Paul Jaboulet Aîné Les Cassines Condrieu 2024
£34.95
The wine
Condrieu is Viognier's homeland and the only place it is grown to the exclusion of everything else. Expect the variety at full volume: apricot, honeysuckle and white peach, opulent and perfumed, with a texture closer to silk than to acidity.
The appellation came within a few hectares of extinction in the 1960s, saved largely by Georges Vernay, and it remains small: terraced granite slopes above the Rhône worked entirely by hand. Condrieu is meant to be drunk young, while the aromatics are at their most extravagant.
The producer
Paul Jaboulet Aîné
View all Paul Jaboulet Aîné winesFounded in 1834, Paul Jaboulet Aine farms the iconic terroirs of the northern Rhône across seven appellations, and no name is more closely bound up with the history of Hermitage. La Chapelle, named for the small chapel that crowns the hill, is one of the most storied wines in France.
The house has been owned by the Frey family since 2006, with Caroline Frey making the wine. The vineyards have been certified organic since 2016 and farmed biodynamically and regeneratively since 2021, and the family are genuine pioneers in biodiversity, maintaining a nine-hectare wildlife reserve alongside the vines.
Caroline Frey's philosophy is that when grape variety and terroir are in harmony the wine reveals its finest expression, and the range bears that out: from the everyday Parallele 45 through the great single-domaine bottlings of Thalabert and Roure to La Chapelle itself.
