How Chenin Blanc Became the Cool Kid’s Grape
Ask a sommelier, or a wine writer, or really anyone deep in the fermented grape’s wonders, which wine varieties most excite them: Chenin Blanc is likely to make the list.
Wine lovers will cite the variety’s versatility and many shades of deliciousness, whether in sparkling or still form, bone dry, demi-sec or moelleux (sweet), with its sometimes-subtle-sometimes-brazen floral, honey, orchard fruit, beeswax and flint characters and mouth-watering acidity. They’ll likely also hail its affordability, particularly when compared with neighboring wine regions like Burgundy or Champagne.
Wine producers wax poetically about Chenin Blanc’s ability to subtly express terroir and its adaptability to a wide range of growing sites. It not only thrives in its cool climate homeland, the Loire Valley, in the northwest of France, but also in much warmer, drier environments such as South Africa, Australia and California. This flexibility makes it one of the varieties most likely to weather a warmer future.
What these folks may not mention is the fact that Chenin Blanc is just plain cool.
As with fashion, music, art and other forms of self-expression, what you drink can reflect who you are and aim to be. Like everything else, grape varieties go in and out of fashion (to the chagrin of wine growers everywhere). While Chenin hasn’t quite made it fully mainstream yet, at least in the United States, it has officially been adopted by the cool kids club of wine geeks. For over a decade now, many members of new school natural wine circles have been somewhat obsessed with the varietal.
“I really don’t think Chenin ever had a ‘hipster’ moment the way Savagnin is having. It just had a renaissance,” says Alice Feiring, author of To Fall in Love, Drink This and one of the U.S.’s best known natural wine champions.
This rebirth, however, was a long time in the making.
The Loire Valley: the Heartland of Chenin
Chenin Blanc has been cultivated in the central Loire Valley for over 500 years in famed appellations like Vouvray, Anjou, Saumur and Savennières, growing along the region’s namesake river and its tributaries.
Like France itself, the Loire’s history with one of its chief varieties is complex with lots of twists and turns. While artisanal, quality-focused producers have always existed, they largely fell under international drinkers’ radars for decades.
Throughout the mid-late 20th century, Loire Valley Chenin’s reputation was one of quantity over quality. Many poorly farmed vineyards churned out semi-sweet sparkling, off-dry or sweet wines from the variety.
While all of these styles remain central to the appellations best known for them (and there are many excellent examples today), drier iterations of the wine made in a low-intervention style thrust the grape and the region into the international limelight starting in the 1990s.
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A new wave of Loire Valley producers, like Nicolas Joly in Savennières, began singing the praises of biodynamic winemaking and natural techniques native yeast, extended lees contact and low sulfur. Helped alongside like-minded producers in Beaujolais, like Marcel Lapierre, this small but growing slew of winemakers ignited the natural wine movement. They’ve attracted a loyal fanbase, especially among environmentally- and health-conscious Millennial drinkers.
In the ensuing decades, scores of young, dynamic Loire Valley producers have joined their ranks. Their efforts have brought the terroir-transmitting white grape to even larger legions of adoring fans around the globe.
Consumer demand for less synthetic chemicals in vines and wines has drastically impacted the region as a whole. Organic and biodynamic certifications are on a steep incline for producers of all sizes and winemaking philosophies, from the Muscadet region in the far west, to Sancerre and Puilly Fumé in this sprawling region’s far east.
Between 2011 and 2021, the number of Loire Valley vineyards famed organically grew by 300%, accounting for 23% of the region’s total land area. This is a huge contrast to France’s overall national average of just 14%.
At the same time, the use of sulfur is down significantly in the region. The “Le style ligérien” (literally “coming from the Loire”), known for its lighter, more terroir-expressive approach, is on the rise.
Rather than attempt to emulate the rich, oaked wines of more southerly French regions like Bordeaux—as they especially did with their signature red grape, Cabernet Franc, towards the end of the 20th century—a growing cadre of Loire Valley winemakers have been playing up the region’s inherent freshness in their reds and whites. Few styles achieve this as successfully as dry Chenin Blanc.
“With better farming and more natural winemaking, Chenin became seriously beautiful and more reliably drier with great diversity,” says Feiring.
It’s paid off. Chenin producers working in this vein now enjoy prominent spots on many of the world’s top wine lists.
Manhattan’s three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park boasts 32 Chenin Blanc vintages on the wine list, from top producers like Domaine Huet in Vouvray and Domaine du Closel in Savienniéres.
James Beard Award-winning Anajak Thai in Los Angeles boasts 15 to 20 rotating Loire Valley Chenins at any given time, such as Thibaud Boudignon’s Clos Fremine Savienniéres, which beverage director Ian Krupp says “is incredible: the tension and minerality is through the roof.”
Meanwhile, hip indie wine shops like Maine & Loire in Portland, Maine, not only play on Chenin-centric Loire Valley department Maine-et-Loire in name, but it also devotes outsized shelf space to cult Chenin producers like Domaine Mosse and Catherine and Pierre Breton.
