THE RISE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN CHENIN BLANC BY MAX BREARLY

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The Rise of Western Australian Chenin Blanc

Written by Max Brearly

Chenin Blanc has been a constant in Western Australian winemaking, grown in the Swan Valley just 30 minutes from central Perth, since the late nineteenth century. While it’s been around for generations it hasn’t always been afforded the respect it perhaps deserved, but in the last decade it’s seen a steady rise. “There's a block on our street which was originally part of the Swanville winery, planted in 1913, and there’s still a little bit of that material left,” says Rob Mann, the owner of Corymbia and part of the renowned Mann family of winemakers. “Probably back then it would be made into fortified wine, but I guess it wasn't until my grandfather planted it at Houghton in the 1930s and subsequently made the first Houghton's White Burgundy that it took off; its growth fuelled by the need to supply Houghton White Burgundy with Chenin Blanc,” he says. Mann’s grandfather was legendary Western Australian winemaker, Jack Mann. Mann plots the progression of Chenin Blanc in Western Australia, with a second phase for the varietal coming with the popularity of Amberley Chenin Blanc, which led many Margaret River producers to grow the grape in the mid-1980s. Mann says his family have always been, “staunchly behind making a bone-dry style of Chenin Blanc,” along with other notable Swan Valley names such as John Kosovich Wines and Lamont’s. This wasn’t necessarily the norm, with Chenin Blanc often used for an ‘off dry’ style available through cellar doors, and several wines were more market, than quality focused.

Stylistic expression has broadened over the last decade, says Mann, with lots more interpretation of site and winemaking such as, the use of oak, solids, natural ferments, cloudy wines and skin contact. “So, there's a huge diversity of wine coming out of the Swan Valley. From the very classical bone dry, lanolin and saline, light tropical style, to the more skin contact, coppery, savoury and textural.” Defining the character of Swan Valley Chenin Blanc is now more challenging, he says.The Swan Valley is, in the view of South African born and trained winemaker Remi Guise, a benchmark in Western Australia, and for that matter, Australian Chenin Blanc. “I feel that Western Australia is at a point where we can, with a fair bit of certainty, start putting our names up as having a fair bit of ownership of that variety in Australia,” says Guise, who is almost evangelical when he talks about Chenin Blanc; something that he attributes to the respect it’s afforded in his native South Africa.

Under his label Tripe Iscariot, Guise demonstrates his passion for the varietal and his home in the Margaret River Wine Region, three hours south-west of Perth. He has produced subregional expressions of Chenin Blanc, which when presented side by side perfectly highlight the varietal’s scope. Equally, he’s excited by other regions, singling out producers like Coughlan Estate in the Geographe Wine Region, which neighbours the Margaret River Wine Region to the north, for their mature, dry-grown vines. Guise recalls first coming to Margaret River as a winemaker and the “perplexing” situation, that this “versatile and expressive” varietal wasn’t revered, especially as you can treat it very much like one of the regional cornerstones, Chardonnay. “You extract as much of the positive texture and flavour out of it, using all the same methods, using all of those beautiful solids. And of course, it all comes back to, well-grown fruit,” Guise says

Nic Peterkin, owner and winemaker at boutique producer LAS Vino in Margaret River, says that when he started winemaking in 2013, farmers were almost offering Chenin Blanc for free. A case of ‘if you pick it, you can take it.’ Now things are very different. “This year I cannot find Chenin for sale in Margaret River, there's none available,” says Peterkin. A founder of the International Chenin Blanc Symposium, a casual but in-depth benchmarking exercise started in 2019, Peterkin has played his part in the varietal’s Western Australian renaissance. “It’s a beautiful thing for me personally to be part of this movement, which started with farmers giving away fruit for free. "And then, being part of this collective movement of people that were making pretty good Chenin that people were interested in drinking. That's worked its way down the value chain to farmers now not having to rip up their vines. [They’re] getting a good price for the grape, and we're making wines that reflect the sense of place, as opposed to not just another generic white wine,” Peterkin continues.

 While that renaissance of Chenin Blanc can perhaps be attributed to smaller producers, there are notable Margaret River estates who have long-cherished Chenin Blanc. “It is one of our stalwarts,” says renowned Voyager Estate sommelier Claire Tonon. “The Chenin that we have just out the front of the estate was planted back in 1978, so it’s truly part of our history. Until the nineties, we effectively made it as an off dry style with no oak influence whatsoever. So, not made as a [Houghton] White Burgundy style at all.” Tonon says that in making Chenin Blanc, they’re looking to highlight tropical fruit character with a small amount of residual sugar for the length and weight that it can convey, but not producing a particularly sweet wine. “Every year is different,” says Tonon. “It's very much a product of its growing season, so there are years that have a slightly higher or slightly lower residual sugar. There's years that have less fruit weight and more. But effectively, the process itself is very much a stalwart of our collection of wines.” There is a degree of cautious experimentation taking place in the wine, Tonon says. “A little bit of lees work in the tank, that would be the only real evolution that we've seen recently. “We've played around with some of our little project wines. The one that really stuck and has now become something of a classic for us is the sparkling. It's not just a grape variety that is limited to a certain winemaking style, it forms a great base for a lighter sparkling, and it can form a really great base for a dessert style wine and everything in between.”

 And what of the future for Chenin Blanc in Western Australia? Peterkin says that in thinking about planting a new vineyard, his vision is thirty years and more ahead, thinking not just about consumer acceptance of a varietal, but climate. “That will surely be Chenin Blanc which can be dry-grown, holds its natural acidity, is pretty hardy and diverse,” he says. “It really is a no brainer.”