Rhone Wine: Red Wines from the Northern Rhone Valley in France

Rhone wine is from a number of different AOCs in the Rhone Valley wine region of France. The northern and southern French wine regions are very different. This section mostly covers the northern region. Visit French Wine Region: Reds from the Southern Rhone Valley to learn more about the southern region and its wines.

The Rhone Valley is the second largest producer of AOC wines in France. Over 6,000 producers grow grapes for wines in this region. This also makes it the largest employer in the region.

Located in southeastern France, Rhone wine from the northern region is just to the south of the Beaujolais wine region in Burgundy. This wine region of France starts about 20 miles just south of the famous town of Lyon.

The Rhone River is a large body of water that cuts through the center of the region. Most of the wineries in the northern valley are very close to the river.

Rhone wine in the northern region makes up just 4% of the production in the entire Rhone Valley.

The climate in this region is a continental climate. Summers are usually hot and sunny, but not too hot. During harvest time, wine makers encounter dry days. Winters include snow and cool temperatures, which allows the vines to go fully dormant for a few months every year.

The continental climate in this French wine region is one of the factors for the variability of the vintages. Bourgogne wine, from the Burgundy region, has the same climate. It also faces quite a bit of variability of wine quality from year to year.

Many of the vineyards on in the northern Rhone region are located on steep slopes. In ancient times, the Romans cleared these slopes and built terraces for wine making in the region. Due to these steep inclines, the majority of the grapes are still handpicked today.

As with the other regions in France, Rhone wine has a number of different quality levels. Visit the French Wine Region: Reds from the Southern Rhone Valley to learn more about the quality levels for all wines in this region. It also discusses which AOCs fall inside and outside the Cotes du Rhone production zone.

History of French Wine in the Rhone Valley

Around 600 BC: Around this time, the Greeks were moving wine through the region along the Rhone River.

Around 125 BC: As with other French wine regions, around this time, the Romans moved into the Rhone wine valley. They took over the vineyards and began real wine making in the northern Rhone Valley. The production of fine French wine here turned it into a key wine production area in ancient times.

1300s: Toward the beginning of the 1300s, the Catholic Church governance moved from Rome to Avignon. Many of the popes during this time preferred Bourgogne wine from Burgundy. However, some of them were also drinking the local wines and eventually they really began to enjoy them. When Pope John XXII took over the papacy, he built a new castle in the Rhone Valley region. The French term is “Chateauneuf-du-Pape” or new castle of the pope. Soon the local village took on the name. The French wine labels for village wines also use this name. This is now one of the most recognized wines and regions in the Rhone.

1737: King Louis XV enforced a stamp of CDR on all the cases with Cotes du Rhone wine. This was to officially distinguish them from others French wines in the region.

1870s: Phylloxera hit the Rhone Valley and many other French wine regions. Due to the destruction, French wine makers pulled and replaced their original vines. They replaced them with French vines grafted onto Phylloxera resistant American rootstock. Most vines throughout Europe still use this method today as insurance against this nasty bug. The picture to the right shows some young French vines grafted to Phylloxera resistant roots.

1923: Due to wine fraud, a local by the name of Baron Pierre created the first official wine regulation in the region. The new rule provided guidelines on Rhone wine production and created a guarantee of quality in the region. It also helped protect the region against fraud.

1935: Baron Pierre becomes one of the founding members of the INAO, which created the AOC system in France. Visit the French wine labels page to learn more about this system and the how it regulates quality in the French wine regions.

1956: Winter freeze hits the Rhone Valley. The temperature stayed below freezing for a number of days. The severity and length of the freeze killed most of the olive and fruit trees in the region. However, the vines survived. This was when the wine producing in the region grew as many farmers replaced other produce with wine after the severe freeze.

1990s: The wine in the region continued to increase through the 1980s and into the 1990s. Around this time, a group called the Rhone Rangers, American Rhone grape varietal wine makers, heavily promoted the types of red wine from this region and gained a lot of attention. Also during this time, Australia heavily marketed and gained attention for their Shiraz wine, which is from the Syrah grape. All of this external attention created more awareness for this region in France.

Rhone Wines: Reds from the Northern French Wine Region

Over 80% of the wine in the Rhone Valley is red. The majority of the red wine from the northern Rhone Valley is Syrah wine. Very few of the red wines in the regions are blends, but some of the AOCs allow wine makers to add a certain percentage of white wine. This softens the wine of this otherwise highly tannic red wine variety.

The northern side of this wine region in France is quite small. As I mentioned above, it only produces a small amount of wine in the entire region. However, the more expensive and higher end red wines come from this part of the Rhone Valley.

Reds in the north are required to have at least 10 to 10.5% alcohol by volume. It is slightly different by AOC. This is less than the southern Rhone region because the grapes in the north do not always ripen as fully. You will find that most wines in the region exceed this and have more than required amount.

The best recent vintages for the northern region are 2000, 2001, 2003*, 2004, 2005, 2006*, 2007 and 2009. Those with stars are the best vintages on the list.

The highest quality wines are from cru AOCs. There are eight cru AOCs in the northern Rhone. Five of these focus on red wine. Here are the names of these top red wine AOCs and a little information about each one.

Find some great red Rhone wines:

• Northern Rhone Reds $20 or Less
• Northern Rhone Reds $20 to $40
• Cotes du Rhone Reds
• More Rhone Reds - All Prices