Cotes du Rhone - TonghamTaster’s French Wine Tasting Course – week 19

The 12 month on-line course to help you learn about French wines - Top tips on how to get value when buying them - Reasonably priced up-to-date recommendations of what to buy and try in the UK - Bringing you the best of Tongham Village Hall wine tastings.

INTRODUCTION
This week we start our discovery of the Rhone valley wines with the very well known Cotes du Rhone and Cotes du Rhone Villages wines. But how much do you really know about these wines?

LOCALITY
The Rhone valley wine region runs from Vienne just south of Lyon to Avignon and slightly beyond. The generic appellations we are looking at this week cover this whole rather large area but these wines mainly come from the southern part of the area between Montelimar and Avignon. The vineyards given over to the Cotes du Rhone AOC are often the flatter sites. Being relatively close to the Mediterranean this is a quite dry and windswept region.

VARIETALS
The red and rose wines of Cotes du Rhone may contain, in theory, many different grape varietals. In practice the main varietals are Grenache Noir, which normally dominates, plus Syrah and Mourvedre. The Village wines must contain at least 80% of these varietals. Another 10 different black grape varietals (Cinsault, Carignan etc) are permitted and even some white grapes used in the region are permitted.
The white wines of Cotes du Rhone are mainly made with Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier and Bourboulenc.

THE WINES

There must be few people who have drunk cheaper French wines who have not drunk red Cotes du Rhone. It is a wine you will find in almost every wine shop, supermarket, bar, brasserie and restaurant in France and beyond. It ranges from cheap plonk, through good value easy drinking red and rose wine, to some interesting serious reds.
Cotes du Rhone Villages represents higher quality than Cotes du Rhones as it has stricter regulations and requires lower yields. In addition about 20 of the top villages are allowed to append their names to the Cotes du Rhone Villages appellation – these represent the cream of these generic wines – look out for names such as Cairanne and Seguret on the labels.
The white wines are less well known and frankly I don’t favour them very much, although occasionally I find one to my liking. The roses are often good value quaffable wines.

THE TASTE
These wines can be light and fruity towards the bottom end but can also be quite big powerful wines at the top end. Very often there will be a spiciness to the wines. Don’t expect too much from the cheaper wines which are produced in huge quantities using carbonic maceration by the cooperatives. However, the top end Cotes du Rhone Villages can be fantastic value and quite special. These vary from Syrah dominated wines that will resemble a Crozes Hermitages to wines containing a blend of the main varietals aping a Chateauneuf du Pape.
Most Cotes du Rhone are good drunk young so no need to cellar these wines.

TOP TIPS
• Look out for Cotes du Rhone Villages as these are amongst the best value red wines in France. Do try some of the more expensive ones if recommended.
• 2007 and 2009 were great vintages in the Rhone Valley so you are almost guaranteed a pleasant wine if you buy Cotes du Rhone or Cotes du Rhone Villages from these years.

HOMEWORK
After struggling to find the wines of the South West you will have no trouble completing your homework this week. Buy and try one of the generic Rhone appellation wines which may include the following:

Waitrose - Guigal 2007 Côtes du Rhône Red– about £10 (highly recommended) - also available at Majestic and many other stores.
or if on a budget - Asda - Cellier des Dauphins Cru Cotes du Rhone Villages Vinsobres 2009 - about £6,
or Sainsbury - Taste the Difference Cotes du Rhone Villages 2009 - also about £6.

FOOD PAIRINGS
These wines will normally match well with any simple or spicy beef and lamb dishes, such as cottage pie or shepherds pie.  I tend to think of these as weekday wines rather than weekend wines. I find the whites go well with mild fish and vegetable curries. They are also party wines to be drunk on their own.

COMING SOON
Next week we cover the Southern Rhone red wine appellations such as Chateauneuf du Pape and Gigondas.  If you missed the early weeks of this course, it is not too late to catch up. Just click on the French Wine Course link at the top of this page.