The Northern Rhone
From Cote-Rotie to Saint-Peray
The Northern Rhone is a ribbon of land alongside the Rhone that produces reds from Syrah and whites from Viognier, Roussanne, and Marsanne. The river itself divides the land into west and east banks, on the western side: Cote-Rotie, Condrieu, Chateau Grillet, Saint-Joseph, Cornas and Saint-Peray; the eastern side has: Hermitage, and Crozes-Hermitage. The northern Rhone has always made wine that would keep for many years and only recently have wines begun to be made that don’t require years in bottle to become drinkable, though some of the best examples of the wine can live for many decades. The land, which was always hard to farm, is becoming profitable again with the rising value of the regions wine, and land that had been lost to scrub and neglect is coming back under vine. The most precocious of the appellations is Crozes-Hermitage. A minor crozes will be mature after after four years. Saint-Josephs will begin to be ready a year or so after that, and Cote-Roties after six or seven years. The slowest maturing wines are Cornas and Hermitage. These need a minimum of eight years aging. Only top oak-aged, white Hermitage can last in bottle, they will be ready after five to six years in bottle.
Cote-Rotie
The most northerly vineyard in the Rhone, it is one of the most difficult to work, it is centered around the village of Ampuis on the west bank. In places the incline on this section of the riverbank is as much as 55 degrees, which makes all the vineyard work by hand or horse. Cote-Rotie produces a limited amount of elegant syrah based wine that needs aging in bottle. Since the 1950s slowly but surely the vineyards of Cote-Rotie have been making a comeback, the amount of wine being made has increased seven fold over the last sixty years. Cote-Rotie comprises some 200 hectares and the best vineyards are the ones directly above Ampuis, it has been tradition to declare the ones to the north as Cote-Brune and the ones to the south as Cote-Blond. The soils in the Cote Brune is sand mixed with clay over hard gneiss bedrock; in the Cote Blonde the soil is lighter with more limestone over the same bedrock, it is often planted with Viognier. Though leading growers do produce single vineyard wines most today is blended from several parcels all over the Cote-Rotie, the 200 or so hectares are spread between fifty families so most of the growers have to supplement their income with other sources.
The wine is made by traditional methods, often being fermented with the stalks and macerated for two or even three weeks. Aging can be in barrique or in foudre and for more then two or three years before bottling. In the barrique the wine has more contact with air and develops quicker. In the foudre which more often than not will be considerably encrusted with tartrate crystals, the wines will age more slowly; indeed, it can often remain dumb, drying out in fruit without softening in tannin and so deteriorate, if the winemaker is sloppy with his elevage. The last few decades have seen a decisive cleaning up of the winemaking process. The younger generation who have all been to wine school, fully understand the need for meticulous attention to detail in the maturation process, of keeping the barrels topped up, of tempurature control, of the desirability of minimal handling at maturation. There are still some cellars where times seems to have stood still, but also an increasing number of of highly commendable ‘modern’ wines combining the best of the old with the best of the new.
Condrieu
Condrieu, is home to one of the most rare and mysterious white wines of France, lies on the west bank of the Rhone adjacent to the vineyards of Cote-Rotie, just where the river makes an S-bend after passing the town of Vienne. The name comes from the coin de ruisseau, or corner of the stream — though one would be hard put to describe the wide, muddy, polluted rhone as a ruisseau. Until recently the names Condrieu and Chateau Grillet were names one encountered in books rather than wines one could taste. As with many of the vineyards in this part of the Rhone, the precipitous hillsides topped with deciduous woods had, until recently, a somewhat sorry, decayed aspect. A hundred years ago this was a flourishing vineyard. The difficulties of working the land and the lure of an easier ‘nine to five’ life in the factories and offices of Vienne and Lyon, together with the temptation today of high prices offered by real estate speculators intent on developing the land for holiday homes, have led to an abandonment of the slopes. Scrub and Bramble cover the ancient terraces, the walls of which have crumbled away. Here and there the vines are planted but most is once again nature’s domaine. The last few decades have seen a renaissance in this part of the world. First it was neighbouring Cote-Rotie which was ‘discovered.’ Prices rose and then rose again. Once more it became economical to to plant vines on what are some of the steepest vineyard hills in europe.
