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Viognier & Beyonce: If You Liked It Then You Should-a Bought a Case of It
See, they rhyme. Get it? No, seriously, sing it with me: Viognier (vee-own-YAY) and Beyonce. Crazy, huh? More like crazy in LOVE! No, you’re right. That’s enough.
So, Viognier: a diva grape if there ever was one. She can be extremely difficult to work with; fickle about the climate, weather, soil, and direct sunlight it is planted in; she gets sick fairly easily; you have to pick her at just the right time or else the wine doesn’t turn out well; and even after all of that, the wine can still sometimes turn out flabby and “hot” due to its high alcohol content. And even though Randy Jackson is on a crusade to get us to think that everything hot is good, it is not when it comes to wine, because higher proof does not a good wine make.
Yet for all of the strain and struggle and attitude and effort that Viognier requires, there is an undeniable talent and one hell of a body on display
when all conditions are properly met. Viognier wines have perhaps the most intoxicating fragrance of any wine in the world – perfumed with flowers and tropical fruits and apricots. And yet, just when you are expecting a sweet, cloying, sappy kind of wine to match that aroma, Viognier surprises you yet again with a soft, velvety, sometimes viscous mouth feel and unleashes a deep, belting voice of tart, biting flavors. There is a whole lot more to this package than just a pretty face (or a pretty scent, in this case), and Viognier knows it’s something special. In fact, it flaunts it.
Like Beyonce, Viognier got her start harmonizing with two others, in this case fellow northern Rhone white varietals Roussanne and Marsanne, which we’ll cover in more detail over the next two weeks. But those two were never anything more than back-ups to Viognier, and when you taste a true northern Rhone white wine, there is no doubt as to who the clear front grape is. From the nose through the crisp tartness and clean finish, you know from the first sip that Viognier is in charge of any white Rhone blend, from Hermitage to Saint-Joseph and all points in between.
Viognier also makes her presence felt in the all-red-wine appellation of Cote-Rotie as well. Small amount of the white grape are traditionally added to the steep-cliff Syrah grown in the appellation to soften and balance out the wine. While Cote-Rotie wines can include up to 20% Viognier in their blend, most vintners add no more than 5%, knowing that just a little bit of Viognier can go a long way. It makes for a marriage of grapes that Jay-Z and Beyonce would be proud of: two rich wines coming together as one; he (the Syrah) still wears the pants and gets to maintain his rugged, masculine persona throughout, but her presence is still felt through the class, polish, and fragrant allure she brings into his world. There is a reason why Cote-Roties are some of the most expensive and sought-after Rhone wines, and it has everything to do with the presence of Viognier.
And yet, the most precious, scarce, and expensive wines of the entire Rhone region are solo acts for Viognier, from the Condrieu and Chateau-Grillet appellations, where she finally gets to strut her stuff and show everyone the superstar that she is. And over the last two decades, her image has been so carefully crafted and her star has gained so much momentum that she’s now gone worldwide, with Viognier thriving in such far-off places as California, Virginia, New York, South America, Australia, and Canada. She’s a global icon now. Not bad for a grape that barely existed before the mid-80’s, just like Beyonce. In fact, since the grape nearly disappeared off the face of the earth from the mid 1960’s through the mid 1980’s, you could say that Viognier is the original survivor.
There is one difference, though, between Viognier and Beyonce that can’t be ignored. One is a true worldwide phenomenon, on the lips or at least in the cerebral cortex of just about everyone on the planet. The other is a Forgotten Grape. Which is a crying shame, because there may be no better alternative to Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc out there, and certainly no other with the same pedigree as Viognier. Sure, she’s a Forgotten Grape gaining in momentum; perhaps one day she will finally regain the throne it once held
and so rightly deserves. But for now, all if can do is present herself in all her perfumed glory, give you everything she’s got night after night, and hope that you like her, you really like her. We here at Friends of the Forgotten Grapes sure do. In fact, we’ve
got front row seats to every single one of her performances. And luckily for you,
we’ve got one extra ticket.
