Rhône if you want to!
Rhône Around the World!

Last week, we tasted wines from the Loire Valley in northwest France. This week, we plunge to France’s opposing corner to another of their great wine regions defined by its river, the Rhône Valley!

Running 503 mi long, the Rhône starts in the Swiss Alps and enters east central France to snake west over to Lyon, where it turns south, dropping through Avignon, before emptying out into the Mediterranean Sea.

Though France has more famous wine regions, there is something just classically “French” about Rhône wines. Major red grapes are Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre, while major white grapes are Roussanne and Viognier.

We divide the region into two parts — the Northern Rhône and the Southern Rhône, where in the Northern Rhône you can find appellations like Condrieu, Saint-Joseph, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Cornas, while the Southern Rhône gives us Côtes du Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages, and, of course, Châteauneuf-du-Pape.*

Please join us this Wine Wednesday when we’ll wind our way (and wine our way) from north to south, from white to red, and never switch the channel from what would’ve been our favorite 90s sitcom - Everybody Loves Rhône!

*(No Châteauneuf-du-Pape at this tasting. We’ll have a Châteauneuf tasting later!)