The Viognier is not an easy vine to grow, nor is it productive, it is rarely found outside of Condrieu and Chateau Grillet. The Viognier is susceptible to both coulure and millerandage; the latter more than the former for even after a successful flowering the grapes may remain shrivelled and undeveloped. The vine is however is long lived it may last seventy five years and produce its best fruit between twenty-five to fifty years of age. Yields are low and while the appellation laws permit a maximum yield of 30 hectoliters a hectare the average yield is barely half that and 1994 one of the most abundant years anyone can remember Georges Vernay only produced 28 hl/ha, the most he has every had in his long and celebrated career.
Chateau Grillet
The chateau of Grillet rests in the middle of its vineyard above the village of Saint-Michel-sur-Rhone. The soil, poorer than in Condrieu, is a decomposed, almost powdery granite rich in mica. The vineyard itself could not be more ideally situated. It is a natural amphitheater, facing due south, steep, terraced, sheltered, a veritable sun-trap. With such a perfect setting it was natural that something out of the ordinary would be produced. One of the smallest appellations in france at three hectares it is only larger than La Romanee-Conti and La Romanee of burgundy.
Hermitage
The apogee of the Syrah grape is reached in the Hermitage. Looming above the bustling town of Tain is the granite hill of Hermitage. By a quirk of geography the hill of Hermitage is comprised of a granite base over which lies a thin layer of decomposed flint and chalk. Odd because the surrounding countryside is is a mixture of limestone and clay. The one hundred and thirty odd hectares of vines are subdivided into a number of climats or individual vineyards, and most of these are split between a number of owners. Each site produces a wine which varies subtly from the others, and most growers and negociants make a wine which is carefully blended from many of the plots. In Topographie de Tous les Vignobles(1816) Andre Jullien lists the three best Climats: Les Bessards, at the western end of the hill, producing a full sturdy wine; Le Meal, next door with a deeper layer of flint and chalk, producing a wine of fine perfume; and Les Greffieux, below Le Meal making generous supple wine. The ideal is said to be a blend of the three. Cultivation on the steep hill is a problem. While spraying these days is done by helicopter, the Jaboulets of Paul Jaboulet Aine still reckon on one labourer per hectare on the hill rather then one per ten hectares on the flatter Crozes vineyards. Though not as precipitous as Cote-Rotie the terrain is steep and the fragile layer of topsoil has to be protected within terraces, or too much would be washed away. Much of the plowing is still done by horse and mule, as machines capable of working on the steep hill are only being developed now.
The hill of Hermitage makes both red and white wine. About twenty percent of the total output is is white produced from a mixture of Marsanne and Roussanne grapes grown where the topsoil is rich in clay. The Marsanne is the predominant variety today. It produces a wine which is richer than the alpine-flowery Roussanne. Traditionally, white Hermitage was a full-bodied wine, high in alcohol; a wine of muscle rather than finesse. Production methods have been changing slowly in hermitage for the white wines. Now fermentation is at low temperature, storage is in a mixture of barrel, vat or tank, malolactic fermentation is discouraged and bottling is early. Vinification methods for red wines are still largely ‘old fashioned,’ with a long cuvasion in glass-lined concrete vats or large oak foudres, together with pigeage twice a day, the object being to produce a big, full-bodied tannic wine — a wine of power and strength which will need a decade or more to mature. While top growers today destalk entirely the result is nevertheless one of the fullest, densest and richest wines in the world. When young the color is immense; a solid, viscous, almost black purple, that continues to the very rim of the glass. the nose is leafy, with an undercurrent of unripe blackcurrants. the wine is full-bodied and very tannic, stong, powerful, and alcoholic. The best examples are also oaky and despite their size not the least fiery, robust or spicy. When mature these retain their vastness of structure, but the flavor is now rich, ample, profound and aromatic with a depth of flavor and a concentration of character which has few rivals . The fruit is now a ripe and subtle combination of blackcurrants and blackberries with a hint of raspberries, all underpinned by a slightly baked smell, as if the wine could remember tits origins as the sun slowly heated up the granite rock bed day after day as the grapes ripened.
