A new addition to the award winning range of premium wines Grand vin de Hauteville, has just been released by the winemaker, Emmanuel Delicata. The new wine is a dry white unoaked wine made entirely from the prestigious white Rhone Valley grape variety Viognier. The 2008 vintage Grand vin de Hauteville Viognier has been classified with Malta D.O.K. Superior status.

This new wine now brings the Hauteville range up to four wines. The other varieties within the range include an oak aged Chardonnay (D.O.K. Malta), a Cabernet Sauvignon (D.O.K. Malta) and a Shiraz Cabernet (D.O.K.Gozo). The Hauteville range of wines were the first range of barrel matured Premium wines on the local market launched twelve years ago in 1997. Since then this range of quality wines have been awarded 18 international awards including a Gold Medal in Bordeaux for the Cabernet Sauvignon and Silver Medals in London, Burgundy and Bordeaux for the Chardonnay.

The new Viognier is the first wine in the range that is unoaked and should complement the selection well. It is a full flavoured, elegant, dry white wine that has good weight on the palate with a soft almost spicy long finish. It will go particularly well with full flavoured dishes especially white meats and poultry like pork, chicken, quail and other meats like veal and rabbit. It will also accompany rich shellfish dishes and steak fish dishes especially if they have been char grilled or barbequed.

It is only in recent years that the Viognier grape has wandered from the shores of France. Many of the new world winemakers are now using it, often with spectacular results. I have even tasted really good Viognier from not so far away in Sicily and I feel sure it will be a much needed white grape variety that will perform well here in Malta. It’s most classic beginnings however are in the Rhone Valley wine region of France where it makes the very unique, scarce and highly priced white wine Condrieu, which is made entirely from the Viognier grape.