The northern half of the Rhône is best known for the exotic, voluptuous whites of Condrieu and spicy, savoury Syrah from Côte-Rôtie, Cornas and Hermitage. These dramatically steep slopes line the Rhône river, demanding back-breaking labour by hand to farm these extraordinary vineyards.

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Find the rarest and best vintages from the Northern Rhône, and discover the region. Buy with confidence from the ultimate wine marketplace

Discover the wines of the Northern Rhône

About the wines of the Northern Rhone

Northern Rhône 

Honeysuckle, peach, jasmine. Ripe, perfumed and exotic, viscous and heady – but, at its best, with a mineral, saline line and phenolic grip that keeps its hedonism in check. Condrieu is a wine like no other – and one that couldn’t be much less fashionable if it tried.  And yet, its top bottlings are incredibly hard to find. The likes of Georges Vernay’s Coteau de Vernon or Guigal’s La Doriane fly out on release. Chapoutier’s Coteau de Chery is absorbed effortlessly by France’s finest restaurant wine lists. The iconic Château-Grillet has almost vanished from the world of retail since it was taken over by Artémis. Production might be limited – but it’s also clear that there’s more than enough demand for these very special wines from the Northern Rhône.  The appellation and its unique expression of the Viognier grape has a rocky history. The Romans were the first to cultivate vines in this corner of the Rhône Valley – and they’ve been there ever since. By the 17th century, the wines from the steep slopes around the village of Condrieu were renowned throughout France. In 1853, there were 143 hectares of vines in the region – but then plague and pest arrived: powdery mildew swept through the vines, swiftly followed by phylloxera, decimating vineyards across Europe. With two World Wars, as well as the industrialisation of the valley, the workforce fled the vines for more stable, salaried factory work: looking up at the back-breaking angle of its slopes, entirely unmechanisable, it’s easy to see why the region’s vineyards were almost entirely abandoned. When the Condrieu Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) was created in 1940 (encompassing the villages of Condrieu, Vérin and Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône), just six hectares of vines remained.  Only eight of the potential 170 hectares were planted in the 1960s and Condrieu’s future looked uncertain. But one vigneron was quietly working to change that.  Georges Vernay – whose father Francis Vernay had helped create the appellation after planting his family’s first vines on the Coteau de Vernon in 1937 – believed in the alchemy between Condrieu’s biotite granite slopes and the Viognier grape. At the time, the region was best-known for its stone-fruit – with a kilo of peaches worth significantly more than a kilo of grapes. (The area is still known for its fruit today, Jean-Marc Roulot sources the apricots for his eau de vie and liqueur from the Rhône.) When Georges Vernay uprooted orchards to plant Viognier, people called him a fool.  “No one believed in Condrieu anymore, or in Viognier anymore,” Philippe Guigal – the winemaker and third-generation at the helm of his family’s company – tells me. Philippe’s father Marcel was another pioneer of the region, persisting in making fine wine from the region’s uneconomically steep terraces.  Vernay kept his faith too – championing Condrieu, but also Viognier. Almost all the Viognier in the world was planted in Condrieu at the time, and Vernay supplied cuttings to those outside the region – encouraging others to plant this distinctive grape. At the same time, he championed the region with his age-worthy wines, especially the now-iconic Coteau de Vernon.  By 1986 there were still only 19 hectares of Condrieu planted, but Vernay’s battle started paying off – wine-lovers fell for Condrieu’s rich, textural whites and plantings rocketed. There were 38 hectares of vines by 1992 and 217 by 2024. But it wasn’t just in the Rhône that Viognier finally found its footing – plantings appeared in the Ardèche, the Languedoc, Australia, California (especially with the wave of Rhône Rangers, led by Randall Grahm) and beyond. Viognier’s lustre had been restored.  Although now much more widely planted, it’s only in Condrieu that Viognier reaches such heights. Here, on steep terraced slopes in this hallowed corner of the Rhône, the vines sit almost directly on the granite bedrock – a specific type of granite laced with biotite, an iron-rich black mica. It’s this biotite granite that defined the original Condrieu appellation created in 1940 – encompassing vineyards around the villages of Condrieu, Vérin and Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône. The monopole appellation Château-Grillet (sadly unable to comment for this feature) sits within Condrieu, classified four years prior, and sharing the same biotite granite. The iron in the soils is key, lending much-needed tension to the potentially flabby Viognier.  