Maison Les Alexandrins Condrieu White 2023

A partnership between three winegrowers from the Rhône Valley – Nicolas Jaboulet, Guillaume Sorrel and Alexandre Caso – Maison les Alexandrins produces northern wines in a style at once contemporary and timeless, always from exceptional vineyards unearthed by Alexandre Caso, a specialist in the terroirs of the northern Rhône Valley. Classics with a twist, these wines and how they are aged and blended are guided by the quest for perfect harmony from a very young age. Comes from vines located in Condrieu and Limony.

Here the parent rock is granite. The topsoil varies between decomposing granite and loess. This soil is perfectly suited to the Viognier grape variety and the vines, planted in terraces, are constantly bathed in sunshine.

2023 was a year full of contrasts, which required great composure and experience to deal with the climatic hazards. The winter was mild followed by a wet spring then a summer oscillating between hailstorms and drought, before a complicated harvest period, between August 17 and September 20. A permanent risk of rain and unpredictable weather forecasts required us to constantly adapt our plans in order to harvest our grapes, of good quality and well concentrated in sugars, at their optimal phenolic maturity. At the end of the harvest, the meticulous work was more than rewarded: this very unusual vintage proved to be very promising, perfectly well balanced across all quality indicators. In the cellar, we are pleasantly surprised by the freshness of the whites. The terroirs resisted drought and offer magnificent balance. Low temperature fermentations helped preserve the aromatics. The reds required long macerations in order to extract all the essence of the vintage. The wines from the lowlands are crisp and delicate, the wines from the hills stand out for their density and the radiance brought by the granite. The aging period has now started, the wines will improve and the textures will slowly become more complex in the cellar.

An Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in the northern Rhône Valley since 1940, the Condrieu vineyard lies at the northernmost part of the Rhône Valley, on the right bank of the river, between the Côte-Rôtie and Saint-Joseph appellations. Its white wines are made exclusively from the Viognier grape variety, whose earliest vines were first grown in Roman times.

- Vinification partly in tanks and partly in 225-litre barrels.
- Matured on fine lees for 8 months.