Les Gendrines: a truly astounding musketeer

If you are seeking a bit of splendid viognier without spending 30 or 40 quid, then look to this master.

Matthew Jukes
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published
in Features

829-wine

2015 Ctes-du-Rhne Blanc, Les Gendrines, Domaine Pierre Gaillard, Northern Rhne, France (£18.95, reduced to £17.06 by the case, Jeroboams, 020-7730 8108).

I have promised to keep you updated with rare bottles of viognier that pass muster on the proviso that you follow my lead and do not deviate for fear of cataclysmic disappointment. Well, I have a fantastic wine to restore some of your faith in this wayward grape variety. Gaillard is one of my original "Three Musketeers" when I visited the Rhne for the first time in the early 1990s, helping out the late Adam Bancroft with tasting notes, I met Pierre and his neighbours, Franois Villard and Yves Cuilleron.

I was astounded by their wines and so I gave them this nickname to cement these winemakers in peoples' minds. Their collective skill, enthusiasm and interpretation of their soils through their wines is as strong today as it was back then. Gaillard's relatively inexpensive "baby Condrieu" is a heart-breakingly beautiful wine.

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In all honesty, I find many Condrieus these days too bulky, hot, sweet and gloopy. Not Gaillard's. If you are seeking a bit of splendid viognier without spending 30 or 40 quid, then look to this master. Les Gendrines even utilises a sizeable percentage of new oak to give it a thoroughly majestic demeanour. This is a truly astounding viognier.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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