LIQUID INVESTMENTS
MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Young Turks led revival that made chenin charismatic
The chenin renaissance of the past two decades has been remarkable. It came out of a campaign I initiated in the 1990s, with the enthusiastic assistance of the late Harold Eedes, publisher of Wine Magazine; the encouragement of Jannie Retief at the KWV; and the support of Ian Bromley, visionary marketing manager of South African Airways. While at first there was only a little interest from the country’s major producers, the young Turks of that era recognised the potential of the old vine resource unique to the variety in SA. It was easy and inexpensive for them to obtain fruit from long-established vineyards, while the cultivar’s versatility made it the ideal candidate for the kind of experimentation that adventurous newcomers are more open to than their corporate counterparts. Within the first five years of the Wine Magazine-sponsored Chenin Challenge we were treated to a range of style, mostly heavily oaked and almost all with strong, sometimes funky leesy notes. These stylistics ...
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