The gospel according to Chenin has spread across the wine world.
Chenin ‘Round the Globe
In South Africa, Chenin—historically known as “Steen”—has been a part of the nation’s vinous fabric for centuries, among the very first vine cuttings to be planted near Cape Town in 1655 by members of the Dutch East India Company.
It is the dominant variety to this day, comprising 18% of South Africa’s vine plantings. It grows across the western part of the country, from Stellenbosch and Paarl to Swartland.
But South Africans didn’t even know they had Chenin growing until it was identified in the 1960s.
Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, these naturally vigorous vines were over-planted and intensively farmed, with a myriad of chemical applications and other unsustainable practices aimed at encouraging large quantities of grapes for low-quality wines. Oftentimes, these subpar wines were used as a base for the distillation of brandy.
Things started to change after the fall of Apartheid, in the mid-1990s when South African wines hit the world market. As Chenin’s international popularity grew, producers within the country started taking the variety more seriously, and marketing it as such, too.
Today, South Africa boasts more Chenin vines than anywhere else on the planet, with around 40,000 acres under vine (compared to France’s 25,000 acres).
In 1829, Chenin spread from South Africa to the Swan Valley of Western Australia—one of the oldest and hottest regions Down Under. The grape was primarily fermented into fortified wines that still define the region to this day.
But, as dry Chenin’s star has risen elsewhere, it has here, too, as well as in the more temperate Margaret River region, further south. While over half of Chenin’s total plantings are on Australia’s west coast, the variety has made its way to other Australian states, too, including Victoria and South Australia.
Like elsewhere, Aussie Chenin has experienced a makeover in recent years thanks to creative young winemakers in search of fresh acidity and affordable fruit, both of which Chenin delivers in spades. This has led to renewed appreciation for the over 100-year-old vines still in the ground in the Swan Valley.
“Chenin is definitely having a moment in Australia,” says Hayley Williamson, who co-owns Nina’s Bar and Dining in Melbourne and boasts a “Chenin” tattoo on her wrist.
California’s Chenin story is similar. The variety arrived in the state in the late 1800s, but has found newfound respect particularly among Millennial winemakers.
Throughout the 20th century, it was used as a source of much-needed acidity in the warm, dry state. Once one of California’s most planted white varieties, Chenin’s plantings reached peak levels in the 1970s and ‘80s. It was primarily used as a blending component for lower-end wines, and occasionally as a semi-sweet single varietal wine labeled as California Champagne or Chablis.
A small number of producers focused on drier styles, but the wave of small-batch producers who would redefine dry Chenin in the Golden State wouldn’t crop up until the very end of the aughts.
While acreage has been reduced over the last decade and a half, California still ranks third for the world’s most Chenin Blanc plantings, with around 4,700 acres in the ground, as of 2023.
Riding the Natty Wave
Many “New World” producers credit those in Loire Valley—today considered one of natural wine’s spiritual homes—for lighting the Chenin flame.
“Many of the ‘original’ natural wine people came from the Loire and grouped together to create different natural wine fairs that have been the launching pad for many producers,” says Craig Hawkins, the owner and winemaker at Testalonga and El Bandito wines in South Africa’s Swartland region.
Hawkins was, in 2008, one of the first South Africans to make an “orange” Chenin Blanc. He led the charge to get the South African Department of Agriculture to declare “Skin Macerated White Wines” an official legal category six years later.
Like many of these experimental, minimal-intervention winemakers around the world, Hawkins was influenced by the French Renaissance des Appellations, a group of likeminded producers founded by Joly in 2001. Calling themselves a “Return to Terroirs,” they promote the style through tastings and events around the world.
There and at other longstanding natural wine fairs like Le Dive Bouteille, held annually in Saumur, in the heart of the Loire Valley, Hawkins encountered Chenins that ignited his passion for the variety.
He was not alone. “The more people went to the tastings, the more people drank natural wine, the more they drank Chenin,” says Feiring.
Word spread across the Commonwealth and beyond.
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In late 2008, natural wine importer Les Caves de Pyréne opened London’s first natural wine bar, Terroirs. It featured dozens of Chenins on a 450-strong list packed with small-batch producers from around the Loire and from little known pockets of France’s southwest.
In 2012, the team went on to open the Loire-centric Green Man and French Horn. While only open for three years, the bar whipped up an outsized buzz for its wine list, which featured 60 Chenin Blancs.
Around the same time, natural wine fairs Real Wine Fair and RAW were selling out. A plethora of Chenins—some orange, some gold, some hazy, some fizzy, but nearly all bone dry—were splashed into the glasses of thirsty, predominantly twenty-and-thirty-something-year-old wine lovers from around the U.K. eager to differentiate their tastes from their parents’.
From around 2013 onwards, the number of natural wine-focused importers, bars, restaurants and tasting events rapidly increased all around the U.K. and Europe. And no natty wine list was complete without paying homage to the Loire Valley and therefore to Chenin Blanc.
