After Peter Morrell tasted Vidal Fleury’s Côtes du Rhône Rouge and Côtes du Rhône Blanc last year he has now sampled the new Saint-Péray made by this historic and prestigious producer

Founded in 1781, Vidal-Fleury quickly gained international recognition. For example, the company’s first contact with the United States – currently its leading export market – was established with Thomas Jefferson the very same year. As a result, over the past 240 years, Vidal-Fleury counts as one of the most emblematic Houses in the region.

Vidal-Fleury boasts expertise in every domain, including vine-growing, winemaking, maturing, packaging and bottle ageing. As a result, it always supplies products of the highest quality world-wide.

Vidal-Fleury’s philosophy can be summarized as follows: working with top quality grapes from the terroirs of the Rhone Valley and respecting the required time to mature and age the wines, thereby achieving full maturity.

Situated in the Cote-Rotie, the northern tip of the Côtes du Rhône, the producer uses a vast array of Rhone Valley grape varieties. In the North: Syrah, the only red variety is sometimes blended with white varieties such as Viognier in Cote-Rotie; Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne are used to make white wine.

In the South: there is a broader range of varieties. Vidal-Fleury makes its southern red wines with a combination of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. When it comes to the whites, Viognier remains in the limelight, joined by Grenache blanc, Clairette, and Roussanne.

After being very impressed with a tasting of Vidal Fleury’s Côtes du Rhône Rouge 2017 and Côtes du Rhône Blanc 2020 last year I was interested in trying their new Saint-Péray 2020. This wine is from the Northern part of the Rhône Valley. It is a white, single varietal, made with the Marsanne grape. During the aging process 30% of the wine was matured in oak barrels and 70% in stainless steel vats. Throughout the aging the wine is subject to batonnage, which means stirring the settled lees back into the wine, which gives it more flavour.

The wine pours a bright golden colour, and the bouquet has an uplifting freshness about it with good floral and citrus aromas. As the wine moves to the palate aromatic floral notes emerge together with hints of fennel and honey. The wine has good acidity making it ideal as an aperitif, and to drink with delicate dishes like seafood, south-east Asian food, and summer salads.

The Vidal-Fleury Saint-Péray 2020 is available from good wine merchants.

Like the two Vidal-Fleury wines I tasted last year, I can thoroughly recommend the Saint-Péray 2020, the pedigree of Vidal-Fleury with its heritage and tradition are very evident when drinking this wine.