Côtes du Rhône Villages AOC wines

In the southern part of the Rhône Valley, the vines grow on terraces, on the river’s alluvial plains and on slopes leading up to the region’s iconic hilltop villages.

The Cèze is a tributary of the Rhône, feeding in from the west. The vineyards that carpet the Cèze valley and climb up the surrounding hills make up Côtes du Rhône Villages Chusclan.

Gadagne is a song of stones and wind. The vines force their way through deep beds of galets roulés, the rounded ‘pudding stones’ made famous by Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but found all over the Southern Rhône. 

Laudun, at the heart of the west bank, still makes highly sought-after white wines. About 30% of its production is white in fact, while the average for Named Villages is just 6%. 

This densely forested hill, due north of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, has long been of interest to scientists thanks to its diversity of plants, insects and animals. 

Nyons is the newest of all the Named Villages, and was granted its elevated status as recently as 2020. It’s also one of the highest, with vines growing between 200m and 500m above sea level. 

Climb one of the surrounding hills and you can see just how vast ‘God’s Plain’ really is. Hundreds of years ago this was a forest, teeming with bandits.

Puyméras is a diminutive village in the foothills, as the land starts to rise. 

Roaix is a paradise not just for vines, but for walkers. 

Even in France, there are few sites that can trace their roots back 2,000 years. But Rochegude is one of them; it was mentioned by Emperor Domitian in the 1st century AD.

Perched on the Lance mountain massif, the village is one of the northernmost appellations in the southern Rhône Valley.
 

The wines of Sablet are as charming as the adorable village itself, its decorative bell tower peeking out among the rooftops like a bauble.

Established in 2017, Saint-Andéol is one of the newest of the Named Villages. It’s also one of the smallest. 

The village of Saint-Gervais is on the west bank of the Rhône, north of Lirac, secreted far up the Cèze valley. 

In the northern part of the Côtes du Rhône, there’s a long, south facing hillside that overlooks the river Aygues. It’s so perfect for growing vines that a number of appellations have staked a claim.

To find the village, head for Drôme Provençale, where lavender and olive trees mingle; the vineyards – just 400 hectares of them – are planted at the foot of the Montagne de la Lance, protected from wind and west-facing to catch the last rays of the setting sun.

Rather than simply encompassing the vineyards of the village of Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes, the denomination of Sainte-Cécile includes vineyards from five adjacent villages in the heart of the Côtes du Rhône

The Dentelles de Montmirail are one of the most striking natural features of the Côtes du Rhône, a mountainous outcrop near Mont Ventoux decorated with limestone crenelations encircled by birds of prey. 

If the Rhône Valley is famous for any type of soil, it would have to be the smooth, oval river stones known as galets roulés that crop up all over the Côtes du Rhône.

This Named Village of the Drôme only makes reds, using Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and often a healthy proportion of robust Carignan.

All vines love a hillside. And in Vaison-la-Romaine, they’re spoilt for choice. This newly promoted Named Village, recognised in 2016, is a succession of rolling hills in the eastern part of the Côtes du Rhône, before the terrain becomes mountainous.

Today, the vineyards of Valréas stretch out for miles in all directions around the town itself, making this the third largest Named Village on the east bank of the Rhône. 

This is one of the more sizeable Named Villages on the east bank of the Rhône, tucked up in the northern part of the southern Côtes du Rhône.