When in Rhône
The bakery has been forced to close down in Gigondas, now that everybody goes to the supermarket in Carpentras for their baguettes; the transport ministry is planning to build a motorway straight through the middle of Côte-Rôtie's vineyards; and there is a proposed nuclear dump to contend with. Café talk is full of it. There are 12,000 vintners in the Rhône and wine is its primary economy, so there is deafening opposition to these developments.
But, bureaucratic battles and struggling bakeries aside, the future is looking rosy for the region, says the Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins d'AOC Côtes du Rhône et de la Vallée du Rhône (CIVCRVR).
The CIVCRVR is putting Bordeaux to shame with its innovative research programmes; its quality control raids would leave the SAS standing; and red-painted London taxis splashed with its logo chug around town in its latest marketing drive.
The only thing the organisation has no influence over is the weather. The last batch of frost in mid-April will reduce volumes of Côtes du Rhône this year by between 10% and 20%, although vintners are quick to point out that this won't affect exports. The mistral, the icy wind that blows off the Alps, played up with disastrous effect: temperatures dropped one night to -5¼C in the northern part of Southern Rhône, blackening vines that had had a kick-start from the earlier sunny weather.
While the more temperate Mediterranean climate of Southern Rhône was suffering, the north saw out the cold snap, which just about sums up the great differences between the two.
To clear up any confusion on the restaurant wine list, when referring to the Rhône region as a whole, the comité would rather we say the Rhône Valley, rather than Côtes du Rhône, as many mistakenly do. The Côtes du Rhône is an appellation in the southern part of the valley that spreads over three regions and five départements. This and its slightly classier younger sister, which gained appellation status in the 1970s, Côtes du Rhône Villages, produce the bulk of the region's wines. Seventy per cent are produced by the co-operatives and, apart from the Southern Rhône's superior crus, which have their own appellation - Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, white Lirac and rosé Tavel - these grace many a zinc bar top.
To put the region clearly into perspective, Côtes du Rhône makes up 80% of wine bought in French supermarkets. Total production for the Rhône Valley hits 2.7 million hectare litres a year, which puts it in second place behind Bordeaux as France's largest producer of wine.
Producers here get rather irritated when international commentators link Northern Rhône's climate to that of Bordeaux. "1991 was a terrible year for Bordeaux, but it wasn't here; it was fantastic here," says Northern Rhône producer Michel RouviÁ¤re, of Domaine du ChÁ ne. "The rest of the world mistakenly sees Bordeaux as setting the image for the rest of France. The same could even be said for Northern and Southern Rhône. Did you know that 1994 was much better in the north than in the south?"
Soils differ, too. Simply speaking, it's clay and chalk in the south and acidic, granite soil in the north. This means Syrah is the only permitted red grape in the north, while the south blends a fistful, mainly Grenache, as well as Cinsaut, Mourvèdre, Carignan and others. Trendy Viognier reigns over the whites in the north in its exalted patch of Condrieu and ChÁ¢teau Grillet, along with some plantings of sturdy Marsanne and delicate Roussanne. Southern whites include Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Bourboulenc, among others. There are a total of 23 permitted varieties in the Rhône as a whole.
Soil is a primary concern for the Rhodanien Institute. The institute, opened two years ago in Les GrÁ¤s, near Orange, is the only one of its kind in France. It is funded by a group of the more cash-rich Côtes du Rhône producers and is spearheaded by the CIVCRVR. The institute's objective is to improve the quality of the region's wines.
"Up until about 15 years ago, the southern part of the Rhône Valley didn't have a very good reputation here in France," admits Philip Ott, CIVCRVR's marketing man. "Although it's always had a good reputation in the UK," he adds.
Gilles Masson is the institute's scientific manager. "This institute is for the winemakers themselves to ask questions like ‘how can we improve the quality of our grapes, our wine-making, the quality of our wine?'," he says.
"We are looking for the best combination of vine, rootstock and terroir here, but we don't want to change the type of wine produced in the Rhône. We just want to make it better."
