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Posts with category ‘South Africa’

Chenin Comeback?

Posted on May 16, 2007

Wine of the Week
Lammershoek 2006 Chenin Blanc, Swartland, South Africa ($21, 91 points, www.bokkewines.com)
Lammershoek winemaker Paul Kretzel embodies South Africa, and its wines; a tall, broad, solid man with a friendly manner and rich voice that lilts along with a vaguely Germanic Cape accent. His roots are actually Austrian, in the Wachau region of the upper Danube, an area famous for firm, mineral rieslings. The Chenin Blanc he poured during last week’s Sante Festival showed those roots as well—a different grape but similarly solid, mineral and dry with great depth. There was a touch of spice from a portion of the wine being fermented in old—and thus almost neutral-flavoured—barrels or “fuders." A technique widely used for European rieslings in the days before stainless steel, it added a dash of exoticism to the pear flavours of this chenin and one could tell that Paul Kretzel was pleased as punch with the result. With 40 hectares of chenin under vine, much of it old stock harvested a very low yields, he is one the largest producers of premium chenin in the country, and he is poised to do extremely well as the grape rises to stardom in South Africa. Historically this grape, locally called steen, has been widely planted for use in cheap white blends, so there is a lot of it to work with (although much has also been uprooted in favour of sauvignon blanc and chardonnay).

David Lawrason

David Lawrason

David Lawrason has worked full time as one of Canada's leading, independent wine writers and educators for over 20 years. He was the founder of Wine Access magazine and Globe and Mail wine columnist for 13 years before becoming resident wine guy at Toronto Life, where he pens a monthly column and writes an exhaustive review of LCBO general listings for the annual Food and Wine Guide. As a wine educator he has taught sommelier programs at George Brown, Humber and Niagara Colleges, and has run popular public courses in Toronto since 1988. He has visited every major wine major producing country in the world, while focusing recently on the booming Canadian wine scene, as founder of the Canadian Wine Awards program, and Canadian wine columnist for Wine Access.

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