What It Looks Like, What It Smells Like, and What It Tastes Like
Now this is what Viognier is most well-known for: its fragrant perfumed aroma. Don’t worry: it won’t be as overpowering as sitting in the front seat next to your 86-year-old grandmother on her way to church, but the strong, sweet aromas of flowers – particularly acacia, orange blossom, gardenia, jasmine, and honeysuckle will be pervasive with your first whiff of Viognier. This perfumed nose is the reason why small amounts of Viognier are commonly blended with Syrah in the northern Rhone (well, that and the fact that the Viognier helps cut the ruggedness of Syrah and give the wine more body and structure) and why certain new-world winemakers are blending Viognier with other white wines like Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and even Sauvignon Blanc (that, and to cover for Viognier’s thin, inconsistent flavor nature). Beyond the florals, though, you may also get the scents of apricots, some melon, and possibly some tropical fruit, all of which match the flavor profile of the wine.
Danger, danger, Will Robinson: high booze ahead. One of the major issues with Viognier is that because the grapes are so fickle and have to be picked at just the right time, many Viogniers end up being kind of flabby and high in alcohol, or else rather viscous and high in alcohol. Excellent Viognier is like the baby bear in “Goldilocks”: not too thin, not too thick, not too hot, but just right. With a lot of not-as-excellent Viogniers, though, that slightly burning tingle of high alcohol is what you’re going to first taste on the wine. Once you burn that off (pun totally intended), the dominant flavor in your mouth surprisingly won’t be sweet, as you might expect from such a perfumed wine, but rather slightly tart apricots and even tarter tropical fruits like pineapple, mango, and kiwi. Heck, we even tasted one Viognier that was straight-up grapefruit through and through. All in all, the Viognier flavor profile is very similar to that of a Gewürztraminer, if you’ve ever tasted that. You may even recognize the same medicinal glycerin flavor in your Viognier that you’d get with a Gewürz.
• Viognier is a notoriously fickle and difficult grape to grow (just like a woman!). It is highly susceptible to powdery mildew, which affects the leaves and stems but can spread to the grapes and ruin them, and produces very few grapes per bunch on the vine, which means a much smaller amount of juice available for all the work put in (and even less if the weather is terrible or there’s a heat wave). Also, Viognier grapes have to be picked at just the peak of their ripeness to produce a drinkable wine. If the grapes are picked too early, they come out underdeveloped and the wine will lose its aromas and flavor; if the grapes are picked too late, the wines will have a rather viscous and oily nature to them and lack the tell-tale perfumes of ripe Viognier. Viogniers also have a tendency to produce fermented juice that is very high in alcohol, so much, much care is required if you want to make excellent Viognier. Unfortunately, when the going gets tough...
• ...The tough get going. Much like Carmenere, numerous acres of Viognier were lost to the phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century and never replanted because of the difficulty of growing and harvesting the grape. In fact, by 1965 the grape was nearly extinct in France, with only 30 total acres of Viognier (not a misprint – that’s 3-0) planted throughout the entire country, almost all of it concentrated within two appellations of the northern Rhone valley. Those near-ELE (extinction level event) numbers remained for the better part of the next two decades, until France suddenly got wise to the Viognier renaissance occurring throughout most of the “new world,” especially in central Calfornia, where Viognier and other Rhone varietals were embraced by a collective of Maverick winemakers calling themselves the “Rhone Rangers.” Today there are over 740 acres of Viognier grown throughout France, and tens of thousands more throughout the rest of the world. Not bad for a notoriously volatile grape that nearly died in the 1960s. Hey, maybe it should be the Keith Richards of Forgotten Grapes instead...
• The two French appellations that helped save Viognier during the post-Phylloxera period while the rest of France ignored the grape and tried to let it die like poor Kitty Genovese are Condrieu (con-DROO) and Chateau-Grillet (SHAT-oh gree-YAY). Both appellations lie just south of the town of Vienne on the left bank of the Rhone river, just below the Cote-Rotie appellation in the northernmost part of the Rhone valley, and both produce nothing but white wines made exclusively from Viognier. No other varietals are legally allowed to be grown under these AOC names. Chateau-Grillet also happens to be the smallest appellation in all of France. That it is even an appellation with its AOC is amazing in its own right. Chateau-Grillet is actually an enclave of Condrieu, which means that it is enclosed within and considered part of the Condrieu appellation even though it is also considered a separate appellation. Confused yet? Think of it like Vatican City: yes, it is contained within Italy and yes, it is considered part of Italy, but at the same time, it is also its own separate and sovereign nation, geographically and diplomatically. Chateau-Grillet is exactly like that: part of Condrieu but its own separate and sovereign AOC. Got it? Good. There will be a test later.
