I had the pleasure of attending the Rhone Valley Vineyards event on June 15, 2023 in San Francisco’s Westin St. Francis Hotel. Over 30 wineries from Rhone came to San Francisco from Southern France, and provided their wines for tasting and education, and of course export into the USA. Rhone is clearly under represented in the USA compared to say Bordeaux and the French wine industry is well aware of this. The Rhone Valley producers produce an amazing amount of wine, 330 million bottles in 2022 and growing. I got to meet some new wineries of Rhone at this event, as Rhone vineyards (and wine making) continues to grow.
Here are some facts to understand the vastness of the Rhone Valley.
> Rhone Valley is about 9% of all French wine produced
> Cotes du Rhone is about 46% of the total production
> Rhone’s classification system is augmented by distinct Cotes du Rhone Villages that have geographic distinction and focus on a community and terroir.
> About 76% of the production is red wines. Yes White and Rose is INCREASING!
> Blending is far more prevalent in the Rhone than say in the USA, generally speaking, as the USA is a wine culture of identification by varietal. It is how we “identify” the wine, and in France it is by “place”.
If you want to deep dive into the appellations of Rhone I think this is the best link, to go beyond what I state above regarding “communes” of the Rhone.
So what are some other takeaways from the event? I found all the wines delicious and highly varied. There were some real power wines here, as well as white wines with finesse and high acids, and even some sparkling (Cremant). It was very diverse set of winemakers. As far as similarities. It is what you probably would expect from a region that is quite controlled in what it can produce, appellation to appellation. Syrah and Grenache in no particular order were dominant. In fact, GSM blends were all over the room, of course Grenache dominant. Most of the wineries were from the Southern Rhone, as this area in general is much larger in hectares of size than the smaller northern Rhone valley. Therefore, Grenache was more highly represented than Syrah. There was plenty of both, and just enough whites, and rose to keep it interesting.
Here are 5 of the wineries that really impressed us from the tastings. This is not a fair representation of course, because nobody can drink 100+ wines, from about 40 wineries, and come out with any type of rankings or ratings. There was lots of really great wines here, and yes so many of the GSMs were simply too good.
+ Cave de Cairanne
+ Cellier Des Chartreux
+ Alain Jaume
+ Domaine Des Romarins
+ Famille Gassier
Some of these wineries have direct sales on the website.
Two of the wines that had amazing nose, and palate and a great finish at an amazing price were these two. We all agreed these were amazing wines, with lots of value. Certainly value in Rhone is a big thing especially when you leave the small (lower production) zones like Hermitage AOC or Chateaunuef-du-Pape AOC.
What Rhone AOC impressed me the most that I really have not gone deep on yet? I think for very distinct and delicious (and Syrah sultry) red wine from the Southern Rhone, I would have to say.
Let us go into the hills of the Vacqueyras and see what we can find there.
I have to put Vacqueyras on my bucket list.