14% abv, Maxime Gourdain-Petit Fils Drevon, Ampuis, imported by Craig Baker Selection/ MISA Imports Inc., Dallas, TX. 

To Condrieu in the Northern Rhone river valley we owe such a debt for being the garden of Viognier. Once on the edge of extinction, and in deep decline, Condrieu was Viognier’s last bastions, holding almost the entirety of the world’s vineyards in a few small hectares south of the town of Ampuis on the right bank of the steep river banks. Wines of Condrieu are no secret today, often commanding high prices among collectors, just as Viognier is no longer an oddity or curiosity; you can now find vines if places as far as Australia, Texas, and all along the coast of California.

Domaine de Rosiers is a small outfit in Ampuis focused on high-quality and very polished wines from Condrieu and Cote-Rotie. It must be some life! Grown of shallow granite soils, the Viognier grapes were painstakingly hand-harvested from the steep slopes above the river and gently pressed before being divided into small French oak barrels and stainless steel tanks. The resulting wine is ridiculously rich in style, something unlike what I have ever experienced before in this appellation known for fragrant and nuanced wines. It’s big and creamy and a touch too alcoholic for my taste, more of a meditation wine but fascinating.

The 2017 Rosiers Condrieu is medium gold in color with a clean and pronounced nose of hawthorne blossom, honeysuckle, crème caramel, butterscotch, candy apple, cooked peach, Mexican vanilla, and dried apple. It’s almost like smelling a freshly-unwrapped Werther’s Original. On the palate this wine is dry with medium+ acid, high alcohol; it is full-bodied, and has a pronounced flavor intensity and a long finish with primary and secondary flavors of blossom, apple, peach, caramel, vanilla, oak, and saffron spice. This wine is very good; in the end, the alcohol is a touch too high and out of balance with the acidity but the flavor intensity and length here are unmistakable of a very high pedigree: 9.5/10. I am now curious to try more from this producer.