Château-Grillet: How recent releases compare to other top Rhône Viogniers

Château-Grillet remains an enigma. This tiny property, located between the villages of Vérin and St-Michel-sur-Rhône, on the right bank of the Rhône river, has a long history.

Records show that the wine was enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson, the Empress Josephine and King George IV of England. Today, Grillet’s tiny size is dwarfed by its reputation and high prices. So, how do recent releases match up to its vaunted name?

Scroll down for Andy Howard MW’s Château-Grillet tasting notes and scores

In recent decades, numerous wine writers have been critical of Grillet, arguing the quality of wine in bottle has not lived-up to the heights that the estate should be reaching.

Appellation Château-Grillet Contrôlée was granted its own INAO status on 11 December 1936. Like La Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, and Clos de Tart it is a monopole, with 3.5ha sited between 150-250m above sea level on 87 dry-stone wall terraces – known as chaillées.

Viognier is the only permitted grape variety, with the estate sited in a sun-drenched, south-facing, natural amphitheatre. Here the soils are poorer than most of the Condrieu appellation, with sandy soils derived from decomposed granite, quartz, feldspar and mica, combined with wind-blown loess.

In 2011, the Neyret-Gachet family (who had owned the property since 1827) sold Château-Grillet to François Pinault’s Artémis group, whose wine portfolio includes Château Latour, Château Vrai Croix de Gay (Pomerol), and Château Le Prieuré in St-Emilion, to name but a few.

Frédéric Engerer is general manager with Alessandro Noli leading the winemaking team. Clearly Engerer believes there is untapped potential at Grillet and this tasting, organised by Dominic Buckwell, Wine GB Director, provided an opportunity to taste the most recent releases against a range of other top Viognier wines from the Northern Rhône.

As well as making changes to the training system in the vineyard, switching from the single Guyot to Guyot Poussard method, Noli has adopted biodynamic principles and now uses a horse to power the winch ploughing the vineyard terraces.

Within the winery, small temperature controlled stainless steel vats have been installed to allow vinification of individual parcels.

In addition, a second wine has been introduced from parcels not felt to be of high enough quality to be bottled as Château-Grillet. Named ‘Pontcin’, this 100% Viognier wine is labelled as Côtes du Rhône.

However, don’t expect any of the Grillet wines to be cheap. Pontcin trades at more than £100 per bottle in bond, with recent vintages of Château-Grillet almost three times this price.

So, with these high prices, is it immediately apparent what makes Château-Grillet so special?

The tasting was useful in many respects as it gave an opportunity to try the most recent vintages, and to compare the grand vin style with that of Pontcin and several top examples of Condrieu.

Those include wines from Georges Vernay, Yves Cuilleron, François Villard and Guigal’s top Condrieu, La Doriane.

The short answer is that the Grillet style is not an easy one to understand and lovers of more flamboyant, exotic Viognier wines might be better served elsewhere.

Château-Grillet has long-held a reputation for elegance despite its sun-drenched site.

In previous decades, early picking was seen as a way to keep acidity high and control excessive ripeness and alcohol, often making Grillet difficult to understand in its youth.

Another key component of the Château-Grillet style is a pronounced mineral edge on the palate, often making the wine seem closer to a Grand Cru Chablis than Condrieu.

In this tasting, what was evident across all of the estate’s wines was an understated quality, with restrained fruit character supported by bright acidity. Château-Grillet’s renowned mineral edge was very apparent.

These are all wines which are capable of, and would benefit from, further ageing.

The renaissance of Château-Grillet is still a work-in-progress, but there are promising signs. However, lovers of full-bodied, rich, exotic, perfumed Condrieu may be better advised to look elsewhere, unless you have deep pockets and are prepared to wait.

See Andy Howard MW’s Château-Grillet and other Viognier tasting notes and scores

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