Wouldn’t it be great if you could get the inside track on future appellations before they were minted? That way you could get in early before prices increased along with their fame. Well in the Rhône, you can.
There are four levels in the appellation hierarchy in this southern region. At the top there are the crus, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas. The layer beneath is the one to examine: it’s technically called ‘AP Côtes-du-Rhône Villages with geographic name’ – or ‘named villages’ for short. It’s an assembly of the 22 top-performing villages, all of which are allowed to append their name against the appellation, such as AP Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Sablet.
These villages are a source of some of the best-value wines in the Rhône valley. Individually they’re not particularly well-known, so they can’t trade on their reputation alone. And this is the pool from which future crus will be selected, so producers are striving to improve quality in the hope of promotion. The last to be upgraded was Cairanne in 2015; the next will be Laudun in 2024.
Around half are permitted to make red, white and rosé; the other half just red. Apart from that, they all follow the identical rules of production, using
