Rhône Valley

One river, two vineyards

The Rhône Valley's vineyard runs some two hundred kilometres, from Vienne, just south of Lyon, to the edge of Avignon. But calling it "one" vineyard is misleading: the river links two wine regions that geology, climate and grape variety keep almost entirely apart, held together only by administrative proximity and a shared name. The break falls around Valence, where the continental climate of the north gives way to the Mediterranean regime of the south. To the north, a narrow granitic corridor; to the south, a broad, stony basin open onto Provence. Between the two, nearly eighty kilometres with no vineyard of note.

The Northern Rhône: Syrah alone on vertical terraces

Between Vienne and Valence, the Rhône has cut its bed into a crystalline base — granite, gneiss, mica-schist — on slopes so steep that they had to be carved into terraces held up by drystone walls, known locally as "chaillées" or "banquettes". The vine is trained on a single stake, "en échalas", a method of pruning and trellising handed down over centuries and suited to these narrow plots. The climate, continental, runs cool for the latitude, tempered by the river and by breezes that check summer heat.

In the reds of the crus — Côte-Rôtie in the north, then Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, the Hermitage hill and Cornas — Syrah is the only black grape allowed. A few white grapes may go into these reds: Viognier at Côte-Rôtie, interplanted up to 20%, and Marsanne and Roussanne at Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage and Saint-Joseph. These white grapes are also vinified on their own: Marsanne and Roussanne in the white wines of Hermitage and Saint-Péray, Viognier in the stand-alone appellations of Condrieu and Château-Grillet. Cornas is the extreme case: one grape, Syrah, on one commune.

The Southern Rhône: Grenache and rolled pebbles

South of Montélimar, the landscape changes entirely. The valley widens, the hills soften, and the ground opens onto vast stony terraces left behind by the river's former beds — the famous "Villafranchian terraces" of rolled pebbles ("galets roulés"), best known at Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where the stones give back overnight the heat they store during the day, pushing the grapes toward earlier ripeness. The climate turns properly Mediterranean, hot and dry in summer, swept by the mistral, a north wind that runs the length of the valley: it dries out the vineyard and keeps fungal disease in check, but also calls for low, sturdy vine training to withstand its gusts.

Here, no single grape will do: Grenache leads complex blends in which Syrah and Mourvèdre add structure and colour, while a long list of complementary varieties — Cinsaut, Counoise, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Roussanne and more besides — contribute freshness, spice or nuance depending on each estate's practice. Châteauneuf-du-Pape is the fullest expression of this, with thirteen varieties traditionally cited in its authorised list (eighteen distinct varieties if each berry colour of Grenache, Clairette and Piquepoul is counted separately) — but Gigondas, Vacqueyras or Cairanne follow the same principle of blending, each with its own proportions and its own complementary grapes.

A three-tier hierarchy

The whole Rhône vineyard is organised, much as Burgundy or Bordeaux are, but on its own logic. At the base, the regional appellation "Côtes du Rhône" covers the entire basin — a hundred and seventy-one communes across six départements, from Vienne to Avignon — and accounts for the great bulk of the volume produced. Above it, "Côtes du Rhône Villages" singles out communes, or groups of communes, judged capable of a higher quality level, some entitled to attach their own name to the "Villages" mention (Cairanne, Vinsobres, Rasteau, and others). At the top sit the crus, each its own free-standing appellation of controlled origin, independent of the "Côtes du Rhône" name itself: Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Château-Grillet, Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, Cornas and Saint-Péray in the north; Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Lirac and Tavel, among others, in the south. Each cru has its own specification, its own delimited area and, often, its own history of recognition — Châteauneuf-du-Pape's, among the oldest, going back to the interwar years.