Visiting Domaine Christophe Pichon

My introduction around 2000 was not with ´just´ a Condrieu producer. Christophe’s wines immediately struck me with a fine expression of minerality, and a fruit that graciously abstained from displaying the heavy-headedness that can make viognier-based wines a tad blowsy more often than I tend to prefer. I have since then closely followed his Condrieu, enjoying along the way how his range of wines started to grow gradually.

Meanwhile, the Domaine Pichon covers some 9 hectares of vineyard. The property now extending into the Condrieu (4,1 ha), Saint Joseph (3,95ha) and Côte Rôtie (1 ha) appellations means the domaine is making both whites and reds. Additionally, the property has started to buy grapes, the wines of which are seperately sold als ‘négoce’ wines. Among these are two wines sold as Vin de pays Rhodannienne: a Viognier and a Syrah.

With the vast proportion of the already bottled wines from the 2009 vintage already sold out, we concentrated on the 2010 still all in cask, with some nice occasion for comparison for the 2009’s not yet bottled. This domaine was not the first to report when asked that 2009 was a great vintage... but that 2010 may very well be even better. Even when the 2010’s have yet to show their full potential, both the reds and the whites are already displaying a beautiful restraint and balance. In terms of power, they will no doubt be outshone by the 2009’s, but they might not be in terms of fine equilibrium. The final verdict may well become a matter of stylistic preference, but my heart was now with the 2010’s, with great ease.

Before descending into the cellars, we tasted two Condrieus from bottle. The ‘regular’ bottling is the one that drove me to this estate a decade ago, and is a wine I’m always keen to taste. The wine comes from just under 4 ha of 30 year old vines, and is made in a traditional style, with 50% élévage on fûts, a very small proportion of which (usually 10%) is new. The 2009 showed a lot of fruit - typical for this rich vintage – alongside its subtly minty minerality, with good medium acidity to balance. I would expect this to be a wine for shorter to mid term drinking, since there’s not really the acidity in this vintage to make it worth ageing, something that can be done with suitable vintages.
Their second cuvée is the Condrieu Caresse, from a tiny 0,3 ha parcel of granitic soil and 45 year old vines. It gets 9 monts of élévage on 100% new oak barriques, a thing I have to admit is not what I tend to look for in Condrieu. Having said that, I also have to admit that Pichon is doing this abundant oaking pretty well, and he’s doing it on a wine that does have the power and structure to absorb a serious dose of oak-attack. Interestingly, a subsequent cellar tasting of the 2010 (regular) Condrieu from cask revealed a detail of new oak élévage I was unaware of. While the used oak sample displayed a fine floral character, it was – to my surprise - the new oak sample that was really punching this wine’s minerality forward.

The Saint-Joseph Blanc samples revealed an interesting difference between the ‘domaine’ and the ‘négoce’ wine, with the domaine wine the winner by a good margin. The former was perfectly good, the latter really had all the balance, bright fruit and clarity of focus that one can expect in wines of this level. At my home, white Saint Josephs are quite a regular ‘every day pick’ and this one was instantly reserved to feature in my private cellar after bottling.
Next to the Blanc, there was also very nice red Saint-Joseph. The 2009 (already bottled but sold out) makes quite a drink with its spicy and full blooded syrah fruit, the 2010 still in cask shows a more timid syrah expression, in a style that is actually elegant, with fine and well covered tannins.

The latter is something that I greatly admire in the domaine’s Côtes Rôties as well. Here, the Côte Rôtie terroirs also made a nice case of displaying how a powerful vintage like 2009 can really be held in restraint by a good terroir. As could be expected, this was displayed up the quality line, from their regular Côte Rôtie via the (terroir de blonde) single vineyard Rozier to La Comtesse en Côte Blonde, their flagship wine from this appellation. Subsequently, the 2010’s demonstrated this small ‘étude de terroir’ in a less powerful but splendidly balanced key, with the 100% syrah Comtesse from 70 year old vines (the Rozier has 10% viognier in the blend) already hinting profoundly at all the beauty and detail to be revealed by the combination of old vines complexity and the particular style of this vintage.

With the exception of the 75% the regular cuvée receives, all Pichon Côtes Rôties get an elevage on 100% new fûts. This is not the traditional way of cellar handling for this region, but it’s a practice one sees more and more, no doubt influenced by the attention the wines are getting from international press. It’s seen these days in both terroir de blonde and terroir de brune wines, despite an often substantial difference in terms of restrained and elegant structure in the former versus the iron-infused darkness of fruit and bigger body that characterise the terroir de brune wines.
It’s also a practice I find easier to appreciate in terroir de brune, yet judging from cask samples and from the young bottles regularly tasted at the annual Marché aux Vins, the fruit of these terroir de blonde examples appears to be fully capable of handling the elevage, especially the beautifully structured fruit in the ‘Comtesse’.

While Christophe himself was being held up with business in Lyon, it was their 18 year old son Corentin who took care of kicking off the visit’s tasting. This was done with both a tad of shyness and distinct expertise. Young Corentin is still finishing his wine studies at the university of Mâcon, but judging from his current knowledge of their wines, he can be expected to become a worthy successor to his father. Having said this, it should also be added that Christophe himself is still in full bloom, and seems far from showing any intention to hand over things to his son any time soon.

The Domaine's (french) website can be found by clicking here.