Shortly after Anna and Matt's wedding, my cousin Jenifer and her husband Karl came to visit us! They arrived in Geneva early Friday morning, and on Saturday, we decided to go wine tasting, since that had been on the list of things they wanted to do while in France. Max and I had not yet checked out the vineyards in the Rhone Valley and had been looking for any excuse to go...
The Rhone Valley runs along the Rhone River (above), south of Lyon and down past Avignon. Wine has been made here since Roman times and this used be a very popular wine producing area over a century ago. It is now said to be making its comeback. The region is divided into two sub-regions, north and south. We explored some of the tasting rooms in the northern region.
I have very recently, as in on this trip, become a big fan of the Viognier grape; no convincing was needed from Karl and Jenifer, who already know all about its wonderful flavor. This is the only grape used to make make wine from the appellations Condrieu (a new favorite) and Chateau Grillet.
Appellation, in terms I can understand, refers to the official place-name of the wine, the location where the grapes grew. There are a bunch of rules regulating the production of French wine and I am only beginning to comprehend them. I do know that only certain areas are allowed to grow and use certain grapes or combination of grapes for their wines.
We tasted over 25 wines from several appellations in the Rhone Valley. It was hard to keep track of them all! It was amazing to taste for ourselves how one bottle of wine could have the subtle flavors of cocoa and coffee while anothers had a rich, almost buttery taste. Many of the reds had a spicy taste, a characteristic commonly associated with the widely used Syrah grapes. We ended up taking 8 very different bottles home with us. We haven't been to Bordeaux yet, but the Rhone Valley has set the bar pretty high! I was very impressed.
The Rhone Valley runs along the Rhone River (above), south of Lyon and down past Avignon. Wine has been made here since Roman times and this used be a very popular wine producing area over a century ago. It is now said to be making its comeback. The region is divided into two sub-regions, north and south. We explored some of the tasting rooms in the northern region. 
I have very recently, as in on this trip, become a big fan of the Viognier grape; no convincing was needed from Karl and Jenifer, who already know all about its wonderful flavor. This is the only grape used to make make wine from the appellations Condrieu (a new favorite) and Chateau Grillet.
Appellation, in terms I can understand, refers to the official place-name of the wine, the location where the grapes grew. There are a bunch of rules regulating the production of French wine and I am only beginning to comprehend them. I do know that only certain areas are allowed to grow and use certain grapes or combination of grapes for their wines. 
We tasted over 25 wines from several appellations in the Rhone Valley. It was hard to keep track of them all! It was amazing to taste for ourselves how one bottle of wine could have the subtle flavors of cocoa and coffee while anothers had a rich, almost buttery taste. Many of the reds had a spicy taste, a characteristic commonly associated with the widely used Syrah grapes. We ended up taking 8 very different bottles home with us. We haven't been to Bordeaux yet, but the Rhone Valley has set the bar pretty high! I was very impressed. 
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