While co-hosting a masterclass at Melbourne’s Food & Wine Festival I was pondering my glass of Yalumba’s Vigilius 2008 while a co-presenter, Nick Stock, described it has his ‘annual glass’ of viognier. I couldn’t remember when I had last spent my own money on a bottle of viognier, but fortunately for the grape, another co-presenter in Max Allen says he does drink it and buy it. Max, however, is aware he’s in a minority. In 2002, Yalumba, Australia’s largest producer of viognier, held a seminar about it. Back then it was seriously considered as a possible replacement for sauvignon blanc. Today its sales are a fraction of what was expected and the number of viogniers in the market has dwindled. Even one of the finer examples in the country, that from By Farr, has reduced its output from 500 to around 200 dozen. There’s nothing wrong with this. History and commonsense are repeating themselves. It’s a minor, but fascinating variety when grown at fastidiously correct sites in Europe. Same here.
