California Winemakers Love Chenin Blanc

My husband forwarded this article "California Winemakers Love Chenin Blanc. But There Isn't Enough", from the San Fransisco Chronicle a few days ago and I thought it was a good article to begin the first blogpost in the New Year.
We love Chenin Blanc and consequently, almost half of our vineyard is planted with Chenin Blanc. Our viticultural mentors and friends, the Massouds over in Paumanok are the only other people we know who grow Chenin Blanc in the Northeast.
Here are some excerpts from the article written by Jess Lander:¹
There is a resurrection of Chenin Blanc in California wine production along with an increased demand for white wines over red wines. Palisades Canyon is a historic vineyard in Napa Valley's Calistoga region whose current stewards are Felicia Woytak and Steven Rasmussen. The wines at Palisades Canyon is crafted by fourth-generation Napa Valley winemaker and grape-grower Graeme MacDonald. He ages the Chenin Blanc sur lie in neutral oak. They only made 30 cases of it, but the demand for this under-the-radar Chenin Blanc at a pricey $75 a bottle sold out in two minutes!
In Graeme MacDonald's grandparent's time, Chenin Blanc was produced in an off-dry style for Charles Krug on one of the original parcels of To Kalon, Napa Valley’s most famous vineyard. Graeme MacDonald goes on to say that it was a wine people lined up for more than anything. They couldn't get enough of Chenin Blanc.

One has to ask what happened? Why is Chenin Blanc such an unknown white wine only now having a moment? In 1984, there were roughly 45,000 acres of Chenin Blanc planted in California, according to the California Grape Acreage Report. Over time, most of California’s Chenin was blended into mass productions of other cheap and sweet white wines, often labeled “California Champagne” or “Chablis” by the industry’s biggest players like Gallo. Chenin’s reputation plummeted. In 2023, there were only about 4,000 acres left. That accounts for less than 1% of the state’s wine grape acreage.¹
Through the ensuing years, Chenin Blanc had some notoriety but not a lasting one. In the 2000s Craig Haarmeyer of Haarmeyer Wine Cellars in West Sacramento and Tegan Passalaqua of Sandlands in Lodi began producing Chenin Blanc. Reed Skupny, who makes Lang & Reed’s Chenin Blanc began compiling a list of growers of Chenin Blanc but in 2019, he stopped updating his list when the number of growers approached 70. The grapes that Lang & Reed purchased for their Chenin Blanc were being used in the production of brandy. Now the grower has a line of wineries who want his Chenin Blanc.
The article corroborates our feelings about Chenin Blanc. It can be made in a variety of styles, still or sparkling and is often characterized by orchard fruit flavors like apple and pear. Chenin Blanc can also be made into a dessert wine. It is rich, complex and age worthy.

References:
1. Jess Lander, "California Winemakers Love Chenin Blanc. But There Isn't Enough", San Francisco Chronicle
2. Palisades Canyon Website.

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year by drinking our 2019 Cabernet Franc. My husband made pork chops stuffed with spinach and gruyere cheese with a side of wild rice. It was the perfect compliment to the Cabernet Franc which surprisingly for me was between a medium and full bodied Cabernet Franc. It had enough fruit and the tannins had mellowed out with bottle ageing.

The wine was clear and dark purple in the glass and the aromas and flavors to me were like dark cherries. We consumed only half of the bottle and will taste it again and see how the wine evolves.
Here are the statistics for this Cabernet Franc:

Cabernet Franc	Harvest Date	Weight/ Lbs	Volume of Juice/ Gallons	Brix	pH	TA	%Alcohol
2019	10/26/2019	377	32	23.0	3.23	11.3 g/L	13.1

In the evening, just around the time that the clock rang in the New Year, Mother Nature provided us with her own fireworks, lightning and the loudest thunder! Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!