Chateau-Grillet is also one of the few appellations in France owned entirely by one single proprietor, in this case the Neyrat-Gachet family who have owned Chateau-Grillet since 1830. In France they call this a monopole. There are several famous appellations and cru in Burgundy – most notably Romanée-Conti and La Tâche – that are monopoles as well. Chateau-Grillet accounts for roughly 8.5 acres of the nearly 500 total that make up the 12-mile long Condrieu AOC and produces only 10,000 bottles of Viognier per year, compared to nearly 360,000 bottles from Condrieu, which is still a rather scarce yield compared to other appellations along the Rhone and in France. All Chateau-Grillet wines are aged for 2 years in new oak – nearly unheard of for Rhone whites – and are bottled
in long narrow bottles used nowhere else but Chateau-Grillet. Suffice to say, both Chateau-Grillet and Condrieu wines are plenty scarce not only in the U.S. but even though France, which means they are also rather pricey. This is why the vast, vast majority of 100% Viognier wines to come out of France come from the Languedoc
region, which is like France’s version of the Wild West or Temecula, California
– where anything goes.
Fun Facts to Impress/Bore People At Parties
From Brein’s Brain to Your Plate
“Viognier is really a deceptive wine. Because it’s got such a perfumed nose, you think it’s going to be this slightly sweet, deep, complex wine, but it’s not. In most cases it ends up being the opposite: either really thick and oily or kind of thin with lots of alcohol up front, and really dry with a ton of peach, apricot and tropical fruit flavors. This doesn’t mean that you can’t pair up a Viognier nicely, though. My first thought with the tart crispness of a Viognier is artichoke hearts. You can either sauté them or deep-fry them, but serve those artichoke hearts with a really garlicky aioli, something that can cut through the acidity and temper that alcoholic burn on your tongue. And let’s face it – anything that’s deep-fried or sauteed and served with garlic aioli is in and of itself super tasty, regardless of what wine you pair it with. So give it a whirl with a Viognier and see what happens.”
“So, because Viogniers can sometimes have a very viscous or oily mouth feel to them, they are wines that also pair pretty well with certain types of fish. Especially lighter, more buttery fish like monkfish or red mullet or sea bass. But NOT Chilean sea bass. You should never eat Chilean sea bass, as the fish has been so overfished it is now nearing the point of extinction. Most decent restaurants won’t even serve it anymore, and the truth is, Chilean sea bass isn’t even a sea bass; it is really Patagonian toothfish. The sea bass thing was just a marketing gimmick because no one would want to eat something called ‘toothfish.’ But I digress. So a light, buttery fish. And because of the tropical flavors in a lot of Viogniers, I’d serve the fish with either a mango or pineapple salsa. I think that’s going to be really dynamite with a Viognier.”
“Interestingly, Viogniers have a very similar flavor profile to Gewürztraminers, right down to that same kind of medicine-y flavor that both have. But what this means is you can pair Viogniers with the same kinds of foods you’d pair with a Gewürztraminer, namely spicy Thai and Asian foods. And that’s all well and good, but since I like to do things a little different, how about pairing a Viognier with coconut shrimp? The mellow sweetness of the coconut and the
shrimp – make sure you buy only fresh shrimp – will balance out
the acidity and alcohol of a Viognier. Plus, it you can still give
yourself a kick, you can replace half of the ketchup in your
cocktail sauce with Sriracha Thai chili sauce. Just make sure
you have LOTS of Viognier on hand to fight that heat.”
Chef Brein Clements is the chef/owner of Restaurant Omakase in Riverside, CA, which
is quickly becoming SoCal’s answer to El Bulli. Minus the molecular gastronomy. He
began his cooking career at Domaine Chandon in the Napa Valley and moved on to become
Chef de Cuisine at the famed Balboa Bay Club before opening his own restaurant. Plus
he’s only 27. My man knows his wine and he knows his food. Each week he’ll provide
ingredient and dish recommendations that match up well with the week’s forgotten
grape. You should heed what he says. No, seriously, heed it.
