For two different styles of domestic chenin, You may want to try sandlands and pine ridge. Once you get to Loire there is a wide range of styles. I feel like the same can be said of s.African chenin. For my palate I’ve stayed with one producer for dry, acidic light Loire chenin as each producer is a bit different. Domestically maybe try Jaime motley Cb, it may be in a style that would appeal to a Chardonnay afficiando.
I think, like everything else, it depends. I’ve had lighter Savennieres and weighty ones. Ones from 12.5% to 15%. I’ve always thought of Savennieres as a minefield, because I never know what that wine is going to be.
If you are going to try domestic versions, Leo Steen is a must. Three distinctly different CB’s from three very different sites. Geography wise they are over 400 miles apart. The wines include a CB from Saini Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County, “Peaberry” CB from deep in Mendocino County and a CB from Jurassic Vineyard in Santa Ynez. All are very reasonably priced, especially considering the quality.
More info on each here. https://www.leosteenwines.com/
Tom
It certainly depends. Not everyone is making wine like Joly.
However, I’ve still felt that the overall Savennières style is very powerful; even many of those wines you consider “light” at 12,5% have been relatively concentrated and even somewhat extracted for Chenin. If two 12,5% Chenin Blancs - one from Savennières and one from Vouvray - were to be tasted side-by-side blind, I’d imagine the difference would be noticeable.
Of course there are some producers making a lighter style of Chenin in Savennières, but the classic Savennières style of Chenin is a relatively full-bodied, concentrated and powerful dry white, quite unlike the Chenins from the rest of the Loire. It certainly can be quite a minefield, like you said, which is why I find it weird if they are recommended as nice, light whites. Sure, they can be light compared to, say, Condrieu, but IMO an average Savennières doesn’t really fit the bill of a “nice, light white”.
Noah,
I’ve had some turn-arounds regarding several varietals over the twenty-some years that I’ve engaged in this crazy hobby. I now enjoy and seek out Cabernet Franc, Riesling, entry level Sangiovese, and Chenin Blanc after ignoring them for much of that time. As other posters have suggested, grab a few bottles of CB now from excellent producers and hold onto them. By the time your palate has evolved, they will have some age on them! FWIW I’ve purchased bottles from Francois Chidaine, Jacky, Blot, Champalou, Collier, and Francois Pinon, and tend to focus on dry Chenin Blanc.
Cheers,
Doug
I was going to add Chidaine to Huet, but the prior posters are right; if you try a 2019 Huet Sec, any of the three, (Not demi, not sparkling) and you do not like it, give up.
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+1 I’m going old school with a “plus one” AND comments, because a thumbs up “Thanks” doesn’t do it. This is a great list, Doug. I have had a few of your suggestions but that is not what makes it so. Well thought out to give the OP what he is asking for. Cheers.
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This is how I’ve felt about most of the other Chenin appellations. It seemed like the must weight or sweetness levels were not always called out or could just plain vary within an appellation. It was confusing and annoying since I’m not one to want sweeter, bigger bodied wines for day to day choices. Of the Savennieres I tried I found them across the board to be lighter, dry wines. So I would choose those to try more often. But as mentioned, I gave up some time ago on Chenin because I had to admit the flavor profile didn’t fit me as well as many other white wines did.
Thank you CF. Jen and I have been making Chenin from Saint Helena for 7 years now, and the most surprising thing about it is just how gradually it seems to age. As long as the acid is relatively fresh, Chenin will evolve more closely to a red wine than an aromatic white. Can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed doing “research” on Chenins from all over. Check out Erica Orr’s as well—Orr Wines from Washington state. She is participating in BD12 next week----great opportunity to try.
I’m of an age now when any wine that need keeping for 10 years is not of interest to me. ![[cray.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/853b6e76c6e8406be77a6727c2a27ad1672678b3.gif "cry"){kind=small}
The FMC will age, the Wild Ferment - well I drank it young at the winery with lunch and a few months later when I could buy it at home.
There has been quite a range of styles at Huet over the last couple of years due to the climate. I like the 2019 best, and this is where the Cote du Bourg really shone-such an expansive palate, with slightly underripe orchard fruit giving way to a chalky floral finish. In the riper years, I seem to prefer the Silex based Le Mont (excellent in 2016 and 2017), but the CdB really delivered in 2019 (and this is what you can find now). I would put these two wines above the Haut Lieu for sure (although I have not tried the 2019)…
I was blown away by a 2002 Jacky Blot Demi-Sec when in France in 2016. Not really even a trace of residual sugar that I could detect, just liquid electricity, such a complex and finessed wine. His wines in general are more difficult to find than Huet, and you could forget about finding a 2002, so as a starting point, I would stick with the younger wines (2019).
