People who used to spend their holidays on the windswept piers of the Channel coast now bask by the sun-drenched pools of the Costa Brava. And the same people who, 20 years ago, would pay their dues to Bacchus with furtive sips of acidic Riesling, now toast the god in bumpers of golden Chardonnay. The Chardonnay grape is the world's reminder of fun and sun. It is now ubiquitous, pumped from vats that seethe in all the continents, and offering a reliable plump cushion on to which to sink wherever you are, and whenever the awful business of living can be set aside.
The success of the Chardonnay grape has led to a serious undervaluing of the Viognier, which shares the Chardonnay's distinction in being the "only begetter" of a truly great white wine. What the Chardonnay is to Montrachet and its neighbours, the Viognier is to Condrieu and Chateau Grillet: the substance to which these famous vineyards add the form. I wouldn't say that Condrieu is entirely the equal of the great white Burgundies. But it is as refined and evocative as anything grown to the north of it, and owes to the Viognier its wonderful floral kisses and wicked waspish sting.
Like the Chardonnay, the Viognier can be successfully grown on every continent. It is hungry for sun, but can thrive on soils too rich and air too humid for a successful Chardonnay, and has therefore beaten its rival into second place not only in parts of Chile, but also in Virginia, where it produces one of the cleanest and most unassuming American whites, far more attractive in its dancing girlishness than those busty Chardonnays from California.
To know the Viognier at its best, however, you should visit its home territory along the Rhone. Condrieu and Chateau Grillet are not affordable to most of us; but neighbouring vineyards can match them, even without the benefit of an appellation. One of the most luscious and complex Viogniers I have tasted is that produced by Christine Vernay, entitled to call itself only a Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes, but surely the equal of Condrieu in its wild-flower aroma and cool, clean embrace. You can get the 2002 from Yapp Brothers of Mere. It isn't cheap (some £16 a bottle), but comes as part of their "Various Viogniers" offer at £99 for a mixed case of four different wines.
The case includes a Viognier from the Coteaux de l'Ardeche, which evokes the warm, dry air of those terraced hillsides, with the exotic aroma and sun-dried finish of a stony river bed in summer; and also a delicate Cotes du Rhone from the village of Sablet. If this wine (which mixes Viognier with Bourboulenc, Clairette and Grenache Blanc) is typical of white Sablet, then it is surely time for this village to be granted its own appellation.
