Defining chenin
Friday, 25 November 2011 00:00
Is chenin blanc South Africa’s great white hope? Does it have that magical USP or unique selling point? These questions were posed at a symposium The diversity of chenin blanc held at Joostenberg in Stellenbosch last week, under the auspices of the Chenin Blanc Association in partnership with the AEB group.
Chenin blanc has come a long way since its days from steen to what was euphemistically termed the workhorse of the wine industry. In his opening address, Ken Forrester, chairman of the Chenin Blanc Association, who has worked tirelessly to put chenin blanc on the map, referred to this versatile white cultivar as having “come of age”.
“Today we are at the cusp, chenin has matured; we have pushed it and worked it and now we must go forth and preach chenin,” he said. His words were echoed in different ways by speaker after speaker at the symposium, with the words “creating awareness” and “educating the consumer” common threads running through each seminar.
In the discussion, Can chenin blanc drive the SA white wine category, Bruwer Raats, a passionate proponent of the varietal, told the audience how he had started his business 11 years ago as a chenin blanc producer, then a considerably daring move to make, when the varietal was barely established “and 11 years later I am here to tell a story about chenin blanc”.
He posed the question as to what are South Africa’s strengths in the highly competitive industry and answered it by saying, “we took a thoroughbred horse, made it into a work horse, got a cart horse and now we need to train it like a thoroughbred. We need to convince the local market.
“Chenin blanc should be to South Africa what sauvignon blanc is to New Zealand,” he said referring to the stellar rise of sauvignon in Marlborough where it has become the island’s benchmark white wine and primary selling point.
Master of wine student Cees van Casteren, reporting on his dissertation as to how chenin can be classified the leading white wine of South Africa, used the word “reference
wine” to allude to a vinous product that should be commercially unique to a country. “Reference wines should either be unique grape varieties or distinctive variations thereof. They should enjoy industry support and be endorsed by the international press and trade,” he said.
Based on blind tastings and research, he came to the conclusion that there was no reason to show that South African chenin was inferior to that of the Loire. In fact it was well-liked by the tasting panel, he said. In addition he said, “very few people thought it could not be a reference wine for South Africa.”
Chenin is the most widely planted varietal in South Africa; in fact it far outstrips plantings even the Loire, the home of chenin, with 18% of the total local vineyard area planted to the cultivar.
Among the reasons it could be suitable as a reference point, Mr Van Casteren enumerated the following: the versatility of styles that chenin can present; its adaptability to SA terroir; the quality it offers at all price points; the fact that it is the backbone of the wine industry and that the many old vines planted lead to the possession of substantial experience in making this varietal.
Yet at the same time, said Mr Van Casteren, lack of marketing and its resulting image means that there is still a way to go to make it suitable as a reference point. This, coupled with the versatility of styles could be its downfall as confusion still dwells in export markets as to what to expect in the bottle – will be it be a dry chenin or semi-sweet?
With chenin available at a wide range of price points, Mr Raats pointed out that the industry needs to market chenin from the entry level upwards.
“We need to ensure value for money.
“You don’t only want R200 bottles in a shop; you can get excellent value at cheap price points – chenin gives you the opportunities more that any other varietal in South Africa to do so,” he said, adding, “we have the benefit of making quality wines , and we need to make chenin blanc more understandable. People need to know whether they are buying a sweet or a wooded wine.”
On a positive note he said, “From a New World producer we are the only one that’s gone out and claimed chenin blanc for ourselves. Now it’s up to the producer to demonstrate and show this to the world.”
Andre Shearer, the CEO of export giant Cape Classics, told the audience that marketing wine in America, he had noted that there is certainly no shortage of desire – that Americans are eager to sample and buy South African wines.
Echoing the sentiments of previous speakers, he spoke of the vast improvement in the quality of chenin blanc.”There’s a remarkable refinement in the category and in press ratings there has been a dramatic improvement. Yet the ease of sale of chenin does not rate highly.
“Chenin does not have the image say, of malbec, Argentina’s biggest seller. Often it is just seen as a cheap varietal,” he said. He added, “All we can do is continue to make good – but we need to get it to someone to open the bottle – that’ll do the trick and we need to convince the buyer to pay the money and promote the category.”
Seventeen years ago Michael Fridjhon, wine guru and one of the country’s greatest wine ambassadors, held a symposium on chenin blanc. “People thought I was mad,” he told the audience.
“Now we are very conscious of the fact that we have been through the first stage of the chenin revolution. As a unique selling point, the value of chenin has been recognised. And so has the value of those old vineyards.”
But he told the participants, “You need to get focus on a varietal that in particular used to be buried in blends.”
Going forward, said Mr Fridjhon, he saw a widening split between the commercial and industrial side of chenin and those styles that are more authentic and artisanal.
“The commercial chenins are more subject to the vagaries of the supermarket buyers while the artisanal are bought by those who want to have a sense of something handcrafted.”
The challenge he said, is how to make these two diverging paths work together. “Those who want to graduate from their starting point – this is where chenin offers the opportunity to move upwards without leaving behind where they started.”
Marketing chenin abroad, there are plenty opportunites, said Mr Fridjhon. “Thanks to the Chenin Blanc Association, South Africa has been recognised as a key chenin blanc player. We have versatility. It’s possible to produce high quality, good value chenins, without them being for example, overwooded.”
The issue of educating the public was raised as well by students and staff of the Institute for Wine Biotechnology at Stellenbosch University who are in the second year of a three year research project on SA chenin. Inneke Bester who looked into consumer insights and chenin blanc style preferences, conducting surveys among a cross section of consumers, came to the conclusion there is a great confusion of the different styles of chenin (fresh and fruity unwooded, rich and ripe unwooded, rich and ripe wooded and sweet).
“It indicates how powerful knowledge is,” she said. Part of the research was to question visitors at two wine fairs in Johannesburg and Robertson about chenin blanc and the results of the research demonstrated that “it is evident that chenin is a very well-kept secret. Very few knew anything about what sells chenin blanc – thus chenin blanc is not in the minds of the consumer…”
Mr Forrester, who related how he had started making chenin blanc in something of a chenin desert 17 years ago, said: “here we are 17 years later and it’s considerably easier now to sell it.
“Yet I think more and more the job is not done. People are only starting to get it that you can go out and buy a good chenin blanc. We need to reach people and break that barrier. We really need to nurture and cherish what is our own.”
Written by Orielle Berry You are reading Defining chenin articles
