The “Pope of Condrieu” dies
The wine industry was recently saddened to learn of the death of Georges Vernay. Fondly known as the “Pope of Condrieu” he was a tireless advocate of the Viognier grape and fought throughout his life to promote wines from a village abandoned by producers after the war. “I preferred the wines from the slopes to those from the plains which I thought were mediocre” Georges Vernay stated last November. It wasn’t that long ago in fact that wine from the Rhône Valley was sold in bulk, and producers in the Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu…