Since 2014, we’ve dedicated one fine summer day to celebrate one of our longtime favorite white wine grapes, Chenin Blanc. This year #drinkchenin day is on Saturday, June 15th, and we decided it was high time to showcase some of the best Chenin Jedi wines coming from the West Coast.
A resurgence of the Chenin Blanc force has awakened and so the Return of West Coast Chenin Blanc is upon us.
You can read more about Chenin Blanc at the bottom of this month’s newsletter.
Tom is headed to Nashville in a few weeks to make our triumphant return to the Tennessee market. Tom’s pouring at Woodland Wine on Friday June 14th, from 5-7pm. Looking forward to seeing you, Tennessee!!!
Along with our OG friends at Plate & Pitchfork (we’ve been collaborating with these folks for 7 years!), we are once again teaming up with Aaron Barnett, chef and founder of St. Jack, to ride high again this summer!
Aaron Barnett is one of those chefs who always deflects compliments and for years has mostly opted to cook at smaller events. This year he’ll be in the company of his good friend and talented chef Cameron Addy, creating a delicious summer farm dinner paired up with our wines.
Dinner starts at 5pm on Saturday, August 10th at Sun Gold Farm in Forest Grove, Oregon. We’ll be picking some of our most delicious and special wines for the occasion, wines to honor the fine craft of these amazing chefs. Call503.852.1031 for more information, or email dine@plateandpitchfork.com.
In the most recent edition of her blog, Sophie’s Glass, Sophie gives a personal tale of moving cross-country from Colorado to her North Carolina childhood home along with her impressions of our 2018 Division-Villages wines. Check out her blog, excepted below:”I kid you not, dear reader, when I say that in the month of April, I touched down in 11 U.S. states. Keeping me company during this hectic time, were the 2018 Division-Villages wines. Fresh faces in California in early April, by the end of the month in Atlanta, they’d become tried and true friends.
I am particularly excited by these wines, this year. Yes they are delicious, companionable, and seem to sell themselves, but additionally 2018 was only the second time I’ve experienced a vintage first hand.
In the fall of 2018, I spent many weeks in Oregon. I was there for the cool rains in the third week of August that set back the harvest dates. I was there for the warm, dry days that followed, ripening the grapes to perfection. I’ve been watching these little nieces and nephews since birth; they make sense …”
We’ve long admired and enjoyed Sophie’s writing, and believe you will as well!
Sophie tells us a little bit of history about the amazing Chenin Blanc..
Chenin Blanc, with its high acidity, its long growing season, its vigor, and its superb capacity to transmit terroir, is beloved amongst winemakers and wine enthusiasts the world over. There is no other white variety that finds such profound expression across such a range of styles. From crisp sparkling, to full-bodied and oak-kissed, to dense, sweet, swoon-worthy desert wine, Chenin Blanc offers something for every meal and every wine lover.
Chenin Blanc begins its history in the 9th Century, in the Anjou region of the Loire Valley. In the 17th century, the grape migrated to South Africa via French Protestants feeling religious persecution. By the 19th century, Chenin had reached Australia as well.
In the U.S., our history is far more recent. In the 1980s, Chenin was cultivated as an inexpensive blending grape, but rarely treated as a wine of quality and terroir. Things have changed enormously since the ’80s (just look at Chardonnay, epically mistreated by the California bulk wine industry, now making its own return to grandeur, but that’s another story).
Now, a handful of exciting American producers are championing this grape, and making incredible examples of it up and down the west coast. We’ve invited several of our favorite new wave Chenin producers to join us at Southeast Wine Collective on #drinkchenin day (Saturday June 15th, 1-4pm) to pour their fabulous wines. This tasting is FREE(!!!) and not to be missed. We will see you there!!!
If you’re further afield, look for a Chenin event in your neck of the woods on June 15th. Stay tuned to our social media and the #drinkchenin website for a 2019 event near you!!!
