Producing Condrieu but also Saint Joseph and Cote Rotie, you have a unique opportunity to make both white and red wines. Do you have any preference?
This question is difficult as both Viognier and Syrah are beautiful grape varieties which I love. I think I made a lot of experiences with Syrah over the last 10 years which gave me much pleasure and which helped me to understand how great these grapes are. I say “these grapes” because you do not have a unique Syrah but many Syrah varieties. I love the Syrah wine I make in Italy at Tenimenti Luigi Alessandro with Luca Currado for its typical italian expression as much as I love my Cote Rotie Maison Rouge or the more approachable “Fleurs de Mai”, a 100% Syrah wine drinkable at a very young age. All these wines have their own identities and deserved the same attention from the beginning to give the best of themselves. Considering Viognier, I love this beautiful grape variety and this is a long love story which was transmitted from my father Georges and grandfather Francis.
What is the single most important change you have made in your winemaking practices in the past ten years or so?
Changing winemaking practices for making Condrieu? My father Georges would have killed me and he would have been right! But, as soon as I took over the estate, winemaking practices have dramatically changed for reds. I changed for a “plot by plot vinification” with extremely delicate extractions. The severe selection of oak barrels and a minimum intervention style completed this new approach. What has that change accomplished? I would say first of all that it helped to better understand some parcels which show now their impressive potential. In fact, over the past 10 years, this has completely changed the style of our red wines. From Fleurs de Mai (a burst of fresh aromas) to Maison Rouge (a powerful and perfumed Côte Rotie), I got the chance to define my own style for red wines. And finally, I fell so much in love with this grape variety that I decided to go abroad and to take part with Luca Currado from Vietti in the making of Syrah Cortona at Tenimenti Luigi Alessandro in Italy. This way I continue to give my own view of the Syrah grape variety and I find this new experience very exciting. And now when my father drinks one of those wines he agrees on the changes I made 10 years ago in the winemaking practices…This is also a big change!
What is your single most important requirement in a bottle of wine you drink for pleasure?
Year after year, bottle after bottle, reds or whites, I feel that the most important requirement in a wine is freshness. I am not talking about how cold you would have it served but how your palate will interact with the wine. Fresh does not mean necessarily a wine with a low alcohol level. Fresh means that you do not feel any excess alcohol, and it also means that after the first glass you want to drink the second one with pleasure. This is what I look for in my wines from Côte Rôtie or Condrieu. And sometimes, in extremely hot vintages, nature helps me and brings a strong minerality to my wines that keep them fresh even if the alcohol is high. In my opinion, the wine’s place is on the table with food, so it may explain why freshness is so important for me.
(You can reach the writer at clara@vitabella.fr
