Recently a friend, Simon Robertson, a Viticulturist who won the “Australian Viticulturist of the Year 2005” visited my home. He wanted “to get a handle” on Viognier. Simon is consulting in Australia and India on vineyard development.

I put together the following wines that I considered to be benchmark Viogniers.

Yalumba 2004 Virgilius.	Retail $40
The Clonakilla 2004.	Retail $44
Condrieu. Domaine Georges Vernay	Retail $90
Les Terrasses de l’empire 2004
ReWine 2005 Murray Darling.	Retail $10

We tasted them as a blind line up and the first comment was “these are all really good”. Simon went through them one by one and his comments were as follows:

The Virgilus was generous and beautifully varietal
The Condrieu was restrained and more complex.
The Clonakilla was a bit lighter on the palate.
The Rewine was varietal and a drink now style.

All the wines clearly showed varietal character with plenty of dried apricot and marzipan flavours. The soft generous finish – that is the hallmark of the variety was apparent in varying levels. The prices of the wines tell an interesting story

I must be getting old because I like these low acid wines that don’t give the acidosis after a few glasses.

My strategy is to drink the Rewine every week, the Clonakilla every quarter, and the Condrieu once a year…just to keep my guitar in tune!