Les Vins de Vienne, IGP Viognier 2023

Soils consist of granitic, limestone clay. Located north of the Ardeche plateau. The hand-picked grapes are whole bunch pressed. Fermentation takes place in casks and in stainless steel vats at low temperature with indigenous yeasts for about 4 months. The wine is aged for 6 months on the lees in large barrels and in French oak casks. Fined with clay and tangentially filtered.

Yves Cuilleron started out as a winegrower in 1987. In 1988, Francois Villard asked Yves to take him on for an internship. He did the harvests in 1988 an 1989. When Francois came to live not far from Yves in 1989, they continued to see one another, played football together and really became friends. As for Pierre Gaillard, they knew him like many other winegrowers, but no more than that. But Yves also sent Francois to do an internship with Pierre, because he liked the wine he made. Francois and Pierre became friends too and the three winegrowers then began to form an amicable trio.

They begin with 4 hectares. They find a large building in Seyssuel, which they fit out with temperature-control, vats, presses, etc. To pay off these investments, they have the idea of setting up a small, quality wine trade firm, because they want to retain their sense of being craftsmen winegrowers. They start by buying small quantities of grapes per appellation of the Rhone Valley.

Faced with the three winegrowers' production and maturation demands, Les Vins de Vienne are installed in spacious, new buildings since 2009. Alongside a modern vat house and cellar totally dedicated to maturation in barrels, a wine tasting cellar with a shop is opened.

Now the amicable trio produce no less than 40+ fantastic wines from different appellations up and down the Rhone Valley.