Four Viogniers: Australia’s Yalumba and a Co-op Pays d’Oc from Paul Mas
Viognier is a heat-loving, low-acidity peachy-apricotty grape whose spiritual home is the northern Rhône; Helena Nicklin describes it as the sun goddess of the wine world.
By the 1970s it was in danger of becoming extinct with just a little over 10 hectares in Condrieu, but it has staged something of a come-back ever since.
Languedoc
Pays d’Oc is France’s New World — a former wine-lake region, it has the warm, dry, sunny climate of the south, complex and varied terroirs plus the freedom to innovate.
Domaines Paul Mas is based in Languedoc and considered a flagship of the region. The origins of the estate go back to Jean-Claude Mas’s great-grandfather, Auguste Mas, who bought the first family vineyard in 1892.
Jean-Claude trained in Bordeaux and has a background in advertising and economics, meaning that he knows how to make, blend and sell wine as well as run a business.
Australia
Australia’s Yalumba adopted Viognier as their signature white in the Barossa Valley in the 1980s, after seeing its potential as an alternative to premium Chardonnay.
After a lot of trial and error to learn how to get the best out of the grape, Yalumba now makes a range of Viogniers from the entry-level Y Series up to the very serious Virgilius.
All four wines have a family resemblance — they are picked late for character, with freshness and contrast provided by phenolics from skin contact and little to no fining to maintain flavour and complexity.
The more ambitious wines are fermented in old oak with some lees aging; made somewhat oxidatively but with high phenolics, these wines have the potential to be aged. The 2003, for example, is sealed under screwcap and has hardly gained any colour.
They are all Good to Very Good wines, so to an extent, you pays your money and you takes your choice.
The cheerful one: Yalumba Y Series Viognier 2021 (£8, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s)
Olly Smith recommends the Y Series Viognier, saying: Peachy and bright as honeysuckle, this is as good as Viognier gets for under £10.
Retailing at well under £10, this is complex and gastronomic beyond its price point. Buy this if you want something inexpensive but sophisticated.
The packing is nicely distinctive, but to me, the wine is better than appearances would suggest — the label says fulsome cheeky chappie, but its so much more than that
If you need to make a good impression and want to avoid the supermarket/entry-level vibe, I’d be tempted to put this into a smart decanter — it will benefit from the aeration in any case.
I say: white flowers, white pepper and stone fruit; waxy yet crisp with peach, apricot and pineapple fruit, some grapefruit and lemon pitch; honeysuckle and minerality with good, savoury underpinnings.
Match with spicy and rich dishes such as a Sri Lankan vegetable or chicken curry.
Good.
The Good-Value Languedoc one: Co-op Irresistible Viognier Pays d’Oc (£8, The Co-op)
Decanter’s Sylvia Wu recommends this wine giving it 91 points and a great value tip:
smokey stone fruit and thyme on the nose with lovely depth. 15% of the wine was aged in new oak barrels for three months, leading to vanilla spices on a warming palate of green fruits and lime, followed by melon and a pinch of spice on the finish. Great value at just £8 per bottle.
I say: golden sandy yellow; ripe yellow stone fruits, tropical fruits and delicate white flowers; ripe yet fresh, juicy peach, apricot and nectarine with lime zest, ginger and creamy almonds; vanilla spice and white pepper; adept and harmonious.
Good.
The sophisticated middle-child one: Samuel’s Collection Viognier 2018 (£16.99, Vinvm.co.uk, Flagship Wines, Taurus Wines)
This is actually my favourite of all the Viogniers here, but it risks being overlooked, being neither under £10, nor eye-wateringly priced.
The fruit is from old vines in Eden Valley, where Yalumba first planted Viognier; it is fermented with wild yeasts in some old oak and put into a cold room which prevents malolactic fermentation and therefore maintains freshness. It spends 10 months on the lees with battonage, resulting in a more open and earlier-drinking wine.
Only available from independent wine merchants, neatly presented with what could be taken for a European chateau on the front, it cites a European-style place of origin in an elegant script; you could easily put this sophisticate on the table at a dinner party and not feel the need for any explanations.
I say: fresh apricots, ginger, saffron and fresh white flowers; stone fruits and freshness with savoury, leesy underpinnings, toasty sweet spices; deft, supple, full and complex.
Drinks nicely on first opening, improves with aeration and can be cellared.
Very Good.
Match roast pork, Moroccan tagine and spiced couscous, or falafel and baba ghanoush wraps.
The super smart one: Virgilius Viognier 2018 (£40.95, Vinvm.co.uk, Flagship Wines, Soho Wine Supply)
At £40, this wine makes a statement even before you crack open the screwcap. Yes, it’s good, but then for £40 you would expect it to be good.
Priced like an Old World wine and equivalent to 5 bottles of the already-very-good entry-level Y Series / Langiedoc, it’s hard to make a rational case for this wine.
But wine is never about being rational and Tom Cannvan picks this one out for special mention.
Is it a statement of intent, a price anchoring device, or a European-style wine at European-style prices? Probably a bit of everything.
It comes in an important-feeling weighty bottle with an embossed label and a script that flourishes elegantly like a monarch’s signature.
Tom describes it as peachy, with a twist of confit lemon; full texture and a taut core of acidity.
To be absolutely honest, right now I’d rather take two-and-a-bit bottles of the Eden Valley over one of the Virgilius. But with potential future in-laws or a new boss to impress, this restrained and complex wine would make the right statement.
And if I were laying down bottles for my children or future grandchildren, I’d be confident of the Virgilius going the distance.
I say: yellow stone fruits, leesy brazil nut sweet spice and citrus; fresh, concentrated and precise; full, supple and fresh with stone fruits, creamy-nutty underpinnings, complex, dense savouriness and toasty spice.
Drinks nicely on first opening, but needs cellaring and aeration to best show its superiority.
Very Good.
Match with Burgundian dishes, such as white fish in butter, lighter game, scallops or mushrooms.
***
Dave Cronin: Yalumba Viognier Tasting : VinoViews
Decanter: Co-op, Irresistible Viognier, Languedoc-Roussillon, France 2021 (decanter.com)
