During the 1990s, Chateau-Grillet fell on hard times, at
least from a product consistency perspective.
Long a maker of one of the finest wines in the world–crafted
from the Viognier grape–some vintages of that decade were modest at best,
even as surrounding estates produced wines of great stature.
Nobody knows for sure what was going on, but what is known
is that Denis Dubourdieu has done a marvelous job of righting the ship since
his hiring in 2001.
That decade of experience served him well recently when
Chateau-Grillet was sold by the Baratin-Canet family–which had owned it since
1830–to Francois Pinault.
If the Pinault name sounds familiar, it’s because he also is
the owner of another rather well-known French wine estate: Chateau Latour in
Bordeaux. Grillet, located in the northern Rhone, makes a very nice addition to
the portfolio.
And the good news is that Pinault has decided to keep
Dubourdieu on as Grillet’s winemaker.