Finding – and keeping – that tension is key to the best Condrieu. And it isn’t about acidity per se, but a sense of freshness.   For Emma Amsellem – who works alongside her mother Christine Vernay at Domaine Georges Vernay, “It’s a combination of different things.” She attributes much to their farming (which is both organic and biodynamic), as well as working with old vines and low yields (normally around 27-30hl/ha). Maxime Chapoutier – who works alongside his larger-than-life father Michel Chapoutier at the eponymous empire – echoes how important vine age is for Viognier, much more so than Syrah or Marsanne, he says. He finds Viognier starts to produce fruit of significantly more complexity at 20-30 years of age, but the vines can also lose interest if they’re too old.   “The beauty of the balance of Viognier comes from its dry extract – from its bitterness,” he explained. It is, Chapoutier says, the hardest grape to pick – harvest too early and you won’t have the necessary dry extract, but harvest too late and the aromatics are too much. Ansellem also emphasised the importance of picking date: although you want to retain as much natural acidity as possible, you also need Viognier to be sufficiently ripe – and the window is getting smaller and smaller with climate change.  The challenge, as Philippe Guigal puts it, is to keep the richness, the full expression of Viognier, as well as its drinkability and salinity. He introduced a Champenois-style cycle, very long and slow, for their Condrieu – something that helps bring out the grape’s aromatics and structure, a concept echoed by both Ansellem and Chapoutier, working with Viognier’s natural thick skins. Chapoutier also highlighted the importance of oxygenising the must and then racking as little as possible, retaining the lees to help build on the grape’s “noble bitterness”.  Guigal is also particularly careful with fermentation temperatures, feeling it is key to keep ferments under 12°C to avoid any potentially heavy aromas.  It's that dry extract that allows top Condrieu to age so beautifully too. Chapoutier explains how he likes to wait at least five years before opening their Coteau de Chery, but it can age for 25, developing more layers of complexity – with notes of honey, lanolin, gingerbread and dried citrus peel. “A great Condrieu is a wine that doesn’t taste of Viognier,” he says.  Tasting through a flight of the region’s top wines last week was fascinating – from Chapoutier’s remarkably fresh, floral Coteau de Chery to the decadent yet mineral Coteau de Vernon from Georges Vernay. More than anything was perhaps seeing the response from those tasting – the wines far surpassing their stereotypical expectations. Not all the haters left lovers, but they certainly had a newfound respect for the style; and those that were already fans fell even harder for its charms.  There’s next to no room for further plantings in Condrieu, largely thanks to Georges Vernay’s efforts championing the region, and quality in the appellation is higher than ever before. The style of its heady wines will always be divisive – and perhaps that’s a good thing given how limited production of the best wines is. Its cool credentials may not quite have caught up yet, but it’s time to open up to the region’s opulent embrace – you won’t regret it.  Top Condrieu cuvées to look out for  Chapoutier’s Coteau de Chery: From a single parcel of vines between 40 and 80 years in age, this is aged entirely in old oak (larger, 600-litre casks). Production is tiny (often only two barrels) and goes almost exclusively to restaurants in France.  Georges Vernay’s Coteau de Vernon: This is just a stone’s throw (100m or so) from Vernay’s other single-vineyard, Les Chaillés de l’Enfer (literally meaning the terraces of hell, for its steep south-facing slopes). From the region’s most famous pioneer, the vines were planted in the 1930s and 1960s, in a natural amphitheatre, producing a profound expression of Viognier that ages beautifully.  Guigal’s La Doriane: Guigal’s top Condrieu is a blend of their top five parcels across the appellation, averaging 35 years in age, matured in 100% new oak – which is seamlessly integrated with the concentrated and powerful fruit.  Château-Grillet: The tiny monopole appellation covers 3.5 hectares of vines. Owned by the Artémis group (owners of Ch. Latour) since 2011, its wines are some of the most sought-after in the world, largely disappearing into wine lists.  Yves Gangloff’s Condrieu: Renowned for its voluptuous style, in all the best ways, this bottling from this famous winemaker is rightfully prized.  André Perret’s Chéry: Known also for their Clos Chanson cuvée, Chéry also comes from the Coteau de Chery, from a three-hectare plot of 70-year-old vines.  Ogier’s Les Vieilles Vignes de Jacques Vernay: Only 125 cases are made of this wine per year, making it incredibly hard to find.  Marie & Pierre Benetière’s Condrieu: Possibly even harder to find than their astounding Côte-Rôties, Pierre was inspired by and studied under Vernay before making his own wines.   Explore all current listings of Condrieu or read more Editorial 

