Wine
Chenin Blanc
A distinguished white varietal native to France’s Loire Valley, this produces a range of styles from crisp light dry to very sweet dessert wines.
Flavor Descriptors
With excellent acidity, the dry styles are vibrant and lively with floral straw aromatics and honeyed melon and mineral notes. The sweeter styles can age well and offer riper fruit flavors of pear, peach, and honeysuckle.
Food Pairings
Dry
Baked fish, scallops, goat cheese, chicken salad.
Moderately sweet
Chicken in cream sauce, pork with ginger, grilled salmon with wasabi glaze, mildly spicy Asian dishes.
Dessert
White fruit tarts (apple, pear, lemon), meringue, biscotti, crème brulée.
Buying, Storing, & Serving
Chenin Blanc should be served chilled but not ice cold.
Most inexpensive and New World examples are ready to drink when released. Better French examples can age for several years and dessert wines can age incredibly well, easily a decade or more.
Buying (and drinking) an older bottle will typically reward you with a mellower softer texture, creamed honeyed notes, and nutty aromatics. A younger wine will be higher in acidity and offer bright lively melon flavors.
Store bottles in a cool, dark place. While it is now common for wine makers to use plastic corks or screw-top closures which may be stored vertically or horizontally, those with the traditional corks should be laid on their sides to keep them moist.