Saumur and producers like Guiberteau offer another expression of Chenin, more chiselled, linear and precise. Would be worth trying though.
Have to say that the Joly wines have been the most disappointing to me, but perhaps I have been influenced by my visit there would the non-winemaker tour guide took a condescending tone and assured us that the clearly oxidized wines she was serving were the only way to appreciate Chenin.
Popped a 2019 Huet “Le Haut Lieu” this evening. I thought it was “good,” but massively disappointing considering all the hype. Lighter and less acidic than I was expecting, given others’ notes.
I just could never get there either. I rode a bicycle along the Loire, not even then. I think it’s like those people (oh, how I feel for them) who don’t like cilantro–missing out on some of the world’s greatest cuisines… I’ve decided with CB, it’s personal chemistry; that grape does something different on our taste buds.
ARe we using the word “powerful” in the same way. Some people call a penetrating wine “powerful” (like a penetrating dry Savenniere), but others reserve “power” for bigger, high alcohol wines. 12.5% seems to fall more in the category of penetrating…
Well, Cris’s use is yet another different way of using it, apparently, since he seems to associate sweetness with “bigger” and “fuller-bodied” wines, while I think Riesling and Chenin are one of the few wines where one can have delicate, weightless wines with surprisingly high levels of sugar. On the other hand, I don’t think bigger, high alcohol wines are always powerful. Sure, they can be bigger, i.e. they have richness and big weight, but for example a typical, very ripe Cali Chardonnay isn’t particularly “powerful” in my books. It’s big, but soft, fat and flabby. Impressive in size, but nothing remotely powerful there.
But yes, I think a ripe, concentrated and extracted Savennières is powerful. It might not be full-bodied, but it might feel like a very powerful, extracted white wine that would not surprise if it clocked at 14%, yet it is only 12,5%. I think very rarely a Vouvray can be similarly “powerful” - they often come across as lighter and more delicate in style. Focused as opposed to concentrated.
This is an old post re. Chenin Blanc, but I’d like to echo many posters - Huet, Taille Aux Loups, Chidaine and many others are brilliant wines. Summer 2019 I tasted at Taille aux Loups with Jacky Blot leading the tasting and it was a revelation - current releases vs a few of the same with 10 years behind them. The “old” wines were fresh and complex. These are some of the few wines that are absolutely rewarding young and old. I hope you have found some you like!
I love CB. Recent ones I have enjoyed and would recommend are:
FRANCE
Thibaud Boudignon
Domaine du Collier
Guiberteau
Domaine de la Roche Bleue
Catherine et Pierre Breton
Le Rocher des Violettes
Château Soucherie
JC Garnier (they are variable…)
SA
Alheit
Badenhorst (single vineyards)
Patatsfontein
Ken Forrester
Mullineux
Reyneke
All I can say is keep tasting. If it’s really not your cup of tea, so be it. Although I fear stating this on this forum… I don’t really get Riesling… So I feel you 
Astor Wines has 15% off Huet (and all Loire Valley wines) today only. I’m not sure if it’s worthwhile w/shipping.
They do offer free shipping for first time orders over $99.
Normally I do not buy African wines, but the 2024 Mbali ‘chenin blanc / viognier’ [Western Cape] is an almost spitting image of the popular summer Pine Ridge Clarksburg quaffer, and at Trader Joes, is maybe $5 or $6. For a comestible that will last 10 minutes poolside, that’s a good substitution for a blanc screwcapper, clocking in at a light bodied 13.5% abv. Good acidity, and an off dry feel. The back label notes its made by Zidela Wines in Stellenbosch, so presumably that’s some big industrial outfit like the many we have in American Canyon, but they have dialed in the recipe well for this. I hope TJ’s keeps this fruity/floral glugger around - it’s B quality but offered at a C level price. My SiL who goes through a lot of that Pine Ridge was amazed at the price; the same chenin/viognier from the US producer runs $14 now.
I’ll be offering up ours during the upcoming Vindependence Day offerings 
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