2014 Côte-Rôtie Maison Rouge

The namesake of this storied domain and the father of the current winemaker, Christine Vernay, passed away at age 92 this spring, and he leaves behind a formidable legacy. He quite literally saved Condrieu from possible extinction in 1940 when took a single hectare of vines that his father had planted in 1936, the only Viognier left in the area and probably the world at the time, and used it as the launch pad for securing Condrieu’s AOC status in 1940. He established his own domain in 1943 and expanded his vineyard to an impressive 17 hectares over the following decades. There are now almost 170 hectares of vines planted at Condrieu and 76 wineries in the AOC, and the wines enjoy a well-deserved reputation as being among the finest white wines made, from anywhere, usually with prices to match that status. Interestingly, only about 25 percent of Condrieu is exported, which means that the local market clearly has a serious thirst for these wines. Christine Vernay has, if anything, only enhanced the domain’s image, by maintaining high standards with the estate’s Condrieus but also by steadily increasing the quality of the red wines here. As a rule, they tend to be on the elegant side, which isn’t surprising for a white wine specialist, and while the wines will definitely age, they also show quite well soon after release, so my own preference is to err on the side of youth with the Vernay reds - with the exception of the Côte-Rôtie Maison Rouge, a wine that I now place among the very best made in the appellation.