But that’s no longer the case today. Today’s Rhone has been bifurcated, with a lot of Cotes du Rhone being produced, and an increasing amount of production being Rhone Crus. The amount of area under vine planted in the crus seem to be going up, and in the last 20 years, we have seen 3 more areas get promoted from Cotes Du Rhone Villages into their own Cru (Vinosobres, Cairanne, and Laudun).
The conventional r/wines wisdom is that the best value bottles in the Rhone are found in the Cotes Du Rhone Villages appellation. The idea is of course, that it represents a step up in quality compared to the basic Cotes du Rhone appellation but is not as pricy as the Rhone Crus.
But having drunk quite a few bottles of Rhone wines recently, I don’t think that’s actually true anymore. You see, on one hand, if the best sites in the Villages are getting promoted into the crus, then logically speaking the median quality of a bottle of Villages is probably going down a bit. At the same time, books and websites lump all the crus together and call them “the most famous, prestigious and pricy wines” but that’s not really true. Like, sure, some of them like Hermitage is prestigious and pricy, but like, is Vinosobres well known and prestigious?
Thus, in my experience, today the best values in the Rhone are actually in the lower ranked crus. Based on wine-searcher data and my experience, these are the crus where the entry price and the median price in my opinion are practically the same as Cotes du Rhone Villages or just a few bucks more:
* Lirac * Rasteau * Cairanne * Tavel * Vinsobres * Laudun (bottles from this AOC don’t exist yet, but I’m fully willing to bet it ends up in this category)
On average, even these “lesser” Rhone Crus turn out better wine than basic Cotes du Rhone or the Villages. The “quality floor” seems to be a bit better too. If I have $20 in my pocket, and I want to roll the dice on a Rhone bottle that I have never tried before, I’m reaching for the Lirac or Vinsobres before I grab the Cotes du Rhone Villages.
vaalyr
You’re absolutely right that the best value in that market is likely in CdR lower end cuvees but I’d wager there’s also an incredible amount of crap.
AkosCristescu
Quite frankly, we are talking about 10-15 eur wines here, which are the same everywhere: hit or miss, depending on the producer. Possibly, in the past it was more hits than misses in the Rhone specifically,
but, contrary to “conventional r/wines wisdom” (which is basically wisdom of the masses, which is no wisdom at all), the good wines, that are actually good, not just good for crappy 10 bucks, have always come from the crus, even the term denotes it: the French will give cru status to villages/vineyards/chateaux that represent a higher quality.
There are huge AOPs that produce accessible wines such as Crozes-Hermitage or Saint-Joseph in the North.
Also, important to mention that you talk about “Rhone” whereas N and S are two very different beasts.
I am not quite sure if I understand your excitement or your shock/surprise whatever you might go through at this moment, bruh.
EDIT: by the way that pyramid is a quality-level pyramid, used for educational purposes.
Just because all the crus together producer more wine than CDR-V its still holds true that a certain crus output is way less than a CDR-V, if you compare individual AOPs
3 Comments
People have always described the Cotes du Rhone appellation as a pyramid, and [I’m sure you are familiar with charts like this](https://i0.wp.com/watchmesip.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/57e40178-5537-44fa-b779-b993cda26b17.png?resize=768%2C575&ssl=1). Basic Cotes du Rhone is at the bottom, Cotes du Rhone Villages is in the middle, and the Crus represents the top of the appellation and a small percentage of the top sites.
But that’s no longer the case today. Today’s Rhone has been bifurcated, with a lot of Cotes du Rhone being produced, and an increasing amount of production being Rhone Crus. The amount of area under vine planted in the crus seem to be going up, and in the last 20 years, we have seen 3 more areas get promoted from Cotes Du Rhone Villages into their own Cru (Vinosobres, Cairanne, and Laudun).
The conventional r/wines wisdom is that the best value bottles in the Rhone are found in the Cotes Du Rhone Villages appellation. The idea is of course, that it represents a step up in quality compared to the basic Cotes du Rhone appellation but is not as pricy as the Rhone Crus.
But having drunk quite a few bottles of Rhone wines recently, I don’t think that’s actually true anymore. You see, on one hand, if the best sites in the Villages are getting promoted into the crus, then logically speaking the median quality of a bottle of Villages is probably going down a bit. At the same time, books and websites lump all the crus together and call them “the most famous, prestigious and pricy wines” but that’s not really true. Like, sure, some of them like Hermitage is prestigious and pricy, but like, is Vinosobres well known and prestigious?
Thus, in my experience, today the best values in the Rhone are actually in the lower ranked crus. Based on wine-searcher data and my experience, these are the crus where the entry price and the median price in my opinion are practically the same as Cotes du Rhone Villages or just a few bucks more:
* Lirac
* Rasteau
* Cairanne
* Tavel
* Vinsobres
* Laudun (bottles from this AOC don’t exist yet, but I’m fully willing to bet it ends up in this category)
On average, even these “lesser” Rhone Crus turn out better wine than basic Cotes du Rhone or the Villages. The “quality floor” seems to be a bit better too. If I have $20 in my pocket, and I want to roll the dice on a Rhone bottle that I have never tried before, I’m reaching for the Lirac or Vinsobres before I grab the Cotes du Rhone Villages.
You’re absolutely right that the best value in that market is likely in CdR lower end cuvees but I’d wager there’s also an incredible amount of crap.
Quite frankly, we are talking about 10-15 eur wines here, which are the same everywhere: hit or miss, depending on the producer. Possibly, in the past it was more hits than misses in the Rhone specifically,
but, contrary to “conventional r/wines wisdom” (which is basically wisdom of the masses, which is no wisdom at all), the good wines, that are actually good, not just good for crappy 10 bucks, have always come from the crus, even the term denotes it: the French will give cru status to villages/vineyards/chateaux that represent a higher quality.
There are huge AOPs that produce accessible wines such as Crozes-Hermitage or Saint-Joseph in the North.
Also, important to mention that you talk about “Rhone” whereas N and S are two very different beasts.
I am not quite sure if I understand your excitement or your shock/surprise whatever you might go through at this moment, bruh.
EDIT: by the way that pyramid is a quality-level pyramid, used for educational purposes.
Just because all the crus together producer more wine than CDR-V its still holds true that a certain crus output is way less than a CDR-V, if you compare individual AOPs