Gangloff Condrieu, 2016, 750ML

Feature

Tasting Note

Vinous 94, Josh Raynolds

Limpid gold. Potent, mineral-accented orchard and pit fruit and violet qualities on the perfumed nose. Silky and deeply concentrated in style, offering palate-staining white peach, pear nectar and tangerine flavors that display excellent clarity and back-end energy. The strikingly long, focused finish shows wonderful focus and thrust and juicy pit fruit character.

Fans of plush white Rhône wines have been onto Gangloff for some time now, so much so that his opulent yet well-structured Condrieu, in particular, has become extremely hard to find. Yves Gangloff told me that it basically sells out before it's even released, as long-time consumers, restaurants and importers have standing orders, making the wine, which is sourced from the 1.7 hectares that he owns at Côte Bonnette and Chéry, a highly allocated bottling. Gangloff's recent vintages of Condieu have been uniformly superb and this 2016 is probably the best version of that wine that l've ever had from him. I just wish there were more of it.

Winemaking

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Winery

Considered a micro-domaine, Yves Gangloff’s wine is made with exceptional quality and in very limited production. Their cellar is located in the heart of Condrieu and the vines are located in Condrieu, Cote-Rotie, and St.-Joseph, all on steep hillsides that have to be worked and harvested entirely by hand, a labour-intensive process, but one which ensures that great attention is paid to the vines and fruit. 

His meticulousness doesn’t end there; in the cellar, he destems some, but not all of the crop, depending on the vintage. He uses only wild yeasts and manipulates the wine as little as possible. He vinifies wines in partly new oak. Maturation is done in small oak barrels, with a proportion new. 

He does not rack and uses minimal amounts of sulphur.