It’s time for a bit of Rhone ranging

THE Rhone Valley is home to the Shiraz grape as well as Grenache, Mourvedre and a few cool white varieties.

The reds from this region are seriously good. They are distinctly different to the Cabernet-based wines from Bordeaux and the Pinot Noir-based wines from Burgundy, which are elegant, refined and have an aristocratic air.

The Shiraz-Grenache wines out of the Rhone are much more robust, more forward and fleshy, higher in alcohol and have a more velvety texture and feel in the mouth, just what you need as the weather sets in.

Travelling south and east out of Paris, following the Seine River, you will go through Chablis and in to Burgundy. Further south, before it reaches the sun-baked fields of Provence, is the Rhone Valley right in the centre of France and home to some of the world’s great vineyards.

As always with the French, they make it difficult for us to know what we are drinking so, instead of simply telling us what varieties are in the bottle, Rhone wines have the names of the village they are from on the label and assume we will know what the wine tastes like.

Here are a few wines worth looking at:

Cotes du rhone – a generic term for any entry-level wine made from grapes anywhere in the valley. Most often they are Grenache dominant and come from the southern Rhone. These wines are a great jumping off point – ripe, generous, plummy and absolutely drinkable now.

Chateauneuf du Pape – from a little hill between the southern and northern Rhone. This is where the idea for the GSM (Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre) blends in the Barossa came from. These wines are inky black and massively ripe, about as subtle as a Mack truck.

Gigondas – often 100 per cent Grenache, in comparison to their Chateauneuf cousins, they are light and ethereal, seriously good food wines. They are begging for a cassoulet or other peasant dish.

St Joseph – well into the northern Rhone, where Shiraz is king. These wines are compact and intense. Drier than the above because of the lack of Grenache, they are better with a bit of age on them.

Cote Rotie – right at the northern top of the Rhone is the ‘roasted hill’ (cote rotie), where those crazy frogs first conceived of blending a red variety with a white one (Shiraz and Viognier). The results are perfumed delight and usually accompanied by a hefty price tag. Get to know the rest of the Rhone before you tackle these.

A bit like Margaret River, the Rhone has hit a purple patch vintage wise, with only 2006 being just OK since 2005.

The rest have been outstanding, especially 2009 and 2010, which are hitting the shelves now.

The biggest (and one of the best) producers in the Rhone is Guigal. It has a very distinctive brand which is available in most good wine stores.

So, if you love the ripeness and stature of the Shiraz and Grenache-based wines out of the Barossa and Maclaren, get a bit of Rhone in you and see where it all started.