Churchview Limited Release Wild Fermented Chenin Blanc 2023
- 91
- $32
- Drink by: 2025-2040
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If ever a grape’s popularity was not matched by its quality, surely it is Chenin. Good Chenin so rarely grabs the imagination – it deserves better. This might just be a good place to start. The colour here is a deep straw gold. There are immediate notes of that hessian aspect so often seen with this grape, with crisp apples and pears, and a touch of an earthy note. Good intensity here, in this supple and seductive style, with a fine line of saline acidity. This should, as will often happen with Chenin despite all appearances to the contrary, age very well, for a good ten to fifteen years. Give it a fair go. It deserves it.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
