Finding Quality Rhone Wines: Read the Back Label!

The Rhone Report: About Rhone and Rhone-Style Wines and Winemakers is part of an ongoing series.

There a lot more Rhone wine producers than most American wine consumers can get the time or opportunity to know. That creates a challenge when considering whether to purchase an unfamiliar Rhone wine. Anyone can learn to recognize some of the most famous (and often expensive) Rhone bottlings. Don’t we all know Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Chateau de Beaucastel or Hermitage from J. L. Chave? And most of us have heard of the big negotiants, such as Guigal, Jaboulet and Chapoutier.

But what about smaller, lesser-known bottlings? Some of the best Rhone imports are from small producers that aren’t widely known. How can a wine lover discover small production, high quality Rhone wines? Reading literature about wine and researching web sites is one way. Asking a reputable wine shop or restaurant wine buyer is another. But what can you do if you have a chance to buy an unknown Rhone wine in a retail shop or order it with a meal in a restaurant and you don’t have the benefit of your own research and you don’t know if you can trust the opinion of the wine retailer or restaurant? There is another approach that usually works. Read the back label!

That’s right. Look at who imported the wine in your hands (in a restaurant, ask to look at a bottle in which you may have an interest). A lot of the best Rhone wines, especially from the smaller producers, are imported by a limited set of importers. If you become familiar with those importers, you can greatly increase your odds of finding a bottle of Rhone wine to your liking.