Western Living Magazine
Off-the-Grid Living: Exploring the Island Cabin near Desolation Sound, B.C.
It’s Always Happy Hour at These 7 Homes with Built-in Bars
Great Spaces: Vancouver’s Wildlight Kitchen and Bar Is a Natural Beauty
3 Parisian Bistro-Inspired Comfort Food Recipes to Bring a Taste of Paris Home
Recipe: Confit Lamb With Roasted Eggplant and Baby Potatoes
Recipe: Sausage With Aligot
The Maui Resort That’s Banking on Your Thoughtfulness
Your Ultimate Travel Itinerary: Brooklyn Like a Local
The 2024 Spring Road Trip Destination You Won’t Want To Miss
Trending for 2024: Top 10 Stylish Furniture and Home Design Picks to Revitalize Your Space
How to achieve kitchen perfection: luxury appliance brand Fisher & Paykel shares all
Editors’ Picks: The Best Books We Read in 2023
How Do I Enter the WL Designers of the Year People’s Choice Awards?
Introducing the Winners of Our First Annual WL Design 25 Awards
WL Design 25 Winners 2024: White Out
This wine is complexbut it isn't a show-off about it.
Of France’s three great red wine regions, one is prohibitively expensive (Bordeaux), one makes Bordeaux look cheap (Burgundy) and one is the Rhône. The irony is that for the majority of the wine-drinking public, it’s the wines of the Rhône, with their fruit-forward profile and full body, that are the most obviously pleasing. And while there’s plenty of trophy wines to be had in the region (Guigal’s single-vineyard wines run about $400 per bottle), for the most part, finding a decently priced bottle is a snap.
The key to understanding the Rhône is to divide it into north and south. The north is the spiritual home of the syrah grape (Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage being the two most famous sub-regions) and viognier (with Condrieu being that grape’s greatest expression). The south is a little more complicated, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape and its up to 19 component grape varieties reigning supreme (but of the 19, you need to know grenache, carignan, mourvèdre, cinsault and syrah). As a broad rule, the north is more expensive and refined and the south more gregarious and accessible (and boozy), but both are far more accessible than the aforementioned fancy-pants regions. A bottle like Château de Montfaucon is a great example: the wine is complex enough—cherries and raspberries dominate—but not a show-off about it. It’s aged in concrete so it has a great juiciness and minerality and a lingering aroma of violets. All this at what’s become the entry-point price for wines from the Okanagan? A Gallic no-brainer.
Are you over 18 years of age?