A white grape variety originating in the Northern Rhône and which in the last ten years has been increasingly planted further South in France and now taking hold in the New World.

It has a distinct orange blossom and apricot aroma together with a golden yellow colour, huge weight of tropical fruits with a broad weighty structure.

In the Northern Rhone it is responsible for expensive luscious white wines from the Condrieu appellation, but uniquely it is also blended with the rich powerful Shiraz wines to give an added level of complexity.

Viognier has been on the charge in the Southern Rhône and the Languedoc and is now a key component of many white Côtes du Rhône. In Languedoc and Roussillon it is increasingly being bottled unblended and with notable success with richly fragrant wines.

It is also cropping up further a field, in California and notably with Yalumba in Australia.