Dry white

Savennières

Robe — Pale gold deepening with age

  • quince
  • chamomile
  • honey
  • wet wool
  • flint
Palate
Dry, powerful and mineral, austere young, needs time
Ageing
5–20 years
Serving
11–13 °C

On steep schist slopes above the Loire near Angers, Chenin Blanc makes one of France's most singular dry whites: powerful, austere and intensely mineral, closed and even forbidding in youth, and magnificent after a decade of quince, honey and flint. This is dry Chenin at its most serious.

The tiny enclaves of Coulée de Serrant and Roche aux Moines are among the great white terroirs of France, farmed biodynamically and famous the wine world over. Savennières is a wine that demands patience — and rewards it like few others.

The blend

A typical modern composition

Where it is made

Producers

A few estates working in this style today — a sample, not a ranking

Through time

Indicative presence index, 0–100Origins & Antiquity — 0The Monastic Middle Ages — 35Exploration & the Fortified Age — 40Classifications & the Golden Age — 45Phylloxera & the World Crises — 35The Modern & New World Era — 60Antiquity0500150017001875195060