Search results for: 'chenin of wall'

From the winery: Like Trousseau Gris, Chenin is a Heritage white grape that was once widely planted in CA. From over 2000 acres of Chenin planted in Napa in the 1980's, there are now only 16 acres! Finding it is difficult, but rewarding. This is our ninth bottling of Chenin Blanc from a small vineyard in St. Helena. It was picked in late September 1, 2022, and was fermented and aged sur lie in used French Oak barrels for a total of 8 months.

90 Points! Truth in advertising, the 2022 Skin Contact Chenin Blanc offers a fresh and leesy expression with notes of yellow apples and hints of arugula and lemon skin. Medium to full-bodied, the palate displays surprising depth and a pleasing texture. The wine ends with a spicy, mineral-laced finish and a lingering kiss of phenolic bitterness. - Anthony Mueller, robertparker.com

91 Points! The A. A. Badenhorst Family Wines 2025 Swartland Secateurs Chenin Blanc is sourced from 34 vineyards and blended progressively during harvest, with fruit picked between 11% and 14% potential alcohol. Fermentation unfolds naturally as fresh juice is added to active tanks over several weeks without temperature control. The wine matures in a mix of old casks, concrete and large barrels..."This wine feeds a lot of people," says Adi Badenhorst. The 2025 shows bright freshness, with honey and yellow flower layered over clean orchard fruit aromatics. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

94 Points! Fermented and aged in a combination of tank and puncheon, the 2024 Chenin Blanc Ernesto Wickenden Vineyard Old Vines is concentrated, crystal-clear and most importantly, absolutely delicious. Lemon oil, ripe pear, chalk and white pepper blossom in the glass with real lift. Energetic and lively, the 2024 confidently marches across the palate. A rounded, lightly creamy finish wraps things up with a pretty little bow on top. - Billy Norris, Vinous

93 Points! Fermented in equal parts stainless steel and neutral puncheons, the 2024 Chenin Blanc Ernesto Wickenden Vineyard is a beautiful representation of the variety sourced from vines planted in 1966. It opens with an airy, ethereal bouquet that gradually blossoms with dried jasmine, tangerine, crushed stone and citrus peel aromas. The palate is broad, textural and glossy yet enlivened with invigorating acidity that runs through the vibrant, mouthwatering finish. - Matthew Luczy, robertparker.com

93 Points! Warm slate, lemon flesh and pith, hard apples, chamomile and white tea are nervy and long in this brisk chenin blanc, the concentration of fruit and savory notes making for a fascinating expression of the variety. As lively and mouthwatering as it is right now, there is a bright midterm future ahead as well. Drink or hold. - James Suckling.com

91 Points! The 2022 Jurassic Vineyard Old Vine Chenin Blanc slowly emerges from the glass with notes of Golden Delicious apples, fresh pears, and wet slate plus touches of beeswax and coriander seed. The dry, medium-bodied palate delivers a satiny texture and racy acidity, finishing with a lemony lift. This wine was barrel-fermented and aged in French oak...The Jurassic Vineyard, planted in 1982, is situated at an elevation of 1,000 feet. The name pays tribute to the fossil-rich soils that force the vines to look deep for nutrients and water. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent

For our money the best 'Pet-Nat' on the planet. 100% Chenin...

Giraudière’s Saumur Blanc “L'Ardillon de Brézé” is Chenin Blanc from vines planted in Brézé in 1985, 2003, and 2009, at 75 meters of altitude on a gentle slope facing north-south and east-west, depending on the parcel. The topsoil is deep clay with limestone and flint rock on limestone bedrock. Saumur Blanc “L'Ardillon de Brézé” is fermented in barrels at a maximum of 17°C and aged for 12 months before bottling.

