It's always best to have a glass in hand as you read our varietal guides... Here's where to find Chenin Blanc in our range: Domaine de La Fontainerie.
Chenin Blanc is an extraordinary white wine grape. It creates some of the best and longest lived wines on the planet, particularly when they come from our favourite of the Loire regions that specialise in it: Vouvray. It is criminally undervalued. Learn more about it below!
Will the variety be on the label?
If it's grown in Australia or the rest of the new world (it is now the most planted variety in South Africa for example), yes, you'll see Chenin Blanc on the label. But when it comes from its homeland, the Loire Valley, it's rare to find the variety on the label.
In the Loire, different expressions of Chenin Blanc can be found in the sub-regions of Anjou-Samur and Touraine. On the label, you should look for the following AOCs to signal the use of Chenin Blanc for white wines:
- Anjou. Simpler still versions of Chenin.
- Chinon. Better known for reds, but the whites will be Chenin.
- Coteaux du Layon and Coteaux de Saumur. Best known for sweeter styles of Chenin.
- Montlouis-sur-Loire. Just across the river from Vouvray, and making similar, if less recognised, still wines.
- Saumur. Best known for traditional method sparkling Chenin, but also produces still wines.
- Savennières. Higher quality, age-worthy still Chenin.
- Vouvray. The most important AOC for whites in the Touraine region. A range of high quality still and sparkling styles with extraordinary ageing potential.
Though many famous AOCs focussed on Chenin Blanc are within the broader Tourain sub-region of the Loire Valley, an important note of caution is that the Tourain AOC itself produces white wines from Sauvignon Blanc rather than Chenin blanc, with the one exception of Touraine AOC Amboise where they do use Chenin. The French really don't like to make it easy for us new world drinkers do they?! Is it any wonder Loire wines are so undervalued outside of France?
Chenin Blanc Vineyards in Vouvray, Loire Valley
Varietal Characteristics
It's tricky to nail down a typical style for Chenin Blanc (and while some great Chenin's are produced in Australia, we're focussing on the Loire in this guide). It has many different expressions which, in addition to the varietal / region confusion we went through above, may be part of the reason it it lesser known to the wine drinking public than the likes of Chardonnay from Bourgogne or Riesling from Alsace.
But that said, it's Chenin's high acid backbone which is the key to its quality. In cooler years, or when picked early, that acidity can deliver wonderful sparkling Chenin Blancs (which can be known as Crémant de Loire). In more balanced and warmer years, it can give life to the wine that sees it through decades of ageing, either in the limestone caves of the producers or in collectors cellars. In especially ripe vintages, or when the grapes are late-picked, the acidity can provide a perfect balance for the sweeter styles. It's the acidity that is the constant star in the otherwise chameleon like wines produced from Loire Chenin Blanc.
One quirk of Chenin Blanc is that the grapes ripen unevenly on the vine. That means careful picking, and often multiple passes through the vineyard to select berries when they are ready, is required to produce a wine of high quality. But so long as the unripe berries are given sufficient time, that uneven ripening can also add to the complexity of the wine, with fruit flavours ranging from white flowers and green apple to stone fruits to ripe tropical fruits depending on the vintage.
Vouvray - the ultimate food wine.
Wine journalist Jancis Robinson once said "Vouvray is Chenin Blanc, and to a certain extent, Chenin Blanc is Vouvray". Zooming in on Vouvray, the most important of the Chenin producing regions, and home to Domaine de La Fontainerie, you will be able to find the whole gamut of Chenin styles. Sparkling Chenin makes up half the volume of production in Vouvray (and is labelled simply as Vouvray, rather than Crémant). From sparkling (making up around half of production by volume and called ) to still and from dry to the sweet moelleux style, there is really something for everyone, and something to pair with a huge variety of foods. There is a waxy note, sometimes appearing as beeswax and sometimes as lanolin that is a distinctive marker of the Vouvray region.
Vouvray Chenin is one of the most age-worthy whites in the world, and can develop intense nutty and honey characters with years or decades of resting in cellars.
At this point (written in early 2026) we don't import Fontainerie's sparkling (we prefer to focus on Champagne when it comes to bubbles), but their range of still wines are an excellent chance to explore what Chenin from Vouvray is capable of. Each year, depending on the vintage, winemakers Catherine Deruet Dhoye and her daughter Carole make a vineyard by vineyard decision of the style, driven by sugar levels, that will be produced that year and pick and ferment accordingly. Their range therefore includes Sec (dry), Demi-Sec (off-dry) and Moelleux (sweet) wines. Those terms are always written on the label to guide your decisions (which is not always the case with other Vouvray producers).
While a portion of the wines are sold young, a significant portion of each vintage is stored for ageing in an enormous centuries old cave carved into the ground beneath one of the Fontainerie vineyards. It's the kind of approach that can only be taken by a centuries old producer who long ago stopped thinking of land and cellar space as an expense. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the cellar, you will marvel at the rows and rows of back vintages quietly waiting to be released. We import vintages ranging as far back as 1997 and the more recent release of 2022, with plenty of options in between.
Mixing and matching dryness and age in the range we carry at Vino Cammino creates a playground for wine lovers to explore with food. The young dry styles are perfect for a refreshing glass of wine on a hot day, or paired with seafood such as oysters, sashimi or ceviche, or most appetisers you might start a meal with. The demi-secs, whether old or young, are just what you need for food with spice like Thai or Indian and also pair very well with fruit based salads. The older sec wines are incredible with baked fish, poultry, charcuterie or hard cheeses. And the incredible Moelleux style, which is a beautiful balance of sweetness and acidity is great with cheese plates and some desserts, including chocolate dishes. Because the Moelleux style does not always have as much sugar as you might see in other sweet wines (think 40 - 60g/L in the Fontainerie version compared to 100+ for dessert wines like Sauternes), we wouldn't pair them with desserts that are sweeter than the wine.
