2012 Condrieu, Domaine Pichon

2012 Condrieu, Domaine Pichon

Product: 23878
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2012 Condrieu, Domaine Pichon

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Description

Matured half in tank and half in vat, this is a very elegant Viognier, its verbena and dried almond character complemented by hints of Seville orange, white pepper and gingerbread.  A somewhat idiosyncratic Condrieu, this is stylistically antithetical to that of Pierre Gaillard for example.
Simon Field MW, Rhône Wine Buyer 

Christophe and Isabelle demonstrate the same vigilance and patience in the maturation of their wines as to the up-bringing of their six children, several of whom now help, with varying degrees of formality, in the winery. The style of their wines is usually from the more elegant and nuanced end of the spectrum, which I found to be especially true in 2012.

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About this WINE

Domaine Pichon

Domaine Pichon

Christophe and Isabelle Pichon, apart from the small matter of bringing up six children, also farm 10 hectares spread over the wine appellations of Côte Rôtie, Condrieu and St Joseph.

Nearly 4 hectares of this are in Condrieu, to the South of the appellation, in the commune of Chavanay. Condrieu, with its distinctive granitic terraced vineyards, is still perceived as the source of the best Viognier wines in the world, wines of incredible richness and a texture which afford the reviewer/taster little alternative but to use vocabulary from the more sensuous and decadent end of the spectrum!

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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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