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05/24/2001 Archived Entry: "Wine Buy: Dry Creek Dry Chenin Blanc"

Who doesn’t like Chenin Blanc? Only those people who mistakenly equate pretty, floral wine with sweet wine, and, further, don’t like sweetness because they are under some snobbish assumption that sweet wine is not sophisticated.

It’s true that some of the most cloying, mass-market wines used to be made from Chenin Blanc, a widely planted grape in California, and the grape used for Vouvray in the Loire Valley of France. Nowadays, however, crisp, dry wines are being made from Chenin Blanc, wines that retain the grape’s tropical fruit and floral flavors and aromas without the sugar.

Dry Creek Dry Chenin Blanc 1999, made in Clarksburg, California, in Sonoma County, is one of those. Wonderfully easy on the palate, it is loaded with tropical fruit flavors (mango, pineapple, papaya ... you get the picture) carried by balanced, crisp acidity. This Chenin Blanc is full of pretty flavors but finishes dry and lingering.

Dry Creek Vineyard in Sonoma California is owned by David Stare, who has a major passion for Chenin Blanc. This is one of the best of its kind, and it costs only about $8.99.

I like it all on its own, well-chilled for summer sipping. But as much as it is a great wine for drinking on its own without food, or as an aperitif, it is excellent with those Asian and otherwise spicy dishes that are so hard to pair with wine. I’m sure I’d even like it with a piece of grilled salmon, especially if the fish was served with one of those spicy tropical fruit salsas that are so popular these days. You may even want to try it with Julie Sahni's Mozambique Shrimp Curry, the Maven's Diary item of May 22.