Appellation · France
Condrieu
The spiritual home of Viognier, and the appellation that saved the variety from disappearing altogether.
Full-bodied dry white, powerfully aromatic with apricot, peach blossom and honeysuckle, low in acidity and oily in texture. Smells sweet, tastes dry. Drink young and not too cold.
About Condrieu
Condrieu is Viognier and nothing else. In the 1960s the appellation was down to around ten hectares and the variety was close to extinction; it now covers some 200 hectares and Viognier is planted worldwide.
The wine is unusual and polarising: intensely aromatic — apricot, peach, honeysuckle, sometimes a musky note — full-bodied, low in acidity, and dry despite smelling sweet. That combination of loud aromatics and low acidity is why it is difficult to make well and difficult to age.
Most Condrieu should be drunk within three or four years. It is the rare fine white wine that does not reward keeping, and the aromatics that make it worth buying are the first thing to fade.
Château-Grillet, a 3.5-hectare monopole enclosed within Condrieu, is a separate appellation and one of the smallest in France.
What the name means
- Legal name
- Condrieu AOC
- Type
- Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée / Protégée (AOC / AOP)
- Set by
- INAO
- Recognised
- 1940
- Regulates
- Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.
The delimited area, permitted varieties, maximum yields, minimum alcohol, pruning and training methods, and in many cases minimum ageing. Administered by INAO.
White wine only, from Viognier exclusively.
Grapes
Wines from here
Soil and geology
- Underlying geology
- Decomposed granite, locally called arzelle
- Soils
- Powdery weathered granite on steep terraces
- Drainage
- Free-draining
- Water holding
- Low
What it does to the vine. Loose, sandy decomposed granite on very steep south-facing terraces. It drains almost completely and holds little water, which limits vigour on a variety that is naturally a shy and unreliable cropper.
WineHQ describes soil in terms of what it demonstrably does — drainage, heat retention, water supply, rooting depth — and not in terms of flavours it is said to transmit. Vines take up ions, not aromas, and no mechanism has been demonstrated by which a mineral in the ground is tasted in the glass. See soil and drainage.
Rules worth knowing
Confirmed in the EU register
Condrieu is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-FR-A0685, protected at EU level since 1973.
Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013
Specification published: Official Journal C, C/2025/3459, 24.6.2025 · Official Journal
Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.
The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Where to go next
Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.
- Côte-Rôtie — The northernmost Rhône appellation, on terraces so steep they must be worked by hand, making the most perfumed Syrah in France.
- Saint-Joseph — A fifty-kilometre ribbon of vineyard down the right bank, ranging from serious hillside Syrah to very ordinary flatland wine.
Approximate centroid: 45.46°, 4.77°. WineHQ stores coordinates only where it has them, and does not estimate boundaries it has not sourced.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO) — INAO, France
- Vins du Rhône (Inter Rhône) — Inter Rhône