Cycling for Chenin
Fancy getting to know South Africa’s most prolific white a little better, while keeping active? You’ll find the world’s largest number of Chenin Blanc vines in South Africa, rooted in almost 19,000ha of Cape soil. But while some winemakers (notably Ken Forrester: see ‘Uncorked’, December 2022 issue) have ushered in a new respect for South Africa’s ‘work horse’ cultivar, it’s still a work in progress due to the unpredictability of its flavour profile. According to research, Chenin’s very versatility confuses otherwise loyal local wine lovers in South Africa.
In an attempt to address this, the local Chenin Blanc Association has created the Chenin Safari (drinkchenin.co.za), an annual six-week mountainbiking event that encourages riders to tour Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Bot River and Robertson (sadly not Swartland or Elim) to coincide with #DrinkChenin Day, celebrated globally on the third weekend of June. (The date has been in place since 2014, when a group of American sommeliers and winemakers first raised a communal toast to the variety.)
The challenge is to see how many Chenin Safari stops you can visit over six weeks. Bearing in mind the website advice – ‘We realise you cannot taste all the Chenins at all the stops and still ride’ – you need to stop at a minimum of six of the 17 participating wine farms in the time period to
