Wine of the week this week is our Vouvray Chateau Moncontour. WHITE. RICH. GREAT. Discounted from £17.50 to £15.75 for a month.
This weekend marked Drink Chenin Blanc day so it seemed apt for this wine to step up as it’s an absolutely delightful Chenin Blanc. There’s a specified day for every grape now which to be fair is probably a good thing when our supermarkets lead you to believe that only Sauvignon Blanc and Malbec exist.
We genuinely love pretty much every wine grape on the planet so we won’t be disingenuous and say Chenin is our favourite because, like with kids, its extremely hard to choose, and ultimately your favourites will change throughout the year, but Chenin does occupy a unique space in our hearts and palates, somewhere between the ubiquitous sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay, the eponymous divider of opinions. And that space is a beautiful one to be in. The grape is elegant but has real depth. We’ve never cracked a Chenin and had anyone displeased. It is a grape that provides fabulous acidity with the richness of pear, apricot and honey flavours making it a wonderful accompaniment to fresh summer salads, cheese and white meat dishes. It is the wine I flock to when it is presented on a list alongside the usual suspects because I know it will be met with oooohhhs and ahhhhhsss of ‘this is lovely’, ‘what is this?’, ‘this is different’.
For us at BOTTL it occupies the RICH category because it does have those rich flavours mentioned above. More specifically here you are getting ripe melon, yellow plum and a hint of ginger.
“Vouvray is Chenin Blanc, and to a certain extent, Chenin Blanc is Vouvray” –Jancis Robinson, The Oxford Companion to Wine
Vouvray is the name of the appellation in the Loire Valley just east of the beautiful town of Tours where this wine is made. This appellation is famed for planting 100% Chenin Blanc. Much of the Chenin produced here and shipped to the UK in the past would have been off-dry or demi-sec (French for off-dry) and so older drinkers may associate the word Vouvray with something slightly sweet, not akin to a dry white wine, but I assure you our Chateau Moncontour is as dry as they come and perfect for the patio in this fine summer weather we’re having.
I am yet to visit the Loire Valley myself with a trip thwarted by the pandemic but it is without doubt one of the most majestic wine regions in the world with glorious chateaus gracing the banks of the Loire river including Moncontour which dates back to the 15th Century. If you plan to visit, then you must head to Vouvray to sample the finest expressions of Chenin Blanc in the world but before that why not whack this bottle in your next BOTTL box and see what we mean about it being the subtle but oh so delightful alternative to your usual dry white.
Here’s to Drinking Differently.
Phil