The epitome of Viognier, Condrieu makes some of the world’s most remarkable wines – yet this appellation in the Northern Rhône came close to disappearing. Sophie Thorpe dives into its brush with fate and how producers manage Viognier’s natural hedonism to create wines that stand the test of time 

Condrieu’s wines are better than ever. We talk to Georges Vernay, Guigal and Chapoutier about the appellation’s comeback 

Condrieu’s comeback with Vernay, Guigal and Chapoutier 

Condrieu’s comeback 

Driving through Napa and Sonoma, the land still bears the scars of 2020. The wildfires that raged through the region have left a long-lasting mark, whether it’s lengthy reconstruction efforts or the stark, charred tree trunks that cover the mountains. But it’s more than that. To an outsider, the fires feel intangible, terrifying yet somehow conceptual. Talking to those that lived through them, however, makes you instantly realise quite how petrifying that season was. The trauma of those flames is still smouldering away.  In 2017, fires hit Northern California on 8th October, however most producers had already harvested. Indeed, the fire even crossed the Kistler property, but their vines helped act as a firebreak. Two years later the Kincade fire swept through Sonoma County at the end of October. But in 2020, the first fires arrived earlier. The LNU Lightning Complex started with what is known as the Hennessey fire on 17th August. Sparked by lightning after thunderstorms, the complex was a weave of 250 different fires that collectively raged through almost 150,000 hectares of the region. The damage was enormous: 1,491 buildings were destroyed and six people lost their lives. While the fire did diminish in size, it wasn’t entirely extinguished until 2nd October, almost a month and a half after it started.  Before the Lightning Complex had fully subsided, the Glass Fire attacked. The blaze started on 27th September, east of St Helena near the Silverado Trail, spreading north to Calistoga and then south and west, towards Santa Rosa. It burned until 20th October, encompassing over 27,000 hectares and taking over 1,500 buildings with it, including numerous wineries. It cut through Eisele Vineyard, across 90 acres of hillside and forcing them to rip up 1,000 vines. Fortunately they’d already picked all their fruit (finishing their harvest three days before the fire broke out, on 24th September). And this was all in the midst of Covid-19.  Wildfires aren’t new in Northern California, but they’re certainly more prevalent than ever before. Indeed, as Cory Empting – Director of Winegrowing at Promontory, Harlan and Bond – tells me, the region’s indigenous people, the Wappo, used to describe autumn as “smoky mountains”.  Paul Hobbs – who has been making wine in “the Valley” (as the locals would say) since the late 1970s – remembers a fire in the 1980s that burned its way along the Silverado Trail. “All it took was a gust of wind,” he says – and one flame turned into something uncontrollable in the blink of an eye. He remembers climbing up on a roof to see the sobering effects of the fire.  Perhaps partly due to this early exposure, fires have always been at the forefront of his mind when picking a site – avoiding rugged, dry areas like Diamond Mountain or Calistoga. And he is exacting with forest management of the sites he works – even on our wander around his Goldrock Estate vineyard, he notices some saplings that are troubling him, and calls over his vineyard manager to take a look, conscious to reduce the risk as much as possible. And he’s deservedly cautious. The 2017 vintage was his first working with Cleary Estate out in Freestone-Occidental, and he paid almost $2 million for fruit that he couldn’t use. The fire itself is one challenge, however vines are natural firebreaks so don’t tend to suffer much direct damage (although the heat from a blaze can sometimes scorch vines). The real threat, however, is in the air – smoke. But the science of smoke taint is complex, and poorly understood. Producers can send samples to laboratories to be tested for the compounds responsible for the taint (guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol) but the exact level of perception isn’t known. These compounds also naturally occur in some varieties, eg Syrah, and come from oak barrels (in particular the toasting process).  Of course the impact of smoke is dependent on proximity to the fire, the intensity of the smoke, elevation and the wind. Hobbs explained how in 2020 much of the smoke from the Glass Fire stayed north for several days, but then the wind shifted and sent it south to the Bay Area. As smoke travels, and ages, the volatile compounds also degrade, so there is also a significant difference between the impact of “fresh” smoke, versus what Hobbs describes as “atmospheric” smoke. The latter may look bad, but it’s unlikely to hold significant taint, whereas if you’ve got fresh smoke, it’s “game over”.   Lots of producers do micro-ferments to look for smoke taint, testing to see if it’s worth the expense of picking the fruit and making the wine – however that’s also not a sure-fire way to know if you have smoke taint. The nature of these compounds means that they can lurk, undetectable in a wine, and emerge in bottle as hydrolysis occurs. “That’s why it’s so insidious,” Hobbs says.  If you’ve got smoke-tainted fruit, the options are limited. The compounds are concentrated in the skins, so the aim is generally to minimise skin contact. Indeed, some producers made rosé in 2020, having picked earlier, with higher acidity than normal. Otherwise you can use reverse osmosis or spinning cone (both expensive processes that are used for de-alcoholisation), or carbon fining – or a combination of all of the above – to try and strip out the smoky flavour. The result, as Mark De Vere MW at Robert Mondavi said of trials they’d done, it generally didn’t work, but if it did, “It took so much else out.” (Robert Mondavi ended up making almost no 2020 wine.)  *  Read anything about 2020 and there is a cacophony of opinion. “Everyone handled the vintage differently,” Cate Kistler of Occidental told me. They picked on 18th August, not in response to the fire, but because that was when the first fruit was ripe. They didn’t do any micro-ferments or send samples to labs (“We’re not data-crunching people,” Kistler says). The cost of picking was, for them, “a drop in the bucket” in comparison to farming the vineyards the rest of the year, so they tried to do what they could.  “It was going to be either Occidental, or nothing,” she said with a shrug. They took their time, committing to making every decision as if it was a normal year, finishing on 6th September just as the Labor Day heatwave hit. They didn’t use everything they picked, but they made all five of their single-vineyard wines – and the 2020s we tasted are glorious.   Some, like Colgin, didn’t make any wine at all, while many producers made around 40% less (such as Williams Selyem and Peter Michael). Many of the 2020s that will be released were picked before the fires struck. Cathy Corison had all her fruit safely in the winery more than two weeks before the Glass Fire hit, but the challenge was to keep the smoke out of the winery. She bought industrial grade air filters to shield her ferments. “They’re beautiful,” she says with a quietly proud smile.  At Dalla Valle, Maya Dalla Valle doesn’t pretend that it was an easy year, but she’s pleased with the wines they made (all with fruit picked before the Glass Fire). As ever, these are wines that speak of their year – which wasn’t just the fires, but a hot, dry year that (along with a block that was being re-grafted) cut their crop to a mere 2,700 cases in total. At Dominus, they did micro-ferments after the Lightning complex, and had picked their last row of fruit on the morning the Glass Fire broke out.  Steve Matthiasson – the leading viticulturalist who also has his eponymous label with his wife Jill – told me how it was set to be “an epic season” before the fires hit. He highlighted how the smoke meant there was less UV light reaching the grapes, and that meant the fruit wasn’t as phenolically ripe. They pick early, so had started harvest 10 days before the Glass Fire broke out. The Cabernet Sauvignon in their Phoenix vineyard was still out, but they managed to pick it the morning after the fire broke out, before the smoke was able to take effect.  Most who picked early are in agreement that the hot, dry conditions were in their favour. Promontory saw only eight inches of rain, versus the 30 of a normal year. But that hydric stress helped them – it meant the crop was small and the vines shifted to ripening the fruit earlier, so even though they picked on 22nd August they had no pyrazines. As Will Harlan says, in some ways, “The stars aligned”.  The 2017 vintage might have prompted people to start thinking about climate change, but 2020 was a real wake-up call for the region. It prompted Martin Reyes MW to try and create a community around climate action. Eventually, working alongside Anna Brittain, he founded Napa RISE (standing for Resilience Innovation Sustainability Empowerment), a climate and wine symposium that first took place in 2022 (with the 2023 symposium currently underway). It’s early days, but they’re “trying to build into the DNA [of Napa RISE] this notion of action”. He’s keen to avoid a conference focused on discussing concepts, but an industry convention that drives change.  One part of that conversation is inevitably fire – and a session last week focused on forestry management. “The relationship with fire we have is complicated – but it can be a healthy relationship,” Reyes tells me.   Controlled burning has long been a part of life for indigenous peoples – both in North America and Australia, where wildfires have now become a threat. In the US, controlled burning was officially banned in 1911 when the Weeks Act was introduced, but California is gradually realising the need for its reintroduction.  “Agroforestry was happening before conservation took it off the table,” Empting (of Domain W. Harlan) tells me. He talks about how when the previously evicted Miwok people were allowed to return to Yosemite, they were horrified by what they saw – where “conservation” had destroyed the ecosystems. For native peoples, seasonal work like controlled burns was a way of life – seen as their responsibility to the land. But it was a responsibility that colonialism robbed from them, and didn’t take on.  At the Pepperwood Preserve, native peoples do controlled burns. Empting visited to explore the practice and see if it’s something they could take up as part of their stewardship of the land. The challenge today is the paperwork – and politics. Permits are difficult to obtain, the fire department is reluctant and has to be involved, and then there are the neighbours to contend with.  Hobbs highlights that it’s not just that there aren’t enough controlled burns, but that manmade structures have taken over swathes of land – and they burn hotter, leading fires to rage in less predictable ways.  Of course, as with 2017, the 2020s are already being marred by rumour and reputation of a smoke-tainted year. The reality is so much more complex – and, although I haven’t tasted enough to make pronouncements on the vintage, there are some brilliant wines. Of course you’ll need to choose carefully, but for top producers there is nothing to be gained by releasing wine that is anything less than flawless.  While the fires have left scars, the land’s capacity for renewal is remarkable – with vibrant vegetation flourishing in amongst the scorched trees. The 2020 vintage wasn’t the first to see such challenges and it won’t be the last. The soils can recover, and so can the people, but a sustainable way to manage these threats is essential to long-term survival. Read more about California or browse all California listings

