Northern vs. Southern Rhone

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. With all of the emphasis and increased popularity of Syrah and it being described as a Rhone wine I thought today we would explore the differences between the northern and southern Rhone wines.

As in most of France, the regions from where the wines originate will determine which grapes are making up the wines. The Rhone region of France sits in the Rhone River Valley. In the northern portion of the region the primary red grape used to make wine is Syrah. However in the southern sub region of the Rhone there is a good deal of blending of other grapes with Syrah very often the dominate grape in the blend being Grenache. An excellent example is the famous wine Chateauneuf-du-Pape, which is often the blend of as many as thirteen different types of grapes, including white grapes.

In the north there are standards which dictate the amounts of white grapes such as Viognier, Marsanne or Rousanne can be blended with the Syrah to create of the styles of wines in the region. To me, it gets very complicated. And to complicate it further as in other regions of France there are classification. In the Rhone there are four, Cotes du Rhone which is the lowest classification, followed by Cotes du Rhone Villages, and then Cotes du Rhone Villages – with the village name included, (19 of those qualify) and the the Cru wines identifying the 15 appellations and they are supposed to be the best of the Rhone wines. If you are in the market for Rhone wines I recommend you ask your wine merchant for help or just pop open a nice juicy Washington Syrah! Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.