France’s Rhône Valley - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Vintage Reports

France’s Rhône Valley

by Tara Q. Thomas • March 17, 2022

2019

While 2019 had its challenges—particularly in June, when a hailstorm devastated vineyards in Crozes-Hermitage, and end-of-the-month temperatures exceeded 100˚F for days—the wines don’t show the heat near as much as the 2018s. August’s cool nights lent some relief to the grapes, so that they were able to hang into September and hold on to their acidity. So while alcohols were high (14-15%), the best wines have a freshness and brightness that makes them lively, even while the fruit is concentrated and tannins firm.

2018

After a promising start, with good reserves of water in the soil after winter weather, the 2018 vintage quickly became a giant headache for growers up and down the Rhône. Pouring rain coupled with warm temps in June set the scene for rampant downy mildew; while a temperate July allowed growers to catch their breath, temperatures rocketed up in August and it stayed hot into September. Many people started picking in August, and harvest proceeded fast and furious, everything coming in at once. Alcohols were high in many of the wines we tasted—many were labeled 15% abv, and others that didn’t claim so much still showed their alcohol in peppery heat. The best wines tended to come from producers with old vines and cooler patches of land, whether north-facing slopes (as at the Saoumas’ in Châteauneuf), or higher elevations (Vieux Télégraphe)

Click here to return to the Regional Tasting Report on the Rhône Valley.

Tara Q. Thomas

is W&S’s editor at large and covers the wines of the Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe for the magazine.

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David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

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Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

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