Andrew Murray Viognier 2023
£26.45
The wine
A stunning expression of cool-climate Viognier showing delicate floral notes, layered with honey and citrus aromas. Opulent and textured with an uplifting fresh finish.
Viognier is a difficult grape: picked early it tastes of nothing, picked late the alcohol runs away and the apricot perfume turns oily. Cool-climate Viognier is rare for exactly that reason, and Santa Barbara's long, fog-cooled season is what allows the aromatics to develop while the acidity holds.
The producer
Andrew Murray Vineyards
View all Andrew Murray Vineyards winesAndrew Murray fell for Syrah and Viognier while travelling the Rhône Valley in the late 1980s. He abandoned palaeontology studies at UC Berkeley, took a winery internship in Australia, returned to take a degree in viticulture and oenology at UC Davis, and founded his own estate in the Santa Ynez Valley.
Santa Barbara County is unusual in California. The coastal ranges here run east to west rather than north to south, so the valleys funnel cold Pacific air and fog directly inland, and temperatures drop sharply the closer you get to the ocean. That gives a genuinely cool growing season at a latitude that ought to be far too warm, and it is why the county has become one of the best addresses in the state for Rhône varieties and Pinot Noir.
The wines are made in a northern Rhône register rather than a Californian one: Syrah with pepper and olive rather than sweet jam, Viognier with acidity intact. Roasted Slope takes its name from Côte-Rôtie, which translates as exactly that.
