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ZS2957

Condrieu, Les Chays, Aurélien Chirat 2023 - Half Dozen
£270.00 £246.00 Offer

Elegant with orange blossom and apricot. There’s complexity and weight to make it full-bodied with a presence of citrus and salinity which shows a lightness of touch from the winemaker.

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Condrieu, Les Chays, Aurélien Chirat 2023
Quantity included: 6

£270.00 £246.00 Offer

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Details

Rhône Valley

Still White

2023

Aurélien Chirat

Aurélien Chirat

Aurélien Chirat

Aurélien Chirat is a fourth-generation family member at this domaine which is situated on the hillside village of St-Michel sur Rhône, right in the heart of Condrieu. He started working on the family estate in 2008 having studied in Dijon, completed a six-month stint in New Zealand at Te Kairanga, Martinborough and worked at various estates in the Rhône.

The domaine started back in 1925, selling barrels of wine to restaurants and Aurélien’s grandfather was a cousin of the late, great Georges Vernay but it was Aurélien’s father, Gilbert, who started bottling their own production. Aurélien says of his father (who retired in 2023), “he was brilliant in the vineyards but just didn’t have the interest in the winery.” Fortunately, Aurélien was always very interested in the winery, so they made a great team. Over recent years their focus has very much turned to quality. Instead of expanding production, they have reduced vineyard holdings from 10 to 8 ha. Vines are worked organically; they are not certified but do hold the HVE 3 accreditation. They use natural wax to seal the bottles and recyclable corks made from sucrose. With the retirement of Gilbert and his pair of hands, Aurélien will continue to focus on increasing the quality and may reduce vineyard holdings further. We think this domaine is one to watch: it is already starting to find favour in the press and as the wines continue to gain finesse and elegance, we can see this star continuing to rise.

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Vintage guide

The 2023 vintage is promising, with the southern Rhône having an easier time of things but the results from both are showing potential. The 2022 vintage is very good for the North and South of the region which both excelled in the hot conditions this year. The 2021 vintage has seen some good results particularly in the North where attractive, aromatic, elegant wines have been made. The wines from the 2020 vintage look to be a little fresher and more approachable in their youth than those of 2019 which is a high-quality vintage with yields on a par with 2018. Another good result along the valley in 2018, though the South had more disease problems to contend with, as mildew affected the thinner-skinned Grenache more than other varieties. Quality was high but the yields were down. An early harvest produced some intense wines in 2017 for both the North and the South of the region, though uneven flowering in both reduced yields considerably. 2016 in both Northern and Southern Rhône has produced excellent results, and the South has it by a whisker this year, the opposite of 2015. 2015 is terrific, particularly for the North’s Syrah, no problems and decent yields too. An ideal growing season, that was even hotter than 2003 in the daytime but with cooler nights and just enough rainfall to prevent problems in the vineyards. Both whites and reds are excellent. 2014 is not an easy vintage to generalise about but whites are super, reds are very pure with lovely aromatics, and, in the South, as in 2013, Syrah and Mourvèdre have done better than Grenache.
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