Condrieu is a French wine

French wine

French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...

-growing Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

(AOC) located in the northern Rhône wine, near Vienne

Vienne, Isère

Vienne is a commune in south-eastern France, located south of Lyon, on the Rhône River. It is the second largest city after Grenoble in the Isère department, of which it is a subprefecture. The city's population was of 29,400 as of the 2001 census....

 and to the south of the Côte-Rôtie AOC

Côte-Rôtie AOC

Côte-Rôtie is a French wine Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in the northern Rhône wine region of France. The vineyards are located just south of Vienne in the communes of Saint-Cyr-sur-le-Rhône, Ampuis, and Tupin-et-Semons. The vineyards are unique because of their vertical slopes and their stone...

. The vineyards are situated in the seven communes of Limony

Limony

Limony is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France.-Population:...

, Chavanay

Chavanay

Chavanay is a commune in the Loire department in central France....

, Malleval

Malleval

Malleval may refer to two communes in France:* Malleval was until 2005 the name of Malleval-en-Vercors, in the Isère department* Malleval, Loire...

, Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône

Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône

Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône is a commune in the Loire department in central France.-References:*...

, Saint-Pierre-de Boeuf, Vérin

Vérin

Vérin is a commune in the Loire department in central France....

, and Condrieu

Condrieu

Condrieu is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It is situated on the right bank of the Rhône, some south of Vienne and 44 km south of Lyon, at the foot of the lower slopes of the Mont Monnet. It has an area of 921 hectares and a population of 3,424...

 in the French departments of Ardèche

Ardèche

Ardèche is a department in south-central France named after the Ardèche River.- History :The area has been inhabited by humans at least since the Upper Paleolithic, as attested by the famous cave paintings at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. The plateau of the Ardeche River has extensive standing stones ,...

, Rhône and Loire

Loire

Loire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...

 on the steep slopes of the foothills of the Massif Central

Massif Central

The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....

 on the right bank of the Rhône river

Rhône River

The Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in Switzerland and running from there through southeastern France. At Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea, the river divides into two branches, known as the Great Rhone and the Little Rhone...

. The four southernmost communes can also produce wine under the Saint-Joseph AOC

Saint-Joseph AOC

Saint-Joseph or St.-Joseph is a French wine Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in the northern Rhône wine region of France. Though the appellation covers the largest amount of land, it is second in actual size under vine to Crozes-Hermitage, an appellation with which it shares much regarding style...

. The wines made in this AOC are exclusively white, from the Viognier

Viognier

Viognier is a white wine grape. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in the Rhone valley.-History:The origin of the Viognier grape is unknown. Viognier is presumed to be an ancient grape, possibly originating in Dalmatia and then brought to Rhône by the Romans. One legend...

 grape, which may have originated in the region. Within Condrieu is the enclave AOC of Château-Grillet, producing wines that are also 100% Viognier. The Condrieu AOC was officially created in 1940.

History

Viticulture

Viticulture

Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

 in the area around Condrieu has existed since at least Roman times

Roman Gaul

Roman Gaul consisted of an area of provincial rule in the Roman Empire, in modern day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Roman control of the area lasted for less than 500 years....

 and it is possible that the area was first cultivated by the native Allobroges

Allobroges

The Allobroges were a Celtic tribe of ancient Gaul, located between the Rhône River and the Lake of Geneva in what later became Savoy, Dauphiné, and Vivarais. Their cities were in the areas of modern-day Annecy, Chambéry and Grenoble, the modern of Isère, and modern Switzerland...

 tribe. In the 18th century, Condrieu enjoyed a period of popularity as it gained access to the lucrative Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

ian market. The wine was transported north by land to the city of Saint-Étienne

Saint-Étienne

Saint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France. It is located in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region, along the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon...

 where the Loire River would carry the wine to the Canal de Briare and then to Paris. During periods of peace between France

Ancien Régime in France

The Ancien Régime refers primarily to the aristocratic, social and political system established in France from the 15th century to the 18th century under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties...

 and Great Britain

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

, Condrieu would find its way to the London market.

For most of the 20th century before the early 1970s, the only northern Rhône wine well-known far from the region was Hermitage

Hermitage AOC

Hermitage is a French wine Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in the northern Rhône wine region of France south of Lyon. It produces mostly red wine from the Syrah grape; however, small quantities of white wine are also produced from Roussane and Marsanne grapes...

, and there was little demand on the export market for Rhône wines. Producing wine from hillside vineyards requires more labour than on flat vineyards, and is therefore economically difficult when demand and prices are low. This was particularly felt by some Rhône appellations in the early post-World War II era, including Condrieu and its neighbour Côte-Rôtie, with the 1950s and 1960s a particularly difficult time. Rhône wines in general started to be more in demand from the early 1970s, and stronger so from the late 1970s/early 1980s. From this time, the négociant business of Marcel Guigal at Ampuis

Ampuis

Ampuis is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France....

 was important in expanding the market for Condrieu wines. Guigal primarily made his name with his Côte-Rôtie wines which then paved the way for his bottlings from other appellations, which also includes a significant portion of white wine. Guigal's Condrieu was sourced from small growers in the appellation.

The increase in demand led to new plantations inside the appellation's border, which was far from fully exploited and at one stage included many abandoned vineyards. The area under wine was less than 12 hectares (29.7 acre) in the 1960s, 14 hectares (34.6 acre) in 1982, 98 hectares (242.2 acre) at the end of the century and 135 hectares (333.6 acre) in 2005.

