A pleasant viognier for a very nice price: this one from Domaine de Castelnau tastes fresh and particularly fruity

We wine drinkers are romantics. We love to dream and that involves all kinds of ideas, axioms actually, including that of the small winegrower who, by definition, makes better wine than large companies. Which is not the case. Not always, at least. It is true that the often less interesting supermarket wines come from large wineries, but that is a matter of volume. Little ones can never deliver enough.

Today a medium-sized company in the sun, the Domaine de Castelnau in the Languedoc. Big enough to export heavily, too small for the supermarket shelves. Large enough to work modernly and responsibly; they have been awarded the label HVE3, Haute Valeur Environnementale, the highest government-recognized mark for sustainable working without being organic.

Castelnau makes a pleasant viognier for a very nice price. Viognier is the grape from Condrieu, a prestige wine from the Lyon area. This one doesn’t look like it. No wood aging, no malolactic fermentation that makes a white wine round and ‘greasy’. Castelnau viognier L’Ile 2023 tastes fresh and particularly fruity, some pear and peach, a bit of apricot. Double at the ringside!