Wildfires have become a yearly occurrence for Napa and Sonoma – but what is their impact, and how can producers handle the effects? Sophie Thorpe spoke to some of Northern California’s leading producers to investigate the issue

Talking to Napa and Sonoma’s top producers about wildfires and the 2020 vintage – Paul Hobbs, Harlan, Kistler, Occidental, Promontory, Mondavi and more

Wildfires and the 2020 vintage in California

The way the wind blows

The Rhône Valley has enjoyed a consistent string of vintages over the last decade or so. The Northern Rhône in particular has seen a prolific set of back-to-back vintages stretching to 2015. The Southern Rhône has managed to produce excellent wines during this time too, but yields have been badly affected in the last few years; thankfully, 2020 gave them a healthy crop. Producers compare 2020 to 2006, 2010, 2016 and even 1990 – all memorable, age-worthy vintages with great character. Similarly, to 2016, 2020 was an “easy” growing season throughout the valley. Good rainfall at the beginning of the year set up the vines nicely for a hot, dry summer, with no mildew or rot in the vineyards. For Ch. de Beaucastel's Marc Perrin, “It was difficult to find something wrong with the vintage.” If anything, he noted the strong winds in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, particularly in the northern part, saw high levels of evaporation, which brought greater concentration to the grapes but reduced the yields. Despite this, production levels were much higher than the challenging 2017, 2018 and 2019 vintages (with severe drought in 2019, poor flowering and huge mildew outbreaks in 2018 and frost in 2017 seeing yields badly affected in the appellation). Stéphane Usseglio noted how successful flowering was in 2020, particularly for Grenache, setting up for good yields overall. Although the summer saw hot daytime temperatures, cool nights helped retain a noticeable freshness and balance to the wines in 2020, compared to the richer, more tannic wines of 2019, noted Perrin. There was no pressure to rush the harvest with any impending disruptions to the weather, and no serious rainfall arrived until long after everything had been picked. The higher yields and clement weather meant Usseglio could afford to wait, allowing for concentration to build up and pick at optimum ripeness. In the Northern Rhône, there hasn’t really been a below-average vintage since 2014. Recent years have, however, seen a new normal when it comes to daytime temperatures and resulting alcohol levels (which regularly hit 14-14.5%). According to Chapoutier, though, the vines have adapted and, even with more sun intensity and higher temperatures, are consistently producing balanced wines with great acidity. While in numbers 2020 might compete with the heatwave of 2003, the resulting wines are very different thanks to the way the vines have adapted over the last 20 years. Nicolas Champagneux agrees and believes the acidities of his Côte-Rôtie are getting higher along with the alcohol, balancing the wine. In the Southern Rhône, 2020’s alcohol levels are very similar to previous warm years but the wines, according to Usseglio, “have a better freshness”. He thinks this is thanks to the winter water reserves, helping maintain a sufficient flow of nutrients to the vines to see them through the summer. Usseglio’s vines didn’t shut down at all – something he thinks is at least in part due to his biodynamic farming. It is this practice, he believes, that has contributed to “high mineral salt concentrations, and hence more freshness and mineral structure in the wines”. Both the whites and reds we have tried from the Northern and Southern Rhône are hard to fault. The whites from Chapoutier were exceptional. While Beaucastel’s Marc Perrin has a slight preference for the reds in the Southern Rhône, the whites we tasted were very elegant, pure, highly concentrated and beautifully balanced. The reds have fantastic richness, resolved tannins and freshness too. For Nicolas Champagneux, 2020 is “a typical sun-blessed year” for the Northern Rhône, comparing it to 2018. “This vintage offers a nice combination of fruit purity and terroir expression with rather solid structure and good acidities,” he says. He thinks the vintage will be “long-lived, while offering enjoyable wines in their relative youth” . For Perrin, the red wines’ balance, intensity and concentration remind him of 1990 and 2010. The wines are quite approachable, yet also have the potential for long ageing. For Usseglio, 2020 is a “terroir-driven vintage, offering elegant, vibrant wines”. For him 2020 has “a splendid fruit purity” and “good concentration”, but is fresher, with better aromatics than recent warm vintages. “I find the wines very enjoyable. I have to say maybe a hybrid between the silky, lush fruit of the 2016 and the mineral core of the 2010.” That’s a combination that will no doubt get any fine wine collector excited. This is a vintage not to miss. The vintage in summary Outstanding vintage Compared to some of the best vintages in the last 20 years – 2016, 2010, 2006, 1990 Balanced, concentrated and fresh reds Ideal growing season saw few issues in the vineyard Early-season rainfall kept the vines hydrated through the hot and dry summer Cool night-time temperatures extended the ripening season, retaining plenty of acidity/ freshness in the grapes Ambient weather throughout harvest allowed winemakers to pick at optimum ripeness Healthy yields saw good volume and good quality grapes in both the Northern and Southern Rhône Read more Editorial

Speaking with some of the region’s top vignerons in both the Northern and Southern Rhône about 2020, it is smiles all round. Not since the outstanding 2016s has there been such universal praise for a vintage. 

