America’s Best Rhone Style Red Wines: 11th Annual Rhone Rangers Tasting Reviewed

Final thoughts
As with the whites we covered last month, the best Rhone-style red wines at the Rhone Rangers tasting were from wineries that specialize in Rhone wines. Wineries that specialize in Cabernet or Chardonnay seem to do less well with Rhone wines (but some Pinot Noir producers do have a knack for Rhone varietals as well).

We think we see encouraging progress in planting the right varietals on the right vineyard sites. The wines cited here are prime examples.

We hope producers of Rhone style wines from states other than California will join this tasting next year to show off their progress. It shouldn’t be a secret that some wonderful Rhone style wines are produced in several other states.

In covering the 2007 Rhone Rangers tasting, we noted the identify problem these Rhone style blends have. This problem remains. Many of the proprietary names are cute or humorous, but they don’t help consumers understand what the wines are. The wine producers need to renew past efforts to find a clearer identity. With the French Rhone wines disadvantaged by the exchange rate, the American producers have an opportunity they shouldn’t miss.