Traditionally, however, the two best slopes of the “Roasted Hillside A” are known as the Côte Brune and the Côte Blonde. They are separated by nothing more than a deep ravine, but the soil of the former is visibly darker in color, and its wines are said to be, on the whole, a little fuller than those of the Côte Blonde. Names such as Côte Brune and Côte Blonde, in France, could scarcely fail to produce a whole crop of picaresque stories, and it is well established in legend, if not in fact, that a noble lord of Ampuis, named Maugiron, once bequeathed the Côte Blonde to his blonde daughter and the Côte Brune to her dark-haired sister. To judge form the way the vineyards are partitioned today, both daughters must have had a lot of children.
The grape of Côte Rôtie, like that of the Hermitage, is the syrah, though certainly not the syrah or Sirah of California. As is the case with practically all of the great red Burgundies, the best Côte Rôties have 10 per cent or better of white grapes interplanted, but the white grape here is the Vionnier (or Viognier) rather than the Chardonnay.
A genuine Côte Rôtie is said to have the fragrance of violets and raspberries. This is going pretty far, but a good vintage of La Turque or its neighbors is something that a wine lover rarely finds —a great “sleeper” in the average list of French wines, a rustic Lafite, an unsung Chambertin.
Condrieu
Condrieu is the Vouvray of the Rhône. Almost everything that is said of Vouvray, and is false, can be said of Condrieu, and is true. Reputed not to travel,Vouvray crosses the ocean without a qualm; described as short-lived, it has been known to outlast any other white wine of France, except possibly Hermitage. Condrieu, on the other hand, definitely will not travel, is best when about two years old, and is a delightful, capricious little wine, one bottle of which may turn out still and a bit sweet, and the next dry but pétillant or slightly sparkling. These qualities and faults are not, as our ancestors imagined, due to some mysterious, inherent, perverse element in the wine itself—they are the result of a lack of scientific methods of wine-making. A boy who expects to spend his life in a humble village does not require a diplomat's education, though he may turn out to be the better and more honest man of the two, and a wine destined to be drunk within twenty miles of its vineyard, as is most Condrieu and as was most Vouvray sixty years ago, can become an honorable and even distinguished bottle without ever receiving the cellar treatment which a wine must have if it is to go abroad and acquit itself honorably among strangers. To drink good Condrieu, you will do well to go to Lyon, better still, to Vienne, or best of all, to Condrieu itself.
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