Château Grillet is one of those little wine gems that most people don’t know about, but when they discover it, they fall in love with it. With an area of 3.5 hectares, it is one of the smallest AOCs in the world and also one of the most prestigious. Château Grillet is located between the villages of Vérin and Saint Michel-sur-Rhône, south of the town of Vienne. It has a single owner, François Pinault, owner of Château Latour in Pauillac and Domaine d’Eugénie in Vosne-Romanée, after buying it in 2011 from the Neyret-Gachet family, who had owned it since 1830. The Château Grillet AOC is an island within the Condrieu AOC.
The vineyard forms a natural amphitheatre, facing south, which enjoys a warm and sunny microclimate, favouring the perfect ripening of the grapes. It may well be this circumstance that gave rise to its name “grillet” (grill). Its eighty-seven terraces – “chaillées” – are supported by stone walls, which climb the steep slopes of granitic and clay soils that are home to viognier vines that are on average forty-five years old.
Viognier is the only grape variety permitted in the vineyard and is responsible for the exuberant, floral, well-structured and mineral wines that come from the legendary Château Grillet. Perfume made wine.
I remember that a few years ago, in one of my participations in the blind tasting contest organised annually by Vila Viniteca, this was one of the wines selected. We didn’t get it right, but I was deeply impressed by the wine’s controlled power and the array of complex notes that emanated from it. Its texture is creamy, even oily, and its aromas are an explosion of white and yellow flowers, garnished by notes of white chocolate. Fortunately, in one of my tasting groups we have a Chateau Grillet from 1990, when it still belonged to the Neyret-Gachet family. Needless to say, I am looking forward to the day when we open the bottle.