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Kosher Wines: Kosher Wines --> Wines --> Viognier |
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Viognier (vee-ohn-yay) is a white wine
grape. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in
the Rhone valley. History The origin of the Viognier grape is unknown. Most experts agree that Viognier is an ancient grape that may have originated in Dalmatia and was brought to Rhône by the Romans. One legend states that the Roman emperor Probus brought the vine to the region in 281 AD. Another legend has the grape packaged with Syrah on a cargo ship navigating the Rhone River en route to Beaujolais when it was captured near the site of present day Condrieu by a local group of outlaws known as culs de piaux. |
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The origin of the name Viognier is also
obscure. The most common namesake is the French city of Vienne, which
was a major Roman outpost. Another legend has it drawing its name from
the Roman pronunciation of the via Gehennae, meaning the "road to
Hell". Probably this is an allusion to the difficulty of growing the
grape. Viognier was once fairly common. Now it is a rare white grape grown almost exclusively in the northern Rhône regions of France. In 1965, the grape was almost extinct when there were only eight acres in Northern Rhône producing only 1 900 liters of wine. The popularity and price of the wine have risen and thus the number of plantings has increased. Rhône now has over 740 acres (3.0 km2) planted. In 2004, DNA profiling conducted at University of California, Davis showed the grape to be closely related to the Piedmont grape Freisa and to be a genetic cousin of Nebbiolo. |
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