Cotes du Rhone

Cotes du Rhone is the Rhone Valley's largest and most widely available appellation, covering both banks of the river across its southern stretch and offering the easiest entry point into the region's style. Reds dominate, typically blending Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre into something warm and generous, though the appellation covers white and rose too, made from a similarly varied palette of grapes. Cotes du Rhone Villages, a step up in quality, comes from a smaller, more tightly regulated set of communes within the same broad area. For the wider Rhone Valley picture, Rhone Valley Wine covers the northern appellations too, and French Wine covers everything else on offer.