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Viognier White Wine
Viognier
Viognier 
Once quite a popular and then a very rare grape variety grown almost only in the Rhône regions of France, Viognier (pronounced vee-OH-nyay) has been planted much more extensively around the world since the early 1990s. Both California and Australia now have significant amounts of land devoted to culivating the Viognier grape. There are also sizable increases in planting throught out the United States as well as in other countries.
The decline of Viognier in France from its peak has much to do with the disastrous introduction of Phylloxera insects from North America into Europe in the mid- and late-1800s, followed thereafter by the abandonment of the vineyards due to the chaos of World War I. By 1965, only about 30 acres of Viognier vines remained in France, and the variety was almost completely wiped out. Even as late as the mid-1980s, Viognier in France was endangered.
Viognier grapes can often be hard to grow. Its vines do not produce suffient quantities compared to other grapes and the variety is not very resistant to disease or fungal infections. Some wine critics feel that the regions of France where it traditionally is grown is essential to its best expression in wine.this grape should be picked at just the right time not to early or to late. This grape prefers a warmer climate and a long growing season, but can grow in cooler areas as well. It is a grape with low acidity; it is sometimes used to soften wines made predominantly with the Syrah grape.
The best quality Viognier wines are best known for their floral aromas, due to terpenes, which are also found in Muscat and Riesling wines. There are also many other potent flower and fruit aromas which can be found in these wines, depending on where come from, the weather conditions and how old the vines were, with vines greater than twenty years old thought to be superior to younger vines. Although some of these wines, especially those from old vines and the late-harvest wines, are suitable for aging, most should be consumed young. Viogniers more than three years old tend to lose much of their floral aromas that make this wine unique. Keeping these wines too long will yield a very crisp drinking wine which is almost completely flat in the nose.
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