Aged Condrieu – how it develops plus 40 wines tasted

During my last few visits to Condrieu, some of my most surprising and memorable encounters have been with older wines.

Yet I still continue to read that Condrieu is a wine that ‘doesn’t age’. Tasting the occasional 20-year-old bottle is instructive, but I wanted to put together a more complete picture of how this great wine develops.

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ top-scoring recent and aged Condrieu wines

I recently tasted 40 wines from 17 different producers.

They all submitted a bottle of their 2019 alongside at least one older wine of their choosing – these ranged from 2014 back to 1998.

Best aged Condrieu vintages

Their most popular choice was the 2008 – a cool, wet vintage in the Northern Rhône that produced some underripe, scrawny reds – but fresh, lean whites.

The second most popular vintage was very different in character; the 2010 was a great year that produced intense, structured wines of both colours.

I expected some of the older wines to be dull, flat, perhaps oxidised or otherwise lifeless. But remarkably they all still had something to say.

Contrary to popular opinion, Condrieu does indeed age, but it changes radically as it moves from its young stage (from bottling to four years after vintage), to early maturity (around 10 to 12 years), to late maturity (12 to 25 years).

Young Condrieu

Most people drink Condrieu when it’s young. It’s hard to resist at this exuberant early stage when it brims with jasmine, violets and succulent peach nectar, not to mention the kind of intense ripe apricot flavour you so rarely find in an actual apricot.

Viognier is a low-acid grape, but these vibrant aromatics help give it a sense of freshness. Over time, these florals gradually wilt – so any Viognier needs more than just aroma if it’s to avoid flatlining after its first flush of youth.

The Viogniers of Condrieu find two additional sustaining sources of freshness and structure from its granite and migmatite soils: positive bitterness and salinity. It’s these two elements that help the wines to age in the absence of marked acidity.

After this youthful stage, the wines reach a stage of early maturity.

See all 40 new Condrieu wine tasting notes and scores

Early maturity

This is at around 10 years of age, but it depends on the vintage; the 2008s appeared more youthful than the 2010s. The aromatics have settled down now, and the wines typically show more citrus peel than stone fruit, sometimes taking on petrol notes like an aged Riesling. Herbs and spices rise to the surface.

What surprised me was how young these wines still appeared after 10 years, almost unchanged in colour. When they pour with a hint of copper or gold however, you know they’ve moved into full maturity.

Full maturity

At this stage, usually between 12 and 20 years of age, a switch is flicked and the aromatic register is transformed.

Gone are the fresh apricots and peaches, replaced with dried apricots and orange marmalade. Any fruit sits behind an array of toasted nuts and caramelised flavours: gingerbread, butterscotch, honeycomb.

The aromas are just as pronounced as a young wine, but entirely different. The wines are just as full and generous on the palate, but more savoury than before.

Oak and alcohol

Condrieu takes well to oak ageing, it helps to build structure, complexity and length. But any imbalances become more obvious as the wine ages. Excessive oak, which can to some degree be disguised by flamboyant fruits when young, becomes dominating with age. As does unbalanced alcohol.

Comparing the alcohol levels of the 2019s against the older wines was revealing: the young wines were on average 0.7% higher in alcohol. The 2019 vintage was unusually hot, but let’s hope such elevated alcohol levels don’t become the norm, otherwise today’s Condrieus might not age as well as those made ten or twenty years ago. What today’s wines have in their favour when it comes to longevity is that they come from older vines, which typically deliver greater intensity and minerality.

Site selection

If you want to try an older Condrieu, consider first of all the best granitic sites close to the villages of Condrieu and Verin such as Coteau de Vernon, Coteau de Chéry and Poncin (though I did taste some fine older wines from Chavanay and Malleval).

Food matching

Whereas a young Condrieu is delicious on its own, older wines are better matched with food – try brown crab meat with lemon mayonnaise on toast or halibut with a brown butter and tarragon sauce.

Aged Condrieu verdict

On a personal level, this tasting confirmed my preference for younger wines – I just can’t help but be won over by that heady aromatic display.

But if presented with a wine list in a restaurant, I would opt for an excellent older vintage such as 2014 over a less exciting recent one such as 2018 – particularly if it’s by a more reliable domaine or makes a better match with what I’m eating.

Nevertheless, it’s important to set the record straight: Condrieu does age.

It just doesn’t follow the pattern of most white wines. It bursts out of the blocks with wild aromatics, then gradually calms down until it flips into a nutty, toasty, caramelised yet unctuous curiosity, sustained by a mineral spine. Because of its early glory, it doesn’t ‘improve’ per se; instead, it gradually evolves into something else. Something else worth trying.

See Matt Walls’ top-scoring recent and aged Condrieu wines

See all 40 Condrieu wine tasting notes and scores

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