Not since the outstanding 2016s has there been such universal praise for a wine vintage in the Rhone Valley. Producers compare 2020 to 2006, 2010, 2016 & 1990

Rhône 2020 vintage report

Rhône 2020: the stars align

Ardross is a new Scotch whisky distillery. You’d be forgiven for rolling your eyes about now. Over the past few years there’s been a spate of new distillery openings across the bucolic Scottish landscape and each espouses to be different from the last. Many have an impressive roster of whisky talent at the stills and little expense has been spared on the distillery itself and surrounding architecture. This is something Ardross Single Cask Society founder Barthélémy Brosseau is all too aware of. “I wouldn’t want us to be completely perceived as normal,” he says. “What I mean by that is that we have a great building, great location, great people, great quality spirit but everybody is claiming more or less the same.” As the name may suggest, Barthélémy – or Barth as he introduces himself – Brosseau was born in Bordeaux and is a very atypical Scotch whisky distillery founder. “You don’t see me wearing a suit and speaking very gravely about the Scotch whisky tradition with a Scottish accent, and there is a reason behind this,” the 32-year-old adds. As he is quick to point out, with a smile that rarely leaves his face during our one-hour call, when it comes to the whisky, he takes a giant step back. “Who am I as a Frenchman to tell them how to produce Scotch whisky?” This side of the business is very much driven by distilling legend Andrew Rankin of Bowmore fame. When we speak, the Ardross team is preparing to officially launch its Single Cask Society. A website is in development with an ever-nearing launch date (the designers require a “bit of a kick”), the existing 49 members are regularly in contact with Brosseau (he has most of them on WhatsApp), and he’s not getting quite as much sleep as he might like after the birth of his second daughter. With all these plates spinning, you’d forgive him for being a little flustered. Instead, he is cool personified. He seamlessly weaves the conversation from topics including, but by no means limited to, philosophy, travel and literature (Leo Tolstoy’s War & Peace is among his favourites). It is soon apparent why Brosseau is the butterfly in the company logo. With his tendency to flit from one subject area to the next and, to take his more philosophical approach, his current emergence from a chrysalis of sorts into the Scotch whisky world. Conversely, Rankin, with his near 50-year experience, is the steadfast, knowledgeable other animal in the logo. “Don’t tell Andrew he is the tortoise,” the Frenchman says with that smile. This symbiotic relationship in many ways is an unlikely one, but it’s key to Ardross’s current and future success. “Without Andrew, we would not be where we are today,” Brosseau says. “It would be an absolute mistake for me to say that I am driving this. Andrew is driving Ardross as a distillery and it is thanks to Andrew and his connections in Jerez, in Japan, in the US that we are where we are today. “I have all these crazy ideas and he is the wise guy who has the years and the knowledge and the erudition. And that is why it is interesting – sometimes we are completely at odds. And that’s normal. And from this friction, I think, that creativity ensues.” Ardross is the Scotch whisky arm of Greenwood Spirits Ltd, which is owned by Vevil International who boast London’s The Ned and The Wolseley in their impressive portfolio. Part of their modus operandi is faithfully restoring and renovating Grade 1 and 2 listed buildings and Ardross was no different. After seeing the opportunities that lay within the Scotch whisky sector, the team quickly recognised the need to partner with an industry icon for the project to succeed. After meeting Rankin, the team gave him a mandate to find the Scotch whisky with a big vision a new home. Rankin describes finding the beautiful dilapidated farm called Ardross as serendipitous. He recalls seeing the six- to- seven acre Loch Dubh and snow-covered pine trees, and falling in love right away. The 50-acre site with 19th century farmhouse buildings has since been restored brick by brick at the cost of £30 million and a new distillery built to produce a traditional, quality single malt with a slightly sweeter profile. Although expectations were high after such an investment and the assembly of a production team with a combined experience of over 150 years, few could scarcely have imagined the quality of the spirit after one run. Rankin says it was a “Eureka moment” when they realised the new-make spirit was 95% of the way there – this process typically takes two to three months. The reason for this success right off the bat? Extremely long fermentation times of 121 hours (compared to the industry standard of 60), one of the best, if not the best, production teams in the business, and a relentless pursuit of quality, according to Brosseau. The only thing left to create the Ardross single malt they’d all envisaged was the wood and time itself. For this, Rankin drew on his industry ties and sourced the highest-quality wood from Jerez, Kentucky and Japan. Even for seasoned professionals with decades upon decades of whisky distilling experience under their belts, the chance to work at a new distillery from day one represents a career first. Despite all their achievements, of which there are many in the case of this team, to a certain extent they have been following somebody else’s blueprint and colouring within the lines. Working at a distillery like Ardross, with all its financial backing, represents an opportunity for this illustrious team to create their own blueprint in a way that only 150 or so others ever have. And Ardross, arguably more than most, has the flexibility to dictate what this framework should look like. “We have the luxury of thinking about the future almost in generational terms,” Brosseau says. “We are insulated from the vagaries of short-termism.” Brosseau says the decision was made early on to remain an independent distiller and not team up with the “big boys” for investment or distribution deals. He doesn’t rule this out in the future but says this approach has given the team an opportunity to learn and get their own scars and will make their growth and achievements that much sweeter because they have “done it all themselves from the beginning”. In addition to the distillery, Ardross also owns its own bottling line and warehouse, so they’re not dependent on others. Where other distilleries might be burdened with lofty marketing and distribution costs, and fielding shareholders’ dividends demands, Brosseau says Ardross is “resolutely adopting a different stance”, will not rush to produce a non-age-statement and is under no pressure whatsoever to bottle whisky until the team is good and ready. “For us, Scotch whisky is about time. It is about the long term,” he adds. “The idea is that when you are entering Ardross as a member, you are with us for the long-term and the value proposition unfolds over time. “If you are in a rush and you want to buy your cask and sell the next day, we are not for you. And we are completely honest about it. Go elsewhere basically.” The French charm quickly returns and he says with a smile: “I mean, you will always be welcome of course – but what I am saying is you won’t potentially be happy.” While he is tightlipped about how this value proposition might unfold, Brosseau teases it won’t be via “necessarily classical routes”. “We are not putting everything in front of you all at one time,” he explains. “The idea is to make you discover, or enter our world, almost sequentially. It’s frustrating I think for people sometimes because we live in a world where everything is available straight away – one click and you have everything you want. “And we are quite contrarian in that regard. We are not building right now to enjoy the fruits right away. The idea is to build value and the ripeness of the fruits come over time.” For this reason, and many others, Brosseau says Ardross is “very reasonably priced”.  “You have lots of people today who are selling whisky casks that they don’t really own,” he adds. The Frenchman describes the cask investment trade as a “complicated one” and is very gallant in not wanting to discuss other schemes that are slightly less above-board. Instead, he says: “We are not trying to fool anyone. We know who we are and we know what we are doing quality-wise. “We’re not pretending to be Macallan or Dalmore or whomever. We have a world-class quality team with world-class expertise, among the best in the industry. But we don’t have 200 years of history.” Whereas other propositions might require an accountancy qualification to understand, Brosseau says Ardross is “doing something that is very simple”. “We have the credibility of the industry professionals in everything that is related to production. For the rest, we are out-of-the-box thinking professionals.” While he might not be willing to divulge the “special” things Ardross is doing at the end of this year and next, we can speculate it’ll be worth the wait. Few have the world-class library of casks, superlative new-make spirit and freedom to fly as high as this Scotch whisky distillery. Find out more about Ardross or read more Editorial

