Sometimes it is difficult to know how good a tasting will be, and occasionally you think it could go either way. I didn’t know what to expect last Wednesday from Rhône in White, a tasting of white wines from the whole length of the Rhône Valley organised by Diana Thompson/Wine Events Scotland which took place in the very well selected Edinburgh Sky Bar. If I was worried by the possibility of tables of generic wines, I was wrong. Of over 100 wines on show I selected, by means fair and foul, a little over thirty to taste, and I think fifteen have made it to my notes below.

One thing that signalled this tasting would be worth attending was that it was accompanied by a Masterclass given by Matt Walls and Alistair Cooper MW. I’ve known Matt from before the days when he emerged as the best contemporary writer on the Rhône today, and I have total respect for his opinions. As an aside, if you have read my reviews of the first two “Smart Traveller’s Wine Guides” (Académie du Vin Library), Matt has authored one on the Rhône which is due out in the autumn.

Alistair and Matt in full flow

The whole of the wider Rhône region is second only to Bordeaux in terms of hectares of vines in the whole of France, with around 63,000 ha (Bordeaux has 95,000, and third placed Loire has either 37,000 if you believe the Inter-Rhône figures, or 56,000 if you follow those in Beverley Blanning’s 2024 book on The Loire!).

Of that figure, 75% of the wine produced is red, 13% Rosé, and white wine comes in at 12%. That said, white wine is growing in share, and whilst there is white wine that is pretty generic, where artisans make one or more white wines, they usually make an effort to produce something worthwhile. They are aided by an extremely broad choice of grape varieties. More than thirty in total, so I won’t list them here, but the sheer variety does come through in the wines I’ve included.

The Rhône is not seen as being at the forefront of natural wine in France (one special Côtes du Rhône co-operative excepted, though not represented here), but organic viticulture has taken off. There are some biodynamic producers, and a lot of estates now practice what is termed Exploitation Haute Valeur Environmentale. This appears to be a step up from Agriculture Raisonnée. So, there’s still a way to go for many, but most estates I profile appear to be at least organic. The overall figure for the region’s organic producers is now 19%, up from 12% in 2020.

One reason for this could be climate change. Although counter-intuitive, the professional body, Inter-Rhône, suggests that aside from frost and hail risks in some sub-regions, the changing climate has worked in favour of these white wines. Perhaps this is because the varieties on offer are very well adapted, in most cases, to warmer conditions. Alcohol levels may seem quite elevated, especially if you drink the kind of white wines I do, but when the wines have good freshness to balance the alcohol this doesn’t pose a problem. Where we had, say, 14% abv, these whites seemed fresher than many reds of the same level.

Some of the producers below will be known to you, but several are looking for UK distribution. They are worth a look. As we are seeing a significant rise in the status of White Rioja, and as Loire white wines continue to gain popularity, whites from the Rhône could easily be the next success on the market. Prices, in some cases, are astounding…and I mean that in a good way. The UK is already the second biggest export market for the Rhône by volume (16% of exports), although it is noteworthy that third-placed USA generates more income. We Brits are, as always, bottom-feeders through the supermarkets as a whole, where an awful lot of generic Côtes du Rhône red passes through.

My main positive from the tasting was freshness. This is once more counter-intuitive. The Rhône is generally perceived as a warm region as a whole, at least the Southern Rhône, and I’m sure we have all drunk those big, waxy, whites which were not uncommon at all a decade ago. The big surprise for me was how balanced the best wines were, and this was often despite alcohol levels of 13.5% or 14%.

If there is a negative, it’s the labels. The Rhône still has some of the dullest labels around. Now, I know labels shouldn’t matter, but not everyone will be reading an article like this one. If you are standing in a wine shop looking at the shelves I doubt many of the bottles here will leap out at you. There’s no need to go with the full-on crazy hipster natural wine label if it isn’t your style, but a bit of colour wouldna’ go amiss. The first wine below, from Luberon, at least makes something of an effort. Am I wrong?

All the wines below stood out for me. One of them (wine number two, below) I really couldn’t make my mind up over, and one (the Chapoutier) clearly needs long ageing, but the rest I would be happy to drink now or over the next few years. I have not used the categories into which they were divided (Fresh…Fruity…Rich & Complex…) largely because I didn’t always think those descriptions best described the wines.

