Possessing more depth and richness, with gorgeous minerality intermixed with notes of tangerines, white flowers, crushed rocks and white peach, this seamless, medium to full-bodied beauty shows the cooler, more elegant style of the vintage beautifully while still packing plenty of depth and richness.
Reviews:
- Jeb Dunnuck: Possessing more depth and richness, with gorgeous minerality intermixed with notes of tangerines, white flowers, crushed rocks and white peach, this seamless, medium to full-bodied beauty shows the cooler, more elegant style of the vintage beautifully while still packing plenty of depth and richness.
Producer Information
Château-Grillet is a small, 3.5-hectare (nine-acre) wine estate and also an individual appellation within the wider Condrieu region of the northern Rhône Valley. As with Condrieu, Château-Grillet specialises in the production of Viognier wines. The site was one of the very first appellations created in France (in 1936), and is one of only a small number of French appellations to hold just a single producer (the Clos de Tart Grand Cru vineyard – see below – is one example, as are other numerous Burgundian monopoles). At just 3.5 hectares (9 acres) in size, it is also one of the smallest estates in France. The winemaking history of Château-Grillet goes back to the Third Century, and the distinction of the estate and its wines can be traced throughout the ages. For example, Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon I, had around 300 bottles of Château-Grillet in her wine cellar and US Minister to France (and later president) Thomas Jefferson visited the property in 1787. Château-Grillet was made a national heritage site in 1976, and in 2011, was bought by French luxury goods billionaire François Pinault, who also owns Château Latour, Clos de Tart and Domaine d’Eugénie in Burgundy, and Eisele Vineyard in Napa. The vineyard is located on the west bank of the northern Rhône, just south of the commune of Condrieu but within the northern section of the Condrieu appellation (itself just five kilometers/three miles southwest of Ampuis, the heart the Côte-Rôtie). The Condrieu appellation stretches around 16km (10 miles) on this side of the river, from the eponymous commune of Condrieu in the north, through Vérin and Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône (in which the Château-Grillet vines are located) to Limony, the southernmost commune.
