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Different White Wine Types - Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc is one of the more interesting white wine types. The Chenin Blanc grape has been used to make Vouvray in France's Loire Valley for a long time, and it is also grown in California's Central Valley region. This white grape produces crisp, tasty wine, which you can age in a wine cellar for two to five years. Hints of pears, tropical fruits, and apples are typical in Chenin Blanc, and this semi-dry white wine is nice with seafood, fish, and chicken. Serve it at 48 degrees F for the best aroma and flavor.
The high acidity in the Chenin Blanc grape means it can be used to make everything from super-sweet dessert wines to sparkling wines. If the naturally vigorous vine is not controlled through, it can also produce neutral, bland-tasting wines instead. If the grapes are harvested at high yield, they will not retain the honey or floral aromas and flavors.
In places with excellent soils the vines can produce a huge quantity of grapes, and this means they will be blander and more neutral than if the vines were controlled properly. Some vineyards also do a "green harvest" during the growing season, which means they remove the excess grape clusters.
More Chenin Blanc Information
Because the balance between sugars and acidity, as well as optimal ripeness, are so vital for successful Chenin Blanc, a lot of growers will pick the ripest clusters (or even individual grapes) by hand through a four to six week period. In places where the weather or other conditions are changeable, winemakers might decide what style of wine to make with the grapes they have produced. Depending on how the weather has been, the grapes might be better suited to making a dry sparkling wine than a sweet dessert wine.
In cool regions, the juice from the Chenin Blanc grape is sweet, acidic, and full-bodied. The acidity of under-ripened grapes in northern France's unreliable summer season means they can be made into sparkling wines. In the best vintages, it is possible to leave the grapes on the vines to develop "noble rot" which means you can make them into thick, rich, sweet dessert wines which can be aged in wine cellars.
Chenin Blanc is often blended with Colombard or Chardonnay in the United States, to produce inexpensive bulk wines. The Napa Valley, Mendocino, and Clarksburg AVAs in California, as well as areas in Washington, Oregon and Texas, are home to Chenin Blanc vineyards. Chenin Blanc used to be used to make inexpensive blended wines, and it was not until recently that winemakers in Clarksburg began making quality Chenin Blanc wines. These age well and have a musky melon aroma.
Different Between Old World and New World Chenin Blanc
One of the biggest differences between Old World style Chenin Blanc (such as French) and the New World style (such as Californian) is the temperature at which the wine is fermented. Old World producers tend to ferment their wine at between 60 and 68 degrees F, whereas New World producers in California or South Africa will use temperatures around 50 to 54 degrees F. The reason for this is that New World producers value the tropical fruit aromas and flavors which come out better with the cooler fermentation and Old World producers do not so much.
Most Old World producers do not like to use new oak barrels for the fermentation either, which can flavor the wine with spice, toast and vanilla, but some New World producers do like to use new oak barrels for Chenin Blanc and similar white wine types.
