Tag: chenin blanc


Sep
2020

DipWSET Theory: Tasting Loire Valley, Touraine

categories: Wine, Wine 101, Wine World (D3)

We shall continue our tour of Middle Earth, I mean Middle Loire, moving further east into Touraine. If you haven’t read about Middle Loire’s Anjou-Saumur region(s), make sure to take a pitstop there first.

Touraine, Loire Valley, France; Fernando Beteta
Touraine, Loire Valley, France; Fernando Beteta

Again, I find a compelling quote to introduce this region from the Oxford Companion to Wine: “This is ‘the garden of France,’ and Loire chateau country par excellence.” Let’s find out what makes this particular piece of wine country so excellent…

Note: For a simplified look at the Loire Valley, please see Loire Valley Regional Round-Up and Wine Review and Pop Quiz(es): Loire Valley. (More appropriate for those studying for their Level 3 exams.)

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Sep
2020

DipWSET Theory: Tasting Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur

categories: Wine, Wine 101, Wine World (D3)

Anjou-Saumur, together with Touraine, make up the Middle Loire. (I feel like there’s a joke here about Middle Earth.) But, again for the benefit of my poor brain, I’m going to further separate these three regions (Anjou and Saumur really being two regions that are lumped together) into two separate posts.

Anjou, Loire Valley; Fernando Beteta
Anjou, Loire Valley; Fernando Beteta

Let’s jump right in and start with Anjou-Saumur.

Note: For a simplified look at the Loire Valley, please see Loire Valley Regional Round-Up and Wine Review and Pop Quiz(es): Loire Valley. (More appropriate for those studying for their Level 3 exams.)

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Jun
2017

Lubanzi 2015 Rhône Red Blend

categories: Booze, Wine

When I first connected with Lubanzi, this is the wine that most intrigued me. With a vast array of Rhône wines available to me here in California (and, it seems, that number is increasing based on this year’s Rhône Ranger event), I was quite eager to taste what a South African expression of this French tradition would taste like. Unlike where California’s Rhône grape varieties are planted, there’s not much similar between the soil and the climate between South Africa’s Western Cape and the French Rhône Valley. Though most texts will tell you that this western pocket of Africa does “enjoy a Mediterranean climate,” I would go ahead and edit that to “a Mediterranean-like” climate, as the combination of ocean, dessert, and mountainscape, creates quite a unique terroir situation and, thus, interesting Rhône interpretations.

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Jun
2017

Lubanzi 2016 Chenin Blanc

categories: Booze, Wine

About the Wine: The Lubanzi 2016 Chenin Blanc is made from 100% Chenin Blanc grapes harvested from the Swartland W.O. in South Africa.

Swartland, located just 40 miles north of Cape Town in the Western Cape WO, was originally a wheat-production region. Today, it is one of the WO’s main grape-growing regions, the most important grapes being Shiraz and Chenin Blanc. Topography here includes varying degrees of elevation, as it sits between the Paardeberg mountain in the south, the Piketberg plains in the north, and the Kasteelberg Moutnain to the east. The dominant soil type here is Malmesbury shale (named after Swartland’s central town of Malmesbury) — a good soil for natural drainage improved even further by the area’s elevation. Because it is somewhat separated from the Atlantic Ocean, Swartland’s climate is actually a hot and dry one, which is a benefit to Chenin Blanc, a tightly clustered grape variety susceptible to mildew and fungal disease when exposed to wet environments.

And, so it is here that Lubanzi sources their Chenin Blanc grapes.

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