may not have worn
one’s most dire
n the inside?”
T
he origin of the name
Viognier wines – beautifully sculpted,
Viognier isn’t clear. It’s
concentrated white wines displaying
assumed to derive from flavours of peaches and dried fruit, white
either the name of the
flowers, spice and melon. Mostly, due
French city Vienne or to lowish acidity, Condrieu is meant to
the Roman pronunciation of Gehenna,
be drunk young, with notable examples
the Judaic valley of death, or hell – the lasting up to eight years. As apt and as
latter, it’s said, because of how difficult
flattering as some of these comparisons
Viognier is to grow and to vinify. My may be, they also diminish. Lismore’s
original hope was to draw Lismore as
Viognier is unlike any other I’ve tasted,
some kind of local Château-Grillet, the
locally or elsewhere, its charm, richness
traditional home of rare, ageworthy
and complexity, not to mention its
Viognier from ancient, low yield vines; almost European cool-growth acidity,
a single-estate appellation of only 4 ha, far outshining even well-made local
high up in the Rhone valley. Lismore’s
examples. And not only those.. A
Viognier has been compared in the small wonder that Lismore wines are
press to the adjacent Condrieu, itself
now listed at many top restaurants, in
not a small compliment, an area known
Europe, the UK and locally.
for producing many of the world’s best