Wednesday's Wine - Ken Forrester Stellenbosch Petite Chenin, 2005

In my continuing effort to expand my palate in the area of white wines, I once again tried a new white wine. So, we're off to South Africa for this one. Yep, a whole new continent to explore! And yes, I did take notes. First off, a reminder. White wine is best served after being chilled, but not right out of the refrigerator. In other words, remove the bottle of your favorite white wine from the refrigerator 15 to 20 minutes before you plan to serve it to allow it to come up to a drinkable temperature. By that, I mean that if the wine is still very cold when you drink it, you won't notice the various flavors and it may not compliment your meal quite as well. In fact, you probably ought to drink some light beer, a lemonade, or a cold glass of water for all the good you'll get out of an overly cold glass of white wine.

I found this wine, which is a Chenin Blanc, to be crisp and slightly tart. It has a rather clean mouth feel, actually, and a nice but vague grape flavor like white grape juice with out all the sugary sweetness. I had this wine with a chicken and mushroom vegetable soup and found it a nice counter point to the earthy flavors. It also complemented the strawberry and raspberry salad that I had along side. I think it would also go well with salad greens or a Caesar salad (with or without the chicken).

Here's what Ken Forrester Vineyards said about their wine:

Perfect everyday drinking wine. A youthful wine showing fresh ripe melon with a mellow , round, mild and honeysuckle fruit palate and refreshingly long finish. Hand harvested, fermented cool, bottled early to show the freshest fruit flavours. Should last half an hour with the cork out! Serve with all flavoursome, light Al Fresco Summertime meals.

So I guess the vague white grape taste is considered kind of a honeysuckle melon taste. Learn something new everyday! Not sure what they mean by it "should last half an hour with the cork out!" First of all, mine came with a screw cap (which I like because it's easy to open and close, which is important since I rarely drink more than a glass at a time) and secondly, are they suggesting that it should be chugged rather than be uncorked for more than 30 minutes? Well, anyway, at $9.00, I would definitely buy this wine again and would not be embarrassed to serve it to guests (even if they do need to chug it). Enjoy!