During a great tasting in Lyon, for professionals and then amateurs, the 22 Côtes du Rhône villages with geographical names came to tell their stories through 80 vintages.
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or its second edition, the Village des Villages grand tasting in Lyon took over the famous Halles Bocuse. This Monday, November 6, the 22 Côtes du Rhône Villages and named Villages appellations met with buyers from the traditional circuit at the Chez les Gones restaurant. Amid platters and tapas of local specialties, some 80 red, white and rosé vintages were offered for tasting, presented by around thirty winegrowers, cooperatives and merchants.
In the evening, 201 amateurs had registered to participate in a simple tasting (€15) or a masterclass (€25).
Wines with personality
Among the 164 registered professionals, Emmanuel Buniazet, wine merchant in Yssingeaux (43) specializing in the Rhône Valley, is looking for “wines with personality”. Which is the case, according to him, for Village appellations. “They are also fine and crafted wines, at affordable prices, he believes. But they have little reputation: for many customers, the term “villages” sounds, on the contrary, pejorative! They have to be explained a lot. »
“These wines need to be understood”, agrees Raphaël Pommier. This winemaker who came to represent the Saint Andéol appellation appreciates having the time, at this event, to explain his wines and those of his colleagues. His vintage created with music deserves a real story. Like the other wines of this tiny appellation (68 ha in production) whose protagonists present themselves as “wine artists”. “In a village, we are not anonymous, we meet, he summarizes. The Côtes du Rhône Villages named offer the opportunity to meet diverse identities. »
Some are well identified by professionals and the general public, but who knows Rousset-les-Vignes? “Out of 300 potential ha, only 18 ha are claimed: the rest is vinified in Côte du Rhône, notably by cooperative cellars”indicates Marie Ros, from the Bouvaude estate, who claims 12. “Not being known, we have to explain a lot about our singularities such as our position in the very north, at an altitude of 400 m and our very sandy soils. »
Suze-la-Rousse is a village best known thanks to the Wine University which it houses. “But the name is quite recent (2016) so we are gradually increasing production so as not to unbalance the market, indicates Olivier Salles, winemaker president of the La Suzienne cooperative cellar. This also allows the selection to be narrowed down to the most quality wines. » Only 225 ha were claimed in 2022 out of an appellation area of 2,600 ha… The prospecting recently undertaken in the Lyon region aims to expand the markets for this appellation “marrying the warm side of the Côtes du Rhône with the finesse of our terroir”.
Volume growth
“The dynamic is goodsummarizes Vincent Dessalles, co-president of the Named Villages commission. Some well-established ones like Plan de Dieu or Sablet are making little progress, other recent ones like Vaison la Romaine are experiencing double-digit growth. The potential for progress is enormous since on the scale of the 22 appellations, only half of the 17,000 ha is claimed. Some prefer to make wine in the Côte du Rhône because of specifications restrictions, or to raise the quality of their Côtes du Rhône by using their best terroirs. »
The 2022 event has already had direct impacts. This is where Christophe Jas, a wine wholesaler and wine merchant in Heyrieux (38), was seduced by a Séguret wine that he listed and which he liked. “Côtes du Rhône Villages bring originality to an increasingly uniform offeringhe judges. In the villages we will find diverse, authentic, sometimes rustic profiles. Syrah and Grenache go well with Lyon gastronomy, and the prices are more affordable than the vintages. And as a wine merchant, we have lots of things to tell because behind each appellation, there is a little-known village and story. »
Whiten the vineyard
“We want to move towards more whites to meet growing consumer demand, indicates Vincent Dessalles. For the moment, only around ten villages can produce it. We hope both that they increase their share of whites and that more villages can produce them. » The wishes of the different villages will be brought together in 2024 to submit requests to the National Institute of Origin and Quality (Inao) in 2025.
2023-11-08 11:08:16
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