Château La Canorgue AOC Luberon 2024

I go back to the 1980s with this estate, which once famously appeared on that comedy classic, Absolutely Fabulous (if anyone is old enough to remember it). It’s a blend of 25% Clairette, 25% Marsanne, 25% Roussanne, 15% Bourboulenc and 10% Rolle. We need to get used to “Rolle” because it is now the authorised name for Vermentino in France. Alcohol comes in at 13%. Demeter Certified biodynamic.

A lovely fresh bouquet, quite tropical (pineapple and mango in there) flies out of the glass. The palate has a textured quince bitterness on the finish. Very good value at £20 from Yapp Bros (there are a Red and a Rosé too). I’ve has a hankering to drink this again and so tasting it here was a pleasure.

Domaine TréluS Ventoux Blanc 2024

Yes, that is a capital S. This is the wine I wasn’t sure about.  48% Grenache Blanc, 44% Bourboulenc and 8% “Vermentino” (sic), and 13% abv. This was very fruit-forward, more floral than I expected but also showing lemon zest and quite exotic fruits. I wasn’t sure whether the choice of bottle was an attempt to make this look expensive, but it ain’t no posh wine, I think. But it was a commercially appealing, fruit-forward, bottle that if priced well would be very gluggable on a sunny afternoon. It appealed to a certain something in me at a very basic level. Organic. Looking for distribution.

Domaine Lombard “Culture Libre” Côtes du Rhône 2024

2024 is looking a potentially nice vintage for white wines here. Domaine Lombard first came to my attention some decades ago, via its obscure (back then) Côtes du Rhône Brézème. It was a red wine, a kind of cross between a mini-St-Joseph and a mini-Cornas, made in the hinterland between the river’s northern and southern sectors. Since then, the estate has changed ownership and winemaker, I believe, and labels too by the look of it. Yapp Bros discovered it, originally, but they have presumably parted company if indeed this is the same producer?

This cuvée blends 40% Grenache Blanc with Clairette and Bourboulenc, plus tiny amounts of Roussanne, Marsanne and Viognier, knocking out 14.5% abv. If it tasted like 14.5% then I’d have run a mile, but this was balanced out by depth, restraint and some decent acids. Organic and looking for a distributor.

Domaine Montirius “La Muse Papilles” Côtes du Rhône 2023

This domaine is set in the shadow of the jagged Dentelles de Montmirail, in an area best known for the wines of Vacqueyras and Gigondas, which have long had their own appellations. Montirius is a biodynamic producer, and this white wine is a blend of Clairette, Roussanne and Grenache Blanc (more or less equal proportions).

If other wines get described as “refreshing” I’d have to describe this as “super-refreshing”. It has a linearity which I mean as a compliment, a nice filigree spine in a wine nevertheless rocking 13% abv. Despite the label suggesting otherwise, this is the antithesis of a big, alcoholic, Rhône white. Flint Wines import, and look at this, £18.50. One of the bargains of the day, perhaps. I’d definitely buy a couple. One London retail source for this wine is The Sourcing Table in Peckham Rye, which I visited recently (highly recommended).

Domaine Pierre-Jean Villa « Saut De L’Ange » Saint-Joseph Blanc 2023

Like Domaine Lombard, PJ manages to get two wines into my selection. This Chavanay producer first came to attention as one of the founders of the negociant Les Vins de Vienne, who were instrumental in reviving the vineyards at Seyssuel, just south of Vienne. His own 17ha estate produces cuvées from across the Northern Rhône’s top appellations. Certified organic, Pierre-Jean is now moving to biodynamics.

This cuvée is made from one variety, Roussanne. The colour is pale straw, the bouquet is gently fruity, and it shows 13% abv on the label. However, again this is a great example of freshness allied with depth. There’s a bit of body. I think a year or two would give complexity, but I do like that youthful freshness and vigour. A classy wine which Flint Wines (again) bring in and retail at £27.55.

Château La Nerthe “Les Cassagnes” Côtes du Rhône 2023

La Nerthe is a well-known Châteauneuf producer, an appellation which has gone very much upwards in price over recent decades (in the case of the red wines, perhaps in tandem with alcohol levels for the AOC generally). This white blend of Viognier (32%), Grenache Blanc (28%), Roussanne (24%) and Marsanne (16%) is labelled at 14%, and we all know there is often some give and take on that.

However, sited in the “fruity and round” category (which it is), it is also complex and food-friendly. It shows a good whiff of classic viognier on the nose, quite refined for a wine of the south. It has good weight without any flab, just a little bit fleshy. There’s a good, long, classy finish. £14 via Bibendum.

