As events season kicks into gear in Wine Country, my calendar quickly fills with tasting parties nearly every week through the summer.
It’s a tough job to attend so many gatherings but it’s also rewarding, offering the opportunity to explore both new and established producers, sample an array of wine styles and — most importantly — identify the trends shaping the industry.
Take the International White Wine Festival in Anderson Valley in February, for example. Amid the selection of wines, one stood out: Chenin Blanc. Lots of Chenin Blanc.
A 2023 Matanzas Creek bottle reminded me of why I’ve always been fond of this varietal. It was a blast from the past: once a top grape in Sonoma County during the 1970s and ’80s, Chenin Blanc nearly vanished in the decades that followed, kicked out by the increasingly popular Chardonnay. And no wonder — those old-school Chenin Blancs were often cheaply made, semisweet and dull.
Today’s Sonoma County Chenin Blanc is a world apart — wonderfully food-friendly, aromatic and typically light, with tropical fruit, Asian pear and golden apple notes, balanced by bright acidity and a crisp, mineral finish.
The newly introduced Matanzas Creek Chenin Blanc, crafted by winemaker Marcia Torres Forno, impressed with its dry character, intriguing notes of lemongrass and melon, and a hint of saltiness that made me want to drink more. Forno sourced grapes from California’s River Junction appellation south of Lodi, alongside estate vineyards in Alexander Valley and select sites in Mendocino County, resulting in a distinctive 100% Chenin Blanc blend.
I discovered another stunning Chenin Blanc at the recent Sonoma Epicurean Epic Party at Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg. Jesse Katz, founder and winemaker at Aperture Cellars, was pouring his 2023 vintage and it was beautiful, with notes of white blossoms, lemon and a hint of that mysterious sea salt. In line with the growing demand for low-alcohol wines, it was refreshingly light at 12.2% alcohol by volume (ABV).
“I’m not exactly sure why Chenin Blanc went out of style,” said Katz, who has been working with the varietal since 2017. “With California still being a young winegrowing region, we are still finding out what does best in all our unique microclimates and vast arrays of soils,” he added. “I think when Chardonnay grapes started getting a higher sales price than Chenin Blanc, we lost a lot of sites that might be better suited for Chenin.”
Katz sources his Chenin Blanc grapes from a 40-year-old heritage vineyard in the Clarksburg American Viticultural Area (AVA), nestled among the cooling waterways of the Sacramento River Delta.
“It is the only vineyard I work with for Aperture that’s outside of Sonoma,” he said. “I went to Clarksburg because it has some incredible pockets of soils and is one of the oldest Chenin vineyards in California.”
He’s even more excited about his newly released 2024 vintage.
“It’s incredibly special,” he said. “It’s got some of the most complex and concentrated flavors I’ve ever seen, but is also balanced with a ton of freshness and very age worthy. It’s a vintage that we will look back at as being one of the best in the last 20-plus years, I think.”
Andy Smith, winemaker and partner of DuMol in Windsor, farms a small block of Chenin Blanc at his MacIntyre Estate Vineyard in the Sonoma Coast appellation near Graton.
“We’re so confident of Chenin’s future in Sonoma that we’ve planted a further 900 vines on steep terraces at our Eddie’s Patch site (in the Hoppe-Kelly Vineyard in the Russian River Valley),” he said.
As Chenin Blanc makes a comeback, winemakers are exploring various treatments.
One of my new favorites is the 2021 Sparkling Chenin Blanc from Pangloss Cellars in downtown Sonoma. Made in the classic Méthode Traditionnelle style with grapes from Two Creeks Farm in Kenwood, this bubbly bursts with bright citrus and slightly sweet floral aromas (it’s great with caviar and potato chips).
Beyond being a lovely wine, Chenin Blanc often offers great value. Matanzas Creek’s Chenin Blanc retails for $20, while Aperture’s 2024 vintage is priced at $35 and the Pangloss Cellars sparkler is $52.
DuMol’s wines are available by appointment at the tasting room, with wine purchases allocated to members.