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Article: it's easy to fall for a chenin blanc from south africa.(Flavor/Gracious Living)
- Article from:
- The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
- Article date:
- September 17, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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GRAPES DON'T COME much humbler than chenin blanc. At least that's the thinking of wine fanciers who remember the one-dimensional - really more like fractional-dimensional - chenins that came out of California in the 1970s and '80s.
They were lame wines modeled after lame examples of a French wine named Vouvray, which is made in the Loire River Valley. Cheap Vouvrays, like those old, cheap California chenins, are usually too sweet and lack the focused apple and mineral zing that brings balance to better Vouv-rays.
I drank dozens of forgettable California chenins and imported Vouvrays as a young man before I had my eyes opened by a brilliant Vouvray ...