Chenin Blanc is a white wine grape variety from the Loire valley of France. Its high acidity means it can be used to make everything from sparkling wines to well-balanced dessert wines.
The Chenin blanc grapevine buds early in the growing season and ripens late. Chenin blanc is arguably the most versatile of all wine grape varieties. Crisp, dry table wines, light sparkling wines, long-lived, unctuous, nectar-like dessert wines, and even brandy are all produced in various areas of the wine world, all of chenin blanc. .While Chenin blanc is planted across the globe from China to New Zealand to Canada and Argentina, it is considered a "major" planting in only a few locations.Though France is the viticultural home of Chenin blanc, by the turn of the 21st century there was twice as much Chenin blanc planted in South Africa as there was in France. Also grown throughout the United States, at the beginning of the 1970s, fragrant and lightly sweet Chenin Blanc quickly became the best-selling wine of the era. The American Viticultural Areas with the most significant amount of plantings include the California AVAs of Clarksburg, Napa Valley and Mendocino.
Chenin Blanc has an intense aroma and high acidity which helps preserve soft and well balanced wine with delicate hints of floral and melon.

My first experience with this varietal was last year at Herzog Winery in CA. I was surprised by my appreciation of this white wine as I tend to be drawn to red wines. I like to say, for me, it was somewhere between a chardonnay and a reisling....Perhaps my palette is changing!
Either way I am eager to experiment with reds, whites and rose' now!