A Rhone Valley Wine Tour

This has been a remarkably long time coming but the time to reminisce about two of the excellent Rhone Valley producers I visited in May 2024 has come. It was partly spurred by finding the Ferraton La Matinière Crozes-Hermitage on a restaurant menu recently, which was unfortunately out of stock! Still, at least you can get hold of it for a good price from retailers. But, the real thing you are here for, presumably, is the tour exploring Ferraton and Domaine Farge, the famous hills of Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage, and the beautiful twinned towns of Tain l’Hermitage and Tournon-sur-Rhone.

Driving South from Lyon, we passed Cote Rotie, Condrieu and followed the long Saint-Joseph appellation down the Rhone river towards the picturesque twinned towns, straddling either side of the river. As you enter Tain l’Hermitage, you pass right under the mighty Hermitage hill itself and can see big signs for Guigal, Chapoutier and Jaboulet proudly displaying their ownership of various sites.

Do check out our Rhone Valley Wines page to find the most popular Rhone wines and where to get the best price for them. Admittedly, almost all the wines I tried on this tour are not readily available but I hope it will inspire someone to travel to the Rhone, remenisce or at least get an impression of the quality of the wines from some of the smaller producers out there.

Ferraton Pere & Fils

Making the first stop at the local tasting room of Ferraton in the heart of the town was an excellent start. A guided tour led by one of the winemakers around the different vats and barrels set the mood as we spotted the number of classic appellations they produced. Ferraton has a strong focus on heritage and terroir, and indeed in the late 90s, the winery worked with their close friend Michel Chapoutier who helped their conversion to organic and biodynamic practices.

We were offered 6 wines and some delicious locally baked breadsticks to pair at the tasting. The first was from Saint-Peray, the Le Mialan which was a 100% Marsanne white wine. Part barrel fermented, it is a fresh wine with nice weight, stone fruits and a steely mineral undertone. The rest of the tasting was on the Syrah reds the Rhone is most famous for. A lovely single vineyard Crozes-Hermitage, the Ferraton Le Grand Courtil was tasted alongside another from the region, the Ferraton La Matinière, the wine that I mentioned at the start. The single vineyard was the better of the two, with more weighty flavours, but both were delicious.

The final wines upped the game further. A Cornas, the Les Grands Muriers gave black fruit and powerful spices, the Ferraton La Source from St-Joseph had equal power with more floral and mineral tones amongst the fruit and the final wine was the showstopper. The Ferraton Hermitage Les Miaux with grapes from two plots on the hill. Pouring a deep ruby red, the nose is filled with black fruit, liquorice and violet, whilst the palate is fleshy and full. The finish was long lasting and sublime.

Sadly, that was the last of the Ferraton tasting but it certainly left an impression.

Domaine Farge

I won’t bore you with the lunch details so straight to the final winery. Situated on the opposite side of the Rhone river, slightly beyond Tournon-sur-Rhone in Saint-Jean-de-Muzols is Domaine Farge. The winery is situated under imposingly steep St-Joseph slopes, which sets the tone for all their vineyards in fact, where the slopes are so steep that manual work is better than machinery.

They own 20 hectares of vines across St-Joseph, St-Peray, Cornas and Condrieu. Much like Ferraton, they have converted to organic practices as well and incorporate a lot of biodynamic philosophy into their winemaking too. For example, by following the lunar calendar. They had a practical underground cellar to ferment the wines in cool temperatures, and an impressive vat room.

Kicking off with some approachable IGP wine from Collines Rhodaniennes (hills of the Rhone), we had the Bouquet de Syrah and the Bouquet de Blanc. The Syrah provided a crisp, fresh expression with strawberry and red berry notes, aiming to give consumers the chance to try softer, summer friendly Rhone wines. The white was a blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Rousanne, allowing them to experiment with how Viognier plays with these two classic Rhone white varieties. Rich yet elegant, it had stone fruit, a smoky element and minerality.

The next three focused on the home appellation, Saint-Joseph. The first was a white, the Vania, a Marsanne/Rousanne blend with apricot and mineral notes, capped off by a bitter finish. The Terroir de Granit red was the production of 60-year old vines on, no surprises, granite soils. Red fruits, black pepper, tannins and structure made this an excellent wine. Finally, there was the Côte du Pouly, which has received 95 points from James Suckling. Ripe, concentrated fruits, floral notes, fine-grained tannin and a spicy finish made this very good to my palate. It’s got the poise and intensity of great St-Joseph wines.

Whether you’re looking for a new Rhone producer to try beyond the familiar names, or even just want some tips of who to visit for your next Rhone trip, I can highly recommend looking into these two producers.