92 Points! The 2021 La Grande Pièce is derived from Chenin Blanc planted on sandstone and pouddingue soils within the Quarts-de-Chaume appellation but vinified as a dry wine. It reveals a flinty, reduced bouquet with aromas of vanilla pod, grapefruit, ripe orchard fruits and spring flowers, followed by a fleshy and incisive palate, enveloping and charming, a tense and perfectly balanced mid-palate and a mineral, saline, long finish. Matured for 12 months in barrels and terracotta containers. - Yohan Castaing, robertparker.com

Perfectly exposed to the southeast, this walled vineyard sits high up on the slope, and with its pure limestone soils, delivers a more refined, layered and complex red Burgundy.

92 Points! The 2017 Saumur Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg Coulée de St-Cyr exhibits an intense white-golden color along with a deep, fresh and refined bouquet of lemon juice, iodine and limestone along with ripe domestic and even some tropical fruit aromas intertwined with yeasty notes and a lovely oaky and honeyed spiciness that is very well integrated. Full-bodied, pure and persistently salty on the clear and dry palate, this is a dense, tightly structured, refreshing, mineral and straightforward Chenin with very fine tannins and an iodine finish. A characterful wine that currently still lacks the flesh to soften the structural bones. Tasted in April 2021. - Stephan Reinhardt, robertparker.com

96 Points! One of the great dry white wines of the Loire. This dry chenin blanc is rich and concentrated, but also graceful and delicate. Full-bodied but so elegant and precise, with a wet stone minerality that builds in a spectacular manner in the very long, refined finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! The 2023 Vouvray Sec Le Mont is precise, upright and flinty. It's less immediately charming than the styles we've seen in recent warmer vintages, but it was only tasted three weeks after bottling—this is one to revisit. There's just the right amount of juicy, peachy flesh within this light-bodied yet concentrated wine. It has the potential to charm but does so without showing off. Flinty and tightly sewn together, it has curves in the right places, but you're just going to have to wait for it to take shape. - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media

From the winery: The fruit for this wine comes from two vineyard blocks located in the western slopes of Sonoma Valley, within the appellation's overlap with the Sonoma Coast AVA. The sites are distinguished by their extremely rocky soils - stones from which were used in the mid-1800's to construct the miles of stone walls that ribbon the region. The site's coastal influences and rocky, well drained soils produce moderate yields of very concentrated Zinfandel.

94 Points! Hailing from a warm vintage that was one of the best in what would otherwise have been a fairly ordinary decade, the 1985 Moulin Touchais Coteaux du Layon is starting to take on a deep golden appearance, commencing to amber. It offers a gorgeous, suave texture and a very complex nose that's a touch oxidative but that adds a layer of additional intrigue: it's all nuts, raisins, walnuts, olives, warm pastry, cinnamon, cooked orange peel. It's round and sweet (95g/L) but not unctuous with richness on the mid-palate while retaining enough acidity to refresh the mouth on the long finish. A wine that is very comfortable in its own skin, providing a very relaxing experience.

Moulin Touchais produces sweet Chenin Blanc in the Coteaux du Layon appellation. The wines are most often late harvested, although in some vintages - such as 1997 - a high level of botrytis builds on the fruit. What makes the winery special is its late-release policy: the wines must spend a minimum of 10 years in the underground cellars beneath the village of Doué la Fontaine before release. - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media, 2021

Located between Millau and Montpellier in the Hérault region, the Pas de l'Escalette is the highest elevation vineytard in the zone of Larzac. Vines planted on limestone scree, surrounded by low dry-stone walls and clapas (piles of stones). The altitude, the deep and draining clay-limestone soils, the cool climate of these valleys; all meet up to produce wines with arichness, freshness and verticality very specific to this terroir. Grenache and carignan for the majority of the blends, syrah and cinsault, mostly matured in larger oak vats.

Sourced from Querétaro, Mexico, this is an inviting blend of 63% Sauvignon Blanc and 37% Chenin Blanc aged in stainless steel. Citrus, peach, apricot, lemon verbena, this a top-fligiht white from one of the wine world's up and coming growing zones.