The Chenin we have for you today is our latest skirmish for your attention. It’s from a winemaker we adore making some of the most compelling dry white wine that we drink regularly.
“Practically every person I’ve introduced Chenin to has come back for more" - Dan Schieffer, Loire Wine Zealot
It’s simultaneously fascinating, frustrating, and fulfilling, but some wines and grapes require more introduction than others. There is simply too much wine in the world for all of it to receive equal attention, and usually the loudest, most marketable voices prevail. The wine world is by no means a meritocracy. The gears that turn the global wine machine want predictability and simplicity. The staff at Legacy Wine Co. seek novelty and complexity on your behalf.
A battle we’ve been fighting for you is part of the war to recognize the greatness of the Chenin Blanc grape. A dazzling variety with one of the most impressive résumés of any white grape. I know of no other variety besides Riesling that can do the following:
Produce world-class examples of dry, sparkling, off-dry, dessert, and even skin-contact wines
Age gracefully for decades—in both dry and sweet forms
Maintain electric acidity even at extreme levels of ripeness
Range from featherweight and mineral to rich, waxy, and intensely concentrated
Translate wildly different soils and climates while maintaining varietal clarity
It’s silly actually. Chenin’s versatility might be what has kept it from becoming a household name. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc offer consumers a relatively clear idea of what’s in the bottle. Chenin on the other hand is a chameleon of dizzying talent — and many of its greatest examples don’t put its name prominently on the label.
The Chenin we have for you today is our latest skirmish for your attention. It’s from a winemaker we adore making some of the most compelling dry white wine that we drink regularly.
Domaine Ogereau has been working the hills of Anjou since the late 1800s, with Emmanuel Ogereau now representing the fifth generation of his family to make wine here. One of Emmanuel’s obsessions has been proving just how great dry Chenin can be on the schist soils of Anjou, picking early enough to avoid botrytis entirely and preserve the grape’s incredible natural freshness.
Bonnes Blanches comes from a prized hillside in the village of Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay, an area historically better known for sweet Chenin, but here turned into something completely dry and eye-opening. The clay and quartz-rich soils over schist give Chenin serious substance here, resulting in a wine that has weight and texture to match the naturally high energy of the grape.
Emmanuel always handles his Chenin with fastidious care, pressing the grapes without crushing, and retaining only the “heart” (taille) of the blend. The schist gives Chenin serious backbone, so Emmanuel allows a portion of the wine to go through malolactic fermentation, rounding the edges without sacrificing the acidity that makes the grape so compelling. The result is Chenin in one of our favorite forms: textured and substantial, but with this wonderful tension underneath that keeps the wine from ever feeling heavy.
But Bonnes Blanches is only one expression of Chenin and the schist soils of Anjou. Cross the Loire into Savennières and Ogereau works another remarkable site, Clos Le Grand Beaupréau, at the top of the Butte d’Épiré. Here, windblown sands sit over brittle schist at the highest point of the appellation. It’s a more exposed, well-drained site that Ogereau looks to for a finer and more airy expression of Chenin.
So instead of two vintages, we thought it would be more interesting to offer two different expressions of Ogereau’s Chenin from the same 2022 vintage.
Two expressions of Ogereau Chenin on offer today:
2022 Bonnes Blanche Sec: $38/bottle or $32.30 with your Legacy Lifetime Member discount.
The Bonnes Blanche Sec is always a wine of incredible freshness in balance with density of fruit. This Chenin carries delicious aromas and flavors of yellow apple, marzipan, and almond pastry all framed by tensile acidity. The quartz-rich clay soil of this hillside in Saint Lambert Du Lattay gives the wine weight to match the naturally high energy of Chenin.
2022 Clos Le Grand Beaupréau, Savennières: $52/bottle or $44.20 with your Legacy Lifetime Member discount.
Clos Le Grand Beaupréau shows another side of the grape entirely. The vineyard sits at the top of the Butte d’Épiré, where shallow windblown sands cover brittle schist and the vines can root deeply into the fractured rock below. Ogereau ferments and ages the wine across large foudre, sandstone amphora, and 400-liter barrels, while avoiding malolactic fermentation entirely. The result is a finer, more lifted expression, with white fruit and floral aromatics, a silky texture, and the freshness and mineral tension that have made Savennières one of the Loire’s great homes for dry Chenin.
