Domaine Georges Vernay Maison Rouge Côte-Rôtie 2022
£132.25
The wine
Beautifully perfumed showing concentrated black olives enhanced by notes of eucalyptus and lavender, long, fine and layered.
Côte-Rôtie means the roasted slope, and the vineyards are terraced so steeply above the Rhône that everything is done by hand and the soil has to be carried back up. Georges Vernay is the estate credited with saving Condrieu from extinction in the 1960s, and Maison Rouge is a lieu-dit on the Côte Brune, the iron-rich northern half that gives the more structured wines.
The producer
Domaine Georges Vernay
View all Domaine Georges Vernay winesGeorges Vernay is known as the King of Condrieu, and with reason: in the 1950s the appellation had shrunk to a handful of hectares and was close to disappearing altogether. Vernay replanted the terraces, championed Viognier when nobody else would, and is largely responsible for the survival and subsequent fame of the appellation.
The estate covers 22 hectares, six of them in Côte-Rôtie. The terraces are so steep and uneven that machinery is impossible, so everything is done by hand, without residual herbicide or insecticide.
His daughter Christine returned with her husband Paul Anselem and has made the wine since 1997, earning particular recognition for the Cote Roties. In 2019 the domaine was awarded three stars by La Revue du Vin de France, the guide's highest rating. Coteau de Vernon, from the oldest terraced parcel, is one of the great white wines of France.