A New York State of Chenin
Meanwhile on the other side of the ocean, the United States was experiencing its own Chenin revolution. Pascaline Lepeltier, who built an award-winning wine list for Manhattan’s now-shuttered Rouge Tomate restaurant in 2008, became its de facto leader.
The Loire-born master sommelier and author has “beat the drum of her hometown grape,” Feiring says, fomenting widespread adoration for its unique way of showcasing the region’s varied terroirs, while retaining freshness and accessibility.
“Pascaline Lepeltier is the true Chenin champion in NYC,” says Alex Alan, the wine director at Brooklyn’s Hotel Delmano. “Few in the U.S. are anywhere near her experience and knowledge.”
There were other Chenin preachers, too.
The Ten Bells, one of the U.S.’s pioneering natural wine bars, opened on Manhattan’s Lower East Side that same year, offering minimally made Loire Chenin from day one.
Early U.S. importers like Louis/Dressner, Jenny & François, Polaner, Camille Riviere and Avant-Garde helped get lo-fi versions of the variety onto shelves and restaurant lists across the country.
Alan also helped spread the Chenin gospel. In 2016, the wine list he built for Freek’s Mill in Brooklyn garnered national attention thanks to its intensely narrow focus on two wine styles: Gamay from Beaujolais and Chenin Blanc from the Loire. The latter category boasted over 70 different wines. Like Green Man in London, it shut after just three years, but it remains a touchstone for New York City’s Chenin lovers.
California Catches the Chenin bug (Again)
While the Big Apple’s wine trade was falling hard for the French variety, on the other side of the country, Chenin was enchanting California winemakers, too.
Few have been as committed to the variety as Craig Haarmeyer. The inked-up winemaker, who regularly sports a bright green “Chenin” trucker hat and a “Chenin” tattoo on his right hand, began working with the grape in 2009.
Today, outside Sacramento in the Central Valley, he makes eight single vineyard expressions from around the state. His winemaking style has evolved from a more commercial approach (oxygen-free in a steel tank) to a more hands-off, oxidative one—he’s a fan of letting the juice brown a bit, using native yeast and generally minimal handling.
“I always liked oxidative styles of white wines, but I never really considered twenty years ago making any myself because you don’t usually equate California with the Loire Valley,” says Haarmeyer.
Haarmeyer’s high-acid wines have garnered him a loyal following, many of them Millennials “led by aging punk rockers like myself,” he laughs.
These “aging punk rock” producers follow a similar philosophy. In 2013, a group of them began getting together to talk, taste and share ideas about growing and working with the grape.
In May, Haarmeyer and 25 other Californian winemakers took part in California’s first Hella Chenin public tasting. It also included 10 producers from South Africa.
Haarmeyer jokes, these Chenin obsessees aren’t “as angry as those Riesling people.” But they’re a passionate bunch nonetheless.
A Global Calendar of Chenin Events
Alice Verberg, who makes wine beside her father Niels under the family’s Luddite label in the Bot River region of South Africa’s Western Cape, agrees about the Chenin fandom (not the rage of Riesling devotees).
“Chenin has definitely gained more popularity,” she says. For three decades her parents Niels and Penny have produced a Chenin from their home vineyards that has achieved a level of cult status in South Africa. “It has a very loyal following.”
But Verberg admits that while Chenin has diehard supporters, it remains at the fringes of mainstream. “I think we still have some work to do with getting the word out there on this amazing varietal,” she says. “You can always have more Chenin drinkers.”
Many are coming to the grape via events that deep dive into its merits.
In addition to Hella Chenin—the second iteration of which is scheduled for May 2026 in Berkeley, California—there’s an International Chenin Blanc Celebration that rotates between South Africa and the Loire. The last one took place in July of 2025.
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The Drink Chenin Day Festival is held every June in Cape Town to coincide with International Drink Chenin Day. Every year at various times, the oh-so-Aussie International Chenin Blanc Symposium and Sausage Sizzle takes over Margaret River. The latest iteration was held in July 2025, organized by West Aussie Chenin producer Nic Peterkin of L.A.S. Vino.
“We’ve really seen the voices of Chenin Blanc rise to elevate the variety and unite our regions.” Peterkin says.
That unity across countries and continents is what keeps Chenin Blanc in the spotlight, and in the glasses of so many of the wine world’s most passionate (and trendsetting) personalities.
“Chenin will always be cool, probably because it is so often misunderstood and under-priced, so us non-billionaires can still afford to drink it,” says Alan. For winemakers, “it’s a labor of love more than it’s a cash cow.”
More Chenin Coverage
- Riesling vs. Chenin Blanc: the acid hound quest for the best aromatic white.
- These highly-rated Chenin Blancs prove why it’s the little black dress of the wine world.
- Three styles of Loire Valley Chenin Blanc that cement its shapeshifter status.
- And here’s everything you need to know about Chenin from South Africa.
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