A real mouthful

Vidal East Coast Viognier 2008. Photo / Babiche Martens

It's words like rindfleischetikettierungsuberwachungsaufgaben-ubertragungsgesetz that deterred me from studying German. Similarly, people have been scared off asking for viognier, due to the difficulty they have pronouncing it. So much so its makers have been urging wine drinkers to just say "vee-on-yay" to get this up and coming French grape variety into their glasses.

Viognier is a new variety for New Zealand, made for little over a decade and still only accounting for a tiny fraction of our total production. However, it's starting to become something of an underground success.

"Recently a combination of increased public awareness of fringe varieties, the high quality of New Zealand viognier that's being produced and a desire to be more adventurous in our wine selections has led to a 30 per cent increase in sales over the last year while the total market grew at 6 per cent," says business insights analyst Bernard Budel of Villa Maria, one of around 35 wineries now working with the variety in the country.

In Australia, they've had a longer time to grapple with its complexities. After Yalumba pioneered it in the early eighties, it's now planted in most of the country's wine regions and made by 350 wineries.

Last month, Yalumba winemaker Louisa Rose was in Gisborne to share her thoughts on the challenges of making and marketing the grape with our viognier growers at a symposium on the subject. Problematic in its pronunciation, this wily white is also hard to make, but well worth persevering with, maintains Rose.

"Once we unravelled some of its trickiness we found it wasn't that hard a variety: and once you get a hint at how gorgeous the wines can be you can't stop."

Making wines which Rose describes as "seductive, luscious, opulent, viscous and full-flavoured with exotic aromas of apricot, white peaches, lychee and ginger", its charms have certainly started to captivate Australian wine drinkers... despite its language barrier.

"We worried about the issues with pronunciation, in particular with the Y Series [that retails for $16 in NZ]," Rose recalls. "However, it took off quickly and became one of our fastest growing products, even if people couldn't pronounce it! But we did also do some ad campaign education as well so people knew how to say it."

In New Zealand more wineries are starting to spread the word, with encouraging results. "We've launched a small scale public awareness campaign through in-store point of sale to educate consumers and take some of the fear away from asking for the interesting looking wine with the funny name," says Budel. "This has helped Villa Maria sales of viognier grow by 77 per cent in the last quarter alone."

In Australia, viognier's popularity has been boosted by it being blended with shiraz, something that's starting to be embraced by our wineries, but less often highlighted on the label. "There is very much increasing interest and popularity with shiraz blends and is certainly the case with shiraz viognier, which is a little new and distinctly different in style," notes Nigel Dolan, chief winemaker at Australia's Wyndham Estate.

"Around that nice shiraz core of dark fruit, the viognier adds a great fragrance and spice as well as softening and adding texture to the palate - it just works really well, particularly as a wine with food."

If you want a taste of viognier's full-on flavour experience, it's something definitely worth attempting to articulate. And it's a darn site easier than some of the German tongue twisters that so stumped me!

Voluptuous viogniers

Great value from vidal

Vidal East Coast Viognier 2008 $19.99
Vidal's excellent and eminently affordable viognier goes from strength to strength, with this vintage offering a rich and spicy mouthful of viscous ripe apricot, clove and nutmeg.
(Widely available from supermarkets and selected retail outlets.)

Pioneer pick

Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier, Australia 2007 $27
A high-calibre and concentrated example from Australian viognier pioneers Yalumba that exudes attractive notes of fleshy apricot kernel and white peach, ginger and a lovely citrusy freshness on the finish.
(From Caro's, First Glass.)

Smooth and spicy red

Wyndham Estate Bin 515 South Eastern Australia Shiraz Viognier 2006 $16.95
Viognier is used to enhance the aromatics of shiraz/syrah, as is evident in this easy drinking example with lifted notes of spice and cedar on the nose. These lead into a smooth and spicy palate with ripe blackcurrant fruit and hints of licorice.
(From grocery outlets and selected fine wine retailers.)

As well as the wines recommended here, other local producers of notable viogniers include Alpha Domus, Clayridge, Coopers Creek, Hans Herzog, Millton, Te Mata, Trinity Hill and Villa Maria.