This individual, shy-bearing variety was until relatively recently confined to a tiny part of the Rhone Valley, where it produced the famous wines of Condrieu and Chateau Grillet.  Although this variety crept out to Australia in the 1970s, the real explosion did not occur until the 1990s in Languedoc-Roussillon and California.  At its best, Viognier has a lush, aromatic quality, with distinctive peachy character, but it is all too often over-oaked.

Info : The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia 4th Ed by Tom Stevenson