Rhone Wine Information

The Rhone Valley is well known for its spicy, fiery red wines, although it does make a very small amount of white and rose wine as well. The Rhone is in the southeast of France, from Vienne to the north to little Riez in the south. Perhaps best known of all Rhone wines is the Hermitage wine, created in the northern section of the Rhone valley.

Northern Rhone has the Hermitage wines, as well as Cote Rotie and Condrieu. The vineyards in this section are along a very narrow strip of land, with most wineries using syrah grapes. A few, such as Condrieu, use viognier, and other grapes are used very infrequently.

Southern Rhone is far different geographically than Northern Rhone, with a very Mediterranean feel to it. The southern area of Rhone is best known for its Grenache grape usage. This region boasts the Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines. In addition to grenache, the region grows a wide variety of lesser grapes such as muscat, cinsault, cargnan, and so on. These wines tend to be mellower and easy to drink.

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