2012 Condrieu, La Loye, Domaine Jean-Michel Gerin

2012 Condrieu, La Loye, Domaine Jean-Michel Gerin

Product: 17304
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2012 Condrieu, La Loye, Domaine Jean-Michel Gerin

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Description

Our 2012 Rhône Vintage Recommendation - Favourite Condrieu
Better known for their exceptional Côte-Rôtie red wines, the Gerrins have however produced a delightful Condrieu in 2012. Only a third of the blend sees oak treatment, and as such more aromatics burst through. Peach and honeysuckle flavours, fresh and precise with a mineral finish. Generous but not too rich, just how I like my Condrieus.
Martyn Rolph, Private Account Manager

Thirty percent of la Loye is fermented and matured in barrique, the balance in stainless steel. The notes of spring flowers, honeysuckle and dried apricots are all pleasingly present, complemented, perfectly, by a firm and flinty shard of mineral acidity, which lends structure and shape
Simon Field MW, Rhône Wine Buyer 

Jean-Michel is one of the great characters of the Valley, and a passionate advocate of all things vinous, as the quality of his Priorat joint venture underlines. Côte Rôtie, where his father was Mayor,   is of course his natural homestead and where he communes with the vines with an almost preternatural understanding. What is bred in the bone…

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About this WINE

Domaine Jean-Michel Gerin

Domaine Jean-Michel Gerin

Farming an outstanding plot of 10 hectares in Côte-Rôtie and another of a similar size (and quality) in Condrieu, Jean-Michel Gerin is one of the acknowledged masters of the region, imbuing Syrah with a wonderful purity and bringing out the full richness of Viognier. He is not only one of the great characters, but also one of the greatest winemakers in the Northern Rhône.

Gerin's winemaking methods aim for fragrance and sumptuous texture, with the wines' substance based on fruit rather than tannic mass. He employs copious use of wood, yet his wines seem to integrate it in a remarkable way, a model for subtly oaked fruit purity.

In addition to his appellation sites, he also makes excellent and well-priced Vins de Pays, and, to demonstrate both his passion and his pioneering spirit, he also has a vineyard in Priorat, a highly successful joint venture with Laurent Combier of Crozes-Hermitage.

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Viognier

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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