Viognier has been made famous mainly by the regions in the north Rhone of Condrieu, Château Grillet and Côte Rôtie. The first two producing white wine only and local Appellation d’Origine Contrôllée regulation allow small amounts (up to 15%) to be blended with Shiraz / Syrah in Côte Rôtie. Australian made Viognier has been emerging onto the local market in recent years with good success, with its characters of stone fruit, spice and subtle minerality.

Viognier is considered one of the most difficult grapes to grow with it’s susceptibility to disease and notoriously low and unpredictable yields.

Far from a mainstream variety, Viognier is attracting almost cult following of wine drinkers seeking alternatives for a rich, full bodied yet still elegant white wine.

Viognier meets the challenge, producing a full bodied white wine brimming with richness, character and golden colour. Although a rich dry wine, it has powerful almost sweet nose full stone fruit such as apricots, peaches and pears.

Depending on the wine, fruit characters vary from these apricots and pears to citrus flavours, tropical mangos and guava and honey suckle. At the same time Viognier’s texture will fill your mouth with sensations of oiliness, viscosity yet still have a sense of delicate elegance.

Steely, glycerol, ripe, stylish, mouthfilling, spicy – this is above-average Viognier…Another beautiful release from Smidge. 90 Points
Winefront Monthly March 2005 (more)