Chenin Blanc is a white grape variety of high natural acidity, historically rooted in France’s Loire Valley and widely associated with Anjou, Saumur, Savennières, and Vouvray. Its acidity allows it to produce wines across a broad spectrum, from dry and mineral to sweet, sparkling, and long-lived.
The grape is also central to South African wine, where it is often known as Steen and remains one of the country’s most important varieties. Chenin Blanc can show apple, quince, pear, honey, chamomile, lanolin, and wet stone, with its final character shaped by yield, ripeness, botrytis, oak, lees aging, and terroir.