Tried these two Viogniers w/ friends last Thurs:
1. IlSantoCllrs Viognier NewMexico TW BalagnaWnry/LosAlamos NV (2006): Med.dark gold color; some sage/chamisa/pungent bit honeyed/nutty/slight oxidized light floral/Viog somewhat coarse quite interesting nose; soft/fat/ripe rather sagebrush/chamisa/pungent quite honeyed/hazelnutty bit mead-like slight oxidized flavor; med.long honeyed/mead light floral/Viog rather sagebrush/chamisa soft/fat finish; a bit on the coarse side and with obvious age, but still very tasty and quite interesting.
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2. StCosme Ad'P: Condrieu (100% Viognier; 13.5%) Louis et Cherry Barruol 2011: Pale gold color; some toasty/oak/smokey rather mineral/peach/pear/Viog/floral quite perfumed/aromatic classic Condrieu nose; fairly tart bit lean/stony/mineral some toasty/smokey/oak strong peachy/Viog/floral slight metallic flavor; very long tart/lean rich somewhat toasty/smokey/oak strong floral/Viog/peachy some mineral/metallic finish; a pretty classical example of Condrieu at a fair price. $53.00 (SFW&S)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. IlSanto: This was made by a long-time wine friend, JohnBalagna, when he was still commercial. He closed up shop about 2008. This was the first Viognier crop off Paola d'Andrea's vnyd down in Deming in the MimbresVlly of Southern NM, a pretty hot growing area. This is in the (relatively high) desert. There is a lot of chamisa & sagebrush in the area. The both expel a lot of oils into the air and, like eucalyptus trees, it can often settle on the grapes and give them a characteristic flavor. It's all part of that "terroir" thing that wine geeks like to blabber about, I guess.
The wine was pretty soft & porky on release and I didn't care much for it. So I was expecting it to be pretty dead & gone. It was not. Though still soft & porky, it had developed some very interesting old-Rhone honeyed/nutty character.
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2. Condrieu: For some reason, the NM distributors are slackers when it comes to bringing in Condrieus. This is the first new/current0vintage one I've seen on the shelves in years. There are still a lot of '06/'07/'08 ones sitting around...at stupid prices. Though not a profound Condrieu, I though this StCosme was pretty classical Condrieu and fairly priced, as far a Condrieu goes these days.
Tom