I first met one of the founders of Hella Chenin, Peter Andrews, at a wine festival in 2024. We both shared a love for South Africa (I was just coming off of a three week trip there) and both had roots in Virginia. Peter is the owner of Culture Wine Co, which imports and brings awareness to South African wines (which are all amazing). Whenever anyone asks me about my favorite wines, 9 times out of 10 I’m referencing a Chenin Blanc from South Africa. When I saw the posts about Hella Chenin last year, I knew I had to find a way out to the Bay for Hella Chenin 2026.
For those who aren’t familiar with Chenin Blanc, it’s a white grape variety that is thought to originate from the Loire Valley in France, but it made its way to South Africa in the 1600s where it was known as “steen.” Steen means stone in Afrikaans, an ode to Chenin Blanc’s minerality (stone like). It wasn’t until hundreds of years later that people realized that steen and chenin blanc were the same grape variety! Fun fact – Chenin Blanc is the most planted variety in South Africa.
Chenin Blanc is so exciting because it can be made in so many different formats – the acidity of the grape makes it so it can be made in a very crisp refreshing style, but it also holds up to warmer environments where tropical fruit flavors such as pineapple and mango come through. Furthermore, you can see late harvest or botrytized versions of Chenin as well as sparking and skin contact wines.
Therefore, a festival like Hella Chenin makes SO much sense because people attending the festival can taste so many different versions of this delicious grape. Four continents were featured at the festival: Europe, North America, Africa, and Australia, and every possible expression of the variety was featured.
So, why travel for Hella Chenin? The first and most obvious reason is that Chenin Blanc is such a fun and complex variety that does not get the recognition it should, at least in many parts of the United States. Even better, you get to taste varietals from all over the world made in everyformat. Another reason to travel out for Hella Chenin is the number of events: when I first bought my ticket to the festival, I was planning to be in the Bay area for about 36 hours. However, there were events all week long! I started off at the trade tasting on Thursday (that I was so thankful to be invited to attend!) fresh off of two hours of sleep and two flights from my rural hospital in Louisiana, and went to events later that day as well as Friday; the festival was held on Saturday. There was also a dinner the day before I arrived that looked absolutely fabulous. The last reason I would encourage you to go is because you could easily make this into an extended trip – Berkeley (where the festival has traditionally been held in the East Bay) is a short drive from Napa, Sonoma, and Clarksburg amongst other areas.
I’m already looking forward to going back in 2027 – hope to see you there!
p.s. Look out for next month’s post where I discuss my favorite wines from the festival
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