Chenin Blanc

Chenin can taste dry as bone and still smell of honey. That is the grape, not residual sugar. It ages on its acid, picking up wool, beeswax, and lanolin that sound odd on paper and hypnotic in the glass.

South Africa — especially Swartland and Stellenbosch — has become a second home, often on old bush vines, dry-farmed, and fermented in old oak or concrete. These are some of the world's great white-wine values.

Pair dry Chenin with roast pork, squash, and rillettes; off-dry with spicy food; sweet with tarte tatin and blue cheese.