Wild Thing!
It was supposed to be the white wine grape that would come to oust
Chardonnay as the Queen of all white wine grapes, but it never happened.
Wild, charming and exotic, this white wine is not for the feint of heart. The
bold perfumed aromas hit the air in force from the moment it is being poured
and one doesn’t even need to pick the glass up to smell it. It is potent to say
the least! A taste, so different, but very much appealing, surely this white
wine will catch on with the wine drinking public. Well, it is starting to now,
but the road has been long and hard for this wild and exotic grape hailing
from Condrieu in Northern Rhone, France.
Viognier was brought to Northern Rhone 2000 years ago by either the
Greeks or Romans from its birthplace in Dalmatia. (No, this grape is not
spotted!) Although wines were made from Viognier in France for most of
that time, in 1965 the number of hectares (European measurement for acres)
of Viognier grapevines in Condrieu (Viognier’s homeland) was down to just
eight. That number has risen to 108 hectares in 2000. How did Viognier
make a comeback in France? Well believe it or not, it was a group of
renegade winemakers from California, dubiously dubbed the “Rhone
Rangers”, that sparked an interest in Viognier wines here in the states and
thus creating more demand for Viognier wines, here and abroad. These
winemakers received their name, “Rhone Rangers” because they were
instrumental in bringing the native grapes of the Rhone Valley in France to
California. Some of the more well known grapes would be the likes of Syrah,
Mouvedre, Malbec, Grenache and of course, Viognier. They had the belief
that California was ideally suited for these grape varietals and thus lobbied
heavily in their favor. One famous Rhone Ranger is Randall Graham, the
man behind the Bonny Doon label wines.
These Rhone Rangers were obviously successful in making California Syrah
a household name, but unfortunately, despite their resolve, passion and
desires, Viognier never made the breakthrough with the wine buying public
quite the way they had hoped it would. None-the-less, we are starting to see
more and more Viognier wines pop-up in wine stores across the country
every year. Having said that, it is still unlikely that Viognier will ever knock
Chardonnay off of her throne for a variety of reasons. Most of these
reasons have to do with viticulture problems.
This grape is notoriously hard to grow. Grape yields are very
unpredictable. You might have a vine with small bunches of grapes or a vine
with large bunches of grapes and this can change on you from year to year
depending on the growing season. Viognier is also very susceptible to
disease and rot. This makes selecting a suitable place to grow Viognier
quite a daunting task. Once the Viognier grapes have been picked, crushed
and the juice is ready to turn into wine, you can run into still more problems.
Viognier has a tendency to be overly alcoholic. Sometimes in excess of
14%, which is very unusual for a white grape. This can make the wines
taste hot or even tasteless. The grape juice can become oxidized very easily
if the winemaker is not careful. Because a big part of the oak barrel aging
process includes letting the wine come in contact with oxygen, this can kill
off all of the interesting flavors that Viognier grapes bring to the table. This
is not to say that Viognier wines never see the inside of an oak barrel, but if
a winemaker chooses to use oak on their Viognier wines, they must use it
with some discretion.
Another reason for the lack of heralded publicity facing Viognier wines had
to do with packaging. The Old World wine making countries argue that
wines should be known more for the regions that they come from rather than
the grape varietals that make them up. This is why they label their wines by
region rather than grape varietal like New World winemaking countries do.
This may be fine with consumers that are already familiar with household
names like Bordeaux, Burgundy or Chianti Classico, but it backfired
miserably for the white wines of Rhone and in particular, it’s most
prestigious white grape varietal, Viognier. Wine drinkers may have tasted a
French Condrieu or a Chateau-Grillet, but unless you were from France, you
didn’t know what was in that white wine. That is how, indirectly, California
winemakers saved the day for Viognier wines. People now had a grape
varietal that they could associate with a particular style of wine.
Speaking of wine styles, boy is Viognier different! If you have been what I
call a “Safe” wine-drinker all your life and stuck to the likes of Chardonnay
and Cabernet, Merlot, etc, maybe when you are feeling really exotic you will
buy a Riesling wine from Washington State, woo hoo! You big risk taker,
you! Trying a Viognier wine for you is going to be like never having flown in
an airplane before and having your first flying trip taken in the Space
Shuttle. I doubt you’ll know what hit you! This is something totally
different.
