Ep 462: Aurelien Chirat of Vignobles Chirat

Wine for Normal People

Alcohol, Lifestyle, Arts, Education, Food, Wine, Dining, Grapes

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode presents our first ever producer on from the northern Rhône – Aurelien Chirat from Vignobles Chirat.

Photo: Aurelien Chirat. Credit: WFNP

Located in the steep terraced slopes overlooking the Rhone, in the village of Saint Michel sur Rhône, Vignobles Chirat began in 1925 when Benoit Chirat harvested his first Syrah at the Domaine. In 1948, his son George joined and worked with Benoit until 1970. Viognier was planted on their site in Condrieu in 1980 and the real changes to the domaine happened when, in 1984, Gilbert Chirat took over the domain. Within 6 years of his taking the reins, he stopped all the polyculture on the estate and focused only on Syrah and Viognier.

The family moved from focusing on Condrieu, to the wines of Saint Joseph, and then added Côte Rôtie. Aurelien Chirat joined his father in 2012, after completing his studies and working in New Zealand, Burgundy and the south of France. We welcome Aurelien, who I had the pleasure of meeting and spending a lot of time with last year, at the Domaine, learning, and discovering all sorts of things about the northern Rhone I didn’t know.

As always, we discuss, land, winemaking, history, and tradition. For full show notes, join our membership community, Patreon.

Here are the wines we discuss:

Photo: Chirat Condrieu. Credit: WFNP

In the US, many of the wines are available in Total Wine because Chirat works with the negociant business of Laurent Delaunay, who has been on the podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Wine for Normal People, the podcast for people who like wine, but not the snobbery
0:12.6	that goes with it.
0:16.0	I'm your host, Elizabeth Schneider, author of the Wine for Normal People Book, and certified
0:20.0	wine dork.
0:21.0	And I'm MC Ice, just a wine-loving normal person.
0:24.2	This podcast is sponsored by Wine Access, go to wineaccess.com slash normal, and join
0:29.8	the wine access, wine for normal people, wine club, four shipments a year of six bottles
0:34.8	of awesome wines that I select, it's a limited offer, join while you can, listen in the
0:39.6	middle of the show for more details.
0:42.2	A small caveat to this podcast, before you listen and you think, God, Elizabeth's voice
0:48.1	sounds a little different.
0:49.4	Yes, I am sick, hopefully you can get over it and enjoy the awesomeness of Aurelion Shira,
0:57.4	such a cool guy with really, really great information on the Northern Roan.
1:01.7	Today, we are having our first ever producer from the Northern Roan on the show, located
1:08.4	in the steep, terraced slopes overlooking the Roan River in the village of San Michel
1:14.1	Soron, Vignol, Shira began in 1925, Benoit, Shira harvested his first Shira at the domain
1:22.2	in 1948, his son, Georges, joined and worked with Benoit until 1970.
1:28.2	Vignet was planted on their site in Kondregyu in 1980, and the real changes to the domain
1:34.0	happened when in 1984, Gilbert, Shira took over the domain, and within six years of his
1:40.8	taking the reins, he stopped all the poly culture on the estate, and focused only on Shira
1:47.1	and Vignet.
1:48.5	The family moved from focusing on Kondregyu to the wines of San Joseph, and then added
	...

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