Château-Grillet

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Château-Grillet is a vineyard with its own appellation d'Origine Contrôlée for white wine in the northern part of the French Rhône valley . The contiguous vineyard with an area of ​​3.8 hectares is divided between the two municipalities of Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône and Vérin . It is located on the orographic right side of the Rhone and is embedded in the growing area of Condrieu .

Since December 8, 1936, this small area has enjoyed the status of an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC for short). After the Grand Cru La Romanée in Burgundy and Romanée-Conti, it is one of the smallest appellations in France. The vineyard was since 1820 in the family Neyret-Gachet and was established in March 2011 on the Pinault holding company Artemis to the French industrialist François Pinault sold, the over Artemis already more wineries has purchased, including the legendary Château Latour Château Latour in Bordelais. This results in the rare situation that an entire appellation is owned by a single owner. The winery is called Château Grillet (without a hyphen).

Soil, climate and winemaking

The vineyard is laid out on extremely steep terraces up to 150 meters above the Rhône. It lies at a height of 165 to 250  m and forms a small basin with an optimal south-south-east orientation. This protects it from cold north winds and has a warm microclimate with balanced amounts of precipitation. The word Grillet is originally from the French word cricket (grilled or roasted), alluding to the sun-drenched location. The subfloor consists of a granite that is rich in mica . Its weathering product, a mixture of sand and clay, forms the vineyard soil.

In 2005, around 3 hectares of vineyards were in production, on which 90 hectoliters of wine were produced in 2005 - i.e. 12,000 bottles. On average, the yield per hectare is around 26 hectoliters, well below the maximum permitted limit of 37 hl / ha. The low yield is also a result of the old age of the vines. The plantings are 40 and 80 years old. Only one grape variety is permitted : the very aromatic Viognier .

The wine is fermented for 15–20 days at relatively high temperatures of 20 to 25 ° C. Following the malolactic fermentation , it is then matured for at least 18 months, but usually 24 months in mainly used oak barrels. A barrique taste is not aimed for. Through this type of vinification and barrel aging, the Viognier loses its outstanding fruitiness, but it gains longevity. It differs considerably from the intensely fruity wines of the surrounding Condrieu area. A ripe Château-Grillet develops a bouquet reminiscent of honey, quinces, peaches and roasted almonds .

history

The white wine, which was praised in many travel reports as early as the 17th and 18th centuries, inspired mathematician Blaise Pascal and US President Thomas Jefferson , among others . At that time, however, the Château-Grillet had a different character: By the end of the 19th century it was harvested overripe and made sweet.

In the course of the phylloxera - or the global economic crisis , the hard-to-work vineyards of Condrieu were largely abandoned - the renaissance only began there in the 1980s. The excellent reputation saved Château-Grillet from this fate. Due to the low yields, the complex expansion and the monopoly, the wine is expensive and hardly available from Château for less than 30 € / bottle. The wines of the Château-Grillet meet with little enthusiasm from the American "wine pope" Robert Parker . The reason for this is likely to be that only 25% of production is exported.

literature

  • Hubrecht Duijker: The best wines - Rhône and southern France . Albert Müller Verlag, Zurich, Stuttgart, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-275-00891-9 .
  • Pierre Galet : Cépages et Vignobles de France . 1st edition. Lavoisier Publishing House, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-7430-0585-8 .
  • Jancis Robinson : The Oxford Wine Lexicon . Hallwag, Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8338-0691-5 .
  • Benoît France (ed.): Grand Atlas des Vignobles de France . Éditions SOLAR publishing house, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-263-03242-8 .
  • John Livingstone-Learmonth: The wines of the Northern Rhône . University of California Press, Ltd., 2005, ISBN 0-520-24433-8 .
  • James Turnbull: Vallée du Rhône. Grandeur Nature . éd.s EPO / Hachette Livre. Paris 1999, ISBN 2-85120-532-3 .

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