A couple of years ago, I myself had never had a Viognier wine. A friend of
mine at work was telling me about her favorite white wine called Caymus
Conundrum. If you have ever heard of that wine, you already know that it is
a blend of five or six white wine grape varietals. Usually it is comprised of
Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, maybe some Chenin Blanc and
definitely Viognier. So highly she spoke of this wine that my curiosity was
peaked and I found myself yearning to sample a bottle. I got my chance
when it appeared on Fleming’s Steakhouse wine list as one of the “Wines by
the Glass” selections. We had ordered a cheese plate and I thought I would
start off the evening with a white wine and here was my big chance to try it
without buying the whole bottle, which retails between $24.00 to $30.00 by
the way. I drew the glass close to my nose and I believe my nose hairs fell
out in shock! I had never smelled anything so wild and exotic before. I of
course attributed this smell to the fact that there were five different and
distinct wine grapes in this wine. If I had put any more concentrated thought
into the experience, I would have come to some solid conclusions about what
it was I smelled in this glass of wine. I had never smelled anything like this
before and it was unusually strong. Honeysuckle, apricot, orange blossoms
and other spicy floral perfumes exploded from the glass. Looking back at
the experience, I could have eliminated Chardonnay from the mix, because it
does not display theses characteristics. Sauvignon Blanc has that
vegetative quality along with citrus flavors; Semillon and Chenin Blanc have
a honeyed-peach quality to them. That would have left only one suspect in
the bunch.
Several months later I ventured into a wine store that had a closeout sale on
some wines that they were discontinuing. One of these wines happened to
be a Viognier from Cline, a California winery that specializes in some non-
traditional wine styles. Remembering that Viognier was in Caymus
Conundrum, I thought that it might be fun to give it a try and see what this
grape varietal was like all on its own. When I opened the bottle and began
pouring it into the glass, immediately, I began to relive my experience at
Fleming’s with that glass of Caymus Conundrum. That was what I was
smelling. I kid you not, it smells like nothing else.
Wineries like Cline, Bonny Doon and Calera in California helped to open the
wine-buying public’s eyes to the wonders of this exotic wine style. Now it is
being grown in many of the New World wine regions like Australia where
Yalumba Winery has led the charge in making it an Australian staple. It is
now found in New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina and Canada.
Here in the states, Washington State is starting catch the Viognier fever and
hold on to your hats, another state has been making Viognier wines in the
last four or five years and they are really, really good. That’s right, I’m
talking about the Lone Star State of Texas. Wineries like Becker in the Hill
Country and Llano Estacado in Lubbock have been experimenting with the
grape varietal and have been turning out wines with fantastic results. It
doesn’t surprise me, Rhone France is hot, dry and dusty. Ah, let’s see now,
this is Texas, we tend to have a, hmm…what kind of climate and landscape
do we have here again? Oh yea…It’s hot, dry and dusty!!!
Of course, Northern Rhone, France is the most famous region in that
country to make wines from Viognier grapes, but it is grown in other places
as well. You may find it in Languedoc, Roussillon and Provence. You may
not know that is what it is the wine because the name Viognier won’t be
anywhere on the label. It will taste quite different from the New World style
of Viognier wines. They will have that same floral and spicy smell, but they
will be a little thinner and a whole lot drier tasting than Viognier from
California or Australia.
Viognier flavors are unmistakable. These are not your Grandpa’s wines!
Viognier makes its presence known right out of the bottle with aromas of
apricots, kiwi, orange blossoms, roses, lime, lychees, guava, violets,
tangerines, jasmine, mango, honey suckle and pineapple. And that is just
the tip of the iceberg. It has a heavier mouth feel than most white wine
styles, about on par with a fat Chardonnay. It makes an interesting partner
to many food items, especially exotic fruits or seafood and shellfish. It is
truly a different experience in wine drinking. If you have never tried one,
put on your seatbelt, you are going to be in for one wild ride!
I was talking to a glass of Viognier the other day. Don’t laugh, if you have
had as much wine to drink as I have over the past few years, it could happen
to you too! I said, “Wild Thing”, because that’s what I call Viognier, “You
make my heart sing, you make my Lobster dish groovy! Wild Thing, I think
I love you, and if others gave you a chance, I know they would too for sure!”
