Yves Cuilleron Condrieu ‘Les Chaillets’ 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

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.

I first visited Yves Cuilleron back in 1999, primarily seeking his whites, soon discovering he made reds of great personality too. Beyond his stunning Condrieu he maintains holdings in Saint Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, Cornas and Côte Rotie. Making Rousanne, Marsanne, Marsanne/Rousanne blends, Syrah and Syrah blended with a splash of Viognier. Côte Rotie was the inspiration for Yarra Yering Dry Red No 2 and in turn Clonkilla’s Shiraz Viognier!

About Viognier

In Australia, 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!

About Yves Cuilleron

Yves Cuilleron represents the 4th generation of Cuilleron vignerons even though he started his career as a mechanic. He caught the wine bug when he did is military service in Alsace and after a year’s training at Lycée Viticole de Mâcon, Yves took over his uncle estate in 1987. Since then he has built an entirely new winery in Chavanay and acquired additional vineyard in St. Joseph, Côte Rôtie and Condrieu. Yves is also very implicated in the community: he set up the ‘Vins de Vienne’ in 1996 with Pierre Gaillard and Herve Villard to re-introduce vines on the forgotten terroir of Seyssuel (located a few kilometres north of Vienne).’

The top Cuilleron wines are planted 8000-10000 vines per hectare. There are no insecticides (for the last 20 years) or herbicides used in the vineyards. Yves Cuilleron rejects off-the-shelf ideas. His vision of vine cultivation is highly personal: not conventional, not organic, not biodynamic. And his philosophy is simple: “Produce the best possible grapes”. He practises “viticulture raisonnable”, an integrated, eco-friendly approach in which observation is key. All vine work vital to grape quality is conducted: planting of Viognier vines deriving solely from the family’s own yards (“selections massales”), and of Syrah vines from high-quality clones and from “selections massales”.

Where in the World are Cuilleron’s Wines Made?

Yves Cuilleron’s vineyard holdings are spread through the Northern appelations (regions) of the Rhône Valley between Valence and Lyon. These are the home of whites made from Viognier, Marsanne, Roussane and blends of the three, with reds made from Shiraz and blends of Shiraz and Viognier from Côte Rôtie. The sites on the banks of the Rhône River are calf snappingly steep. Pulley systems and vineryard sized monorails often used to haul fruit and earth up the hills. In many vineyards, terraces lined by stone walls as tall as a man are used to hold the mountains back!

This wine comes from Condrieu.