Walls’ hidden gems: Vignobles Chirat, Condrieu

When I taste the new vintage in the Rhône every autumn, I taste the wines blind, meaning the bottles are covered up. At the end, when the wines are revealed, many of the top performers are no great surprise. Something I find particularly exciting, however, is to see an estate that I’m unfamiliar with do better and better, year after year; a dark horse breaking away from the pack. In recent years, this is something I’ve witnessed with Vignobles Chirat.

Aurélien Chirat was tinkering with some machinery when I arrived at his winery to find out more. It’s located in the little village of Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône in the heart of Condrieu, high on a hillside overlooking the Rhône river. Aged 35, he is younger than I was expecting, a calm presence but bright and chatty.

Aurélien, a fourth generation winemaker, joined his father Gilbert at the estate in 2008. ‘When I arrived,’ said Aurélien, ‘he threw the keys at me and said “now it’s your job!”’ They worked together until February 2023, when his father fully retired.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 11 Vignobles Chirat wines to try

New tricks

After his studies, Aurélien did some internships in other wine regions. In 2012 he worked at Te Kairanga in Martinborough, New Zealand. Compared to his father’s more rustic approach, he was struck by the precision of the winemaking.

I asked Aurélien what he brought back from his visit. A lot, it turns out: an improved approach to cellar hygiene and oxygen transfer, a better understanding of chemical analysis, and new techniques such as cold maceration.

He has continued to experiment since his return. Since 2019, he’s stirred the lees (bâtonnage) of his reds – a process more commonly associated with white wines. He finds it adds body and power, which was useful in the rather reedy 2021 vintage.

He has also taken to blocking (or part-blocking) malolactic fermentation in his whites in hot vintages. He prefers this to acidifying, a practice more common in the southern Rhône, but one that’s been creeping north as the climate gets hotter.

Old ways

Learning new approaches from other regions has been valuable, but Aurélien says that benefiting from his father’s knowledge has been priceless. ‘He was the best winemaker, but hated the commerce and the administration,’ said Aurélien. ‘He knows the terroir, he knows how his father worked, how his grandfather worked. Which is great, because we need to look to the past to see how to work today.’

As a response to climate change, his father suggested two key modifications to their red winemaking, both of which were common in the region 50 years ago: chapeau immergé (submerged cap) and whole-bunch fermentation. ‘We destemmed everything before 2016,’ said Aurélien, ‘before, stems were an aberration to me. Now I hardly destem at all.’

As for chapeau immergé, he says ‘it’s like a cafetière’. Instead of letting the mass of skins and stems float to the surface of the fermenting juice, it’s held under the surface by a perforated wooden board. So no more pumping over or punching down: ‘it’s diffusion, not extraction,’ he says. Since employing these old techniques, he’s found his wines have gained finesse.

Back to the future

Often when a young winemaker takes over an estate, they have ambitions to expand. But not Aurélien – quite the opposite. He’s already reduced their holdings from 10ha down to 8ha.

This is partly a response to his father’s retirement – the loss of a pair of hands. But it’s also driven by his desire to work more sustainably. ‘I might have to give up more parcels to concentrate on just those I can work organically. Some might call me an idiot, but it’s a personal choice. Our ancestors had small domaines, and they all worked organically before chemicals arrived. You can live on five to six hectares here. I’d prefer to do this than lose part of my soul.’

Since arriving at the estate 15 years ago, Aurélien’s made a raft of changes. And the wines have gone from strength to strength. He’s clearly much more than a one-trick pony.

Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for 11 Vignobles Chirat wines:

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