Cotes du Rhone Red Wine

The Côtes du Rhône is a region that stretches 200 km from Vienne to the north and Avignon in the south and from the foothills of the Massif Central in the west to the slopes of the Vaucluse and Luberon mountains east of the town of Orange. There are 171 communes in the French departments of Ardèche, Bouches du Rhône, Drôme, Gard, Loire, and Vaucluse are concerned with production from the 83,839 hectares of vineyard and is one of the largest single appellation regions in the world.

The Red Wines of Rhone are made from Grenache Noir, Syrah, Cinsault, Carignane, Counoise and Mourvèdre grapes varieties. With the exception of Northern wines, which use the Syrah grape almost exclusively, all reds must contain a minimum of 40% Grenache Noir to be as a Côtes du Rhône Red Wine. T

There are two sub regions of Rhône wines:

1. Côtes du Rhône septentrional which is located in the northern part of the Rhone region from Vienne to Valence. The vines here are cultivated on very steep slopes making the harvest extremely difficult. The grapes must be picked by hand and have to be brought up the hillside by trolleys, something which adds to the price but not necessarily the quality.

2. Côtes du Rhône méridional from Montélimar to Avignon in the southern latitudes, produced by 123 communes. Most of these grapes are cultivated on the eastern side of the Rhône River between the bank near the town of Orange, and the Vaucluse-Luberon mountain chain.

The Red Wines from this region range in color from deep crimson and ruby to almost purple, and are generally full-bodied with rich but smooth tannins, though Lirac and others from the right bank tend to be somewhat lighter. Most of the Cotes du Rhone wines tend to go very well with game and other rich meat dishes.

Years of Production : In general, the year-to-year climate of the region remains fairly constant although there may be rare occasions of spring frost which may damage the buds, thus reducing the overall yield. Drought may also affect the quantity of production. Sunlight levels are usually the average to be expected. The vintage year is therefore not necessarily a sign of differing quality due to extremely good grape growing weather. Vintage is more a guage of how long the Red Wine has been aging.