An Ode to Chenin

With liberal borrowings from the words of Pablo Neruda (from his 1954 Ode to Wine), who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1971:
By

“Starry child of the earth,
wine, smooth as a golden sword,
soft as ruffled velvet”

He must surely have been speaking of Chenin Blanc – “starry child of earth”. I recall many years ago a visiting chef of considerable fame, then with just one Michelin star – now two! A true Scot and a humble man – asked me “how does one become so connected to wine?”.

It was admittedly after dinner and late at night – we took a spade and filled our glasses with a fresh libation of an older Chenin “smooth as a golden sword” and we headed to the vineyard.  He held our glasses and I opened up a hole 50cm square and deep and asked him to remove his shoes and socks and step in...

I buried him up to his knees and told him to hold the trunk of the vine and we drank a toast to Chenin, to the vine, to the wine, to the “starry child of the earth”.

That night Andrew truly connected with wine.  

The Curve of the Wineglass

The poet too was obviously connected with wine – he goes on to say:

“My love, suddenly, 

your hip 

is the curve of the wineglass 

filled to the brim, 

your breast is the cluster” 

Such is the joy of Chenin that it can lead one’s mind to wantonly stray to the thoughts of joy and pleasure from “each drop of gold” embedded in memory 

“they remember that autumn worked 

until the barrels were filled with wine”

For the love of...

The pleasure of wine, and in this case collectively 130 years of aged Chenin Blanc, will hopefully remind you of love:

“But not only love, 

burning kiss, 

of ignited heart vino de vida,

you are also 

fellowship, transparency, 

chorus of discipline abundance of flowers.”

An Ode 

I hope and trust that these truly special Chenin Blancs will remind you of that glimpse and memory:

“your hip

is the curve of the wineglass

filled to the brim,

your breast is the cluster,

your hair the light of alcohol

your nipples, the grapes

your navel pure seal stamped on your belly of a barrel,

and your love the cascade of unquenchable wine”

Written in ode of the Port2Port x Ken Forrester Vineyards CHENIN Case, specially curated by the man himself.