Four strategically-placed labs have been set up so that any Côtes du Rhône producers can come for advice, clutching samples for analysis, to make the most out of their particular soil types, clones and varieties.
Back at the institute, Lilliputian-scale wineries brew up 250 different vinifications to put its findings to the test. "We're having great fun with acidity at the moment," says Masson - the low level of acidity is one of the region's problems. And the institute can't wait to get stuck in to the barrel ageing tests. "We know the 228-litre is best for Bordeaux, but is it for us?" Watch this space.
"Côtes du Rhône is no longer a cheap table wine that the French consume every day," says Ott. The comité has now empowered itself with a strict quality-control regime that enables it to walk into any supermarket and remove wines from the shelves if they don't come up to scratch.
The plan is to publish culprits on a blacklist. The CIVCRVR hasn't got a name for this operation yet, but claims to be the first region in France to be doing this. "We feel the AOC is no longer a guarantee of quality," says Ott.
Even in the coveted north, there's room for improvement. Saint-Joseph vintners are pulling up vines from the valley floor and replanting on the nearby slopes in a costly process that is part of a 20-year programme to tighten up on quality. When the 20 years are up, the vines left on the valley floor no longer get the Saint-Joseph appellation, but are relegated to plain old Vin de Pays, albeit a good one.
"So much has changed in the Rhône in the past 10 years," says FranÁ¡ois Klein, proprietor of Domaine la Réméjeanne, in the Southern Rhône's wildest département, the Gard. "Vinification has improved enormously, especially temperature control."
What are the most important changes? "There are four: yields have been reduced; there is a better understanding of terroir; we have reduced the number of varieties grown; and we are using more white varieties."
Future in the blends
Klein has made a pretty good 100% Syrah (unusual for the south) that fooled the panel at a big tasting in Montpellier recently, who were convinced that it came from the Northern Rhône. "But I don't think the future is 100% Syrah here. It's too hot and dry - the grape doesn't like it. The future is in the blends." Klein and others in the south are ripping up Carignan and replacing it with Grenache, Syrah and a little Mourvèdre, which, when blended, make wines that are easily quaffable when young, responding to current market trends.
Marc Autran is the wine-maker and proprietor of Domaine Piaugier in Sablet. He is making a wine with a variety called Counoise, "because you can drink it young", he says. Domaines Direct (0171-837 1142) still have stocks of the 1993 Ténébi, at £81 per case of 12, ex-VAT.
The grape has been around for a while but is little used. After a particularly long four-week maceration time, the tannins have softened up to produce a mellow red with a good dollop of complexity that belies its young years. It is proving popular with his UK export market.
Some Rhône producers still feel that it's not image that's the problem, but price. "Côtes du Rhône is still too expensive for everybody," says Southern Rhône Sarrians-based producer Marcel Chudzikiewicz.
Ott feels prices have settled down to a "reasonable" Ffr710 (£76.20) per hectare litre, down from Ffr850 (£91.20) per hectare litre last year. This compares to Corbières at Ffr500 (£53.60) and Bordeaux at Ffr800 (£85.80) per hectare litre.
In the Northern Rhône, prices soar according to the wines' level of prestige. Cornas, for example, may cost Ffr2,800 (£300.40) per hectare litre, but a visit to a typical Cornas vineyard will snap shut any dropped jaws. Forget sumptuous chÆ'teaux: it's small farmsteads with wood stacked against the back door.
Thierry Allemand balances precariously on the 75% incline of his four-hectare Cornas vineyard. His elderly mother and father complete the picking team. Pigeage is done by foot, and a vertical press with an electric motor is one of Allemand's only concessions to modernity. His wines are among the best in Cornas; the barrel sample of 1995 La Reynard already has powerful, velvety fruit. Bibendum (0171-722 5577) has a few cases left of the 1992: well worth the £165 per case of 12, ex-VAT, price tag.
