Chenin Blanc Association:

The Chenin Blanc Association was formed late last year with the specific aim of encouraging the making of South African Chenin Blancs that can take their rightful place on the table with the other great white wines of the world. This entails a variety of complex approaches, which have been divided between four major subcommittees - Viticulture (looking after vineyards and grape-growing), Oenology (making the wines), Tasting & Education and, lastly but by no means least, Marketing.

Viticulture:

The Viticulture Subcommittee has embarked on an ambitious plan to classify the Chenin vineyards of the Cape. This is no mean task and is the first attempt in this country EVER to classify vineyards. One of our major concerns is that in the rush to plant more trendy varieties some very valuable old Chenin vineyards have and will continue to be uprooted. Vineyard owners are also been taught how to assess the vineyards that they have.

Tasting & Education:

Regarding tasting, the CBA has been "talent spotting" thus far. With access to all the Chenins entered for Veritas (the national bottled wine show), the Association has been testing volunteers to find those who show particular talent in tasting. Tasting Chenin is not easy because it is a delicate variety, very subtle and never obvious, so it requires a degree of specialist expertise. Those who are good at tasting will go on to be specially trained so that the CBA can supply specialist tasters for competitions and quality forums. Another most important aspect of this tasting training is to train producers so that they can assess their own wines in a more expert way. A winemaker needs to be really good at tasting so that he or she can taste their own wines critically and make the right adjustments. All this means better wine in the end. On the education side, we are establishing a library of all scientific papers regarding Chenin, which can be used as references by members, with further studies to be undertaken.

Oenology:

This is an ongoing project that has embraced two topics for research in 2001. This year, the primary area of focus is the assessment of various strains of yeast for suitability in producing fine Chenin Blanc. Another aspect will be to carry our various experiments with post-fermentation handling. Questions such as varying time spent on the lees, filtration and the time interval before bottling will all be looked at in future.

Marketing:

The Association has made a policy decision to start its marketing internationally before nationally. The reason for this is that international acknowledgment will have a more significant impact here rather than the other way around. We are in the process of putting together a major marketing policy document and then will be looking for substantial financial commitments from various state and regional bodies. If handled properly, this will have a major impact on the entire local wine industry, because at 25% of the national vineyard, Chenin is by far the most widely planted variety. For that reason we believe that we will have to think in broad sweeps rather than in tiny bite-sized chunks. The major challenge will be to get the funding. We have the expertise, but we need the means, for a major international marketing drive to be sustained, initially over a five year period.