Mooiplaas Bush Vine Chenin Blanc 2008 is the second unwooded wine in the history of Wine's oldest competition to win the Chenin Blanc Challenge. Chenin kings Francois Naudé, Ken Forrester and Teddy Hall talk to Graham Howe about South Africa's great white hope. Wooded white wine has dominated Wine's Chenin Blanc Challenge ever since the inauguration of the competition in 1996. In search of a benchmark style for Chenin Blanc - a variety which often suffers from too much diversity - the judges have favoured wooded, bottled-aged vintages. The shift to three categories of Chenin Blanc - best wooded, best unwooded and best value - may have opened up the competition to more producers. Five unwooded wines made the four-star finalist list (15) in 2009. "Most Chenin Blanc is unwooded" declares Francois Naude, who won the Chenin Blanc Challenge in 1998 with his unwooded L'Avenir Chenin Blanc 1997. A lonely voice in the wilderness over the intervening decade, he has cried out for recognition of a broader spectrum of Chenin. "To improve the quality and status of Chenin Blanc, we have to motivate the producers - the vast majority make unwooded Chenin." "Why make Chenin taste like wooded Chardonnay? Chenin Blanc ages better than Chardonnay, needs less attention on the vine than Sauvignon Blanc, is more versatile with food and delivers better value." When producers are paid only R3,500 per ton of Chenin versus R6,500 per ton of Sauvignon, he complains there is not much incentive for Chenin growers to spend time improving the variety through canopy management. The only way out of this catch-22 trap is a make-over of Chenin's workhorse image. Ken Forrester, head of the Chenin Blanc Association adds, "Chenin Blanc is the jewel of South African white wine. Are we preaching to the converted in the Church of Chenin? Many people are still not Chenin believers. Many restaurant wine-lists do not have a category of Chenin Blanc - especially on franchised wine lists. Chenin Blanc is still being pulled up which is a tragedy - the old vines are producing the best wines." Whatever you do, don't mention Steen, he adds. At least that moniker has gone. Teddy Hall, four-time wooded winner of the Chenin Blanc Challenge and Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2001 - significantly, with his unwooded Kanu Chenin Blanc - believes South Africa needs to develop a benchmark brand of Chenin Blanc. Chenin needs a high-profile advocate like Beyers Truter and a brand like Beyerskloof which put Pinotage on the map on domestic and export markets. The Chenin King with a track record - Kanu, Rudera, Teddy Hall and Katbakkies - says he doesn't want to be the head priest spreading the gospel of Chenin. Talented Teddy is a modest fellow. The Chenin Blanc Challenge has been a controversial photo-finish in some years - most memorably when FMC Forrester Meinert Chenin and KWV Val du Chene Chenin (declared winner) tied with five stars in 2007 - and De Trafford Keermont and Kanu were joint winners in 2002. This year was no exception - with two wines (Mooiplaas and Bellingham Maverick) tied for first place. The fifth judge cast the deciding vote. Speaking at the awards ceremony at Catharina's at Steenberg, Christian Eedes, editor of Wine Magazine, commented, "Wine competitions tend to over-engineer things. The days of Chenin as the Cinderella or workhorse grape are over." Analysis of the results of the Chenin Blanc Challenge over the last fourteen years reveals some interesting trends. Wooded wines from older bushvine vineyards have done well in the Chenin Blanc Challenge over the last fourteen years - so have Chenin specialists like Hall, Trafford and Jean Daneel. Vintage appears to play less of a role - the three winners in this year's Challenge - Mooiplaas Bush Vine (best unwooded), Koelenbosch Houtverouderd (best value at R25) and Bellingham The Maverick (best wooded) all came from three different vintages, 2008, 2007 and 2006 respectively. The Chenin Blanc Challenge reveals fascinating geographical trends. Stellenbosch could legitimately claim to be the home of Chenin. Most of the winners come from a band of vineyards stretching all the way from the Muldersvlei and Bottelary Hills to Simonsberg and Helderberg. These include Villiera, L'Avenir, Morgenhof, Rudera (Hall sourced grapes from Koelenhof), De Trafford, Forrester Meinert and Spier. Many of the finalists also come from the Chenin zone - Anura, Kleine Zalze (three four-star wines in the top 2009 fifteen), Eikendal, Mulderbosch and Hazendal. "We need different Chenin Blanc categories - it even makes a great Noble Late Harvest (think of Nederburg Edelkeur)," concludes Francois Naude, holding forth on his great passion for the grape over a dessert of berries with Chenin Blanc jelly. The Chenin Blanc Assocation (CBA) documents the intriguing origins of the great white hope in the Cape (see www.chenin.co.za) and the intertwining of Franche, Fransdruif, Listan, Steen and Chenin Blanc. It recognises six broad styles with defined residual sugar - fresh and fruity, unwooded, wooded and slightly sweet, sweet and sparkling. The sixty-strong CBA aims "to ensure that South African Chenin Blanc takes its rightful place with the other great white wines of the world. This requires clear strategic thinking, innovative marketing, an intensive education programme for winemakers and consumers, and rigorous handling of the variety in the vineyard. Chenin Blanc is a very responsive (noble) variety - it will give back in the bottle what the winemaker has put into the vineyard and in the cellar." It concludes "Chenin Blanc in South Africa has extensive depth in terms of vineyards, terroir diversity and winemaking expertise. The grape's exceptional versatility and the excellent selection of fruit available, due to the Cape's wide terroir, provide for great variety of style. Winemaking techniques depend on the style of wine desired. Yet, one fact is unassailable: the most intensely flavoured Chenin Blanc wines come from older vines that have been carefully managed for balanced yields." * For complete results and dates / venues of public tastings, see www.winemag.co.za.