Young Gun of Wine 2024
Three years after our inaugural Deep Dive into Chenin Blanc, it’s an apt time to again cast our eyes across the Australian Chenin Blanc landscape.
Chenin blanc is the heroic white variety of France’s Loire Valley, making wines up and down the scale, from vibrant and carefree sparklings to lusciously sweet whites that are some of the world’s most long-lived wines. But the grape also excels out of the cool of the Loire, being South Africa’s most important white variety, while also thriving in the heat of Western Australia’s Swan Valley where a renaissance is in full swing. And it’s not just in the West, either, with makers from South Australia also putting their hands up. With ample producers dedicated to elevating the grape, a Deep Dive was called for, so we gathered as many bottlings as we could find and enlisted the help of eight of this country’s finest palates to check in to see just where Australian chenin blanc is at.
Our panel:
Chris Ryan, Senior Wine Buyer, Trader House Group;
Isabelle Szyman, Rathdowne Cellars Wine Buyer;
Sophie Carbonneau, National Sales Manager Bibendum Wine Co.;
Abby Moret, owner Atlas Vinifera;
Jeremy Prideaux, Principal Wine;
Xavier Vigier DipWSET, Wine Buyer/Advisor/Head Sommelier Mr Claremont Wines;
Coralie Gelot, Beverage Manager, The Windsor Hotel Group.
The expert panel were tasked with finding the wines that compelled the most. All wines were tasted blind, and each panellist named their top six wines.
Here is what the panelists said about our 2022 Chenin Blanc:
This was Carbonneau and Vigier’s top wine of the day, with Szyman and Gelot also including in their top three selections.
“Nose is elegant and compelling with lovely florals and white pear,” brags Carbonneau. “Palate is excellent, with good flavour, intensity and concentration. Great balance and length. A fine wine.” “The complexity in the fruit profile is extraordinary, showing maturity in winemaking, excellence in viticulture,”
Click through to read full comments and list of wines.