Château-Grillet
What do I need to know about Château-Grillet? Back in the 1930s, the celebrated French writer and gastronome Curnonsky identified five white wines as the finest in the world. Naturally, they were all French: Le Montrachet in Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune, Château d’Yquem in Sauternes, Château-Chalon in Jura, Clos de la Coulée de Serrant in Savennières (Loire), and Château-Grillet near the top end of the northern Rhône. The last two on the list have had their ups and downs in the intervening years, but after considerable investment over the past decade, Château-Grillet is once again deserving of its place on such a list.
If Le Montrachet is the summit of Chardonnay, then Château-Grillet is definitely the vertex of Viognier. It’s a tiny appellation of just 3.5ha embedded at the heart of the larger Rhône appellation of Condrieu. Like Condrieu, Château-Grillet is made purely of Viognier, but unlike Condrieu all of the
