Escapades in the vineyards of Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu: clusters of gold and garnet

Côte-rôtie, Condrieu… prestigious wine names that today make lovers of good wines dream, but which, in the 1970s and 80s, after a century of decline, almost disappeared. These small-production wines (with a respective surface area of ​​approximately 343 and 220 hectares) are very popular today. “The notion of plot-by-plot, of micro-terroir is very strong. Many small vintages are vinified separately, with the aim of allowing each plot to express itself,” explains Florian Marcelin, wine geographer and project manager at the Vienne-Condrieu tourist office.

Located in a bend of the Rhône near Vienne, in the Rhône corridor with strong, cleansing winds, the hillsides benefit from good sun exposure and soil suitable for vines. “The Rhône separates the Massif Central from the Alpine massif. On the right bank, the metamorphic rocks of the Massif Central (schist and granite) produce small, concentrated grapes with low yields. There are two resurgences on the left bank, near Vienne and at Hermitage.”

Here, only two grape varieties thrive: Syrah for the reds and Viognier for the whites, with up to 20% Viognier allowed in the Côte-Rôtie appellation. With steep slopes, sometimes inclined at 50 degrees, the vineyard is worked entirely by hand, with the proportion of labor compared to the national average ranging from one to ten! This terroir, with its very specific relief and soils, was already producing renowned wines in Roman times.

Roman writings from the 1st century AD already attest to the cultivation of vines around Vienne. “The Viennese vineyard is quite well documented. These are very expensive wines, known as far away as Rome, which the poet Martial mentions in the 1st century. Vienne is renowned for its vinum picatum, its sticky wine. According to Columella, pitch was added to the wine, while Pliny the Elder speaks of grape varieties with a natural pitchy taste. If we don't know the grape variety, we know that it has trouble growing in other areas,” recalls Christophe Caillaud, head of experimental archaeology and wine tourism at the Gallo-Roman Museum and Sites of Saint-Romain-en-Gal.

One thing is certain: the taste of the wine the Romans drank was very different from ours. “ The wine was macerated with fruit, herbs, seawater, or even vegetable tar,” explains Florian Marcelin. “While we sometimes lack the dosages, we know the ingredients and the processes,” adds Christophe Caillaud.

The Gallo-Roman Museum has been growing a small vineyard on its site for about twenty years and has also been involved in the production of a defrutum , a concentrated must, reduced by boiling with the addition of quince and aromatic herbs. Trials with sea water, iris root and fenugreek have also taken place.

“Most ancient wines are characterized by being quite sweet, and therefore quite liqueur-like. The Romans diluted them with water. They have similar profiles to vin jaune, with oxidative aromas. The Romans kept their wine for a very long time. Falerno, a Roman wine from Campania, north of Naples, could be drunk after ten or fifteen years.”

Were the wines red or white? “The Greeks and Romans tended to look for sweet white wines. They did not master the practice of maceration, and therefore of coloring the must. But given the time taken for manual harvesting and the relatively long crushing, they must nevertheless have extracted a little color,” concludes Christophe Caillaud.

At the Saint-Romain-en-Gal museum, an exceptional mosaic, unique in its size, found in the neighboring village of Sainte-Colombe, presents a superb representation of vines.

They are at the heart of the punishment of Lycurgus, depicted here. This Thracian king, renowned for cutting off the hands and feet of travelers passing through his territory, tries to capture Ambrosia, Dionysus's wet nurse, as Dionysus and his companions cross his kingdom. Hearing his prayer, the earth goddess Gaia opens the ground, causes her to disappear, and a giant vine to grow in its place. This is the tragic moment of this myth that is illustrated here. The vine ends up suffocating Lycurgus, who, in another version, in the grip of madness, cuts off the limbs of his children, mistaking them for the vines of the vine.

“This mosaic probably decorated a reception room, probably a dining room, where we can imagine banquets taking place, the mosaic playing the role of a mise en abyme between the real and the divine banquet. Since hospitality was an important value in Antiquity, history also plays a moral role,” Christophe Caillaud explains.

Dating from the 2nd-3rd centuries AD, this mosaic presents a beautiful structured composition, standing out from the geometric patterns found in the other mosaics in the museum.

Full of detail, a dozen birds are reproduced, even on the branches of vines. Lycurgus is completely naked, wearing only a pair of boots. “This is often a way of representing barbarian peoples, that is, for the Greeks and Romans, all those who do not speak Greek.”

Also not to be missed is the Seasons mosaic, restored by the museum and returning to its original location until 2027, before returning to the National Archaeology Museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This exceptionally large mosaic depicts scenes related to wine, such as the crushing of grapes and the pitching of jars.

*Grand(e)s Cru(e)s Trail: loop starting from the parking lot of the observation center on Île du Beurre (3 kilometers, allow 1 hour 15 minutes)