Go On. Try It. You’ll Like It. 
2007 Praxis Lodi Viognier
Not to get all Andy Rooney on you, but did you ever wonder why a grapefruit is called
a grapefruit, even though it doesn’t taste like or even resembles a grape in any
way, shape or form? These are the kinds of questions you might find yourself pondering
when drinking the 2007 Praxis Viognier, because this wine is all grapefruit all the
time. Grapefruit on the nose along with some grass, passion fruit, and guava, and
then big, big grapefruit flavor on the tongue. But this ain’t your grandmother’s
grapefruit; it’s like grapefruit with sugar on top (no Maraschino cherry, though).
Sweet grapefruit. Okay, maybe that is your grandmother’s grapefruit. You keep waiting
for that tart bitterness (or bitter tartness) that is the trademark of grapefruit
flavor to show up, but it never comes. Instead the wine finishes soft, crisp, and
very clean. It’s a wonderful drink. Forget about replacing Chardonnay, Susan; this
one will put any Sauvignon Blanc out to pasture. Bill and Susan have it available
for a very limited time on their website (they will be rolling out the 2008 vintage
any day now) so pick some up while you still can and make it one of your go-to summer
sipping wines. No need to thank us.
2008 Cass Paso Robles Estate Viognier
If the Praxis is to become your summer sipping wine, then this should be your summer
go-to wine for meals. It is amazing that this wine even exists, since Cass’ 2008
Vigonier crop got absolutely hammered, first by frost and then by sweltering drought.
The little guys that did make it through, though, were pressed and fermented into
a terrific wine. A super intriguing nose with melon aromas – particularly cantaloupe
and honeydew – coupled with lots of honeysuckle and a whiff of tarragon, this wine
gets more floral and perfumed as it opens up. The palate opens up big and bold right
off the bat, with soft lemon, apricot, peach, and even a touch of glycerin. As it
opened up, though, we’re almost positive that we tasted popcorn Jelly Belly in the
wine as well. We know this because, well, the taste of popcorn Jelly Belly is tough
to forget once you’ve had it. 14.5% ABV is pretty high for a white, so drink this
crisp, clean, easy finishing wine with some food or suffer the consequences the next
morning. You can pick this up directly from Cass Winery, so go ahead and do so. You
have our permission.
2006 Les Vendages du Domanie Rougié Vin De Pays Viognier
So as you might be able to tell, the Calfornia Viogniers above are non-traditional
new-world models, and we wanted to try something from the traditional old-world style.
Specifically from France. The problem is that with the low yields of Condrieu and
Chateau-Grillet, we couldn’t find a bottle of true 100% Rhone valley Viognier that
wasn’t going to require us to sell both of our kidneys and take out that third mortgage
on the house. So we did what everyone else does – we moved south to the Languedoc
for their Viognier. We’re glad we did. The nose was all honey and florals, like sticking
your nose in a beehive in the middle of a nursery but without the stinging. On the
tongue this wine had a soft, creamy, almost velvety mouth feel with lots of sweet
peach and under-ripe apricot flavors, a subtle tartness that reminded us of rhubarb,
and a nice long finish. Just like a Viognier should have. Brendan at Liquorama rates
this
highly and calls it the best Viognier he’s ever had. We
don’t know if we’d go that far (we’ve had the Praxis and Cass, after all) but it’s
definitely worth trying.
Liquorama has it so go forth and multi-buy. Now.
Think you’ve got a better pop culture icon to describe Viognier than what we came up with? Let us know in our Comments section. If it’s good enough, we may use it in a future update.
Taste, smell, or see something different? Let us know in our Comments section.
Know something about Viognier that we don’t? Share it with us and other wine lovers out there in our Comments section.
Think you can pair food and wines better than Brein can? Share your best food pairings with Viognier in our Comments section and see what the master has to say.
