Winelingo
Deep, savoury Syrah packed with blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, laced with black pepper, smoked meat, olive and violets. Medium to full-bodied with firm tannins and fresh acidity, it feels spicy and wild in youth and beautifully perfumed with age.
How Northern Rhone wine tastes
This is the spiritual home of Syrah, and the northern Rhone style is savoury and complex rather than simply fruity. At its heart is dark fruit, blackberry, blackcurrant and dark plum, but what makes it distinctive is everything around that fruit.
Expect a signature note of black pepper, along with smoked or cured meat (often called bacon fat or charcuterie), black olive, dried herbs and a floral lift of violets. Some wines have an almost savoury, meaty, gamey side that fans adore.
The wines are medium to full-bodied with firm but fine tannins and refreshing acidity, so they feel structured and savoury rather than sweet or heavy. Young examples can be tightly wound and peppery; with age they turn silkier and more perfumed. The region also makes small amounts of gorgeous white wine from Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne.
Signature styles & what to look for
Northern Rhone reds are essentially pure Syrah (a splash of white grapes is traditionally allowed in some appellations, co-fermented for perfume). Rather than ageing tiers, quality here is signalled by the appellation, the specific named place on the label.
The grand names for red are Cote-Rotie (elegant, perfumed, sometimes with a little Viognier), Hermitage (powerful and long-lived) and Cornas (dark, muscular, 100% Syrah). Crozes-Hermitage and Saint-Joseph cover a large area and offer the most approachable, everyday drinking, a great place to start.
For whites, look to Condrieu and Chateau-Grillet for lush, aromatic Viognier, and to Saint-Peray for whites from Marsanne and Roussanne. As a rule of thumb, the smaller and steeper the named appellation, the more serious (and pricey) the wine.
The grapes & the land
Syrah is the only red grape, joined by the white trio of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne. The defining feature of the land is granite: steep, terraced hillsides of decomposed granite plunging down to the Rhone river, so precipitous that much of the work is still done by hand.
The climate is continental, with warm summers and a cold edge, and the cold northerly wind, the mistral, that funnels down the valley to keep the vines healthy and the acidity fresh. Sun-drenched south-facing slopes ripen the Syrah fully while the altitude and wind preserve freshness and that peppery lift.
It is this combination, granite soils, steep sun-facing slopes and a cool continental climate, that gives northern Rhone Syrah its unmistakable mix of ripe dark fruit, spice and savoury, smoky complexity.