Wine Time

Great Wines Start in the Vineyard

Viognier is becoming a resident grape of North Carolina

by Trevor Burton | photography by Trevor Burton

Viognier hails, mainly, from France’s famous Côte Rôtie region but we’re seeing more and more of it in our own backyard. This is a good thing. I’ve spent quite a lot of happy times with glasses of Viognier (VEE-ohn-yay) in various locations all around the world. Viognier is famous as the only grape in what is, arguably, the Côte Rôtie’s (Roasted Slope) most distinctive white wine, Condrieu. In fact, I’ve visited the grape on its “home turf” in the Côte Rôtie. Very neat and very tasty.

An aside, some wine trivia. Château-Grillet is a Condrieu producer in Côte Rôtie. It is unusual among France’s wine appellations. It is one of the smallest producers in terms of geographical area and it’s one of very few to be claimed by only a single producer and for a single grape variety, Viognier.

I’m a big Viognier fan and it’s great that we’re getting quite a reputation for our wines in North Carolina. And I have to point out that our Carolina winemakers are not trying to produce Côte Rôtie lookalikes. They’re producing Viognier wines that are a true representative of where they are grown—the climate and soil of North Carolina. I don’t think there’s a better example of this than the approach taken at Jones von Drehle Vineyards and Winery in Thurmond, in the Yadkin Valley American Viticultural Area.

This winery relies on the premise that great wines start in the vineyard. There is meticulous attention lavished on the grapevines. Apart from the gorgeous view from the vineyard, the first thing that hits you as you navigate the vineyard’s long driveway is 30 acres of neatly planted vines. It looks like they’ve been planted with laser precision. It turns out, as I learned from co-owner, Chuck Jones, that’s exactly the way the vines were planted.

Nerdy wine stuff warning! When planting a grapevine, you plant a specific version of a grape variety, you plant a specific clone of the grape. In many vineyards all grape varietals are planted together, different clones mixed in with one another. Not so here. Jones has a detailed map showing which clone is planted where. At harvest, individual clones are picked together and fermented separately. After the grapes go through the processes that create wine, a determination is made as to where each clone ends up. The winemaking team makes a decision about which clones go into wines labelled with the grape and which wines are better for blending. With excruciating attention to detail, Jones and his team make sure their wines are a perfect expression of the soil and climate that produced them. Jones Von Drehle’s Viognier is a result of all that.

A couple of features attract me to Viognier. The wines are nuanced and subtle but are amazingly complex. There’s a lot of stuff going on. Sip on a glass and you’ll usually be presented with rich, fruity flavors of mango, peach, lime, tangerine, and honeysuckle. This is a wine to have a deep conversation with. The other thing I like is that it is a rich and lush wine. Perfect for food with a little zing to it. You would think that, with this type of food, a strong powerful red wine would be the choice. But the wine and food effectively and unpleasantly fight each other. Viognier, on the other hand, plays nicely; I like that.

Viognier is establishing itself in North Carolina. It’s going to be fun and interesting to compare our homegrown wines with other wines from all around the world. I anticipate that our wines will more than hold their own. As I’ve often said, “So many wines and so little time.” But I’ll keep at it.