Our Friend of the Forgotten Grapes Tasting Squadron tastes all of the wines you see
here ahead of time to ensure that you aren’t getting anything rotten or clunky. We
also try to ensure that most of the wines highlighted here are affordably priced
($20 or less) so you can try them out for yourself without having to take out a second
mortgage or sacrificing your kid (or future kid’s) college fund to do so. Lastly,
the Friends of the Forgotten Grapes has relationships with all the fine wine purveyors
we link to in this section. We know them, we trust them. You can order these wines
from them online right now and be trying them out in the next couple of days. Do
yourself a favor and order from them by using the links below. It’s totally worth
it. And tell them that ForgottenGrapes.com sent you, too.
When properly produced (more on this below), Viogniers have a bright, vibrant yellow color to them. Not as glowing as a highlighter, not as rich as the gold Cross pen that your Uncle Mort and Aunt Mabel gave you as a graduation/first communion/bar or bat mitzvah gift, and not as pale as Sally Barker’s hair (you know Sally, that really cute girl with the braces and barrettes who used to sit in front of you in the third grade), but a nice, soft, opaque, slightly glowing, slightly rich, slightly pale yellow. Honeysuckle, light bronze, pale gold, light straw, light gold, pale straw, light yellow gold, pale golden straw...whatever words you choose to describe it will work since they all add up to yellow.
Know of a bottle of Viognier that we should try? Tell us about it in our Comments section.
But Don’t Just Take Our Word for It...
Whenever possible, Friends of the Forgotten Grapes will offer up a short interview
with a winemaker working with the week’s featured Forgotten Grape. It’s his or her
chance to tell you a little bit more about who they are, the winery and wines, and
how he or she got started working with this particular Forgotten Grape . We do this
because we want you to get to know the winemakers and better understand their mind
set and passions for particular Forgotten Grapes. We also do this because we’re givers
and only want to make you happy. Isn’t that enough for you? What more do you want?
This week’s interview is with Susan Arbios, co-founder with her husband Bill of both
Praxis Cellars and Arbios Cellars in Santa Rosa, California. Susan is technically
the secretary there, but handles all the marketing, PR, retail sales, the wine club,
and everything else that needs to be done for both labels while Bill just makes the
wine. She says their relationship works because neither wants to do the other’s job!
Friends of Forgotten Grapes: So we understand the name Arbios, since that is clearly
named after you and Bill, but what is up with the name Praxis? Where did that come
from?
Susan Arbios: Praxis is the root of the word in Greek for “practice” - as a doctor
or lawyer would practice their craft. It was similarly an Art and Crafts movement
a century ago that espoused the idea of practicing at something but never achieving
perfection. When we launched the Praxis line in 2000, it was Bill's way of playing
with his wine making. The Viognier is a perfect example as he first used oak barrels
to age the wine, then neutral oak and, for the last few vintages, no oak at all.
We have also found that Praxis is a moon of the home planet of the Klingons on Star
Trek, a dialysis company and a log splitting company - as well as the test for teacher
certification.
FoFG: It appears you use the Arbios label just for your Cabernet Sauvignon, and Praxis
for the rest of your wines. Why the split labels?
SA: We grow the grapes for our Arbios and source the fruit for the Praxis wines.
Although Bill is known as a founder of the Meritage Society with the wine maker at
Lyeth, each of our wines is made of 100% of their varietal from a single vineyard.
He calls it the "Ansel Adams" approach - the only variation between vintages is the
weather in the vineyard on a given year. We have been making the Viognier from the
same vineyard for 7 years.
FoFG: So why Viognier? What drew you to that particular grape?
SA: Bill claims I was asking for a white wine and he wanted to make ABC – anything
but Chardonnay. I had never heard of Viognier, but he was interested in working with
the varietal especially as it was nearly extinct in France. He found a vineyard in
Lodi through a friend. He really likes the Geneva clone of the Viognier, as it is
not as cloyingly perfumy as some and has more fruit - especially now that it is stainless
steel fermented. We love the way it pairs so beautifully with so many foods - seafood,
turkey and spicy or Asian flavors. We find that people either know the varietal and
are looking for it or they have never heard of it and love the wine. We say it has
the body of a Chardonnay with a hint of something like Gewürztraminer.
FoFG: Viognier is starting to grow in popularity in the United States, both among
wine drinker and wine producers. What do you think separates your Viognier from the
others?
SA: We love that ours is crisp and fruity and dry. We find other Viogniers to be
too oaky or sweet some times. It is a great food wine and a nice option to
Chardonnay.
