Wine lovers need look no further than France’s Rhône Valley for a cornucopia of extraordinary red, white, and rosé wines. The region, as well as the region’s wines, are named after the Rhône River which makes a hasty exit from Switzerland’s Lac Leman, better known to Americans as Lake Geneva, and cuts a swift path through southern France to the Mediterranean Sea. The Rhône is not only the source of many of France’s greatest wines, it also lays claim to being a bargain hunter’s paradise.
The wine growing region of the Rhône Valley begins just south of Lyon around the city of Vienne and terminates far south, near Aix-en-Provence. The length of the river allows for two quite distinct wine producing sub-regions in the Rhône Valley; one north and the other south. In the Northern Rhône, one finds granite and gneiss based soils, coupled with a continental climate. Here, Syrah is king of the cultivars, where it reigns as the only permitted red variety. The Northern Rhône is home to such illustrious wines as Côte Rôtie, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Saint Joseph among others. Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier are the permitted white grape varieties in the Northern Rhône. The red wines of the Northern Rhône tend to be highly structured and firm, and often capable of great aging, while the region’s white wines are hauntingly aromatic and most enjoyable in their youth.
The Southern Rhône sub-region announces a warmer Mediterranean climate with substantially varied terroirs. Here alluvium, sand, limestone, marl, pebbles, and large flat stones known as galets predominate. Grenache is the dominant red variety, but there is an incredible wealth of supporting cultivars used for blending, among them Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, and Carignan. The wines of the Southern Rhône are often aromatic and beautifully perfumed, juicy, supple in texture and endowed with considerable weight. Red wines dominate the production in the Southern Rhône. Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Cairanne, Rasteau, Sablet and Côtes-du-Rhône are the names to look for, but one should not discount the wonderful rosé and white wines that increasingly flow from the Southern Rhône. Grenache remains the mainstay for rosé, while Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne, and Viognier yield the region’s finest white wines.