Crozes-Hermitage
Surrounding the hill of Hermitage is the expanding appellation of Crozes — the largest one in the Northern Rhone. the appellation produces about half of the total wine for the northern Rhone. Generally the soil is much less granitic than at Hermitage itself, and this, plus a less ideal exposure helps explain why these wines can be such good values. The best wines are made by traditional methods and along the lines of Hermitage though Crozes being less structured needs to be bottled after a maximum of a year in cask, lest the fruit dries out.
Saint-Joseph
Saint-Joseph, an appellation created in 1956, lies on the west bank of the Rhone, centered around Tournon, but runs sporadically from the south of Condrieu as far as Cornas. This is the Second largest appellation in the northern Rhone after Crozes-Hermitage, and the grape varieties and regulations are the same. Saint-Joseph is an expanding appellation, the increase having been largely and regrettably in land not entirely suitable for fine wine, being predominantly on the flatter more alluvial soils of the valley floor, rather than on the slopes themselves. At their best, however, after five years or so the, Saint-Joseph can be very good, and, like Crozes, the wine is inexpensive. In general, Saint-Joseph is a rugged wine, more open than Hermitage or Cornas, yet chewy and sometimes peppery.
Cornas
The village and vineyards of Cornas are located between those of Saint-Peray and Saint-Joseph on the west bank of the Rhone. Cornas is a red wine, the wine is one of fullest, sturdiest, and most rewarding of the entire Rhone valley: hard, tannic and unyielding when young, rich velvety with a heady scent of blackcurrant and raspberry, yet always sizeable and with a somewhat baked flavor when mature. You can separate the vineyard area into four districts which the locals, logically call quartiers. Very often these place names, or lieux-dits will be found on the labels of superior cuvees. The southernmost is Les Reynards or Renards, the vines ascending to three hundred meters, with the slope beginning at one hundred and twentyfive meters or so. The granite here is is topped in part with clay, with the odd patch of limestone, which helps to preserve some of the moisture in very dry years. Next to Les Reynards is the Coteau du Tezier, referred to by some as simply La Cote. Here the topsoil is almost entirely decomposed Rock. North of the village is Les Mazards, again with some clay, and in some patches sand and above this is Les Chaillots, again with some limestone. Each of these produce a wine od slightly different charactoer with the basic, study, masculine Cornas spectrum. Most growers will offer a young-vine Cuvee or one from the bottom of the slope (peid de cote) and one if not more from old vines and/or the name of the quartier itself on the hill.
While the Cornas appellation has grown in the last few decades it is a far cry from what it was a century ago, and this is itself a long way short of the volumes produced pre-phylloxera. A glance up at the hills behind the village will reveal a patchwork of vines, rock, and scrub with more that belongs to nature than that cultivated by man. COrnas has become a more civilized wine of the last few decades. In the early seventies, the wines were brutal in their youth: almost black in color, seriously tannic, very powerfully flavored, occasionally too alcoholic for their own good. Today the wine is better mannered: still with the weight of Hermitage and Cote-Rotie, a considerable step up in bulk from Saint-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage but now revealing greater complexity. For those with the cellar space to store this wine for the obligatory decade it will give great pleasure.
Saint-Peray
Saint-Peray lies on the west bank of the Rhone opposite Valence. it is a small appellation and the wines are little seen outside the immediate area. About eighty percent of the production is is methode Champagne. At Saint-Peray the slope is more gentle then it is further north, and soil less granitic. The terroir is made up from clay, sand, flint, and stones without any chalk or much limestone. This is similar to the sections of Hermitage and Crozes given over to white wine production. Another reason that Saint-Peray is a white wine region in an area defined by it red wines, is the local competition. As a red wine, the quality of Saint-Peray could not compete with neighboring Cornas but as a sparkling white wine it has the field to itself. It has a round, herby, nutty flavor with certain gout de terroir and a southern fullness.
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