Chenin Blanc
Loire and South Africa
Quince, wet wool and honey over acidity that holds it together at any sweetness from bone dry to botrytised.
At harvest
Each bar drawn against the full range of all 54 varieties
Sugar
20-25 Brix
20 - 25
Titratable acidity
6.5-9 g/L
6.5 - 9
pH
3-3.4
3.0 - 3.4
Juice yield
0.66 L/kg
free run plus a gentle press
Sugar per kilogram
162 g
at 22.5 Brix, the midpoint
Fruit for 23 litres
35 kg
before racking losses
Potential alcohol
12.4-13.5%
from 1.094 fermented dry. A range, because conversion varies by strain
What it punishes
Uneven ripening. A single Chenin vine can carry green and botrytised fruit at once, which is an opportunity if you sort and a problem if you do not.
Made into
- Dry white
- Off-dry white
- Sparkling base
- Late harvest
Sulphite at this pH
At pH 3.20, protecting a white wine to 0.8 mg/L molecular SO2 takes 20 mg/L of free SO2. Work it out for your own reading.
Recipes on this site that use it
More vinifera white
Chardonnay
Burgundy, and every wine country since
20-23 BrixSauvignon Blanc
Loire and Marlborough
19-24 BrixRiesling
Mosel and Rheingau
21-24 BrixPinot Gris
Alsace and northern Italy
21-26 BrixMuscat
Everywhere around the Mediterranean
22-26 BrixGewurztraminer
Alsace
23-26 BrixViognier
Condrieu
21-24 BrixSemillon
Bordeaux and the Hunter Valley