Côtes du Rhône Villages Nyons: Where olives and vines are inextricably linked

As you drive south from the northern Rhône, you won’t see a sign saying ‘Welcome to the southern Rhône’. There’s no need – you know when you’ve arrived thanks to the sudden prevalence of olive trees.

Olives and olive oil are a cornerstone of Provençal cuisine, particularly in the village of Nyons.

Scroll down for notes and scores for 10 wines from Côtes du Rhône Villages Nyons

Here, the history of the olive tree and the grape vine are intertwined – sometimes almost literally. In places they’re even grown haphazardly in the same field.

In 2020, Nyons was promoted to a Named Village, allowed to append its name to Côtes du Rhône Villages on the label.

I paid a visit to this appellation to see if its wines are distinctive as its olives.

Olives and vines

Nyons is both the newest and most remote of the 21 Named Villages of the Côtes du Rhône Villages designation.

The village is an hour and a half drive northeast of Avignon.

If you’re headed to Italy from this part of France, you might go via Nyons, as it’s located at a gap in the mountains from which the river Aygues flows, marking the gateway into the French Prealps, the mountain range which borders the Alps to the west.

I arrived on a sunny winter morning, the sky a luminous blue. Copper-coloured leaves still clung to the branches of dormant oaks.

They produce plentiful truffles here, but olives are what Nyons is famous for. In fact, it was granted the first AP for black olives and olive oil in France, back in 1994.

Like grapes, there are many varieties of olive. The only one grown in Nyons is the Tanche, which has a wrinkled, meaty flesh and an extraordinary depth of flavour.

The trees are planted on flat areas, and they climb the steep hillsides too. Historically they were even more numerous, but in February 1956, something happened that changed the course of agriculture in Provence forever.

It was the coldest month on record in France, dropping to -20°C further south in Aix-en-Provence. On top of this, the Rhône was hit by a fearsome Mistral wind of up to 180 kilometres per hour.

Local people reported hearing the trunks of olive trees split as the sap within them froze; 90% of olive trees in Nyons were wiped out.

As it takes so long for the trees to produce fruit, the government of the time offered assistance for local farmers to plant vines instead.

Mountain breezes

The locals chose Grenache, which today makes up 66% of plantings, while 30% is Syrah. There’s a splash of Carignan and Mourvèdre too, but it’s too cool here to confidently ripen these two.

The appellation covers four communes, encompassing a curve of hillside land that abuts the mountains, from Venterol just north of Nyons, down to Mirabel-aux-Baronnies and Piégon to its south.

The cooler microclimate is partly thanks to elevation – vineyards are between 200m and 500m – and partly thanks to a cold alpine wind that whistles through the mountains called the Pontias.

Pierre-Michel More, president of the appellation, says, ‘it has the same influence as the Mistral without the strength of the Mistral,’ both cooling and drying.

These factors contribute to a significant difference between day and night temperatures, which makes for a fresh and aromatic style of wine.

The Nyons style

There aren’t many producers bottling wine under this new appellation, just three co-operatives and three private estates.

I managed to taste examples from all but one. All 10 cuvées were from 2023, and seven were certified organic or biodynamic.

Much of the terroir of the southern Rhône is too hot to create fresh and balanced wines when using a large proportion of Syrah, so I was apprehensive about what I might find.

I was relieved to discover that this variety does indeed suit the fresher terroir here.

There is an identifiable family style among the wines – brightness and definition of flavour, good acidity and ripeness without excess alcohol.

I enjoyed the chalky tannins and the sense of tension in the wines – the combination of limestone soils, altitude and cold winds makes for an attractive, aerial expression.

They reminded me of a slightly slimmer version of Vinsobres.

The downside? None of them are yet available in the UK or US market.

It’s early days in the story of this appellation, so it will take time for the message to spread to importers. But if you’re travelling to the southern Rhône, mark it on the map.

You can satisfy both your olive and your wine craving at the same time – two birds with one olive stone.

Côte du Rhône Villages Nyons: An appellation on the up

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