How does Cape chenin blanc remain so reliably (and affordably) wonderful?

M&S 22 Families Old Vine Chein Blanc, Swartland, South Africa 2024 (£10, Marks & Spencer)

If there is a more consistent, better-value white wine style than South African chenin blanc, I’d very much like someone to show it to me. It isn’t a matter of being the cheapest around – although there are some very drinkable examples at Cape chenin in the notch just above what the trade likes to call “entry point”. Asda’s Extra Special Chenin Blanc 2024, for example, which comes in at £6.49, is filled with way more (bright, tropically accented) fruit flavour than 99.9% of wines available in the UK at that price these days. But the great, and very rare, thing about Cape chenin is that whatever the ambition of the winemaker, or (within reason) the price, it so often feels like it’s cheaper than it could be. That’s certainly the case with 22 Families Chenin which, with its mouth filling yellow plum, white peach and ripe citrus coupled with chenin’s characteristic lightning-flash of acidity is a wine of unusual intensity, complexity and vivacity for the £10 tag.

Bernhard Bredell Soutbosch Chenin Blanc, Coastal Region, South Africa 2022 (£27.20, The Sourcing Table)

One explanation for the quality of so much South African chenin is the age of the vines: so many bottles are made from chenin blanc (aka steen in the local viticultural vernacular) vines that are considerably older than the 35+ years that the OIV, wine’s intergovernmental governing body, has stipulated as the minimum age to qualify for the term. South African winemakers have also been among the most passionate and convincing advocates for the preservation of old vines as a cultural good, and for the extra levels of natural balance, verve and depth that well-managed old vines can bring. Among the sometimes-astonishingly impressive bottles I’ve encountered made from these lovably gnarly, cussedly enduring plants in recent months are the tingling mandarin orange, subtle blossom and herby, citrus-pithy Botanica Mary Delany Collection Chenin Blanc, Citrusdal Mountain, South Africa 2023 (£27, thewinesociety.com) and the richer, slightly honeyed and apple-scented, but still graceful and incisively salty-zippy Soutbosch.

François Chidaine Chenin d’Ici, Loire, France 2023 (£22.90, Parched Wine; Tivoli Wines)

The inevitable points of comparison for South African chenins are the wines made from the same grape in its original homeland in France’s Loire Valley. As an instinctive Francophile when it comes to wine, it pains me to say it, but I don’t think Loire chenin is anything like as reliable at around £10, although that is largely a reflection of the relative price of production (including exchange rates and labour costs) rather than the quality of the winemaking. In any case, there are exceptions, such as the genteel apples-and-pears in Chantilly cream that is The Pebble Chenin Blanc, Val de Loire, France 2023 (£10, Tesco). And once you’re over the £10 mark, the Loire’s best chenins can be every bit as reliably thrilling as their Cape cousins, albeit in a slightly different, racier style, as exemplified by the scintillating wines of one of my favourite producers, François Chidaine. Based in Montlouis-sur-Loire east along the River Loire from Tours, Chidaine’s Chenin d’Ici is a crystalline representation of quince, lemon and minerally mouthwatering acidity.