Chenin Blanc Parentage Revealed

We wanted to go to the First International Chenin Blanc Congress held in Angers from July 1-3, 2019. July is really a bad time for wine growers. We couldn't really leave the vineyard at that time. Moreover, our offspring were gathering at the old homestead in mid-July, so it was truly out of the question. The next best thing is to read all about it. My husband recently sent me the links to the information attendees at the first Congress were privy to. I was keenly interested in the revelation of the parents of Chenin Blanc as written in this article 1er Congrès International du Chenin Blanc + La Paulée d’Anjou (30th June 2019) – tasting.¹
The Congress opened with the keynote address given by Jean-Michel Boursiquot announcing that Chenin Blanc’s missing parent had been identified. The following slide was in this article showing the relationship of Chenin Blanc with other grapes:

The slide was a little blurry to me so here is my attempt to reproduce it:

So, the news is out! The parents of Chenin Blanc are Savagnin and Sauvignonasse. I wanted to learn more about Savagnin and Sauvignonasse, so I went to the Grape Bible, written by J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz.²
Savagnin

Savagnin blanc is an early budding and ripening variety. It produces small, sometimes very small bunches and berries. The grape can achieve high sugar concentration while maintaining good levels of acidity. Savagnin Blanc makes a full bodied, firm, ageworthy wine that is sometimes called Traminer.

Sauvignonasse

Sauvignonasse is a fertile, vigorous and productive variety. Sauvignonasse is a lightly aromatic variety also called Friulano in Italy.
Whatever their parentage, the offspring, Chenin Blanc is one wine that we really love! Almost half of our vineyard is planted in Chenin Blanc!
References:
1. 1er Congrès International du Chenin Blanc + La Paulée d’Anjou (30th June 2019) – tasting.
2. J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, ppg 958- 960 and 962-964, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2.
3. Savagnin illustration from Pl@ntGrape: Catalogue of vines grown in France; Savagnin Blanc.

Goodbye to New Oak

We were never fans of overly oaked wines. When used in a white wine, I sometimes have thought that sipping this style of wine was like drinking splinters. For red wines, oak is the choice for fermentation and especially for aging, so I read with interest this article regarding: Winemakers Wave Goodbye to New Oak.
I probably wouldn't have blogged about it until I read this:
"The cask historically was simply used to transport wine – it was never intended as an enological tool. Oak should remain a secondary feature of wine production, used to stabilize wine, rather than used to impart aromas or flavors that trample over the fruit and terroir character."
That quote was from Maria José Lopez de Herredia. We absolutely love Lopez de Herredia and have had their Viña Tondonia and Viña Bosconia, so an article quoting Maria José gave it gravitas in my mind.
How did this change from new oak usage to reused old oak come about? The answer is that sommeliers have been proselytizing the consumer movement towards the subtle and fresh for some time now and the message is being received by many different regions and price brackets who eschew the fashionable and the sellable, read trendy.
I think that the message that came through in this article for me is that you need to make the wine that speaks to your own style regardless what the current trend is. For more details, please read the article: Winemakers Wave Goodbye to New Oak.

Regrettable

The weekend, July 20 and 21 were extremely hot days, but being farmers, we can't really take a break. On Saturday, Bella helped to leaf pull our older Chardonnay vines. We were able to do 12 lineposts worth of leaf pulling when we called it quits at 11 a.m. because the feel-like temperatures with the humidity was 99 degrees!
On Sunday, my husband and I went to the vineyard at 6:30 a.m. On the way there, we noticed that our other farmer friends were already out in numbers tending to their fields. We are opening up the canopy by cutting any secondaries, but mostly large summer laterals.
I came upon one shoot that had a beautiful bunch of grapes and determined that there was a huge summer lateral that I could remove to open up the canopy. Much to my regret, the huge bunch of grapes was growing on the summer lateral! I actually downed two shoots with grapes as shown in the picture below on the left hand side. On the right hand side is a comparison of the large bunch I regrettably cut next to the dastardly instrument that did the deed.

Vintage 2019: Summer Heat Wave

Yesterday, July 18th, we had a break from vineyard work because the remnants of tropical storm Barry came our way. It rained the entire day and when all was said and done, we had approximately 2-1/4 inches of rain!
It was very nice to have a day off because we have been in a race with the vines to shoot position, leaf pull and hedge. This is a row of Auxerrois. The photo was taken on Tuesday, July 16. While it is so satisfying to see the row looking like this, it is only a matter of time when things can get out of hand. This is the story of approximately 2/3rds of our vineyard.
There is a heat wave coming this weekend that will curtail our activities. Temperatures will be in the 90's but with high humidity, the feel like temperatures may be close to 100 degrees!
We do hope to get in more shoot positioning, leaf pulling and hedging in the morning. I guess we should be doubly thankful that Barry gave us 2-1/4 inches of rain because the vines will really need it with the weekend heat wave coming our way.