Climate and geography

As in much of Northern Rhone, the climate of Condrieu is continental and characterized by cold wet winters and hot summers. Ideally situated vineyards are planted on granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 soils and face south, which aids growth during the cool months of late spring and early autumn. The well-drained granite soil retains heat during the day and reflects it back to the vines at night. In some areas the soil includes a fine layer of decomposed chalk

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

, flint

Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

 and mica

Mica

The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...

 which is known in the region as arzelle. The best vineyards have some natural shelter from the fierce northern winds that blow through the region and wreak havoc during flowering. The steep incline of many vineyards introduces the potential hazard of soil erosion.

The Condrieu AOC covers more than 500 acres (202 ha) of hilly terrain located along a 12 miles (19 km) stretch of the Rhône river. The AOC region begins at the town of Condrieu and extends south along the west bank of the river to the town of Limony. Within the AOC is 8.5 acres (3.4 ha) of Château-Grillet, which has its own micro-appellation.

Wine

The only AOC wine permitted in the region is a white wine made entirely from Viognier. The clone of Viognier grown in Condrieu produces low yield

Yield (wine)

In viticulture, the yield is a measure of the amount of grapes or wine that is produced per unit surface of vineyard, and is therefore a type of crop yield...

s of small berries and is less productive than the clones planted in other regions of France, such as the vin de pays

Vin de pays

Vin de pays is a French term meaning "country wine". Vins de pays are a step in the French wine classification which is above the table wine classification, but below the VDQS and Appellation d'origine contrôlée classifications...

wine of the Ardèche department. This contributes to the rarity and expense of Condrieu AOC wine, of which only 30 000 or so cases are produced annually. In the early to mid 20th century, Condrieu producers tended to make wines that were off-dry to sweet

Sweetness of wine

The subjective sweetness of a wine is determined by the interaction of several factors, including the amount of sugar in the wine to be sure, but also the relative levels of alcohol, acids, and tannins. Briefly: sugars and alcohol enhance a wine's sweetness; acids and bitter tannins counteract it...

 but by the end of the century the trend was to produce mostly dry wines. In particularly favourable vintage

Vintage

Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and...

s some producers will make a late harvest wine

Late harvest wine

Late harvest is a term applied to wines made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. Late harvest is usually an indication of a sweet dessert wine, such as late harvest Riesling. Late harvest grapes are often more similar to raisins, but have been naturally dehydrated while on the vine...

.

Condrieu wine is often characterised by delicate aromatics of peach

Peach

The peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...

es, dried fruit

Dried fruit

Dried fruit is fruit where the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is prized...

 and white flowers. Some examples also have notes of anise

Anise

Anise , Pimpinella anisum, also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor resembles that of liquorice, fennel, and tarragon.- Biology :...

, star fruit

Carambola

Carambola, also known as starfruit, is the fruit of Averrhoa carambola, a species of tree native to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The fruit is a popular food throughout Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and parts of East Asia...

 and melon

Melon

thumb|200px|Various types of melonsThis list of melons includes members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae with edible, fleshy fruit e.g. gourds or cucurbits. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit...

s. Often the wine is full bodied and rich in a style that is texturally similarly to Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

. Normally the wine is made dry but the fruitiness and perfume of the bouquet can suggest sweetness. The Viognier grape is naturally low in acidity which challenges growers and winemakers to keep the wine from becoming flabby and bleak. Some winemakers in the region use malolactic fermentation

Malolactic fermentation

Malolactic fermentation is a process in winemaking where tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. Malolactic fermentation tends to create a rounder, fuller mouthfeel. It has been said that malic acid tastes of green apples...

 and some do not. The delicate flavors of the wine can be overwhelmed by too much oak during the winemaking

Winemaking

Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material...

 process.

Aging

In the wine industry the ability of Condrieu to age is much discussed and opinions differ. Some experts like Master of Wine

Master of Wine

Master of Wine is a qualification issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom...

 Mary Ewing-Mulligan

Mary Ewing-Mulligan

Mary Ewing-Mulligan is an American author, wine educator and Master of Wine, the first American woman to achieve this accreditation. She has been the director of the school International Wine Center since 1984, and is executive director of the U.S. programs for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust...

 believe that it is best consumed within three years of harvest

Harvest (wine)

The harvesting of wine grapes is one of the most crucial steps in the process of winemaking. The time of harvest is determined primarily by the ripeness of the grape as measured by sugar, acid and tannin levels with winemakers basing their decision to pick based on the style of wine they wish to...

. The Oxford Companion to Wine describes Condrieu as one of the few luxury wines that is meant to be consumed young, typically within two to four years. Wine writer Tom Stevenson

Tom Stevenson

Tom Stevenson is a British author who has been writing about wine for more than 30 years. Described by his colleagues as one of today’s most prolific wine authors, Stevenson is regarded as the world’s leading authority on Champagne...

 recommends drinking Condrieu within four to eight years of harvest and notes that its freshness and purity can be lost as the wine ages. James Molesworth of Wine Spectator

Wine Spectator

Wine Spectator is a lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertainment pieces...

 Magazine notes that some vintages of Condrieu, such as the 2004, will produce more intense, concentrated wines that will age gracefully. One reason for the interest in this issue is that the sub-appellation Château-Grillet with its single producer traditionally produces wines meant for aging.

Appellation regulations

The Condrieu AOC can only be used for still white wines made from Viognier. The planting density must be at least 6 500 vines per hectare, and the base yield

Yield (wine)

In viticulture, the yield is a measure of the amount of grapes or wine that is produced per unit surface of vineyard, and is therefore a type of crop yield...

 is 41 hectoliter per hectare. The grape must reach a maturity giving at least 178 g/l sugar in the must (corresponding to 10.5 per cent potential alcohol) and the finished wines must have at least 11.5 per cent alcohol by volume, but no more than 14 per cent after any chaptalisation. If the wine has more than 45 grams per liter of sugar (only applicable for rare sweet Condrieu wines), the must not have been chatalised to reach that sugar level.