After years of painstaking renovation and restoration, the £30 million Ardross project is about to take off. Single Cask Society founder Barthélémy Brosseau tells Holly Motion all about the contrarian Northern Highlands distillery’s transformation and why this team is proud to be different

Exploring the story behind the fledgling Highland distillery with an amazing distilling pedigree, Ardross, and its exciting Single Cask Society.

The Ardross genesis story

Ardross: the butterfly effect

It was the vision of Jacques Perrin in particular – who farmed the property organically from 1950 onwards – that cemented Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s Château de Beaucastel reputation. Today his sons – Jean-Pierre and François – are at the helm, with fifth-generation Marc, Pierre, Thomas, Cécile (Jean-Pierre’s children) and Charles, Mathieu and César (sons of François) also all work full-time at the estate. All seven of the children worked in wineries around the world before returning to the family estate.  A visionary estate The estate was one of the first in Southern Rhône to become organic (in 1950) and then biodynamic (in 1974), making the vineyard better prepared than most for the climate change effects over the last 30 years.  “Beaucastel is the largest Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate in one contiguous plot and it stands at the most northern limit of the appellation. It is a vineyard which is therefore very exposed to the Mistral winds, which has a huge cooling-down effect,” Emmanuel explains, protecting the vineyard from extreme temperatures.  The vineyard is based on a limestone bench covered by a rather atypical mix of clay and sand, topped with diluvium “galets roulés” (pudding stones). It is an incredible terroir that, Emmanuel explains, “allows us to combine power and finesse even in the driest vintages. It has always been considered a benchmark terroir in the area and was in fact a cru before the Châteauneuf appellation was created.”  
The biodynamically farmed old vines have also helped offset the ever-increasing drought pressures in the region. “We are extremely fortunate to have older vines,” Emmanuel says. “The galet roulés covering our vineyards also help prevent water evaporation. So all in all we’ve managed to make great wines even in warmest and driest vintages.” That hasn’t stopped the domaine, however, from continuing to adapt their methods to better cope with the ever-present threat of climate change. “We are learning more and more every year and continue to implement changes we deem necessary.” Alcohol levels in the region have undoubtedly risen, an effect that the estate looks to counter. 
When Jacques Perrin was in charge, he created a very specific vinification technique which he later patented. He would heat up the must to 80˚C, to start fermentation quickly while allowing Jacques to use less Sulphur, helping fix the colour of the wine, particularly with the Mourvèdre grape which has a tendency to lose colour with age. But this method also reduced the greener flavours in the wine, that came from less ripe grapes. 
Today’s climate, however, does not face the same issues, with consistently riper fruit. As a result François and César have phased out this technique, instead opting to whole-berry fermentation, and even whole-cluster ferments for varieties like Syrah, to naturally reduce alcohol levels. These days they also pick earlier, opting for more freshness whereas in the past it was always the goal to maximise ripeness, something that no longer is an issue for the region.  “The estate is always looking at ways to counter the issues of climate change,” Emmanuel continues. “For example, some of the younger Syrah vines are today producing very powerful wines so we are either co-ferment with some Grenache, reincorporating some of the stems in the vat or carry out whole-cluster fermenting,” helping to find better balance in
the wines. In the vineyard too, the team is constantly looking for ways to improve. “We recently tried spraying clay on leaves to limit photosynthesis,” Emmanuel says. The initial experiments have proved positive, but it is still too early to see the long-term effects on the wine
and requires further testing. 
But this experimental approach is everywhere in the property. They continuously make alternate blends that they age in the Beaucastel cellar and over time compare with their main cuvées to see how well the final blend develops versus a different potential version of
the same wine: Emmanuel states the cellars are full of these experiments. 
The domaine has also been assessing how the Beaucastel wines age with different fining techniques. “We do a lot of comparative tastings and assessing of older experimentations. For example, we recently did a horizontal of Château de Beaucastel 1996, where each bottle was fined differently, and identified which fining technique works best for ageing the wine – this is crucial in the development of our knowledge and helps us to make sure decisions taken in the moment are the best ones for the future.” 
Hommage à Jacques Perrin What is distinctive about Château de Beaucastel and the Hommage cuvée in particular is the high proportion of Mourvèdre in the blend. The Hommage is typically made up of 60% Mourvèdre. Emmanuel explains, “Hommage is from our Courrieux lieu-dit parcel, where Mourvèdre was first replanted (post-phylloxera) in 1910. As Mourvèdre is such a late-ripening
varietal, Château de Beaucastel needs an outstanding Indian summer to hope for an Hommage vintage. The decision thereafter is taken during the blending tastings. 
“When tasting the foudre of Courrieux back in 1989, François and Jean-Pierre were overwhelmed by the outstanding quality and knew that it had to be bottled on its own. Jacques Perrin’s intuition for the best blend from the estate revolved around a dominant proportion of Mourvèdre. As a tribute to their visionary father, they followed his instinct and
dedicated this unique cuvée to him.”  Production remains tiny despite the huge demand for the wine. In recent vintages, production has been around 6,000 bottles per year. The only difference in the vinification process of Hommage versus their other cuvées is an extra six months’ ageing in 4,000-litre foudres. All the winemaking is fairly hands-off, vinifying all the varieties separately apart from the Muscardin, Vaccarèse and Terret Noir which – due to the tiny quantities – are co-fermented. The reductive varieties – Syrah and Mourvèdre – are fermented in open-top wood fermenters and the remaining oxidative varieties are fermented in concrete tanks prior to the all-important blending sessions with the family.  The 2018 vintage has already been fantastically reviewed, awarded a potential perfect 100 points from the Wine Advocate, with reviewer Joe Czerwinski describing it as “full-bodied
but incredibly silky, combining great purity, richness and length into a seamless, elegant package that should give immense pleasure for decades to come.” The success of the 2018 vintage, according to Emmanuel, was “down to the perfect ripening conditions in mid-October, allowing them to bring the grapes of this late-ripening variety in at perfect maturity – 2018 was fantastic for Mourvèdre.” 
The grapes of the Southern Rhône 
Château de Beaucastel proudly uses all 13 permitted varieties of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation. Some even say 18 varieties, since varieties like Grenache, Terret, Clairette and Piquepoul all have a black, pink and grey clone of the variety mixed within the vineyards. “Each variety brings its own attributes that differ depending on the vintage, but also depending on the amount you use or the blend you make,” says Emmanuel. “For example, when you open a young Beaucastel, it’s very Grenache-driven, even when there is a similar percentage of Mourvèdre. It’s only few years later that Mourvèdre will finally come to the
fore, revealing game, leather and savoury characteristics. “Individually, Mourvèdre brings power and structure, but when you open an older Beaucastel it delivers freshness and silkiness. Grenache Noir brings kirsch, plum and cassis fruitiness. Syrah adds color, tannin and spices, and when blended with Mourvèdre and Grenache it
brings truffle notes.  Counoise can be considered the Pinot Noir of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and has a distinctive white pepper note. Cinsault adds freshness, Muscardin and Vaccarèse are very floral and add freshness, Terret Noir is light even in colour and adds acidity. The white varieties of Roussanne and Grenache Blanc bring elegance and freshness. Clairette is very aromatic and brings unctuosity. Bourboulenc adds tension with notes of almond and vanilla, Piquepoul richness and Picardan adds a lot of bouquet.   “For us it is very important to have all the varieties to make an elegant and balanced wine. However, above all, it is the knowledge and the art of blending, passed on from generation to generation of the Perrin family, that is the key to understanding the real expression of Château de Beaucastel terroir.” With experimentation at the heart of the Perrin philosophy, the infinite potential of blends when using so many grapes in the wine keeps the extended Perrin family busy monitoring their blending decisions as the wines develop with age. With the 2018 Hommage, it looks like
all their experimentation is paying off. Explore all current Château de Beaucastel listings or browse more Editorial 

Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s Château de Beaucastel dates back to the 16th century, but it was only after the Perrin family took control of the estate in the early 1900s that it became one of the most iconic and well-respected wine producers in the Southern Rhône.

Exploring the largest Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate, Château de Beaucastel, and how it became one of the most iconic and well-respected Southern Rhône producers

Château de Beaucastel, beyond tradition

Château de Beaucastel: Beyond tradition

Xavier Vignon could best be described as a maverick winemaker whose inquisitive mind and extraordinary experiments have taken him on journeys all around the world, working on some of the must cutting-edge developments in today’s burgeoning wine scene. Initiated into oenology from a scientific background he has always had the benefit of operating free from the shackles of tradition yet now in his 40th year as a winemaker, his wealth of experience has seen him integrate his science with sensibility, developing an appreciation of producing wine in its most natural form.  We spoke to an initially noticeably weary Xavier Vignon, who is still recovering from a fairly serious bout of COVID-19. However, as soon as he starts to talk about his current projects he becomes distinctly more animated as he begins to describe all the fascinating projects he is currently working on.  This is a vigneron who clearly cannot stay still for long and has a huge drive and enthusiasm for his work. In fact, in his early days as a vigneron he was on the move all over the world working in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, California for half of the year whilst returning to his native France to work through the harvest in the northern hemisphere. He carried out 40 harvests in 20 years.  His winemaking career started in Champagne before exploring the other wine regions of France, working in Alsace and Bordeaux among others. Coming from a family of stonemasons whose philosophy was to travel when young, he was encouraged to explore the world before settling down. These travels and the variety of experiences working in oenology from one country and climate to the next are surely a vital part of the puzzle for Xavier’s success as a winemaker. It was the Rhône Valley that finally stopped him in his tracks. Admitting he had never really
been interested in the wines of the Southern Rhône, hence the reason he arrived there later in his career, only to find that it had everything he was looking for. A huge variety of terroirs, varying altitudes, an array of grape varieties. This meant lots of freedom in blending (reminding him of his work in Champagne) lots of work on tannins (harking back to Bordeaux) and working in warmer climates of the new world. He was well-prepped to take on the region, setting up his own laboratory and consultancy practice initially advising for 20 – 25 winemakers before it expanded to over 500 in the region. Minerality, water and wine Xavier’s technical skills certainly helped many traditional vignerons to develop their wine
for global export but it also gave Xavier a tremendous opportunity to explore the multitude of wines throughout the region. Xavier became fascinated with things that were clearly evident in tasting so many wines of the region, which his scientific background couldn’t always explain. “Minerality” for example, is a term bandied around wine circles everywhere you go. We all know it exists but science cannot tell us what it is. It is not clear that we even all think it is the same thing, Xavier claims.  He was part of an extensive global research paper exploring what consumers and wine professionals identify as “minerality”. The study interviewed 5,000 consumers and 5,000 professionals resulting in no clear evidence that people were talking about the same thing. The only clear answer was that Chablis had minerality! Half the study thought more about smell, 50% thought about flavour. There is no definition still states Xavier. But this began his fascination with water and for him the key to understanding the secrets of minerality – despite him knowingly accepting he had no scientific data to prove it. This was his first step towards trusting his sensibilities over scientific analysis. For him you need to look to water to understand minerality. 85% of wine is water, water is
a huge proportion of what we taste, he states. Xavier looks to mineral water companies, even beer and whisky companies who have invested much more analysis on the affects of water, than the wine industry, largely because they have more money to do so, but also because water plays a much bigger role in their taste profile (in beer water is 90-95% water compared to wine which technically is 100% grape juice).  In their analysis of mineral salt, bottled mineral waters from different parts of the world have distinctly different levels of each mineral affecting the flavour of the water. Beer companies have also accepted that their beers made in different factories around the world taste different depending on where they are made because of the composition of the water. Whisky famously is obsessed by the quality of its water in regard to the final flavour profile of each distillery.  "So why not wine too?", asks Xavier. In different parts of the Rhône he identifies how high levels of silica in a wine makes the wine taste more acidic. How different chloride minerals provide a flavour of salinity in the wine, magnesium creates bitterness and so on. Scientific analysis doesn’t register the difference, but the difference is extraordinarily apparent when tasting. The effect of water is intrinsic, Xavier believes, to the strong mineral flavours of the Southern Rhône. The wines of the region could never taste like they do elsewhere because of the effect of the mistral. The mistral wind in places (particularly Châteauneuf-du-Pape) is so strong that it evaporates water from the berries, heightening the concentrations of mineral salts the grapes have absorbed in the water from the ground whilst the water evaporates from the berries. Xavier believes Gigondas, where the vines tend to be more protected from the mistral due to the protection of the hills, is less mineral for that reason. Xavier’s fascination with the effects of water on wine was a big reason why he began his
Arcane series, a set of one-off wines that are produced with minimal manipulation. He looks back at some regions he has worked in, stating parts of California and Australia require one to one and a half tonnes of irrigated water just to produce one bottle of wine. This is crazy! Whilst we have the science and technology for this to work, it doesn’t make sense. The Arcane Series of wines by Xavier The first wine made from the Arcane series was called “Le Diable” – translates as “the devil”. It came about when one of the vignerons he was advising took him to a high altitude Mourvèdre vineyard. The winemaker now in his eighties had struggled his whole life to get the Mourvèdre this high up to ripen, never achieving the results to use in his final wine. Xavier convinced the vigneron not to harvest the grapes with the rest of his crop, to leave the grapes on the vine and to see what happens.  It was 2015, a very late harvest already Xavier recalls but this extended Indian summer caused something in the vineyard they couldn’t believe. As the grapes continued to ripen and sugars increase, the acidity also started to go up as well! They had never seen anything like it. Xavier convinced the grower to sell him the grapes and produced the wine made just from these grapes. Xavier took the wine back to the elderly grower, who on tasting the wine began to cry. In his lifetime he had never been able to produce a wine from the vineyard, particularly not a 100% Mourvèdre!  Xavier named it Le Diable, the nickname of the Mourvèdre in the Southern Rhône because it was so difficult to ripen. Xavier knew that what happened in 2015 was unlikely to be repeated. This was a wine that made itself. It was vines in the perfect place at the perfect time and this is what he wanted the Arcane series to represent. Ever since, the Arcane series (now in its 6th and 7th cuvee to be released in the next few weeks) are complete one offs never to be repeated. The story behind the Arcane series informed Xavier’s winemaking philosophy ever since. Whilst he believes we can use science and technology to manipulate wines, he wanted to move away from this, preferring nature to tell him where and when he should make the wine. That hasn’t stopped him experimenting however and there are plenty of other cuvées that
show off Xavier’s inquisitive scientific brain operating at full speed. He is currently working with a winery in Turkey that wants to produce a wine free of any manipulation. Not only organically and biodynamically grown, natural yeasts etc but they even want the fermentation and maturation vessel to have no impact on the wine – he came up with the “vinarium” – a dark glass tank for fermentation and maturation – a natural product that does not infuse any flavour in the wine.  His next experiment is to get rid of closures altogether by extending the neck of the bottle and melting the glass at the top to seal the wine without any other material such as cork to affect the flavour. He eventually wants to create individual wines from individual vines!  He is experimenting with ageing wines both in the ocean and with his own invention of submerging a tank of wine within another bigger tank of wine. He does this with his Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Ange, comparing the process to a baby in a womb, completely protected from the outside world.  He believes you can age wine like this for 50 years without any need for sulphides or racking because there is 100% humidity and an even atmospheric pressure on the wine all the time. It’s an expensive operation and for the moment not possible for all his wines. But the level of experimentation and inquisitiveness gives you a good impression the sort of lengths Xavier will go to to push the boundaries of modern winemaking. He has no problem blending a Châteauneuf-du-Pape with a Côtes du Rhône village cuvee to make it a better wine only for it to be downgraded to a Vin de France because a Châteauneuf-du-Pape cannot be included in a blend and be titled Côtes du Rhône Villages. His interest lies in how it tastes, accentuating the multifaceted variety and complexity that exists in the Southern Rhône, rather than the traditional restraints of the appellation system. This is a maverick whose wines today are some of the most exciting in the Southern Rhône. Discover all Xavier Vignon listings or read more Editorial

Based in the Southern Rhône for the last 25 years, Xavier Vignon has amassed a huge following from critics and consumers alike, with his wines often scoring in the high nineties, yet remaining extraordinary value. We caught up with him to find out the secrets to his success

Southern Rhône winemaker maverick Xavier Vignon on the secrets to his success and high-scoring wines

Xavier Vignon, a Rhône wine innovator

Xavier Vignon: A Rhône radical

Northern Rhône

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Northern Rhône

About the wines of the Northern Rhone

About the wines of the Northern Rhone

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