You lose the taste. Since arriving here, my experience of the wines of the region, which begins about 20 miles south of the city where I live, has been limited to the ubiquitous St. Josephs and Croze-Hermitages to be found on just about every wine list in town.
I booked the tour through Lyon Winetours LINK and we were not disappointed by the tour in any way, other than wishing it were longer.
Our tour guide was Vincent Pontet , the founder of the company, who was raised in Condrieu and lives there today. We look forward to visiting after the opening. We left from Place Bellcour in Lyon at am and headed south. Vines were first planted here years ago by the early Romans who settled here.
Most of the appellations of the region, the best ones anyway, feature these steep slopes, where everything must be done by hand. Vignerons cannot use tractors or other heavy machinery, and working these slopes by hand is hot, hard work. The blending is set when the vineyards are planted.
At harvest time, whatever Syrah and Viognier are harvested by each producer are fermented together before going into barrels or foudres for aging.
