded an astonishing number of initiatives to draw global attention to Chenin Blanc in the Loire (but also South Africa), and very specifically to Anjou, where Savennières is located. Académie du Chenin started in 2015, and there have been three Chenin Blanc International Congress (two in Angers, one in South Africa). For the last eleven years, La Paulée d’Anjou has brought together winemakers from the region (and neighbouring Bourgueil which used to be part of Anjou): 500 people now attend annually. The purpose of these initiatives is to promote Chenin Blanc to the world, and also to educate winemakers through research seminars and lectures—a prime reason why quality has risen.
Evelyne took over winemaking from her mother in 2001, and has always been proactive in commissioning research to improve the wines of the region, from figures such as librarian, historian, and now winemaker Patrick Baudouin and oenoligist/winemaker Clément Baraut. One of the first insights from Baraut was that growers were picking the grapes too late, allowing botrytis to form. This made the wines “hard,” and even “harder” by the need to add sulphur to counteract the rot.
Previously, the grapes were picked 120 days after flowering. This was because Savennières is surrounded by sweet wine regions, and grapes were picked according to the traditional timetable for sweet rather than dry wine. But ripening on the sunny slopes of Savennières isn’t that difficult—there was no need to wait that long. Instead, Baraut told winemakers it was better to pick Chenin Blanc 100 days after flowering. This creates fresh, fruity, citrus, green apple aromas; however, the juice is volatile so everything has to be done in tank. Du Closet’s entry wine, “La Jalousie,” which comes from younger vines from different sites, is tank only. In contrast, the two single-vineyard wines, “Les Cailladières” and “Clos du Papillon,” are picked after 110 days. This allows greater maturity in the berries, with cooked apple aromas, without the risk of botrytis. Removing that risk reduces the need for sulphur, maintaining the purity of the wines.
Another, more accidental, change occurred in the cellar. As there was no temperature control, wines had to be bottled by March or April as otherwise it would get too hot in the summer (Savennières, with its schist soils, does not have the advantage of the cool tuffeau cellars of Touraine). This further added to the austere style. With air-conditioning came the chance to age the wines in the cellar for much longer, creating a rounded, more approachable style. At the same time, the longer ageing meant that malolactic fermentation became more likely to occur, also softening the texture of the wine. At first, wines with malo were anathema: Evelyne recalls her mother looking at her as if she had committed a crime on tasting the first wine which had gone through malolactic fermentation. Her mother came round, but malo is still not actively encouraged. In fact, with climate change and lower acidity, it may be actively discouraged in the future, in a sense back to where Savennières once was.
In the late 1990s, Evelyne visited Burgundy with her mother. She saw the wines ageing in oak barrels, and instinctively wanted to do the same. Since then, she has aged her top wines in used barrels, for the small amount of oxygen ingress which is influenced by the shape of the barrels. The smaller size also allows greater contact with the lees which act as an anti-oxidant as well as adding a textural complexity.
concrete eggs at Bernard Baudry
For similar reasons, Matthieu Baudry of Bernard Baudry in Chinon, has started experimenting with concrete eggs for his two Chenin Blancs: the effect of oxygen and lees subtly circulates in the oval-shaped vessel, without making the wine too heavy or oxidative. In comparison, at Olga Raffault, also in Chinon, one-year-old oak barrels are used for fermentation and maturation, with no malo, for “La Cuvée d’Or,” a powerful, intense, smoky, toasty, ageworthy Chenin.
The sweet wines of the Loire are greatly prized, but production is inconsistent: not every year produces the right level of ripeness or noble rot. To compensate for this, many sweet wines used to be chaptalised, which formed part of the overall decline in the quality of Loire wines. Chaptalisation, so I am told, no longer happens. Producers are happy to produce good quality dry wines rather striving for sweetness.
Vouvray, 150 kilometres inland along the river from Savennières, is a case in point. The region was mostly associated with demi-sec wines which could be made every year, the sugar compensating for any lack of complexity. Grapes lacking ripeness could also be used for sparkling wine, often made in a pétillant style in Vouvray and neighbouring Montlouis. The truly great wines were sweet, as they had naturally built up sugar in perfect growing conditions. There’s now a larger amount of dry wine being made because of better vineyard management, picking times, and winemaking. They don’t have the same level of ripeness and weight as Savennières, but share the sharp, linear acidity. (Showing have trends have changed, a classic dry Vouvray like that of Domaine Huët can now feel a little jarring, as there is a small but noticeable amount of residual sugar.)
Because of a concerted effort by winemakers to improve the quality of their wines, dry Chenin Blanc now has a much more settled place in Loire and international wine culture. But such is the recent rebirth of Loire Chenin Blanc, there remains confusion around it. Chenin Blanc was (and is) not always dry; the regions in Loire produce different expressions; and Chenin Blanc from other climates, such as South Africa, taste very different. Chenin Blanc is never quite the same—therein lies its beauty.
