Rhone

Similar to Burgundy, Rhone valley is another long, narrow, north-south towards viticulture area in France, where the Rhone River runs through. Rhone valley starts at Vienne (below Burgundy) from North and extends southwards to Avignon (close to Mediterranean Sea). The whole region is divided into two parts from Valence city (44.55 degrees parallel): Northern Rhone and Southern Rhone, due to their geological and viticulture features. It has long history of fine wine production. In old days back to 18th and 19th century, the Hermitage (appellation located in northern Rhone) is recognized as one of the finest wine region, producing equally quality wine as Lafite and Romanee Conti. And now it is pronouncing its capabilities to the world again.

The AC system of Rhone valley is less complicated than the one of Bordeaux or Burgundy. With the generic Cote du Rhone AC, which is produced across the whole region, most of the rest are classified as commune AC, such as Cote Rotie, Condrieu, Hermitage from the North and Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Cote Ventoux, Gigondas from the South.

Rhone produces more reds than whites. It also does some fortified dessert wine as well and little bit cremant sparkling. In northern Rhone, Syrah and Viognier (the white grapes) play a big role. At the very north of Rhone, Cote Rotie normally has less than 10% of Viognier blended into their reds as well. In southern Rhone, Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault and Mourvedre are the most important grapes for red blends. Whites are normally made from Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne etc.

Rhone Valley’s wine tends to be high in alcohol, comparing with Bordeaux and Burgundy. The whites are aromatic, perfume, oily, and full bodied with high alcohol. The reds are varied from dark in colour, floral and perfume (Cote Rotie mainly), peppery, blackfruit, full bodied and tannic from the North to light in colour, jammy, rich in blackfruit, full bodied and silky from South.

Food matching:

The good Rhone blanc could go well with Salmon, Asparagus etc. The aromatic, spicy and warm white is good compliment of Asian style cuisine, i.e. Japanese Sushi, Thai curry etc.
The red Rhone’s great compliment is lamb racks. Also it goes well with dark casserole, beef, and offal etc.