Description

The wines from Condrieu have had an excellent reputation for many generations. The Popes in Avignon worshipped it, in the XVIth century the “Chapitre Lyonnais” offered it to his esteemed guests. More recently, Curnosky described it as one of the greatest white wines in France. Unfortunately, Phyloxera the first world war, the great depression in the thirties along with the industrialisation of the region were responsible for many to abandon their vineyard.

When the appellation of Condrieu was created in 1940, only three communes; Condrieu, Saint Michel and Vérin were included in the production area and totalled 170 hectares. In 1967, this was extended to four neighbouring villages; Chavanay, Saint Pierre de Boeuf, Malleval and Limony bringing it to 387 hectares. With increasing demand from the winegrowers and in view of keeping high quality wines, the area of plantation was reviewed one last time excluding any vines above an altitude of 300 meters. An agreement with the INAO brought the appellation down to 262 hectares. A quarter of the surface was withdrawn in order to only keep the hillside vines with the best exposure, where Viognier reaches its best maturity.

Terroir

The main stone found in Condrieu is granite. On the surface the soil is covered with decomposed granite and loess. This is soil is perfectly suited to Viognier and the vines benefit from excellent sunshine. When looking for winemaker collaborators, we wished to limit our research to Côteau de Cherry and Côteau de Rozay that have a bit of altitude and where the wines have a good balance and more importantly great freshness.

The vintage

After a very dry winter and beginning of spring, Mai and June were rainy and sunny at the time, which was beneficial to the vine. On the edge of summer, we were in advance but an intense heat wave blocked the maturities. These conditions needed an exceptional effort in the vines to prevent illnesses and to get the grapes into a very satisfying sanitary state. The harvest started in middle of September. We noticed differences in the maturities depending on the areas, which led to continuing the picking until the first days of October. The yields were also quite different depending on the appellation and parcels.

Location

In our search of winegrowers, we wanted to work in very specific places like coteaux de cherry and coteau de rozay, which are vineyards quite high in altitude, in order to get a nice balance and keep freshness for our wines.

Process

The bunches are pressed followed by a long fermentation at low temperatures of 12/15°.
20% is aged in oak barrels to bring fatness to the wine and the rest in stainless steel tanks to preserve aromas of fruit and freshness.

Tasting

A shiny pale yellow color.
The nose is aromatic, exotic with notes of citrus and slightly floral.
The bouquet is balanced and leaves a lovely impression and length.

Serving

Drink in its youth as an aperitif with some prawns.
11/12°C

Grapes

Viognier : 100 %

Wine Advocate

Made in a clean, very fresh and racy style, the 2012 Condrieu has textbook apricot and marmalade styled aromas and flavors, medium-bodied richness, and a lengthy, mineral tinged finish. It too gains in richness in the glass and is an impressive effort.
Jeb Dunnuck
Wine Advocate , 90/100 , 2013-12-16

Wine Spectator

A rich, tropical version, offering languid layers of apricot, creamed peach, quince and glazed pear all gliding along, with flickers of bitter orange, ginger and warmed piecrust filling in the background. For the hedonist crowd.
Wine Spectator , 91/100 , 2014-11-15