The top selection of white wines includes the 2006 Condrieu Les Mandouls, a new offering from Ferraton that is super. This is aged in both tank and 550-liter demi-muids and exhibits plenty of crushed peach, white currant, lychee, and some stunning acidity buttressing the fleshy flavors. This is a beauty, and a breakthrough effort for Ferraton. As I said last year, Michel Chapoutier is expending considerable amounts of money and energy to upgrade the wines of Ferraton. He still controls the biodynamic farming of many of their vineyards, and is totally responsible for the negociant blends that are put together. His emphasis is on terroir, purity of fruit, and earlier bottling to preserve the wine’s character. I thought the 2006s were perhaps his strongest overall vintage since he has been running this enterprise. In approaching the Ferraton wines, one has to realize the lower end is the negociant range, which include their generic Cotes du Rhones, the Crozes-Hermitage La Matiniere, the St.-Joseph, and the Hermitage Les Miaux, and then of course, the single-vineyard wines such as the St.-Joseph Les Oliviers, Ermitage Les Dionnieres, Ermitage Le Meal, and Crozes-Hermitage Le Grand Courtil. Importer: A French Paradox, Peoria, IL; tel. (309) 682-8994