Domaine de L’Oratoire Saint-Martin « Réserve des Seigneurs » Cairanne 2024

This is one of the best-known domaines in Cairanne, and one of the few here with a longer tradition of biodynamics. In his Wines of the Rhône (2021) Matt Walls writes “The reds are pure and elegant, and the white wines deserve particular praise as some of the best in the Southern Rhône”. Just as well my palate spotted this then, although at the time Matt wrote that, the domaine had just changed hands.

Blending 30% each of Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and 10% Marsanne, this is perhaps one of the more savoury wines I tasted, but I loved how the varieties gelled together. The fruit rides effortlessly down the middle of the palate, moved along by waves of fresh but gentle acidity. The alcohol, 13.5%, doesn’t intrude but it has the body to make it food-friendly. The RRP is listed at under £15, which I find hard to believe, from Justerini & Brooks.

J Denuzière Saint-Peray 2022

I had to look up this producer, but I didn’t learn a lot. Saint-Peray has come a long way since I first encountered its white wines in the 1980s, an appellation that for many decades was content to play on the fact that Wagner appeared to like its now rare sparkling wines. Games have been upped since then.

This wine is perhaps not wholly typical of modern-day Saint-Peray, which seems to me to try to position itself somewhere between a white Saint-Joseph and a white Hermitage. It’s a blend of 70% Marsanne and 30% Roussanne, knocking out 13% alcohol, so all pretty normal so far. It’s a conventionally made wine (so not remotely organic). What caught my attention was its beguiling bouquet that sucks you in. Tasted well-chilled it had a nice zip to it, hiding that 13% abv. The producer is looking for distribution. Well-priced it would likely do well.

Domaine Pierre-Jean Villa Condrieu 2023

This second wine from Pierre-Jean is from perhaps the single appellation that more than any other sparked my interest in shall we say more obscure wines and grape varieties. Condrieu is pure Viognier, and although its fame has spread somewhat in the past thirty-to-forty years, back in the 1980s it was a rarity. When I visited Georges Vernay towards the end of that decade, I was sitting talking to the man who had almost singlehandedly saved Viognier from extinction.

Vognier is perhaps not difficult to do, so to speak, but I think it is difficult to do well. Young vines can sometimes exhibit a bouquet of strong “Parma Violets”, a sweet I always associate with aged aunties. It is also a variety often prone to producing over-alcoholic wines. I once bought a Napa Viognier without checking the label and at 15% abv it was an expensive mistake. It was all over the place.

My interest was piqued here by seeing a Condrieu listed at just 12.5% abv in the tasting booklet, but the bottle’s back label told me 13%. Nevertheless, it smelt lemon-fresh with no sweet violets on the nose. It has a slightly oily texture and a stony, quince-like finish. Imported by Flint Wines with the price described as “tbc”, this is the first Condrieu I’ve tasted since Covid and I’d be more than happy to drink the whole bottle.

Mas Des Bressades “Excellence” Costières de Nîmes 2023

Mas des Bressades’s red wine is one I know from decades back, I’m not sure from where but either something I regularly came across in French supermarkets or possibly from Majestic Wine in the UK. This is a 45ha estate run by the Marès family at Manduel and it has been in the same family for seven generations. Wines here have been organic for around five years.

Excellence is a blend of 80% Roussanne/20% Viognier. It starts out on the nose fresh and a little lemony, and then a floral note comes in, like a distilled essence, but more a hint than full-on floral. In some respects, this gives an initial impression of simplicity, but then it gets deeper and a little more complex, with a little more richness showing. Alcohol is listed as 14%.

The Wine Society imports this, although it isn’t on their web site right now and price is listed as “tbc”. It probably isn’t expensive.

Domaine Lombard Brézème Renaissance 2023

Brézème is Côtes du Rhône, not an appellation in its own right, although perhaps Yapp Brothers used to blur the boundary. And why not? This obscure little enclave in a sort of vinous no man’s land between Rhône’s north and south has a story to tell.

This is quite a smart blend of Marsanne (80%) and Roussanne (20%) off sandy loam with pebble and limestone scree. The grapes are aged half in oak and half in stainless steel. The bouquet is lemon and straw with gentle floral notes, the broad palate all fleshy stone fruit held together by mineral tension. It needs to be held together by something at 14% abv, but this is definitely a food wine. It has an interesting tart finish and it isn’t in any way ponderous. It would go well with any kind of game bird with mushrooms in a cream sauce kind of dish, and with strong cheeses. I also suggest it will age for a good few years too.

As with the other Lombard wine here, they are currently looking for UK distribution.

