Collection: Rhône

The Rhône valley follows the Rhône river for roughly 200 kilometres through south-central France, from Vienne in the north to Avignon in the south. It is a region with two distinctly different faces. In the northern part, Syrah sets the agenda, while Grenache plays the lead role in the south. North and south differ not only in grapes, but also in terrain, climate and cultural character, and it is precisely this duality that makes Rhône one of the most versatile places to source French wine.

The region is first and foremost red wine country, but it also produces smaller quantities of rosé, white wine, mousserende vin and fortified wine. White wine has gained considerable ground since the late 1980s across several appellations, so the picture is broader than many think. A good example of the range is Beaumes-de-Venise, which makes both a sweet Muscat fortified wine and soft, peppery red wines under Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages.

The terroir can be something you spot quite concretely. In Côte Brune within Côte Rôtie, the soil is granitic and sandy with an iron content that colours it rust-red. The name Rhône, incidentally, reaches beyond France's borders and also covers vineyards in the Swiss Valais up towards the Alps as well as plots in the Rhône delta west of Marseille.

At Copenhagen Wine we currently carry a small, focused selection of wines from Rhône within France. If you want to understand the region's two poles better, you can delve into the two foundational grapes separately under Syrah and Grenache. That gives you a good starting point, whether you are looking for structured northern red wine or something more generous and sun-drenched from the south.