FB's Wine Corner, Ep 2: The Rhone Valley

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The Knight Gaspard de Sterimberg, wounded and weary following a years long Crusade against heretics in Southern France, requests a boon from the Queen of France: a small hilltop in Southeastern France, near the banks of the Rhone River, where he can rest and recover in solitude, become a hermit, and tend to the land and grape vines that surround it. This seemingly innocuous act gives rise to one of the most famous tiny wine Appellations in the world and its signature grape: Hermitage and its signature grape, Syrah.

The history of Wine is filled with stories such as this, legendary tales of Knights fighting Crusades and Popes moving from Rome to Avignon, that bring texture and substance to what we consume. The Rhone Valley is a historic place, one of the most important wines areas of the world, and yet it does not get the pomp and circumstance that places like Bordeaux and Burgundy do, and subsequently, can have lower prices (with the notable exceptions of places like Hermitage and Cote Rotie.)

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The Rhone Valley is broken down into two general areas: The Northern Rhone and the Southern Rhone.

The Northern Rhone is the spiritual fatherland of one of the world’s most planted grapes: Syrah (called Shiraz in places like Australia). Places like Hermitage and Cote Rotie make the purest (and most EXPENSIVE) expressions of the grape. If you are on more of a budget like me, Crozes-Hermitage is the larger area surrounding the hill and is much much more affordable than Hermitage itself.

The Southern Rhone is known for Grenache primarily, and also grows Syrah and Mourvedre. If you’ve ever seen someone refer to “GSM Blends” that is a blending of the 3 grapes and any time you see the ubiquitous “Cotes du Rhone” in a store and it’s a red wine, that is most often a GSM blend, with Grenache dominating, from the Southern Rhone.