About this WINE
Domaine Benetiere
Condrieu’s fall from grace, commercial or otherwise, has only relatively recently been addressed and now, given its meagre dimension, vines are so hard to come by that all those wise enough to have clung onto them in the depressed times are now unlikely to forsake them. Young (with a parenthetical ‘ish’ added) growers such as Pierre Benetière, an alumnus of Domaine Georges Vernay, have been lucky to get any foot-hold at all.
His 2.5 hectares are on good south-east facing sites, at an altitude of 250 metres or so...good sites, but not the very best. He manages somehow, paradoxically by being rigorously conventional, to coax great extract and finesse from his vines, the eldest of which have 20 years. Barrel fermentation and elevage, coupled with a full malolactic and occasional bentonite fining, can hardly be seen as controversial, or even especially inspired. And yet his Condrieus are amongst the best in the appellation. Must be something to do with his rather waspish sense of humour.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer
Viognier
A white grape variety originating in the Northern Rhône and which in the last ten years has been increasingly planted in the Southern Rhône and the Languedoc.
It is a poor-yielding grape that is notoriously fickle to grow, being susceptible to a whole gamut of pests and diseases. Crucially it must be picked at optimum ripeness - if harvested too early and under-ripe the resulting wine can be thin, dilute and unbalanced, while if picked too late then the wine will lack the grape's distinctive peach and honeysuckle aroma. It is most successfully grown in the tiny appellations of Château-Grillet and Condrieu where it thrives on the distinctive arzelle granite-rich soils. It is also grown in Côte Rôtie where it lends aromatic richness to the wines when blended with Syrah.
Viognier has been on the charge in the Southern Rhône and the Languedoc throughout the 1990s and is now a key component of many white Côtes du Rhône. In Languedoc and Rousillon it is increasingly being bottled unblended and with notable success with richly fragrant wines redolent of overripe apricots and peaches and selling at a fraction of the price of their Northern Rhône cousins.
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Description
Pierre sometimes makes two wines from his two plots in the Vérin commune (Le Tinal and le Riollement for those whose interest runs deep). This year, he has made an outstanding blend: all beeswax, with natural yeast charm, honey and spicy apricot. It is tight at the finish to remind us that the vineyards are adjacent to the Côteau de Chéry.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer
An alumnus of Domaine Georges Vernay, and an owner of a wicked sense of humour, Pierre Benetière farms 1.3 hectares in Condrieu and vinifies his wine in a decidedly ramshackle chai, which the untrained observer may describe in somewhat unflattering terms. The wines will garner much fairer reviews; 2011 was picked on 7th September, satisfactory timing, according to Pierre, after a mildly turbulent season. He is happy with the results, with some justification.
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