André Perret Condrieu ‘Coteau de Chéry’ 2018

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

“Coteau de Chéry”

The legend began at the time of the Roman Empire. Due to the growth of the number of vineyards in Gaule and a general overproduction in the Roman Empire, it was decided that half of Gaule’s vine stocks must be removed. However, the Emperor Probus demanded that a single hillside must be preserved, his “Cherished” hillside, overlooking the Rhone Valley, producing an extraordinary wine. Since this time, vine stocks have continued to prosper on this hillside and nowadays the legend lives on as Condrieu “Chéry” is one of the 100 Legendary Wines listed in the Solar guide by the leading sommeliers from the Taillevent wine cellars in Paris.

Terroir Soil type: crumbly and granitic, with mica and schist.

Exposure: a single hillside, south/south east facing.

Average age of vines: 60 years.

Yield: about 35 hectolitres/hectare for a cultivated surface of 3 hectares.

Grape variety: Viognier (single variety).

About Viognier

The Viognier vines from Yarra Yering made their way from Château Grillet. I devoured my last bottle of 2001 YY Viognier at 16 years of ages a few months ago. We’d bottled it with sulphur levels on the high side, it had maintained the colour of a 5 year old wine, the straw character of aged Viognier was showing, and the colleague I was tasting it with saw notes reminding her of Château Grillet! Only 200L of this wine were made, and only when there was sufficient fruit to avoid detracting from the No.2 Shiraz Viognier and friends. Studying the Viogniers of Condrieu and Château Grillet was always a pleasure.

Studying the Viogniers of Condrieu and Château Grillet is always a pleasure. It’s a curious beast, often drinking beuatifully for a few years, going into a hole for 5-10 and then bouncing back with a new level of secondary, age related characters. Good Viognier has a heady perfrume, apricot, peach, spice, ginger, jasmine, flowers, citrus and beyond often used to describe it.

In Australia, as in Côte-Rôtie, we tend to see Viognier in blends co-fermented with Shiraz where it adds wonderful perfume, and texture to red wines like Yarray Yering’s Dry Red No.2,  Clonakilla’s, and, Serrat’s Shiraz Viognier.

As a white wine, the spectrum of styles it can make is extreme. Guigal makes two of the boldest version with the Cuvées ‘La Doriane’ and the incredibly rare dessert wine ‘Luminescence’. La Doriane breaks all the rules. I used 20ml of a bottle to analyse it.

The pH was 4.0 the titratable acidity 4.0. Normally you’d expect a white wine to have a pH 3.0 & 3.5 with a titratable acidity between 5.5-7g/L acid. This is where the extremes of texture comes out to play, the high pH and low acidity combined with the high level of phenolics in La Doriane give it an oily, almost unctuous,  yet still dry texture. The high pH renders any sulphur additions near useless, the fruit must have incredible depth and length of flavour, capacity to handle oxygen contact not to oxidise. It results in a wine so unique that it becomes, perhaps one of the easiest wines to name in a blind tasting.

Guigal have made a very specific set of winemaking choices.

At the other end of the spectrum, it’s possible to make a gently pressed, tank-fermented version that has fewer phenolics from the skins and returns higher acidity and freshness.

Then there’s everything in between.

One thing is certain, good Viognier will have an entrancing perfume, and, a wonderful texture!

Look out for Château Grillet, Goreges Vernay, Yves Cuilleron, André Perret and Guigal.

About André Perret

When André Perret was growing up in Chavanay, in the northern Rhône Valley, most of the land there was planted to orchards, including the bulk of the family’s own small estate. Their roots were in Burgundy, though, where André’s forefathers owned and worked vineyards in Chassagne-Montrachet until World War II forced them to relocate. As a young man André studied biology and took a job as a cancer researcher, but he felt cooped up in the laboratory and dreamt of a life outdoors. In 1982, after completing a degree in viticulture and enology, he returned to his hometown and started out with a few small rows of vines that had belonged to his uncle. At that time there were just two other vignerons in Chavanay and the region was in decline, but he believed profoundly in the value of the local terroirs and worked hard to valorize the area, becoming president of the department’s association of young agriculturalists and establishing programs that would encourage people to settle down and plant vineyards there. He also worked tirelessly to develop his own estate, expanding production by renting vineyards and replanting the family lands to vines. Today he is proud to be surrounded by dynamic, passionate young vignerons and to see that most of his neighbors’ children are eager to take over the family estates as they grow up.

Perret’s approach to winegrowing is classic: respect each individual terroir—he produces several single-vineyard wines—and work the soil to avoid the need for chemical treatments. His goal is to make fresh, structured wines, in “a sort of Burgundian style” as he says, but without too much wood; wines that aren’t too worked over and will age well. His Condrieu bottlings are reference points for the entire appellation. In 1995 André built a new cellar, but he has never expanded beyond the very best terroirs and keeps the estate small so he can maintain his standards of manual labor in the vineyards and individual attention to all of his wines.

In the Vineyard

The way we cultivate our vines Traditional and entirely manual methods are used to cultivate the vines. No systematic treatment, pesticides are used with moderation and only as and when required. Yield control: July/August: green harvest. Thinning out the leaves.

In the Winery

Fermentation: 1/3 of the production in stainless steel vats, and 2/3 in wooden vats. Maturing: 12 months (regular stirring of the lees followed by racking). Temperature and hygrometry control. The wine is then preserved on its lees for one year before being bottled.

Where in the World are Perret’s Wines Made?

André Perret is in Verlieu-Chavanay is a small village 50 km south of Lyon, just to the south of Condrieu and is the place where André Perret practises the art of wine-making.

Located on the right bank of the river Rhône and thus enjoying the best climate of the appellation, the Estate is now about 13 hectares wide. Perret has holdings in Condrieu and Saint-Joseph.

This wine comes from Condrieu in the Northern Rhône Valley.