Stéphane Montez's family have been growing grapes in the Northern Rhône for ten generations and today have 23 hectares of prime vineyards in Condrieu, Côte Rôtie and Saint-Joseph. After formally studying winemaking in France, Stéphane travelled to South Africa, Australia, California and England to experience winemaking outside France before returning to the family estate. He took over the business in 1997, and has driven the quality of the wines and the domaine's reputation to ever greater heights. His winemaking style focuses on power, precision and structure achieved through temperature-controlled fermentations, careful extraction and the use of demi-muids across the range.

The terraces of winemaker Stéphane's vineyards are to the east of Mont Pilat and are protected from the worst of the weather - his domaine has the lowest rainfall in the region - which ensures concentrated, healthy grapes. Like many people in the new order of Rhône winemaking, Stéphane believes in a reductive style of vinification in order to naturally extract and preserve all the fresh aromatics from his grapes. Although he cannot allude to the northern Rhône Viognier appellation on the label, this "baby Condrieu" ("Petit Viognier" is as close as he could get!) is made from declassified, young vine Condrieu fruit and a little Viognier from selected nearby vineyard sites, grown on granite soils.

It spends nine months in 600L demi-muids to add complexity and harmony without overwhelming the delicious Viognier fruit character.

A delicious aperitif or serve with seafood, grilled sole, cheese soufflé, or steamed Asian dishes with ginger and coriander flavours.