Château Courac Laudun 2024

Laudun was once one of the Côtes du Rhône villages where wines were reasonably cheap, but generally uninteresting. This property is making more interesting wine, if this cuvée is representative. It is a real château, at Tresques. It’s a large property, 100ha in all, making around 150,000 bottles of red Laudun and 30,000 of white. Both have been described as “ageworthy” by Matt Walls, who suggests a few magnums of the red would fit nicely in any nascent cellar.

This white is a blend of Clairette, Grenache Blanc and Roussanne, an uncommon but appealing combination. It is yet another 14%er, and it is quite big, but it is fresh too. Pear and pineapple leap from the glass, pear especially. I’d call it impactful.

Once more, The Wine Society is listed as importer but with price “tbc” (it isn’t on their web site…yet…). They have listed a Courac red for £10.50, and if it is remotely similar in price, then ageing a few for several years, even just a year or two, well, you could do worse.

M Chapoutier Hermitage Chante Alouette 2021

This is one wine that requires little introduction. 100% Marsanne from one of the Northern Rhône’s best-known houses, this is classic white Hermitage. It has a big bouquet with an almost meaty, savoury, quality. Its broad palate is hardly developed at all but it will unquestionably age for many years. 13% abv and Demeter-certified for agriculture biologique (biodynamic).

I haven’t seen this around in the UK for a long time. The importer is listed as Young Charly (they appear to be Belgian?), with Noble Green Wines (Twickenham) listed as retailer, listing this for around £69, reduced to £63 as part of a mixed six.

Cave Poulet et Fils Crémant de Die Brut 2022

Die and its region, the Diois, has always suffered an identity crisis in terms of whether these are wines of the Alps of wines of the Rhône, but these days they are considered, administratively, as Rhône, although Wink Lorch includes the region in her Wines of the French Alps, where it seems to me to fit stylistically. Cave Poulet is a large producer at Vercheny. A fourth-generation family producer which now has a decidedly modern outlook, they have a good reputation for a range which extends across this region’s diverse still and sparkling wines.

Crémant de Die is the appellation for dry sparkling wines made by the méthode traditionelle, Clairette de Die (mostly Muscat) being the region’s appealing sweeter sparkler with residual sugar and lowish (8.5%) alcohol. So, we have here a dry (very dry) sparkling wine with gentle bubbles and a medium mousse. The main component is Clairette (somewhat ironically, Clairette de Die should really be Muscat de Die) at 85%, blended with 10% Aligoté and 5% Muscat.

It’s a wine which does make you sit up and take notice. We have a well made cheap sparkling wine, and this really is its plus point – when I say cheap, The Wine Society is selling this for £11.50. As an aperitif wine that you can also let flow freely at a party, this is spot on.

Domaine La Ligière « Chante Coucou » Muscat de Beaumes de Venise 2023

We Brits were early takers for Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, and back in the mid-1980s it was something even those without an ounce of wine geekery in their bones might serve as a dessert wine. The producers found this hilarious, because they all drank it as an aperitif, and some even for breakfast.

Although Beaumes produces some very good red wines, here we are tasting a white Vin Doux Naturel, a wine where grape spirit is added during fermentation in a process called mutage. Fermentation is thereby arrested, leaving a wine of some sweetness combined with a good hint of spirit, and higher alcohol, here 15.5% abv.

The very good and more traditional Domaine des Barnadins was on show, which is very much worth buying (Holman Hunt imports it, The Good Wine Shop branches retailing it for £14.50). La Ligière is perhaps better known for its reds, but I liked this Muscat, and they currently have no UK distribution for it.

Is it the quirky bottle that puts more serious importers off? It has a soft nose, no spirity harshness, and the grape spirit is well-integrated. It tastes modern and fresh, and it has a touch of individuality. Perhaps it is a style of wine due for a comeback?

La Ligière goes for the quirky bottle and you can just see the more traditional “Bernadins” to the right

That brings us to the end of an interesting and enjoyable tasting, at a good venue with such good light (and views). In a vast region like the Rhône the wines can be hit and miss, but these wines featured here stood out for me. As a very fussy wine shopper, I would make a detour for one or two of these, and the rest I’d be happy to buy if they leapt off the shelf.

As it remains clear that wine prices continue to rise inexorably, The Wine Society, whose own current social media campaign suggests wine inflation is running at 19% (an underestimate, if anything) does seem to have spotted real value here (as across most other regions, to be honest). Flint Wines appears to have some buying expertise here as well.