What’s All the Fuss About South African Chenin Blanc?
Explicit content warning
12/08/24 • 42 min
Chenin Blanc is the “it” wine in South Africa, but is it worth the hype? Spoiler alert - if you like an oaky Chardonnay or white wines with some body, you may really like this wine! No one is really sure how Chenin Blanc got to South Africa, or why it has been called Steen there for centuries, but one thing is for sure - if you want to taste some of the best Chenin Blanc in the world outside of France, the first place you need to turn to is South Africa. South Africa makes more than 50% of all the Chenin Blanc in the world, and has a strong reputation today for making excellent wine - but it wasn’t always the case. In this episode, we explore a bit of the history of Chenin Blanc from South Africa, and we taste and review two reasonably priced and easy to find South African Chenin Blancs which we bought at Total Wine (boo!) to see if they are worth your hard-earned money. And a shout out to listener Dominic who suggested this episode. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 Blaauwklippen Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc, 2023 Spier Seaward Chenin Blanc
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Chenin Blanc is the “it” wine in South Africa, but is it worth the hype? Spoiler alert - if you like an oaky Chardonnay or white wines with some body, you may really like this wine! No one is really sure how Chenin Blanc got to South Africa, or why it has been called Steen there for centuries, but one thing is for sure - if you want to taste some of the best Chenin Blanc in the world outside of France, the first place you need to turn to is South Africa. South Africa makes more than 50% of all the Chenin Blanc in the world, and has a strong reputation today for making excellent wine - but it wasn’t always the case. In this episode, we explore a bit of the history of Chenin Blanc from South Africa, and we taste and review two reasonably priced and easy to find South African Chenin Blancs which we bought at Total Wine (boo!) to see if they are worth your hard-earned money. And a shout out to listener Dominic who suggested this episode. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 Blaauwklippen Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc, 2023 Spier Seaward Chenin Blanc
Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode!
Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you!
Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us: https://thewinepairpodcast.com/
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The Wine Pair Podcast - What’s All the Fuss About South African Chenin Blanc?
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Show Notes
Episode 148: What’s All the Fuss About South African Chenin Blanc? 00:00
Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair!
If you are new to our podcast, here is a quick orientation! Each week, we explore a different wine varietal or blend or wine making area of the world — like Picpoul or Valpolicella or Chenin B
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